19
iM
Cj^ii
Union
Dt Vol. 5. No. 32.
CHARLOTTE, N. C., AUGUST 10, 1911
One Dollar a Year
MR. IVEY’S ADDRESS
lO
lii^sponse to Addresses of Welcome at Salis
bury, N. C.
Mr. President and Brethren and Members of
the Merchants’ Association:
I am much pleased to accept in the name of
the great Farmers’ Union of Uorth Carolina
your magnificent welcome into this your en
terprising and hospitable city, and to acknowl
edge the many beautiful bouquets tendered us
through your representative. I am the more
pleased because they are none of them arti
ficial. You have wandered through real gard
ens which we have so long cultivated for you
and plucked a rose here, a lily here, the sweet
scented mignonette and others and binding
them together with the true colors of Salis
bury love, peace and prosperity—tossed
them to us with the spirit of a laughing girl
making overtures to a strong, stalwart and
gallant lad.
^ Permit me, sir, in behalf of the Farmers’
Union, whose delegates are assembled before
you, to thank you from the depths of my heart
for your gracious welcome and for your ex
pressions of kindness. Permit me in the
name of the gallant lad to take you by the
hand and, if it is good to you, imprint a kiss
upon your royal brow and thus forever seal
the covenant of the eternal principle of the
brotherhood of man and assure you, and all
others like you, that we are not here or else
where to do you harm. Recognizing our right
to exist, and that from the nature of our busi
ness we are entitled to and do receive the re
spect of the world, we have met here in this
beautiful metropolis as you have recently done
in your State association in another city, and
as all other worthy interests and enterprises
have been and are doing.to deliberate for our
mutual uplift and improvement, and this
embraces the highest degree of self-protection.
In some respects your business and that, ot
the farmer are alike; you have goods and
wares to sell. If the farmer has nothing to
sell he is a back number- The chief differ
ence is that you go upon the great piarkets of
the world and buy your wares and chatties,
while we go out upon the face of mother earth
under the kind protection of the Father of
the Universe in sending the sunshine and
showers to produce ours. You accumulate a
fortune and produce nothing, we produce a
fortune and accumulate nothing.
But your usefulness to the community does
not end with what may appear to be a selfish
desire to accumulate the shekels-^ypu are the
great distributors of the world’s pfo^fucts-botn
of the farm and the manufacturers. The
Farmers’ Union as an organization, not only
has nothing against you but could ill afford to
do without you. Our interests may at times
run counter, and then the world will excuse
us for taking care of our own.
It is a part of the policy of the Farmers’
Union to engage in the business of merchan
dising; and yet in some communities where
the farmers have a grievance against their
^ TO AGENTS IN THE FIELD. 4*
^ J
4* We had intended to publish this week
^ the Honor Roll for the past month,
4 giving the names of all persons who ^
4* had been at work for the paper, but 4*
4^ on account of the rush of work, inci 4>
4^ dent to putting on so many new names, 4
^ we have been unable to complete the list 4‘
^ of those whose names are entitled to 4*
4 appear on the Honor Roll. 4>
4 The Special 25 cent Offer has been 4
a success,- and before we close up on
this special offer, we desire to put forth 4
every effort to get all who want to
come with us, and now that only two
more week’s remain in which to boost 4*
the paper at the Special Offer of 25
4 cents, we desire to make the last call 4
on all friends of the paper to get busy, ^
4 il you have not yet secured a sub-
^ scriber, only make an effort and you
will succeed. ^
^ The Special Offer closes August 19th.
4 4
^ Address
4 CAROLINA UNION FARMER 4
Gastonia, N. C.
4 4
local merchants they do establish and success
fully^operate a store. Let them alone; we
cannot control this, neither can you. They
are within their rights. I dare say that the
finest farms around this city are owned and
operated by men not calling themselves farm
ers, but by lawyers, merchants, bankers and
the like (it is true of my section, and they arc
7“
doing the best farming because they take their
business methods into their farming opera
tions), and no farmer thinks of complaining
one thing we may do that will increase our in
terest in and respect for each other. It is this:
Practice a spirit of reciprocity—not of the
Taft-Canadian-party splitting variety, which
is being, signed up today to the detriment of
the farmer, but the reciprocity of “Live and
Let Live.”
There are some things which you as individ
uals through your organization may and can
help us to accomplish and I know that my
brethren will excuse me for, and stand by me
in, making an appeal to you: We realize that
it is a long way between the producer and the
consumer. The road to Jerico is beset with
many pilferers—they “strip us of our rai
ment, wound Us and leave us half dead”
the profits which these middle men take and
which they must have if they operate, enter
largely into the problem and add materially
to the high cost of living. We ask you to help
us to eliminate the needles of them and that
you adopt such business methods, wherever
practical, as will put you in as close touch with
the producer as with the consumer. Only re
cently a friendly manufacturer showed to me
how that he places his entire output into the
hands of a broker; the broker without, in this
case, the intervention of the wholesaler sold
directly to the retailer, and gobbled up the
lion’s share of the profits, selling at fifty per
cent advance, while the retailer sold at thirty-
three and one-third, thus making a round one
hundred per cent the consumer paid above the
factory price. This is a small article retailing
at ten cents, but serves as a fair illustration
of the trend of business, except that some lines
of merchandise employ a whole army of the
best talent in the cduntry to ply between the
broker, wholesaler and retailer and the ulti
mate consumer pays the bill-
You may help us to discourage the credit
and mortgage system which for forty years
has been the bane of the Southern farmer. We
are making some advancement in this direct
ion but could much -sooner eradicate it alto
gether with your assistance. It is one of the
base principles of the Farmers’ Union to get
out of debt and stay out of debt. Help us to
instill this principle for the good of humanity.
Men I know who are so completely under the
domination of this direful system that they
buy on credit everything that comes into the
household or upon the farm from the wife’s