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CAROLINA
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Farmer
Vol. VI—No. 50.
RALEIGH. N. C, DECEMBER 19, 1912.
One Dollar a Year.
PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL ADDRESS
State Convention, Raleigh, December 10th, 1912
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“He has achieved success who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much; who has gained
the respect of intelligent men and the love of lit
tle children; who has -filled his niche and accom
plished his task; who has left the world better
than he found it, whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never
lacked appreciation of the earth’s beauty or failed
to express it; who has always looked for the best
in others and given the best he had; whose life
was an inspiration; whose memory is a benedic
tion.”
Viewed in the light of this definition, thousands
of men and women in North Carolina have and are
achieving success in a degree. It is not given to
many to drink at that fountain, the fountain of
success to full and lasting satisfaction.
There are not many five talent men who return
with five talents more. The great mass of man
kind belong to the two talent class. I am glad
to say that I have not met many men of the one
talent type. God forbid there should be one in
this convention.
May I ask you, my friends, wherein has your
life been a success during the past year? Do you
enjoy the esteem of good men, and are you blest
with the love of little children? Have you per
formed well your task, and if called away now,
would you leave the world better than you found
it? Do you always look for the best in others
and give the very best in yourself? Are you a
blessing or a blight to the community in which
you live?
But you may ask. Why am I, as President of
the Farmers’ Union, alluding to the private and
community life of men? Because as your life is
in that limited sphere, so will it be in the larger
one of the educational and co-operative work of
the Union.
If I knew that all men were true to the princi
ples of Justice, Equity, and the Golden Rule in
their individual family and community life, I
would have no fears of dissentions in the Union.
If all men were active and loyal in their support
of the educational and co-operative movements for
the uplift of their own community, then I would
feel that success to our efforts in the Union was al
ready assured.
Let us now turn our attention to matters per
taining more directly to the Union in North Caro
lina.
I want to say at the outset that success to the
full has not crowned the efforts of your officials
in every instance; and if blame can justly attach
to men who are honestly trying to do their duty,
then I am willing to share my part of the blame
for any mistakes that may have been made. And
I would remind you that SUCCESS itself does not
consist in NEVER making mistakes, but in NOT
making the same mistake twice.
It is hardly my province and not my purpose to
give a detailed report of the different departments
of the Union, but will confine myself to a general
outline, leaving the details of the different branch
es of the work to the officers in charge.
I want to say of these officers who have been
chosen, with myself, as leaders in the organiza
DR. H. Q. ALEXANDER, of Mecklenburg County,
President North Carolina Farmers’ Union.
tion, that I believe each one has tried to do his
duty by the Union. Whatever success has been
achieved should not be credited to one or two
men, but to every one, officers and members, who
have done their part unselfishly. Neither should
failures be charged against one or two men, but
to all concerned therein.
The work has been carried on in the same gen
eral way that we have followed since the organi
zation of the State Union four years ago. The
Commissioned Organizers have planted the Union
in nearly all the counties of North Carolina, while
your State Organizer, your President and Vice-
President, and to a lesser extent a few others,
have waged an active and extensive campaign of
lecturing; setting forth as clearly and forcibly as
possible the purposes of the Union, its policy and
methods, and the urgent necessity for, and the
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great benefits to be derived from, organization,
education, and co-operation. The organization has
been greatly extended, the educational interest re
vived and strengthened, and co-operative enter
prises established or enlarged in many counties.
The lecturers have emphasized the necessity for
better farming along all lines; the importance of
improved business methods; the reform of the
present expensive and financially suicidal method
of marketing and distributing farm products; and
a more direct and economical way of buying and
distributing manufactured products.
As a medium through which to obtain some of
these reforms, the Union has recognized from the
beginning the necessity for the establishment of
farmers’ warehouses, constructed and adapted to
the handling of the various crops of the different
counties of the State.
With this in view, the convention a year ago
at Wilson instructed your officials to incorporate
a State Warehouse Company. This was done, it
being chartered as the Carolina Warehouse, Incor
porated.
It is here that your officials have not met with
the success they had hoped for; though as a re
sult of efforts in this direction, there are to-day
two county warehouses “in sight.” This experi
ence has confirmed me in the opinion that the
State Union should endeavor to promote the incor
poration and building of county warehouses, each
under separate charters. I will do all I can to
put into operation any plan for accomplishing this
that promises better success than we have achieved
this year.
I will leave the report in detail on the Carolina
Warehouse, Incorporated, to the President of that
corporation.
I would commend to the consideration of those
counties that^ have established warehouses or
stores the Rochdale system of co-operation. Un
der this system patronage is recognized as being
an essential requisite to the success of the busi
ness and the profits, after paying expenses, are di
vided between capital and patronage. This sys
tem has many advantages in co-operative buying
and distribution of manufactured products; in oth
er words, co-operative stores; but has not been
demonstrated a success in co-operative marketing
of farm products.
So far as we have heard, the many warehouses
and other Union enterprises established in many
counties of the State have been uniformly success
ful. Our energies should never relax and no ef
forts be spared until warehouses are established
wherever needed in every organized county in the
State,—these to be used for storing, selling, and
distributing farm products and for the purchase
and bistribution of manufactured commodities.
(Continued on page 4.)
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