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When the corporate wealth of this
country makes war on its wealth pro
ducers, the men who labor in field and
shop and mine, its organs and mouth
pieces may as well not offer any ar
gument to the Farmers’ Union; they
need not throw up their hands in pre
tended astonishment; they need not
prate about the country’s good, for the
Farmers’ Union will always be found
on the side of the laboring classes
against the rapacious greed of the
speculators, let them be called by any
name whatsoever.
AMERICAN FARMERS ARE FORM
ING UNIONS.
(The Union Herald.)
The American farmer is about to
declare his independence of the spec
ulator of Wall street, and the move
ment has not been initiated a day too
soon.
The farmer has worked and wor
ried and his profit has been small.
The bad crop worries were all for him.
He stood the loss alone. The specu
lator in life’s necessities can do as
well on a bad crop as on a good one..
The droughts, the insect pests, the
extortions of the reaper trust and the
fertilizer trust were all for the far
mer. It makes no difference to the
speculator or the produce exchange
what farm machinery or fertilizer cost.
The farmer worked from daylight
until dark one year and the next year,
while his life lasted. At the end, ne
had little more than at the beginning.
On his rare visits to town he had the
pleasure of looking at the palaces,
yachts, automobiles and private cars
built by speculators and middlemen
from the products of the farm.
We are glad to be able to tell our
readers that the farmers have made
up their minds to put an end to this
system, and that they have gone to
work intelligently.
There are two great organizations
of farmers in the country, both based
upon a determination to give to the
man who takes life’s necessities from
the soil a fair return for his work.
Hitherto the farmer alone has had
nothing whatever to say about the
price to be paid for what he actually
produced.
Some man in Liverpool, some mill
owner in the North, might settle the
price that the Southern cotton grower
must take per bale of cotton. Some
other man, thousands of miles away,
could settle the price that the Western
farmer should have for his grain.
The farmer alone had nothing to
say about it. The railroads decided
what they should charge him. Banks
decided what they should charge for
the use of money. Trusts decided on
their extortions. Tariff builders de
cided what tax the farmer’s wife and
daughter should pay on their dresses.
But the farmer was forbidden to
have any say in fixing the price of
his goods.
This is the end, the work has
been already begun in the farmers’ or
ganizations. This newspaper congrat
ulates the farmers, and greets them
as public benefactors and moving
spirits in the great farmers’ organi
zations.
The farmers of the country are the
backbone of the country. They de
velop the nation’s real wealth, which
is the wealth of the soil. They are
entitled to a full share of that wealth
and of the national prosperity. By
combination, by Insisting on fair
prices for their cotton, their wheat
and their other crops, and by refusing
to sell the non-perishable products ex
cept for a fair price, they have already
added tens of millions to the annual
return from the farms. They will
add tens and hundreds of millions
more annually as their unions increase
in power.
The isolated human being, whether
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PULL TOGETHER, BOYS!
he be farmer or mechanic, is at the
mercy of every form of greed and
cunning.
The farmer has too long plowed,
harrowed, sown, reaped, sweated and
fretted, to build up bank accounts for
others and pay interest on mortgages.
We are glad that he has decided, by
union, to keep for himself and his
family, which means for the people
America, that to which they are en
titled.
BREAK OF DOLLAR A BALE IS
NOTED IN NEW ORLEANS.
(Birmingham News.)
The cotton market broke about a
dollar per bale upon receipt of the gov
ernment’s condition report. October
sold down to 12 cents per pound and
December went slightly lower than
this. The break in prices lasted but
about ten minutes, after which the
market worked quickly up to the fig
ures quoted before the receipt of the
report. The government’s estimate
was equal to the best that had been
expected in New Orleans and this was
taken to account for the momentary
break. After the recovery, prices re
mained about stationary for a time,
with October around 1,220. For the
first half of the day October showed
an extreme fluctuation of 40 points,
having sold up to 1,240 immediately
after the opening.
EUROPEAN SPINNERS’ COTTON
(Charlotte Daily Observer.)
Some facts brought out at the re
cent International cotton congress of
Vienna should possess no small In
terest for the South. Last year
the world’s production for mill con
sumption was nearly 20,000,000 bales,
of which the United States supplied
two-thirds, grown within an area of
700,000 square miles. Nearly 40 per
cent of this American cotton now
comes from west of the Mississippi,
and four States lying along the Gulf,
on both sides of the big river, grow
OR per cent. A failure of half the
yield in this territory would probably
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
silence one-third of the world’s spin
dles. From the European spinner’s
standpoint, therefore, this smallness
of climatic area presents a danger to
be avoided only by pushing cultiva
tion in other parts of the world. In
this view, colonial cultivation is pri
marily a matter of insurance, and all
the European spinners present at
Vienna agreed that it must be pro
moted in every possible manner.
Doubtless a recollection of the great
suffering experienced in Lancashire
when the American Civil war cut off
cotton contributed to the unanimity
and resoluteness of this determination.
It is not hoped to compete with the
South seriously, at least not for many
years to come, but only to break the
present monopoly. We can see very
little ground for even this modest
hope. At no time has the Southern
cotton grower’s future looked so
bright as it does today, after a gen
eration of more or less unsuccessful
attempts to bring every available re
gion of the earth into competition
with him.
A REASONABLE REQUEST.
(Dublin Courier-Dispatch.)
“The Farmers’ Union of this state,
through a committee appointed for the
purpose, has requested that the cur
riculum’ that has been prepared for
the district agricultural colleges be so
modified that it will be possible for
students over eighteen years of age
to take an elective course—that is,
to choose their studies,” says the Sa
vahnah News. “The point at Issue is
this. Many young men over eighteen
years of age will not be able to attend
college more than one or, at most, two
years. What they want is knowledge
of agriculture, and of that subject they
want all they can get. The curricu
lum is planned upon a four years’
course, and agricultural studies are
mixed in with academic studies. For
students who propose to take the en
tire course, the curriculum may be sat
isfactory, but for the young men who
can spare but one or two years it isn’t
quite what is wanted. The request
is a reasonable one and. should be
granted without hesitation. In fact,
it is a question if the curriculum
doesn’t provide for too few agricul
tural studies and too many studies
of an altogether different kind. We
called attention to this matter some
time ago, and it seems that the views
then expressed are finding approval
among the farmers.”
Os course the News is right about
this. There are high schools all over
the state, but agricultural schools
are few and far between. What is
needed is a school in each district
that teaches scientific agriculture,
and if the schools now being estab
lished by the state do not make agri
culture the chief study they will prove
to be as big a farce as the course of
agriculture that has been taught for
years at the state university.
UP AGAINST IT.
In Luther Burbank’s garden
Is scarce a setting sun,
With level light upon the sea,
But finds some wonder done—
Some little weed becomes a plant
Os flower and of fruit,
Some mighty cactus bearing food
That once was destitute.
In Luther Burbank’s garden
The violets and blues,
The iris and forget-me-not,
Are given other hues —
The humble flowers of the field
In new effulgence bloom,
And things which never fragrance had
Are laden with perfume.
The plain tomato is a plant
Os gorgeous growth and buds,
And simple old potato vines
Bear other things than spuds—
The once despised are highly prized,
The barren made to bear,
And any sort of little bush
Will grow a peach or pear.
But Luther Burbank’s garden
Is up against it still,
With all the wizard’s genius and
His superhuman skill —
Tho great he is and wonderful,
He has his Shibboleth,
For even Luther’s onions leave
Offense on Luther’s breath.
-Post-Dispatch.
THE SANDS O’ DEE.
”0 Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands o’ Dee!”
The western wind was wild and dank
wi’ foam,
And all alone went she.
The creeping tide came up along the
sand,
And o’er and o’er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see;
The blinding mist came down and hid
the land:
And never home came she.
”0, is it weeds, or fish, or floating
hair —
A tress o’ golden hair,
O’ drowned maiden’s hair—
Above the nets at sea?
Was never salmon yet that shone so
fair,
Among the stakes on Dee.”
They rowed her in across the rolling
foam —
The cruel, crawling foam,
The cruel, hungry foam—
To her grave beside the sea!
But still the boatmen hear her call the
cattle home
Across the sands o’ Dee.
—CHARLES KINGSLEY.
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