Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / Oct. 3, 1912, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page Four THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER CAROIINA^ _Vmoii Farmer PUBLISHED EVEKY THURSDAY BY THE BSION FARMER PBBIISHING COMPANY. Subscriptioo Price: One Dollar a Year. HfilT All subscriptions are payable in advance, and the paj^r will be discontinued when the time expires, unless renewed. The datUn the tau 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,'SanIord, - C. A. EURY, Editor Home Department General Manager ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES lOHN D. ROSS, 812 Hartford Buildine, Chicano. L. E. WHITE. Tribune Buildinij, 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. October 3, 1912. editorial comment. ahiiancje to avoid the toll gates. The Live-at-home policy of the Farmers’ Union, properly put into practice, will enable farmers to avoid the expensive toll gates that are located along the commercial highway, as far as it is pos sible to avoid them. It is true that farmers must buy manufactured products that travel the circuit ous and expensive channel of distribution, but no farmer is compelled to buy food products which can be raised at home. When we make the mis take of planting any so-called “money crop’’ which we must sell to buy food products that can be grown economically on our own farm, the eco nomic error is farther-reaching in its disastrous effects than would appear from a surface view. We must keep it in mind that we are living under the most indirect, expensive and extravagant sys tem of distribution the world has ever seen, both on the selling and buying side of our business, and it will require time to reform this expensive sys tern of distribution. When a farmer plants a “money crop’’ with which he intends to purchase a living, he must put that product into this expen sive channel of distribution and all the toll gates along the way take a dig out of it at the expense of tfie farmer as a protliicer. Then when he buys his food products he must again pay the tolls as a consumer. He then places himself in position to be double-taxed by a grinding system of distribu tion. AVHAT THE “LlVE-AT-HOME” POLICY DOES. Now, the farmer who makes his farm self-sup porting by planting always for a living at home, pays no jobbers’ commission, no wholesale profits, no retail profits and no transportation charges on his food products. He doesn’t even have to lose the time of a man and a team to haul those products from the nearest market town. In other words, he gets his food products at “first cost’’ by rais ing them at home, and he thereby refuses to per mit himself to be taxed to maintain the super fluous toll gates along the commercial highway. He also avoids the tolls that he would have to pay if he had made the mistake of putting a “money crop’’ upon fhe market to*get the necessary money with which he purchases his food products. “LIVE-AT-HOME STRENGTHENS THE FAR MER’S POSITION ON THE MARKETS. There is another important feature about the Live-at-Home policy. When a farmer who has his barns, cribs and smokehouses filled with the ne cessities of life, he can then hold his cotton, to bacco or peanuts, or any other surplus crop, until market conditions are favorable. When a uHan is in position to fight for profitable prices behind a .iving at home he has the strongest position that t is possible t ooccupy. He can sit steady in the boat and wait until a consuming world gets hun gry for his products. He is not panic-stricken on account of price fluctuations, because he is not in distress. These remarks are made at this time to remind Farmers’ Union folks that during the grqin sowing season is the opportune time to make pro vision for a living at home by sowing a good por tion of the acreage in grain crops that do not re quire cultivation. Now is a good time to renew your discussions in your Local Unions on the im portance of getting solidly upon the fundamental basis of a living at home, and then carry the dis cussion far enough to include methods of soil preparation and the sowing of oats, wheat, rye, and also the clovers, vetches, etc., as soil build ers. ANOTHER EFT’ECT OF “LIVE-AT-HOME.” The general adoption of the “Idve-at-Home policy in the South may cause a few thousand grocery stores to do less business, but it will be the greatest blessing to the South that could pos sibly come through any other economic reform. The natural and logical effect of such policy will be not only to reduce the size of the cotton crop and insure higher prices for this great Southern staple with which the South holds a world monop oly, but it will gradually and effectively eliminate the ruinous credit system, and it is the only eco nomic policy that will eliimnate it. If Southern farmers will get as much excited over making a living at home as they have been over the attempt to “make money” this section will ultimately be come financially independent. With a living at home and with a warehouse system of co-operat ive marketing farm life will become more profit able and also more attractive and it can not become more attractive until some of the element of un certainty that now exists is removed and the busi ness of farming is made more profitable. Si Si EXTRAVAGANCE VS. “HIGH COST OF LIVING.” This is an era “fast living.” Extravagant hab its have been firmly fixed In the nature of fami lies living in towns and cities, and this condition of things is sometimes called the “high cost of living,” and voluminous articles have been written about this “problem.” If the problem solving theorists would call it the “cost of high living” they would have it correctly stated and then they could soon get down to the fundamental cause. In the towns and cities children are more expen slvely dressed every day at school than they were dressed at church on Sundays a few decades ago Even in the smaller towns the “high cost” of ex travagance makes the “dress” expense loom up about five times as large as it was under the plain and simple standard of living a quarter of a cen tury ago. It is wrong to call this the “high cost of living.” Call it the “cost of high living”—the result of the voluntary raising of the standard of living higher than the average income will justify. The soda fountain must be visited. Fiv and ten- cent cigars have been substituted for the pipe and tobacco. The moving picture shows must be vis ited. Expensive “social functions” must be given Dry goods and groceries must bo delivered at the house. Automobile rides come in the program, which means not only the “high cost” of the ma chine but the lost time must also be taken into ac count. The standard of living has been raised about three hundred per cent, while the average income has fallen far behind. Tt all goes to make up the “cost of high living,” and the people who have raised their standard of living relatively liigher than their incomes are alone responsible for it, and they stultify themselves when they un dertake to shift the responsibility to somebody Si “HIGH LIVING” ON THE FARM. .Tust as poor factory people and other wage earners in towns and cities try to ape the rich [Thursday, October 3, 1912- and spend all their income to “keep up ances,” many farmers have caught the spirit “high living” and undertake to spend as much “dress up” their “kids” and give them as ga time as the town and city folks have. gant habits are about as catching as measles smallpox, and when Bill Jones buys his little gij^ a black pair, a tan pair and a white pair of sboe^^ his neighbor, John Smith, considers his litle gi ^ just as good as Bill Jones’ girl, and under t spirit of false pride and foolish rivalry, Smith goes and buys his little girl the three colors of shoes just to show Jones’ folks that he able (?) to do it. The Farmers’ Union migW in some important co-operative educational by discussing home economics and by ing extravagances that ar^ as needless as they foolish. Farmers should live the natural and P life, which is the sensible and economic way live. Perhaps the most deplorable and feature of our modern extravagances and higb ^ ing exists in the fact that we are generation of spendthrifts, who know more a scattering than about the creation of wealth- the extravagances of the next ten years they have during the past ten years, it is to forecast the extent of the disastrous results- Si Si THE POLITICAL HYPOCRITES. The biggest rascal that ever betrayed the pie and served the special interests in can come before the people with a bold and P ible defense of his “record.” With all the and bluster and bravery that it is possible into play, certain machine partisan are now engaged in standing before audio ,rests ,ratio®* and “special interests” of the State. The part of it—the deplorable part of the ness, is that there is such a large element of ignorance among the voters and so many “machine” politicians who care nothing fo® ciple and who are out for the “spoils” is haps the most corrupt thing in North Caro ^ modern “machine” politics—which is su® scramble for political office. " telling how they have served the “dear P® when they belong body and soul to “the int® and now have the solid support of the corpo ♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ NOTICE OP MEETING OF TOBACCO FARMERS. jjl 1)0 Notice is hereby given that there held in the Carroll Hotel, Lynchburg.^ October 16, an Inter-State Meeting tobacco farmers of Virginia and lina. All county organizations in the ^ .jyeS- Belt are requested to send represen The meeting will be held at 10 « H. Q. ALEXANDER, President North Carolina D* D. M. GANNAWAY, President Virginia Division. « * * * ■It * * * * * NOTICE OF MEETING OF BXE * COMMITTEE. rjo irtU * The Executive Committee of * Carolina Farmers’ Union Is hereby * meet in the Carroll Hotel, Lynebo" ^'pia®® * October 16 for the purpose of selecting^^^ * for holding the Annual Convention p,af * transaction of such other business * come before the meeting. aldeb*’ * H. Q. ALEXANDER, jtte®- " W. B. GIBSON, Chairman of Com ^ ♦ « V When you are satisfied with meo* » commonness doesn’t trouble you, feel troubled by a poor day’s slighted job does not haunt you; ^ gjp satisfied to do a thing “just for to do it better later—these are signs , tlon of character.—O. S. Marden.
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 3, 1912, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75