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PAGE SIX
Farmers’ Union ‘Department
TO MEMBERS OF FARMERS’
UNION.
Brethren:
It Is with feelings of pride and grat
itude that I issue to you at this partic
ular time an address expressive of
my appreciation of your marvelous
growth and development.
Within the last month it has been
my great pleasure to traverse many
of the great states of the west, where
but a few months ago not even the
name of the Farmers’ Union was
known, and certainly nothing of its
high and noble principles. In every
community I met men who were anx
iously inquiring about it, from one end
of the country to the other. The
growth and development of the union
was so marvelous that even I was not
prepared to believe the full reports as
they had come to me, but when I went
and saw for myself, I had to say that
the half had not been told to me.
The west is getting into line, and
state after state is being organized.
Thousands of farmers are joining
the Farmers’ Union daily, a fact which
can not help but be gratifying to ev
ery true union man in the country.
To the southern cotton grower, the
western grain grower sends a message
of cheer. “Your fight is righteous,
since it is founded upon the principles
of equity and justice.”
"We brethren of the great grain
growing west are willing to strike
hands with you and keep step and
march shoulder to shoulder until we
have won a glorious victory.” The
west stands ready to co-operate with
the cotton growing states in any un
dertaking that looks to the advance
ment of the cotton interests, and the
cotton states are equally as willing to
lend their aid to th e grain-growing sec
tion, that it, too, may share in the suc
cesses of the union.
There is No Rivalry.
There is and can be no unbusiness
like rivalry between the two sections,
for both sections are equally interest
ed in eliminating speculative features
that are detrimental to the interests of
the farmer.
In the south the cotton grower,
through organized effort, has, during
the past season, been enabled to main
tain the price for cotton at the mini
mum price as set at Texarkana last
September, and soon the west will get
better prices for her grain and the ad
vance in price of the two great crops
will not prove injurious to either sec
tion.
Rid of Speculation.
The farmers alike of the south and
the west have been struggling for
years to free themselves from oppres
sive conditions forced upon them by
the speculative interests. In this they
have within the last few months been
measurably successful.
An increase in the price of corn to
the grain grower will not materially
affect the cost of it to the cotton grow
er, and yet at the same time the grain
grower will receive more for his grain
than he has under previously existing
circumstances, and the cotton grower,
without materially increasing the
price of manufactured products to the
western grain grower, has received
better prices for his cotton than it
has been his custom to receive.
My brethren, for this happy condi
tion of affairs you have the union to
thank. Almighty God, in his provi
dence, has seen fit to bless and pros
per us, and to place within our reach
tremendous possibilities. Let u s as
becomes union men seize these oppor-
'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. 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.
trinities, improve them and place the
union this year on such a solid founda
tion that all the opposing powers can
not even shake it.
C. S. BARRETT.
Atlanta, Ga., May 15, 1907.
COTTON IS GROWING.
. (The Columbia State.)
Cotton is coming up.
This being spring-time and, so, cot
ton sprouting time, there is nothing
particularly significant in the fact that
just now from the rocky feet of Cae
sar’s Head to the salt-sprayed fields
of John’s Island, from the southern
border of Virginia to the shores of the
Rio Grande, little two-leaved plants
are breaking out of the ground, form
ing rows of green upon tops of the
“beds.” The land may be black, or
red, or white, or gray, or brown, but
everywhere the green of the insignifi
cant looking little cotton plant is now
the same.
It is quite natural that cotton should
be coming up, yet the sprouting of no
other plants of no other crop in all the
world is of such wide interest. From
this day until those plants are leaf
less and browned stalks, with the
emptied bolls shriveled by December’s
frosts, their health and growth will be
chronicled not only in America, but in
the markets of Europe and Asia. The
cable companies will receive thousands
of dollars during the next five months
for carrying information to the Man
chester spinners of the state of health
of our cotton. Before giving his orders
for cloth to be delivered next fall and
winter the merchant in Canton, on the
opposite side of the globe, must know
the prospects of the American cotton
that is now breaking through the wet
or crusty earth. Before contracting
for the building of new cotton mil.s,
the enterprising Japanese know
what is the promise of the harvest
in the southern states. The paternal
istic emperor of Germany seeks that
Information at his breakfast table.
And when the distant world is so
concerned, what of the interest In the
rcuth and here In South Carolina? No
person that plants an acre of cotton
or is in any manner in touch with the
business world Is untouched by tn*
prospects, or will be unaffected by the
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
I Arkansas —J. B. Lewis, president,
j 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.
final result of the cotton crop now
sprouting. Will there be poured into
South Carolina next fall and winter
forty-five million dollars or sixty-five
million dollars? What does the pos
sible margin of $20,000,000 mean to
this little state? Will the world pay to
the south $450,000,000 or $650,000,000?
On the health of these little plants,
combined with the ability of the na
tions of the earth to buy clothing next
winter and spring, hangs the question
whether this empire of the south shall
receive $200,000,000 more or so much
less. Two hundred million dollars of
additional profits; additional profits
four times greater than the bonded
debt of the cotton states’ Whether
the balance of international trade is in
America’s favor, whether scores of
millions of gold will pour into this
country, or deplete our reserves and
create uneasiness in financial circles
by flowing away, is dependent upon
southern cotton —on the quantity pro
duced and the world’s consumption.
Is it a wonder then that the health
of King Cotton, from his birth each
spring until his days are spent as na
ture decrees, should be of greater mo
ment to countless millions in ev6ry
quarter of the globe than is the physi
cal status of any group of the earth’s
greatest potentates?
Cotton is growing, and millions pray
that the visitations of sunshine and
showers will be such as to make this
one of the south’s years of plenty; the
more than seven years of famine have
already been endured.
A SERMON IN HOME-MADE HAMS.
(The Atlanta Constitution.)
Stories like that which comes from
Fort Gaines, Ga., about the farmer
who drove into town with a wagon
load of home-made hams and sold
them for $l5O cash, come so seldom
that they make us sit up and listen.
After gathering in the coin for his
hams and smoked bacon, B. F. Pierce,
one of Clay county’s most substantial
farmers, relates a dispatch to the Con
stitution published yesterday, said he
had still left in his smokehouse suffi
cient meat to supply his ten plows and
for his own family during the cur
rent year.
Mr. Pierce is what we would call
a practical farmer. While it is not
stated in the dispatch, we venture
the assertion that he has laid by also
sufficient hay and corn to keep those
ten plows going throughout the sum
mer months. We also venture that
there is no waste upon that farm; that
there is established there a thorough,
practical system under which every
feature is co-ordinated, and that the
best results are atained at every point.
Now, if Mr. Pierce had not raised
the hams, bacon, hay and corn, he
would simply have been another of
that va a t majority of too improvident
farmers who persist year after year in
sending whatever profits may be de
rived from their cotton out to the west
in exchange for those products with
out which the farm cannot exist.
Again, we ask for the several hun
dredth time, why do they do it? Why
send millions to the west for products
which can be better and more cheaply
made right here at home? Why not
put the money in the bank?
Mr. Pierce and many others like
him have demonstrated that with a
little energy, a little business acumen,
qualities which every farmer may cul
tivate and develop, this thing can be
done and it means money in the
pocket.
Again, finally—for this time —why
not?
BIG COTTON MEET COMES TO AT
LANTA.
Boston. —William D. Hartshorn was
chosen president of the National As
sociation of Cotton Manufacturers in
the closing session of the convention
in Huntington hall. Mr. Hartshorn is
agent of the Arlington mills.
Chas. T. Plunkett, of Adams, Mass,
and George Otis Spencer, of Hope
dale, Mass., were elected vice-presi
dents, and among the directors are
William Lofits, of Newark, N. J., and
Henry F. Mansfield, of Utica, N. Y.»
for three years.
Eighty-eight new names were ac
cepted for membership and resolutions
were adopted opposing the taxation of
college property, in favor of co-opera
tion with the growers, to bring the
present causes relative to the ship
ment and transportation of cotton to
the attention of the Interstate Com
merce Commission and in directing
the the proposed international confer
ence at Atlanta in the fall.
CO-OPERATOR CLIPPINGS.
Suppose you try an oyster supper,
or an entertain up nt of some kind,
for your local. It will do much for
Mb- in. your jomnwnity
By agitation we have had wonderful
si ccess for the past three years. Wo
has a put in pi'-o t;:e foundation on
which tc build a front structure,
which must now be built. Build a
warehouse at every market town.
The day is near at hand when the
producers will come to know them
selves. They will learn to use their
credit for their own benefit. All pow
er is in our hands. Let us stay on
the main track of Industrial co-opera
tion.
Other classes get what they want
by organization. They decide on what
they want, ask for it and—get it.
When the producers learn how to do
this, what a mighty change will be
wrought. They are learning it, too.
No, the Grange and the Alliance
were not failures. They were the
primary grades out of which we
have come Into the graudating class.