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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.