Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / Aug. 22, 1912, edition 1 / Page 8
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Page Eight THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER [Thursday, August 22, 1912. ^ ‘CflC , CAROLIN -^VnioM 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, Marshvllle, 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 22, 1912. EDITORIAL COMMENT. PRODUCTS GOING TO WASTE. It's a peculiar situation when there is general complaint of the "high cost of living” and at the same time millions of dollars worth of food pro ducts going to waste because producers can not find a market for them that affords a profitable price. The writer has within the past six weeks seen fields of fine eabbage which were decaying, also fields of melons that were also going to waste, and in the mountain section millions of bushels of fine fruit will decay in the orchards, all because the producers can not get prices suffi cient to justify them in gathering them and haul ing to market. In the meantime consumers in towns and cities continue to complain of the high cost of living. Certainly there is something radi cally wrong about a system of distribution that causes products to go to waste while consumers complain that they can’t get these products at a reasonable price. THE PACK HORSE OF CIVILIZATION. The farmer is the pack horse of civilization. He is systematically robbed of the profits of his labor. Modern commercialism leaves him just enough for existence, because modern, respect able (?) commercialism pirates do not want to destroy their victim. If thirty-five cents out of the consumer’s dollar proves to be insufficient to preserve the farmer, commercialism might allow him forty cents or even fifty cents of the consum er’s dollar rather than see him put entirely out of business, for it is his labor and his products that furnish the spoils of the system. Modern commercialism is kind enough to encourage great er productive effort on the part of farmers, but when his energy and effort result in a yield that is greater than the demand, nobody is the loser except the farmer, and he must see the result of his energy wasted. FAULT!' DISTRIBUTION. With an economical system of feeding the mar kets the hungry in towns and cities would be bet ter fed and better clothed. They would at least he able to pay the cost of transporting those pro ducts that are now going to waste on the farm, plus a small profit to the grower. But the army of superfluous distributing agents refuse to han dle farm products when the price gets so low that it does not afford all the toll gates the usual rake- offs, hence we see products decaying In the field because the so-called market refuses to handle them. It is, indeed, a faulty system of distribu tion that refuses to let products travel that way unless fhe price is high enough to pay the usual tributes. Even the philanthropic railroad offi cials, after running “free agricultural trains” to dispense instruction on growing bigger crops, of fer no relief, and seeing products going to waste all along their lines, they refuse to make any re duction in freight rates so that those products may be transported to the hungry multitudes in the towns and cities. THE FARMER MUST CO-OPERATE. With all political parties ignoring the interests of farmers, referring in platforms to our inter ests in such a way as to promise nothing definite, it is worse than folly for the American farmers to look for relief from political influences that are under the absolute domination of the special in terests. So the only available remedy is in the hands of the farmers themselves and must be ap plied through business co-operation in selling and buying. When the Monmouth County (New Jer sey) Farmers Exchange began business it had been costing fifty-nine per cent to transport their potatoes from producer to consumer. In four years they reduced this cost to one and a half per cent. When the orange growers of California were forced to see their oranges go to decay for want of a profitable market they cured the trouble by co-operative marketing. When "the system” was demanding all the profits of the onion growers of the gulf coast of Texas those growers got together and applied the principle of co-operative marketing to their business and thus prevented bankruptcy, and turned what had be come an unprofitable industry into a profitable one. If co-operative marketing can be establish ed successfully in certain localities, in competi tion with the organized "system” that had been robbing them, our cotton growers, tobacco grow ers, peanut growers and fruit growers, can cer tainly apply the principle of co-operative market ing to their business, if they will become as much concerned about good selling as they are about producing bumper crops. LOCAL CO-OPERATION FIRST. We have frequently called attention to the ne cessity of local co-operation first. It is an empty dream to think of starting in with county co-oper ation before we learn to apply the principle of co operation locally, and most assuredly we can not liope to co-operate as a State until we learn to co-operate as a county. In organizing Local Unions it would have been better to have made the taking of stock in a co-operative enterprise a condition of membership than to organize under the idea of general co-operation, which can never be attained except through local co-operation first. Of course, to conduct an organizing cam paign under a definite constructive business pol icy would not enlist the numerical strength that we have obtained through the rather aimless and indefinite policy, but practical co-operation would have been established much faster and there would have been less inactivity, indifference and re-action behind a constructive policy. In fact, it is becoming more and more apparent that we must adopt a constructive business policy in every county and establish local co-operation before we can hope to achieve the results hoped for by the Farmers’ Union. In his last article on "Rural Co-operation in Island,” Mr. Clarence Poe says: "Before leaving the subject of these Irish co-operative societies, one other thought comes into mind that cannot be too strongly emphasized—and that is, that in this matter, as in all others, we must learn to crawl be fore we can walk. We have had in the South too many big, high-sounding schemes for financing the South’s billion-dollar cotton crop, and other such gigantic schemes, and not enough attention has been given to local business organizations wherein the principle of co-operation might be tried out and a way prepared for effective co-oneration In larger things. This is a fact which Mr. R. R. Mil ler has frequently urged in The Progressive Farmer. My observation in Ireland has con vinced me more strongly than ever before of the correctness of his teaching. What we need in the South, what we need in our Far mers’ Union, is a determined effort to or ganize local co-operative creameries, poul try societies, fruit growers’ and truck grow ers’ societies, co-operative credit societies, etc., and through these neighborhood organ izations develop the business qualities and experience which will enable us to grapple with the mightier problem of financing the South’s great staple crop.” STOP, READ, ACT AT ONCE. This has been a very strenuous summer cam paign thus far. All the available lecture force has been called into action to try to meet the de mand for union speakers at union rallies. The calls are still coming from every section of the State, some asking for dates as late as the middle of October. The officers of the State Union have traveled day and night, traversing the State from the mountains to the sea and from Virginia to South Carolina, preaching the doctrines of the union, better farming, co-operative marketing and economic buying by means of the county and State warehouses, and a better system of educa tion. This propaganda work has cost and is costing the State Union a lot of money in addition to the laborious work entailed upon the men doing it- I am sure that teh men on the firing line of bat tle have never had a thought of giving up tb® fight for the cause we all love. But sometimes we can not refrain from asking the question- What are we accomplishing by all this labor and expenditure of money? Are results tangible, pet' raanent? Are the people really responding to cur appeals in their behalf? Is this work hav ing the effect desired, or must it all be done over again next year? Are we getting real construct ive, enduring results that will in the end reform the present method of selling and buying? I am going to let the loyal members of the union from every section ofithe State answers these questions by their actions. Not by words. The State Union has incorporated a State warehouse company in accordance with instructions given bX the last State Convention. This company has de cided to establish warehouses in Greensboro uod Raleigh, to be known as central warehouses, co-operative marketing and buying. Severs^ months ago an option was obtained on a very vs^ uable warehouse property in Greensboro. This option will expire about the first of Septem^®*^' The owiier will hardly agree to renew it as he bs® already been offered more for the property by bus iness men who know Its value. There is not money in sight to take up the option. What uc® we going to do about it? This property Is ing now for more than 8 per cent interest on ^ option price. It will very likely double in val^^® in six or eight years. Will we save this prop®*”^^ to our system of warehouses, or will we fail grasp the opportunity and let some wide a"'* business man own it? I want to appeal to e' loyal union man who can possibly raise ten lars to pay for one share of stock to send u- once to our State Treasurer, E. C. Faires. Ab®*^ deen, N. C., and he will mail certificate of Every dollar received will be invested in real estate that will not only be worth the P paid for it, but will increase in value every y er»' You will also be helping to establish a co-oP tive warehouse system of selling and hu> which must be done If we ever free ours® IV®® ketib^ from the present iniquitous system of mar^ and distribution. I am sending thirty dollars to pay fob ^ I bb'" shares of stock. I would take more but jjja; not the money to spare just now. HoV'' will you take? • I mean you, the man who is , ing these lines. Ten dollars from each ^ lucu® thousand members would give us a vo-- money stifficient to dot North Carolina with ^ But P'^^, houses from Currituck to Cherokee do not conclude that there will he enough (Continued on page 11.)
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 22, 1912, edition 1
8
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