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Farmers’ Union Department
FIX QUANTITY AND PRICE.
The problem of 1907 with the cotton
growers of the south will be the hand
ling of the crop. Appeals to them to
reduce acreage will affect some of the
most sensible add patriotic among
them, but it is doubtful that any sub
stantial lessening of acreage will oc
cur this year. Drought, flood, boll
weevil and lack of labor may do more
or less to diminish the harvest, but
all these are incidents whose effects
can neither be calculated nor discount
ed in advance. The best work, there
fore, that the Farmers’ Union can do
is to prepare the way for such busi
nesslike handling of the gathered crop
as will absolutely control the bulk of it
and fix the price for the whole of it.
Unless the prosperity of the cotton
farmers of late years has been ab
sorbed in paying ancient debts, or con
sumed in luxuries or by speculations,
the mass of the farmers in almost any
given locality of the south, by full or
ganization and strict obedience to the
plans of the organization, should be able
this coming fall to fix the price of their
cotton and hold it, without distress to
themselves, until the spinners pay
that price to the fullest farthing.
Do not be deceived by either one of
the two specious cries used by the cot
ton middlemen and mill men to con
fuse and deceive the cotton producer.
In the first instance they will fill the
air and the newspapers with masses
of figures to prove that the world at
large is “just aching” for cotton; that
the demand for cotton goods is increas
ing all the way from Manchester to
the canal workers on the planet Mars.
They wish to impress the farmer with
the idea that he cannot plant too
much cotton, any more than a miner
can produce too much gold bullion —
“the children cry for it everywhere!”
But behind that spring-of-the-year
cry is hiding the mournful ram’s-horn
from which, in the fall-of-the-year,
these same conspirators will be toot
ing the lamentation of “overproduc
tion,” while they hammer the price of
the raw cotton below the cost of pro
duction.
The farmers need organization and
self-education upon the facts of their
calling. They should learn the truth
in their own way and securely know
the facts. And whether they over
plant or overproduce, let them find the
sure way to determine how much cot
ton shall go on the market and at what
price. The balance can be safely
warehoused to wait until the “world
demand” grows up to it.
That is business sense! And that is
the plan of the cotton farmers’ salva
tion! S. W. S.
POWER OF THE UNION.
National President Barrett has been
out west with the farmers of Missouri
and Kansas.
At West Plains, in the former state,
he organized a State Union and found
the agriculturists of that great state
enthusiastic for the Union’s extension
and growth into invincible numbers.
They realize that they belong to the
calling whhich was first ordered by the
Almighty, and upon whose products all
communal life, civilization, national
power and prosperity inevitably de
pend. They begin to understand that
all artificial life and commerce of the
nation is founded on the fruits of the
farmers’ fields. Let a hundred thou
sand farmers quit work for a month
and New York, Chicago and Boston
would be shedding blood in bread riots
before the next snow flies!
Foster of National and State
Officers
NATIONAL OFFICERS.
C. S. Barrett, president, Atwater,
Georgia.
J. E. Montgomery, vice-president,
Gleason, Tenn.
R. H. McCullough, secretary-treas
urer, Beebe, Ark.
L. N. Holmes, chaplain, Bernice,
Louisiana.
STATE OFFICERS.
Georgia Headquarters—Barnesville..
R. F. Duckworth —President.
W. P. Quinby—Vice-President.
J. L. Barron —Secretary-Treasurer.
J. L. Lee —State Organizer.
G. M. Davis —Lecturer.
J. G. Eubanks —State Business
Agent.
Alabama —I. A. Worley, president,
Guin, Ala.; E. J. Cook, secretary-treas
urer, Pell City, Ala.
Should the farmers of America quit
their crops for six months the na
tional government would be bankrupt
ed before Christmas.
These facts are plainly known to
every economist and statesman of this
nation and of the earth. Only the
farmers themselves seem to be igno
rant of their own importance and ter
rible power!
In Kansas, however, where more
than once the farmers have shown
their compelling power whon organ
ized, President Barrett found them
eager for a new battle for their rights.
On the 22d of May a State Union will
be formed, and it promises to become
one of the greatest and strongest in
the Union.
The July days are rapidly coming
on here in Georgia, and if the militant
farmers who won the glorious vic
tory of 1906 over the corporations, po
litical rings and monopolies, expect to
reap the due results of their revolt
and triumph, they must get together
in their Unions and prepare to make
the Georgia general assembly do the
duties for which it was elected and
instructed.
The corporations and monopolies
are preparing to confuse and defeat
the legislation demanded by the pro
ducers of Georgia. They must be met,
resisted and defeated at the doors of
the State Capitol.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty!” S. W. S.
THAT TWO DOLLARS.
(Sylvan Grove, Kan., News.)
A Mr. Somebody seems to be won
derfully worried about the two dollars
that his neighbor is paying to join
the Farmers’ Union. Now, that some
body is just about too small to notice,
but the fact that it is such a small
thing makes it all the more disgusting.
Two dollars! The idea that anyone
should be asked to pay two dollars
for the privilege of joining an or
ganization of farmers. What an out
rage it is for any man to be held up
for two dollars to help support an or
ganization whose object is to get for
the farmer five or ten cents per bushel
more for his crop of wheat —say 1,000
bushels at five cent raise—sso per
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Arkansas —J. B. Lewis, president,
Jonesboro, Ark.; Ben L. Griffin, secre
tary-treasurer, Conway, Ark.
Indiahoma —J. A. West, President,
Shawnee, O. T.; B. C. Hanson, secre
tary-treasurer, Shawnee, O. T.
Louisiana —L. N. Holmes, president,
Bernice, L,; J. W. Boyett, Jr., sec
treasurer, Tanhill, La.
Mississippi—J. M. Bass, president;
Hazlehurst, Miss.; G. W. Russell, sec
retary-treasurer, Hazlehurst, Miss.
Tennessee —J. E. Montgomery, pres
ident, Greenfield, Tenn.; J. T. Brooks,
secretary-treasurer, Atwood, Tenn.
Texas —E. A. Calvin, president. Dal
las, Texas; B. F. Chapman, secretary
treasurer, Dallas, Texas.
South Carolina —O. P. Goodwin,
president, Anderson, S. C.; B. F.
Earl, secretary-treasurer, Anderson,
South Carolina.
year. Such things should not be al
lowed to exist.
We can sight you—but you do not
need to be sighted—to organizations
which require a sl2, S2O or even S3O
initiation fee with $5 to $lB dues to
keep them running, yet we hear noth
ing about graft in those organizations.
They are all right, we have no kick
on them; but if anyone should pretend
to exact two dollars from any man to
join a farmers’ organization he should
be ducked under the ice. Honest now,
shouldn’t he?
What nonsense! Whenever you hear
anyone talking such stuff you can
make up your mind to one of two
things. Either that person has a 2x4
intellect or he is getting a good deal
more than two dollars from the trusts
to do the talking. The trusts are
spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars to break up the Farmers’ Un
ion movement. We can cite you one
instance where they have placed $50,-
000 in one lump. But the organiza
tion will not down. You just watch
it.
Now, we will not lose our respect
for a man if he opposes this move
ment. He can do so and be thorough
ly honest. But he can not be honest
and trump up the two dollar initiation
fee as being a graft, because if he has
an ounce of brains he will know that
no man could make any big thing at
that kind of a deal. There is occa
sionally a 25c railroad fare, a 15c meal,
or a $1 or so livery hire, and then
once in a long time a man who vrorks
such a graft has to buy a $lO “hand
me-down” suit of clothes just the same
as the fellow who feels so bad about
his neighbors being grafted for that
two dollars.
THE KANSAS CONFERENCE.
(Farmers Advocate, Topeka.)
The able work of President C. S. Bar.
rett in presiding over the delegate con
ference held in Topeka, March 25, has
demonstrated more than ever the ca
pability of the man for the high po
sition he holds.
Always calm and conservative, fair
and decisive in his rulings, President
Barrett graces the chair witfi rare dig
nity and ability.
The national presidency of such an
organization as the Farmers’ Union
is no small job, as a glance at Presi
dent Barrett’s routine will at once de
monstrate, yet this wiry son of old
Georgia manages to carry a most ad
mirable poise of temper and a grati
fying condition of physical health de
spite the fact that his meals and his
sleep are perforce most irregular by
reason of the wide range of distance
over which his duties call him.
Brother W. S. Miller, of Lake Creek,
Tex., member of the national board of
directors, accompanied President Bar
rett to Topeka to participate in the
delegate conference and his work was
such as to merit great applause. Broth
er Miller is a good solid Texan —as
solid as the great state from which
he hails —and his speeches before the
conference were noted for their force
and clear manner in which they touch
ed upon the issues under discussion.
The conference was a success in ev
ery particular and the general results
met with hearty approval from the
delegates. There are 140 locals in the
state and thirty-five of these were
represented, coming from thirteen
counties.
The conference was held in the city
council chamber and all of the work
was finished in one day, but in the ev
ening many of the delegates and sev
eral organizers met President Barrett,
Director Miller and the new state or
ganizer, Brother J. E. McQuillen, at
the Farmers Advocate office, where a
sort of informal love feast was held
and in which there was a general ex
change of congratulations over the
present bright outlook for the union
in Kansas.
Everybody is now looking ahead to
May 21 and 22 on which dates state
organization is to be effected.
GOOD FOR MISSOURI.
The great state of Missouri is now
in the union in a most substantial
and satisfactory manner.
President Barrett and other nation
al officers conducted the formalities
incident to state organization at West
Plains on March 22 and it was a most
harmonious and satisfactory affair.
The following officers were elected:
N. H. Summit, Duncan county, vice
J. G. Wear, Butler county, president;
president; L. F. Luthy, Laclede coun
ty, secretary and treasurer; J. J. Wil
son, chaplain; John I. Barrett, Howell;
county, business manager; N. W. Fish
er, Mississippi county, state organizer.
Verily the union grows and again we
say, good for old Missouri. —Farmers
Advocate.
MACHINES AND MEN.
(The Florida Times-Union.)
The farmer is often reproved for
urging that it costs more to grow crops
than it did before; that where the
father made money on ten cent cotton
the son must starve. Very true, but
is not the trouble that the son in
sists on spending more than his fath
er thought necessary? Now the stand
ard of living has constantly advanc
ed, and what were luxuries to the fath
er the son considers necessities, and
we would not have it otherwise. If the
son could not live better than his
father did, there would be something
rotten in Denmark, for it would prove
that we had not progressed in the
most essential of all particulars, but
this fact does not prove that it costs
more to grow a crop now than it did
fifty years ago. On the contrary it
costs less when the thought is equal
ly good.