Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / Jan. 11, 1912, edition 1 / Page 4
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■4 ,■ ^ ' ■f f f , K* ^; ii; t i .• ! ! - i 'T* ■* r I I ? i ■ » « V » •- ^ j'f.: * ' 1 '. ♦ ' ; if '■ i ' i. •‘VI' • 1"^ .! tx P ' ti ..If'" Is? !i ■ ■ ■ ji.1' % THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER Thursday, January ii, 19^^- The Carolina Union Farmer PublUhed tvery Thurtday BY THE UNION fARMtR PUBLISHING COMPANY Official Organ of The North Carolina Farmers’ Union Subscription Price: $ 1 .OO a Year All subscriptions arc payable in advance, and the paper will be discontinued when the time expires, unless renewed. The date on the tug which t.cars the name of the subscriber indicate# the time to which the subscription has been paid. J. Z. Green, Marshvjlle, N. C., Editor. C. E. Clark, Charlotte, N. C., Agricultural Dept. Mrs. E. D. Nall, Sandford, N. C., Home Dept. C. A. Eury, General Manager. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES JOHN D. ROSS, 812 Hartford Building, Chicago L. E. WHITE, Tribune Buiiding, New York Butered os second cla.ss matter, August 17, IDll.nt the post office at Gastonia, North Carolina, under the act ot March 3,1«79. Gastonia, Ncrth Carolina, January 11, 1912 EDITORIAL COMMENT OCAL FARMERS’ UNION co-opera- they go, but they are powerless to tive enterprises are good as far as achieve any better results in selling W and buying than can be achieved by the in dependent local firm or local corporation. This is an age of ‘big business” and it takes con centrated and combined capital to win. Limit ed capital invested in separate local enter prises and managed as local enterprises, inde pendently of each other, can never hope to touch the problem of economic distribution in buying and selling in such manner as to give any better results than scattered capital and independent local concerns are now giving to the public. ❖ ❖ ❖ HEN THE State officials of the Farm ers’ Union, under recommendation and endorsement of the recent State meet ing of the Farmers’ Union at Wilson, began the consideration of definite and tan gible plans to organize a great farmers’ ware house company in North Carolina, it marked the beginning of a constructive period in the history of the Farmers’ Union in this State, if the membership grasp the full import and meaning of this business movement, and line up behind it with their subscriptions for stock in the State warehouse company. This is, by far, the most important matter that has ever been presented to the membership—in fact, it is the first time in the history of the organ ization in North Carolina that any real con structive business proposition has ever been presented under the auspices of the State or ganization as a whole. ❖ 4* ❖ URING the formative period of the Farmers’ Union in most of the States the services of a State business agent is secured as a temporary expediency to meet a demand for business “through Union channels,” during the sentimental stage of the organization, and while some State business agents have, with no financial rating or backing, succeeded in securing some direct benefits for members in some localities, and indirect benefits to the membership as a whole, the attempt to do business largely, upon senti ment and without capital, must at best, be a temporary expediency tliat becomes less fruit D ful of results as the organization grows older and its members view things more from a practical business standpoint. V V E HAVE reached the period of history with the organization in this State when we must combine our capital in a big corporation if we get in position to do business as other big corporations do business, and give to the membership through our own trade channel the benefits of the economies made possible in no other way ex cept through big business. Nothing short of this will prevent the tremedous re-action and falling off of membership that has come to other State Unions because they tried to live on sentiment too long without putting them selves, their capital and their patronage into a big co-operative business corporation under efficient management and business leadership. 4* 4* ❖ A CHARTER will be procured for the Farmers’ Union Warehouse Company of North Carolina as soon as a loca tion is decided upon for the principal warehouse and office and other details are worked out, after which stock will be solicited from members of each Local Union in the State. The company will not begin business until not less than $25,000 stock has been paid in. With forty thousand organized farmers’ behind the proposition as prospective stock holders and patrons there is no reason why the Farmers’ Union of North Carolina can’t make a big co-operative business corporation a splendid success, with the right kind of man agement and business leadership put in con trol. 4* 4* 4» E 'T IS ALMOST time for congressmen to begin their annual distribution of that expensive graft known as “free seeds.” This graft is expensive in two ways. If we take into calculation what it costs the postoffice department to circulate the seeds, free of postage, and the actual cost of the seeds, the bill which the taxpayers foot up for this cheap and insulting method of campaigning amounts to about a half million dollars each year, and in face of the fact that all agricultural papers and farmers’ organiza tions have for years condemned this “free seed” graft, it is still persisted in. An intel ligent farmer, who is on to his job and knows well his business, would be the laughing stock of his neighbors if he should plant those cheap seed, gathered from promiscuous sources, in his garden or on his farm. If you want to stop this cheap bid for your votes, at your own expense, and raise the dignity of your occu pation, get the members of your Local Union to join you in sending the “congressional j garden seeds” back to the congressman who | sent them, each member writing him a card ' asking him to send them to his friends (the express companies) and requesting him to give us the parcels post—something that we can use to advantage in our business. A mild and gentle hint of this kind will make a lasting impression and might possibly be productive of good results. I N LAST issue of The Carolina Union Farmer a correspondent from a hve Local Union said: “We are showing our determination to press forward by paying up our dues for 1912 and renewing our subscriptions to The Carolina Union Farmer,” and in closing the same writer says* “We all feel that the crisis is past and that brighter days are in the near future for Farmers’ Union.” That Local Union is sev eral years old and its members have been regular readers of The Carolina. Union Fari^ er. We venture the assertion that you can find a delinquent Local Union in the State whose members have been regular readers of this paper. There are hundreds of Local Unions that have few or no readers of The Carolina Union Farmer in thenr and every of them will die unless they educate them selves by reading Union literature. 'We are now arranging to launch out into constructive business development that will be limited and hindered only by the refusal of members to keep posted as to its plans, purposes and gress, and these things will be discussed week after week in the columns of this paper- Here’s a personal appeal to you as a reader- Go after your members at your next meetm& and take their subscriptions yourself and se them in to The Carolina Union Farmer, Uas tonia, N. C., and start this year like men who want to learn something and do sonietJnM" The time has come for important action an the members must know zvhy they act arid ho>- to act. ^ ^ HE indifference of some members 0^ Farmers’ Union is appa Joining this great organization wn lling- hich is educational first, they have never themselves of the opportunity to study great possibilities of co-operation and fbeX know nothing about the Farmers’ Union cept what has been told them by the orig* local organizer in an hour’s talk, and occasion ally they criticise the officials for not sendia^ a lecturer around at heavy expense to leara them no more, perhaps, than they coula around their own firesides in one night re ^ ing one issue of The Carolina Union Farm^ ^ No wonder they grow cold and need som ^ body “to stir them up.” A constant reader Farmers’ Union literature needs nobody “stir him up.” He knows what the about and he sticks to his job faithfully patiently. He and his kind could win the time if the other members would and inform themselves. This is plain talk) it ought to be said, for it strikes the l^^Y^ ^ of success in this cause. This last parag is not copyrighted and you are at read it in your Local Union if you think 1 stir ’em up. 4* 4* MSr IMPORTANT of all is ^ keting system for our tributing warehouses in every ^ town in this country, owned an M trolled by the sellers of farm products. your market places, where the purchaser seek the seller, and get off the streets aS dlers, selling in congested markets at chasers’ price. The Farmers Union In
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 11, 1912, edition 1
4
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