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PAGE SIX
THE BOY ON THE FARM.
We have a letter from a boy on a
farm. In it he says:
“If you want to keep a boy on the
farm, give him a crance. A boy will
be a boy, anyway. A boy will have
his gun and hunt a little, if he has
to go when his Pa is gone to town
and leaves him something to do.”
The letter is lengthy and boy-like all
through. In it we hear the complaint
of tens of thousands of boys on the
farms who are overworked and under
played.
“Give the boy a chance!”
Let him have his gun and a day
off occasionally in hunting season to
go out and find game —but, better, find
evidence of God’s presence in the
world, to know Nature's moods, and
to breathe the uplifting airs of ambi
tion.
Tell him to shoot birds, sell them,
and buy a book for evening study.
Let him go fishing and sell the
string for a jew’s harp, a fiddle, or a
piano fund, if he has a knack for
music.
Let him have a patch of ground and
raise things that, he can sell and use
the money as his own —not to buy
what his parents should give him —
but the extra things of value, useful
ness and self-improvement that most
sensible boys long for.
The boy on the farm is the best
hope of the nation. He is “the rookey
of civilization" —the recruit who comes
clean-and lusty from the heart-side of
Nature to re-enforce the lines that are
failing because of luxury and effete
ness, and who retrieves the republic
with his fresh and forceful demo
cracy.
God bless the hoy on the farm and
may the day soon come when the
farmer fathers and mothers of Amer
ica will “give them a chance” —give
them encouragement, development and
the spirit of independence, born of
pure living, healthy home surround
ings and the aspirations to perform
righteous deeds for God and their na
tive land.
Build up the farm boy and he will
build the nation upon solid founda
tions and rear its head among stais
that spell “Esto Perpetual”
S. W. S.
BATTLE FOR JUSTICE.
The farmers of the United States
need to have no complaints against
the governments of the state or that
of the nation. They can be the abso
lute masters of them all, if they will.
But to master government the farm
ers MUST DO THREE THINGS.
First, they must READ and keep
themselves too well informed on pub
lic .matters to be successfully de
ccita’d by demagogues and debauched
JnSHeond, they must THINK for them
ami patiently work out of all
KWfacts in their case some SET-
SwLED CONVICTIONS of what are
Ftheir real WRONGS and RIGHTS.
And in their thinking they must fol
low rigidly the principle of the GOL
DEN RULE. Special thinking for
class profit ends in SPECIAL PRIVI
LEGES —and that is the cancer that
destroys all free and equal govern
ment.
Third, they must hold their ballot
as a sacred instrument and wield it
with ABSOLUTE INDEPENDENCE.
There are no slaves any more in this
nation but the slaves of special privi-
and the SLAVES OF PARTY!
Farmers’ Union Department
'Roster 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. 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.
And the latter are the most abject and
hopeless of the twain!
If the farmers will organize into
Farmers’ Unions all over the state and
the nation, preserve a strict allegiance
to the principles of the order, and let
the politicians understand that they
are FREEMEN and VOTERS determ
ined to fight at every ballot box, each
man on his conscience, for fair, equal
and impartial justice in governments,
a grander revolution will be wrought
in the next two years than was that
of 1776 to 1883, in which our fathers
won our liberties.
Every Farmers’ Union in the land
should make this program the creed
of its life and labors. S. W. S.
THE WAREHOUSE PALLADIUM.
The Palladium was the ancient
image of Pallas Athena, or Minerva,
the goddess of Wisdom and War, in
Troy, and on the possession of which
depended the safety of the city. She
was represented seated, with a spear
in her right hand and in her left hand
a spindle and distaff. So long as she
was held by the Trojans their town
could never be taken in war.
What an appropriate figure she
would make to symbolize the Farmers’
Union! Her spear their weapon of
attack on wrongs; her spindle and
distaff the emblems of the trades their
industry supports!
Today all wise men who are con
nected with the vital interests of the
cotton producers of the Southern
States realize that “the planter’s ware
house” is the citadel of King Cotton’s
palladium. This fact has given rise
to the Sam Morse, Joe Hoadley, Har
vie Jordan and all other plans to con
trol the cotton crops of the South by
and through a warehouse system.
Just here, on the warehouse ground,
is where the farmers must keep their
eyes open for the Trojan horse of the
cotton gamblers, speculators, spinners
and manufacturers.
If the cotton crops are to be wisely
and profitably handled; if the Farm
ers’ Union fixed price in any season
is to be surely secured; if the crop
is to be held “in escrow,’ so to speak,
and marketed only as the trade win
pay the price; if “distress cotton” is
to be taken in and held by the plant-
WATSON'S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Arkansas —J. B. Lewis, president,
Jonesboro, Ark.; Ben L. Griflin, secre
tary-treasurer, Conway, Ark.
Indiahoma—J. A. West, President,
Shawnee, O. T.; B. C. Hanson, secre
tary-treasurer, Shawnee, 0. 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.
ers not in stress —then, warehouses in
every supporting community are essen
tial palladiums of the planters round,
about them.
But every warehouse should be the
project and property of the farmers
themselves; owned and operated for
their protection and profit; and all its
dealings ordered and guaranteed by
their local Union or guaranty com
pany.
Such a system of local Farmers’
Union warehouses will save hundreds
of millions of dollars to the planters
of the South —saved by the stability
of prices, by the lowering of freight
rates, the fees of storage kept at home
and not expended in New FJngland and
in Europe, and in costs of insurance
and exchange.
The warehouse is the cotton farm
er's palladium. Let him be sure that
he owns it and defends it, and it will
protect and enrich him and not his
enemies. S. W. S.
FINLEY AND THE PEOPLE.
President Finley, of the Southern
Railway, in his latest speech, an
nounces that “the interests of the rail
roads and of the people are the same.”
This is surely good news. We will
now expect President Finley to put
himself over on the people’s side of
the fence and take their point of view
of the proceedings by which Morgan,
Spencer and himself have transformed
the railways of the Southern’s system
into huge steam milkers of the peo
ple’s prosperity.
President Finley, at that point of
view, will promptly concede that he
can better afford to carry trains of
passengers at two cents per mile than
to carry the same trains only one
third filled at three cents per mile. He
will open his eyes to the unimpeached
experience of other states and railway
systems and at once quit his ground
and lofty kicking against the Farmers’
Union petition for a two-cent-a-mile
rate in Georgia.
Since President Finley at last ad
mits that the people have an equal in
terest in this great railway problem,
he will further admit that they have
the right to legislate all inequities out
of tW? system and send to the peniten
tiaries every railroad official who gives
a rebate, preference, or discriminat
ing favor to any shipper over another.
The people ask only a “square deal” —
first come, first served, and one flat,
reasonable rate in each case for all
comers.
Does President Finley want more or
less than that? If so, his Memphis
talk was all tommy-rot. But Georgia
must take him at his word and help
him run his road on the “fair play”
principle. S. W. S.
THE WAREHOUSE PROPOSITION.
(Farmers’ Union Banner.)
This is the most sublime of all other
questions. It is paramount to all ques
tions with which we have to deal in a
business way. We should not quibble
over details and minor things. We
need to come and face the warehouse
proposition squarely, firmly and solid
ly. It’s no more a question as to “shall
we build them?” It is a question now,
“How can be build them?” It is a
foregone conclusion, if we do not build
them ourselves some one else will, and
we will be forced to use them. We
are facing that kind of a proposition
now. After hard study, I have come
to this kind of conclusion, that we
build warehouses for the exclusive use
of handling cotton, and build suitable
buildings for clearing houses, with
cold storage rooms and other conveni
ences for handling other farm prod
ucts. Let this be well understood, that
the cotton warehouse be clear and
distinct from the clearing house, but.
hold each under the jurisdiction of
the Farmers’ Union.
We must get ourselves in shape to
market this cotton crop. We have
no time to lose. Time and money will
be well spent in preparing to sell, as
well as to make, the crop. It is high
time that we begin to divide our time
and mind in marketing well what we
make. It has been the rule with farm
ers to put all their mind and time in
making their crop, and at the same
time baking their brains in the hot
sun, and the few moments they had
to rest they would sleep; but the other
fellow who got more than the profits,
kept his head cool in the shade and
did the thinking for the farmer, there
by got his fortune easy.
Now, we are going to do the think
ing, as well as the making, and there,
by sell our crops for the cost and a
little profit, that we may build as good
houses as anybody and send our dear
little children to school. The only
hope for us is to build our cotton ware
houses and market our cotton. In
deed, we have made wonderful prog
ress in the last three years, but we
have just made a beginning, compared
to what we will do in three more years.
By this time we will have our busi
ness well in hand and we will rejoice
because of our high calling—farming.
Truly, the patriotic spirit of our
farmers will return to the sons of toil.
We have eleven warehouses built al
ready, and quite a number will be
built in this state right soon. Get
ready and build and let’s make a pull
this fall and we will get that old com
mercial cow a little our way, if not
altogether. L. N. H.
MORE SUGAR NEEDED.
(The Birmingham News.)
The bureau of statistics of the de
partment of commerce and labor an
nounces that the American uses 76
pounds of sugar annually. Even that
much is not sufficient to properly sea
sfn all the lemons some Americans
are handed in a year.