Page Eight
^ X?fec
CAfeOLIN^
.^Vnion
Farmer
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
BY THE UNION FARMER PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Subscription Price: One Dollar a Year.
All subscriptions are payable in advance, and the paper
will be discontinued 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.
J. Z. GREEN. Marstavllle,
MRS. E. D. NALL. Sanford.
C, A. EURY. - -
. .. Editor
Home Department
General Manager
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
JOHN D. ROSS, 812 Hartford Building, Chicago.
L. E. WHITE, Tribune Building, New York.
Entered as second-class matter March 21, 1912, at the Post-
office at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1897.
Raleigh, N. C.
August 8, 1912.
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
MORE WAREHOUSES NEEDED.
There can be no successful co-operative market
ing without distributing warehouses. The ware
house system not only provides a place for mar
keting our products, but it also enables farmers to
secure loans on the products stored and thereby
meet obligations without being compelled to sell in
a congested market. Every County Union should
promote the building of at least one local ware
house in the county. It is idle to say that we are
not able to build warehouses. By selling on a
congested market last fall Southern farmers lost
twenty dollars a bale on cotton. A farmer who
produced as much as five bales and sold it at nine
cents lost one hundred dollars. He could have
paid fifty dollars for warehouse stock and still had
fifty dollars more than he has to his credit. The
South tost approximately two hundred million dol
lars on the 1911 cotton crop—an amount sufficient
to build all the warehouses needed to handle the
cotton crop.
THE TWO-FOLD PURPOSE.
The main purpose is to establish a selling sys
tem owned and controlled by those who make the
products to sell, but incidentally a warehouse sys
tem puts the products in shape to be financed. Of
course, it isn’t expected that a farmer who is out
of debt must store his cotton in the warehouse, but
he needs that system to sell his cotton through
and thereby avoid individual street selling. The
farmer, however, who is in debt will find in the
warehouse a place where he can deposit his pro
duct and use his warehouse receipt as collateral
for a loan, and unfortunately a large per cent of
the farmers of the South are in this condition, and
must either borrow money on their products or
rush them to market.when there is no immediate
economic demand for them and in that way force
the price down below normal, as was done last
fall. In our discussions of practical co-operative
marketing we may drift away from the warehouse
idea of marketing, but we will have to come back
|;o that idea, for it is the fundamental essential as
a means for co-operative marketing.
LOSSES ON OTHER PRODUCTS.
Not only were the losses heavy on cotton last
fall, but they were relatively larger on cotton
seed, because we had no system of marketing.
And farmers in the peanut section are also greatly
in need of warehouses through which to handle
that product, for in many instances they get only
about half the value of that product under the in
dividual street selling method. In fact there is no
product, either perishable or unperishable, that
can be sold intelligently and profitably without the
warehouses.
THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER
CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT.
In co-operation generally the farmers of the
United States are way behind the farmers of many
of the older countries. The Equity News says:
“In the United States the only way the av
erage farmer can get a loan to help him in
his business is to go to the bank and mort
gage his home. The German farmers do bet
ter. They form associations of 500 or more
members, join their credit by means of an as
sociation, and borrow at 3 to 4 1-2 per cent.
“ ’Twont work!’’ says the man who doesn’t
believe in new ideas. Ah, but it does work!
German farmers have done as much as five
billion dollars business that way in a single
year. And business tdlks.”
FARMERS “STICK” IN IREL.4ND.
Mr. Clarence Poe, who is writing some interest
ing articles to the Progressive Parmer from Ire
land, on “Agricultural Co-operation in Ireland,”
makes this comment:
“When I asked Secretary Anderson how
they managed to keep the farmers organized,
he answered, ‘Simply by showing them that
it pays.’ If farmers and farmers’ wives get
30 per cent more for their eggs by working
together through poultry societies; and six
cents a pound more for their butter by form
ing co-operative creameries; and are able fre
quently to double a year’s profits by being
able to borrow needed sums from co-operative
banks; or save 2 or $3 a ton on fertilizers by
ordering in a body, one is not likely to hear
much of the old, old story, ‘Farmers won’t
stick together.’ In Ireland they do stick and
they do succeed. Because of this fact, they
feel a new dignity for themselves, and the
State and the Nation feel a new respect for
them.”
DEFINITE PURPOSE NEEDED.
Mr. Poe refers to one criticism which Irish lead
ers make of farmers’ organizations in America as
follows:
“Here is one criticism the Irish leaders
make of our farmers’ organizations in Amer
ica—that they are too general, and indefinite
in their purposes; they are not sufficiently
business-like and practical. And, on the
whole, does not the criticism appear to be
just? We need and must have general or
ganizations like the National Farmers’ Union,
and I think the Irish farmers lose bjf not hav
ing something more nearly equivalent to it;
but each local Union ought to have some de
finite business purpose. Perhaps the best
plan would be to have the farmers in each
township organize for meeting once or twice
a month as a local Union, but encourage
the members to organize independent co-op
erative banks, creameries, poultry societies,
and other co-operative clubs, except in cases
where all the members wish to join in one
linfe of endeavor, in which case the enter
prise can be conducted in the name of the
Union as a whole.”
SHOULD RE MADE PROFITABLE.
Certainly the greatest need to strengthen up the
Farmers’ Union is to make it profitable for mem
bers to belong to it and to do this it requires con
structive business leadership. But one weak point
in the membership is the refusal, in many in-
/
stances, to give to their enterprises their patron
age upon which success must depend. If our
»
membership can bo educated to see that a co-oper
ative enterprise’s capacity to produce desirable
results, and better results as it gets older, depends
upon controlling the business of its members—
depends upon patronage, there would be fewer
failures and fewer disappointments. But these
things can only be achieved through the slow pro
cess of education and that makes it too slow for a
certain per cent of impatient members. Theoreti
cally co-operation seems to be understood by a
large per cent of our membership, but practically
it is not understood yet, except in certain local!
ties.
Both the Republican and Democratic platforms
contain planks favoring the engagement of rural
credit facilities, and the devising of some means
[Thursday, August 8, 1912.
to enable the farmer to borrow money more read
ily and at lower rates of interest. Very commend
able declarations these, but let not the farmers in
dulge in any excessive joy over them. When we
get a better system of credits and exchanges—•
from the farmers’ viewpoint—will be when the
farmers themselves work it out and force its adop
tion. To do this is not an easy task, but it is a
necessary one, and farmers everywhere should
give to it the best thought of which they are cap
able. Mr. Poe’s article this week will give some
valuable suggestions.—The Progressive Farmer.
No use shooting at dead ducks. We expressed
our opinion of Senator Lorimer when he seemed
safely fixed in the Senate. Now that he has been
thrown o.ut there is just one important thing to
be said. Senators did not do this good job of their
own free will or desire. It was done by “the folks
at home.” The people forced those Senators to do
their duty. The average Senator will not admit,
if he can help it, that the people have anything to
do with him. He represents the State—a very
comfortable state of mind for a man who does not
believe in popular government. It is a great thing
when the people reach in past the State and shake
their Senators.—-Rural New Yorker.
4i,|E*4c«4i«:|i4c4i
^e tf if * *
* *
* OFFICIAL CALL FOR THE ANNUAL MEET- *
* ING OF NATIONAL I AR.MERS’ UNION. *
* To the Members of the Farmers’ Union:
* In keeping with the provisions of the Con *
* stitution, the eighth annual meeting of the
* National Union, Farmers’ Educational and
* Co-operative Union of America, is hereby call- *
* ed to convene at 10 o’clock a. m., Tuesday, *
* September 3, 1912, In the Reed Building,
* Chattanooga, Tenn., to remain in session until *
* all business which may properly come before *
* the Union has been transacted. *
* Fraternally C. S. BARRETT,
* Attest: President *
* A. C. DAVIS, Secretary. *
* Rogers, Ark., July 20, 1912. *
* *
APPOINTMENTS OF W. C. CROSBY, S'TATE ED-
^ UCATIONAL SECRETARY.
Bayboro, Pamlico County, Wednesday, August
7th.
Burgaw, Pender County, Thursday, August 8th.
Supply, Brunswick County, Friday, August 9th.
New Bern, Craven County, Saturday, August 10,
2 p. m.
Forest City, Rutherford County, Tuesday, Aug
ust 13th.
Stanly County, August 16th.
Hillsboro, Orange County, August 31st.
Open for other dates in territory and time cov
ered by these appointments.
Fraternally,
H. Q. ALEXANDER. President.
E. C. FAIRES. Sec.-Treas.
APPOINTMENTS OF H. Q. ALEXANDER.
Friday, August 9th, Happy Hill School House in
Davidson County.
Snow Hill, Green County, August 15th, Thurs
day.
Oates School House, near Bessemer City, Gas
ton County, Tuesday, August 20th.
White Oak Local, Nash County, August I6tb,
Friday.
Harrisburg, Cabarrus County, Wednesday, Au
gust 31st.
Hewho would successfully speak in public for Christ
must fish with a baited hook. Logic may have a
sharp point to speech, and rhetoric may give it the
grace of the curve, but there is little in either logic
or rhetoric to attract and hold men unless they
are accompanied by a meaty, nourishing truth-
Fish do not care for bare steel. The most suc
cessful speaker is he who speaks the truth, and
speaks it in love.—Christian Instructor.
For one man to die ignorant with the capacity
for knowledge—this I call a tragedy.—Carlyle-