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6 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.