Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / July 27, 1911, edition 1 / Page 4
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THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER Thursday, July 27th, 191: The Carolina Union Farmer Pabli$h€d every Thursday BY THE UNION FARMtR PUBLISHING COMPANY Official Organ of The North Carolina Farmers’ Union Subscription Price: $ 1.00 a Year All subscriptions are payable in advance, and the paper will be disi'oiitinued when the time expires, unless renewed. The date on the tag which bears the name of the subscriber indicates the time to which the subscription has been paid. C. A. EURY. General Manager J. Z. GREEN, Marihville, Editoral Department MRS. J. H. HENLEY, R 1, Sanford, Country Home Department C. E. CLARK, Charlotte, Agricultural Department ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES ROSS & HOWE, Inc. 812 Hartford Building, Chicago L. E. WHITE, Tribune Building, New York Entered as second-class matter at the postoflice at Charlotte, N. C , under the Act. of March 3, ISTU. Charlotte, North Carolina, July 27, 1911 Q EDITORIAL COMMENT F YOU have any members in your local Union who have not yet freed them selves from the galling yoke of the credit system encourage them to begin to plan now to stay out of debt next year. The credit system of buying supplies on time is the greatest curse of this age. While the credit system has been abandoned by most of the white farmers in some sections of the State, it still exists in appallingly large proportions in some counties and it is reducing to serfdom those who have permitted themselves to be fettered with its chains. The writer was in a town in the eastern part of the State the other day which had been built in five years. The principal owner of the town was then in Europe taking a vacation. The “credit” farm ers of that community were cotton farmers who grew cotton as the principal crop because the time merchants wouldn’t extend them credit unless they planted a “money crop.” These time merchants were then selling their credit customers corn at $1.35 which cost 85 cents per bushel. If $1.00 per bushel was a fair cash price the credit price carried a 35 per cent rate of interest. The note or account be ing due in about six months, 35 per cent for six months is equivalent to 70 per cent inter est, if calculated upon the annual basis. Every progressive citizen wants to see Southern towns built up, but who wants to see town building at such cost as this? A credit sys tem of that kind sinks men down into poverty and wretchedness deeper and deeper every year and it makes a man a coward and a slave, and such a condition necessarily stifles the ambition of his wife and children and it there by makes this part of the human race weaker with each succeeding generation. •J* N Another town the few cash buy ers among the farmers are forced to pay high prices for their cash pur- I ciiases, simply because the time merchants pre fer the credit business and they use that method of discouraging the cash business. Just to what extent this condition of things prevails in different localities of the State is a matter upon which we do not possess accu rate information, but we hope these are isolat-^ ed cases. The Farmers’ Union can do noth ing better than to institute a vigorous cam paign against the credit system of buying sup plies on “crop time”—to be paid for when crops are harvested. The system not only ruins the man who practices it, but it congests the tobacco and cotton markets in such man ner as to depress prices and it hurts the busi ness of the successful farmer who produces to bacco or cotton only as a surplus crop. The crop-lien system is a disgrace to civilization and ought to be abolished by law. For the protection of the moral weakling who can’t resist the temptation to buy everything he can get on credit at extortionate prices, the temp tation ought to be removed, and for the bene fit of the honest far-sighted white farmer who lives by actually tilling the soil, a crop-lien system that puts him in competition with mil- ions of negro cotton farmers who are furnish ed mules and supplies under promise of plant ing big cotton crops ought to be put upon the scrap heap. There is no need why intelligent and progressive white men should be forced into a ruinous competitive system of produc tion that benefits only a few time merchants and absentee landlords in this country. If the iniquituos crop-lien system should be abol ished in the Southern States it would, no doubt, have the effect of decreasing cotton production at least twenty per cent, and with this decrease in cotton production there would be a corresponding increase in the price of cotton. ^ T HE UNDERLYING purpose of the Farmers’ Union is to price the pro ducts of Union farmers by gradual and systematic marketing, but put it down good and strong that you can’t make a decent and creditable fight for prices behind a pile of debts. You can’t wait for better market conditions if there are debts behind your products. In that case they belong to the other fellows and you must let the owners take possession regardless of market con ditions. Also let it soak deep down into your thinking works that you can’t make a credit able fight for better prices, if you are forced to sell your “money crop” to buy any part of your living which you can raise at home. That is an economic error that is farther- reaching in effect than it appears upon the surface. If you make the mistake of raising cotton or tobacco with intention of selling it to buy food products it has the double effect of making the food products you buy higher in price and the cotton or tobacco which you sell lower in price and it also places you in the weak' position of the fellow who has to turn loose his “money crop” to buy a living whether market conditions are favorable or not. In its broad sense, then, the Live-at- Home plan is the correct one. It is not only the correct policy for the organized farmers as a whole but it embodies the basic principle of success for the individual farmer, for the fundamental idea of farming should be to make a living at home. We Southern farmers should not only produce enough food products for home consumption (and incidentally dddge high freight charges and numerous other toll gates) but we should produce to supply the inhabitants of Southern towns and cities who must buy their living. The Farmers Union is, first of all, an educational organization and the economic errors that we refer to should be subjects for discussion in your Local Unions. ❖ ^ + T HIS IS a big week at Salisbury. The best representative crowd of farmers that ever assembly in this State are gathering there to attend the midsum mer meeting of the North Carolina division of the Farmers’ Union. In that body of men are the leaders of thought and action among^ the farmers of their respective counties. The^ organized farmers are the “salt of the earth’ in the rural districts—the men who realize j that as civilization progresses interdependence, becomes more and more necessary and that; co-operation is essential to success. The city! of Salisbury has never had an assembly in; which the sturdy manhood and progressive, spirit of the rural sections of North Carolina ; were better represented than may be found- in the character of the delegate body now in i attendance at the meeting of the State Union in that city. ; Picnic at Why Not. Mr Editor:—Please allow me space in your- valuable paper to give to your readers a sketch of the rally and picnic at this place the 14th inst. Notwithstanding the morning showers and the threatening aspect of the weather, before II o’clock there were 1000 or 1200 people on the grounds. The exercises were opened by an address of welcome by Prof. G. F. Garner, principal of the school at this place, after which Mr. J. M- Allen, of Asheboro, intro duced the speaker of the hour, Mr. J. Z. Green of Marshville. He discussed at some length the workings of the Union, the many obstacles it has already surmounted and the possibilities it may assoeplish if wisely manipulated. Eyery body seemed to enjoy the speech and if there was a man there who did not enjoy a laugh during his talk I would advise him to go tn some good mineral spring a few weeks for his health. Yes, his speech was a success and I thiuh will do much good. At the close of Mr. Green’s speech, everybody was given a cordial; welcome to dinner in the grove. A table feet long just loaded with good things to eat- Everybody seemed to enjoy the dinner too-” They eat and talked and talked and eat, an^' when all were through I guess there weri^’ something like 12 baskets full to be taken up- In the afternoon we had a very interesting and practical speech by Prof- T. C. Amick, Elon College, on the subject of education. was followed by Mr. George Ross, a youu^l graduate of the A. & M. College, who gave nSj some very interesting facts and figures relative to the agricultural interest of this country. Nozv About Our Local. We organized in June, 1910, with 7 merH' bers, we now have 31, all in good standing' and they are more interested in the organize' tion, more enthusiastic today than they ba''^ ever been in the past. I will close right now with best wishes The Carolina Union Farmer and its man) readers. C. McMEILL, Sec’y I! r Gaston County Union to Erect Tel^' pjl phone System. The Gaston County Farmer’s Union in ecutive session at Costner’s Local two wecl^‘ ago decided to erect a rural 'phone system this county. Several of the members w^f^ instructed to apply for a charter at once. name of the new enterprise will be The Gastn’ Rural Telephone Company. It is hoped tlP every farmer, whether he be a union man ^ not, will take a deep interest in the entcrprisl^ It will mean much to the rural districts. shall have more to say about the matter latc*^
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 27, 1911, edition 1
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