Thursday, May 23, 1912.]
THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER
Page Nine
i
Attention! Fellow
Members of the
Farmers’ Union.
Your State officers want to visit every County
Union in the State during the summer and early
fall. With the most advantageous itineraries pos
sible this will require a great deal of traveling at
much expense. If no attempt is made to arrange
consecutive dates in adjoining counties it will be
impossible for any one officer, or all of the officers,
to reach every county in the State in the limited
time usually covered by the Union rallies.
Your State officers most earnestly solicit the co
operation of all county officers and members in
planning this work so as to lesson the travel and
expense and make it possible for us to visit every
county in the State.
To this end I want to make the following sug
gestions and urge the brethren to observe them as
far as possible, viz;
Let us open the campaign of rallies earlier in
the summer than has been done heretofore. You
will lose nothing in the long run to lay aside the
cares and labors of mind and body for one day
and devote it to a day of pleasure and recreation;
a day that will smooth the wrinkles out of that
troubled brow and stay the frosts of time in those
locks that are becoming silvery. Yes, w’e wd*’
make it a day that will warm up your hearts to
ward God and your fellow men, enlarge your sym
pathy and broaden your views. We will make it
an intellectual and social feast that will uplift
your community.
Again, let the rallies as far as possible be made
a “county rally” rather than local. This will en
able us to reach more people in that county, and
time wdll hardly permit us making more than one
trip to any one county.
Again, let adjoining counties confer with each
other and arrange consecutive dates. These dates
should cover Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Uriday. Rallies should not be held on Saturday
Unless your speakers live near enough to get home
*bat night. Due regard should be had for sched
ule of trains so as to make time of arrival and de
parture of speakers as convenient as possible. A
speaker who bias been traveling half the night
Will not be in the best of trim to put new life and
enthusiasm into his audience.
Again, do not neglect to arrange seats for the
People. It is especially important that you have
Seats for the ladies and old men.
Again, do not make your program too long.
Two speakers are ample for any occasiot}, and of
tentimes one is sufficient, if he is a “live wire” and
full of his subject. Arrange for all the speaking
before dinner. No orator likes to speak after din
Per, for he is usually too full tor utterance.”
Now brethren, if you will observe these sug
gestions you will greatly facilitate the work and
f'Khten the labor and lessen the expense. It is es
pecially important that you arrange with adjoin-
counties itineraries covering three or four
'fuys in any one week. This will greatly reduce
fbe cost of a lecture campaign in distant portions
Pf the State. To illustrate: I have an appoint-
P^unt to speak at Lucama in Wilson County on
June 2 Ist. Wilson County is more than two hun-
Pred miles from Mecklenburg County. This is a
bmg trip to reach just one county. I would like
fu make appointments in two adjoining counties
fPi’ the 19th and 20th of June. I would be glad
fp take up this matter by correspondence with
f’^’o other counties in that section of the State.
-^t all these rallies the Carolina Warehouse, In-
^oi'Porated, will be fully explained; how it will be
PJ’omoted, how the location of the warehouses will
be determined, how to obtain a warehouse in your
bounty under the charter of the State company,
fbe necessity for a strong company covering the
®fpfe. and the great benefits that will accrue to
Pff the farmers in both selling and buying.
We are having blanks printed in legal form cov
ering every step in the organization of a county
warehouse, either under the charter of the State
company, or under a separate charter. These will
be furnished to all County Unions free of charge.
They can be obtained by applying to the State Sec
retary.
We want an average of at least one share of
stock ($10) per member from every Local in the
State. This would give’ us sufficient capital to
build all the warehouses needed in the State. All
farm products would be sold direct to the con
sumer and that sixty cents of the consumer’s dol
lar that now goes into the pockets of the middle
men would go to the farmers wh ocreate the prod
ucts.
On the buying side, this strong State company
would buy direct from manufacturers and distri
bute direct to the consumer, eliminating some of
the middle men that make the manufactured pro
ducts cost the consumer from 50 to 100 per cent
more than necessary under a direct method of dis
tribution.
Now, fellow-farmers, it is up to us as a class to
stand together, rally to the support of this Union
enterprise and put ourselves in a position to price
the products of our labor and market those prod
ucts economically, and to buy eponomically all
manufactured products needed. I believe we will
Jo it. We must do it.
Fraternally, H. Q. ALEXANDER.
STREET SELLING MUST GO.
Street selling of farm products by “independ-
nt” individuals on local markets, without regard
I'or economic demand, must go. Modern co-opera-
ive marketing is the only remedy for the “high
ost of selling.” Farmers of the United States
n-oduce $9,000,000,000 worth of goods per year,
f we can save even five cent in the cost of sell-
r.g the saving will amount to $450,000^,000 per
oar. Under a scientific and economic system of
marketing the saving would be at least fifteen per
cent, which would amount to $1,350,000,000 per
year. Worth working for, isn’t it?
GCCI) F.VR’J NG AND GOOD SELLING.
With all tbe “help” we get from State and Na
tional Departments of Agriculture and the railroad
mrporations, etc.,—the kind of help that is de
signed to teach “better farming,” which means
greater prcdiiction, it is a contemptible shame
.hat in all these years and with all the enormous
expenditures that have been made under pretext of
helping the dear farmer,” that no instruction has
been given that was designed to teach good selling
along with good farming. Discussing this ne
glected and important part of thebusinessof farm
ing Mississippi Union Advocate says;
‘ It is all right to teach the farmer to grow
more of everything he plants, but after he has
done that, wherein has he been benefitted?
The South has had practical demonstration
this past year of the fact that the larger the
crop of cotton the less money will be received.
On the other hand, Iowa has had demonstrat
ed that a smaller production of corn produces
more money.”
Prince Florimel and Prince Carimel were twin
brothers, the sons of a king, and no one could tell
which of the two ought to succeed to the thrpne,
for they were both exactly the same age. So one
day they went to a wise magician, and asked him
which of them ought to be king after their fath
er’s death. ”He who is most worthy,” said the
magician. “But how shall we find out who is most
worthy?” “He who possesses the magic flower
that grows in the enchanted forest shall be found
most worthy,” he answered. So the two brothers
traveled through the enchanted forest until they
found the magic flower, but it grew in such a dan
gerous place, that Carimel would not attempt to
reach it. Florimel, however, clambered down the
rocks and plucked the flower; and when he had
got it, what do you think he did with it? Why, he
gave it to his br'bther, for the name of the magic
flower was Unselfishness.—William Moodie.
FARMERS’ TRUST TO SOLVE lAVING COST.
By B. F. Yoakum.
The biggest trust is yet to come—the co-oper
ative trust of producers who raise and sell food
stuffs to the American people. Co-operation among
purchasers has worked wonders in Great Britain,
where 8,000,000 people are enjoying its benefits.
Farmers, and not military power, must restore
our economic balance. The politicians pour out
the Government’s money to build fighting ma
chines and starve the agriculturist. A forty-acre
farm of reclaimed valley land will comfortably
support a family. It costs $55,000 to make a
twelve-inch gun. The money that goes to pay for
this gun would reclaim 4,500 acres of land and
provide homes for 500 people. When all the guns
on all the battleships are shot off once, the Govern
ment blows off, in noise and smoke, $150,000.
This would reclaim more than 12,000 acres of
land and give homes to 1,350 people. The money
consumed in powder is lost to all future. The
farmers who buy the reclaimed land must pay the
Government back in ten years, so it does not cost
the Government anything to build up the country
by helping the farmer. We should make more
homes and not so many fighting machines.
It is not the amount of vegetables, dairy products
and other food-stuffs which a farmer produces that
fattens his bank account; it is the prices he can
get for them and the waste he can cut between the
farm and the table.
Home building is the stron.gest instinct in the
lives of right-minded men, and, as it is the first
duty of a man to provide a home for his faihily,
so it is a patriotic duty of the United Staes to
make homes for its people and their childrep.
Thousands of our people have been moving into
Canada during the past few years, taking up land
and making their homes there. It is just as wrong
for a nation with unused lands to drive its own
people to other countries to seek homes as it is
for a man wnth health and strength to leave his
family without shelter.
It is a bad commentary on the work of our
Government that, of the total revenue for 1910,
$71 out of each $100 was used for military pur
poses and only $1.85 out of each $100 to aid in
the development of our agriculture, w'hich is the
foundation of our wealth; and that for good roads,
so important to our farmers, only two cents out of
each $100 of revenue w'as appropriated.
The farmer gets forty-six cents for his products
and the consumer $1 for them. This is not fair.
By bringing the consumer closer, the farmer would
get more and the consumer pay less. With a $9,-
000,000,000 crop, one-third retained on farms, it
is all wrong for consumers to pay $13,000,000,000
for $6,000,000,000 of products.
The farmer has done only one-half his duty to
himself and family when h'e has raised a crop. It
is equally important that he understand the mar
ket channels through which his products pass af
ter he ships them and that he may receive the best
possible returns for his labor. The cost of get
ting food supplies to the railroad over bad country
roads and getting such supplies to the homes in
the cities is out of all proportion to the railroad
charge for transportation. To help cut down the
big expense of bad country roads to the farmers,
the Government provides a little over $100,000 a
year and buys battleships for $12,000,000.
The value of farm products in the United States
last year averaged about $300 for each member of
a farming family. This means that $300 had to
clothe, feed, educate and provide everything for
one person on the average farm, besides paying
taxes, help, new buildings, machinery and tools,
repairs, feed, and care of animals and general up
keep of the farm. This is a small return. The
farmer hitches up early, works long hours, feeds
late. Unlike others, he cannot work eight or nine
hours a day and quit.
The w’orld can never feed the soul of a man
who has once known Christ.—Dwight L. Moody.