Vol. VI.—No. 39.
RALEIGH. N. C.. OCTOBER 3, 1912.
One Dollar a Year.
^rugress of the Farmers' Union.
By George P. Bennett.
temh Halifax, N. C., Sep-
Qj, commemoratioa. of the
^iiization of the first Local Union.
* L President, Ladies and Gentle-
men
j -It is with great pleasure that
as today with a subject
as from the Atlantic to the
the'o^’ as deep as from Canada to
Ihe h Mexico. A subject that
Can orators of our country
clo justice to, The Progress of
Far
gath
fmers’ Union. Today we are
the together here to celebrate
Pni ^^^^^^^ation of the first Local
®cho^i took place at Symria
ten in Rains County, Texas,
,^^cars ago today.
^cnt^ was ripe for the enlist
arojy the agriculturalist in the
right would make effectual his
opp^ his privilege. Abuses and
upon him from every
conijj-^^ the industrial, political, and
So compass. He was asleep,
terup,^® his own vast power was con-
to was dumb when it came
the
spceg ^®*aent to express his griev
Pepet V® blind when it came to
tugp artifices and subter-
^8e ^hich held him fast in bond
Progj.^*^^ which firmly fettered the
chiijjj.^^ of himself, his wife, and his
he
j^^^ating touch into the future
» reaching forth a bony and
^^oing this unpromising
Presp'^i^^'^oa that we launched the
'ei
Disease can become
I^ept^, ® a community within
^as b hours after the first case
reported. Lightning il-
IfactiQ^ ^he entire firmament in the
part of a second,
the and the growth
•^hat . farmers’ Union is a recital
helijjj "wonderful swiftness and im-
hhofg J^^oe outdoes these meta-
'''as aian of God’s broad acres
Wa. ^^oani
ire has a reputation for mar-
'"as
^lai disadvantage with cap-
^Ustpjjj. ^iiochanical labor. He was
burning and the with-
lag under a burden. He
^hpg of commercial conflict.
If^f'on our gospel of organ
^apd . upon fallow ground. The
Gresham rubbed the
Wasf^f loyalty and of energy
Uiliit ^^oamic. An Aladdin army
'^^adiy nien, men who in their
n of purpose
*^ost fio ilenied, came into al-
^ikf
existence.
^ourd, the order has
overshadowing pro-
•ip- *8 sinoc, i4„ .
^agipg inauguration. I can
'“an- flop/"® eagerness with which
/^iept p fo the standards of the
ih foiuh would have wrested
g ^eis. Lord from Saracon
Of same flashing quick-
oaponse, that same tender
^^"^htiou^*^ same grlm-vlsaged
ouaracterlzed the purposes
in the first few stops of our organi
zation. We avoided the errors of
those who had gone before us. We
placed qualifications amidship so dis-
criminately as to minimize the num
ber of foes from within.
No farmer is too poor, too obscure,
to be a member of the Union. No
farmer is too rich, too pow’erful to
enlist himself in our campaign. But
poor and rich, high and low, promi
nent and obscure, frail and powerful,
the members are on a scrupulously
equal footing. Wealth and station
give an applicant no undue handicap
over him whose lines are cast in
humble places. Both must conform
to regulations and requirements.
Both must give unreservedly of faith
and zeal. Both must forswear con
nections and alliances that would
embarrass their duty to the Union or
that would antagonize their giviirg
freely of brain, intelligence, and con
science. The wealthy traitor oi
fraud is not screened or condoned
e
one moment longer than the pauper
who would sell his brethren for the
Scriptural thirty pieces of silver. No
man, however farspreading and per
suasive his influence, can betray the
Union more than once.
I have realized, ever since my first
connection with this work, that if il
was to succeed with permanence, it
must appeal to and chime .with the
statutes, both of God and man. The
temporary success that might easily
have been built up on intimidation
and violence would have wrought sure
and blasting destruction in the last
analysis. Our paths have been those
of peace, though an armed and an in
telligent peace. They will continue
to be framed In logic and serenity.
Shortsighted critics have charged
with ridicule that we have not ac
complished that which we set out to
achieve. The indictment is qualified-
ly true. It would be unnatural were
it not. It took the English people
some hundreds of years to get to
Magna Charta. Centuries of king
craft, atrocity and justice parodied
were required to light the powder
train for the French Revolution.
The pioneers of America withstood
the most exhausting and exasperat
ing tyranny from the Mother Country
for more than one hundred years be
fore they gathered the resolve and
the courage to battle for independ
ence. Even now they have gone but
a short distance along the road to
their ideal destiny. No intelligent
man believes that the standards in
the minds of our forefathers have
been even remotely materialized in
their State and Federal governments.
Since then that progress which is
revolutionary and mighty in its
sweep, is torturously slow, the un
biased observer can only experience
amazement unqualified at the steps
we have attained toward our ulti
mate goal. We have clashed witti
those most stubborn foes of construc
tion and reform-prejudice, ignorance,
intolerance—within and without the
walls of the Farmers’ Union. We
have sustained their determined as
saults not for just one moment, one
hour, one day, or one year. But we
have met them, firce, determined,
and resourceful every waking and
sleeping second since our organiza
tion. Thousands upon thousands of
the most cunning, crafty, and plaus
ible people in this country have seen
their easy prosperity threatened by
the onward sweep of this order. They
have opposed it openly and covertly
before legislatures, at our conven
tions, before Congress, in the very
secret executive sessions of our local
meetings. They have opposed it with
w’ile, bribe, with the effusiveness of
alleged friendship and the bulldog
tenacity of outright animosity. They
have been ready, if 1 may be allowed
an extreme phrase, almost to mort
gage their souls to perdition, if there
by they might strangle our purposes
before they have gained strength to
stand on their own support.
'1 hat these desperate and syste
matic attempts have failed is due to
the vigilance, purity, and incorrupt
ibility of the men who have been as
sociated with the move. I will ac
knowledge that the fight has been a
hard one.
I maintain that the need for this
organization is today more compell
ing, more obvious and wider spread
than ever in its history. I maintain
that for the old foes w'e have con
quered, a dozen new ones have
sprung up, more vigorous, more alert
more determined, and with larger
empire for their efforts than in the
worst of the old days. I maintain
that we have but merely fired the
opening gun; that the mightiest, the
most decisive, and the most destruct
ive battles are yet to be waged. 1
maintain that the salvation, financial,
moral, and industrial of the farmer
of this country is indissolubly bound
up with the fate of the Farmers-
Union. I maintain that the lessen
ing of our energy, a decrease in our
ranks, the depleting of our resolute
concentration, open the gap to a score
of corporate, political, and industrial
enemies, with the hunger and blood-
lust of the ravening wolf. I main
tain that, at bottom, the best and
most substantial of this country are
warm in their sympathy with us, but
that we must justify their faith, and
reward their support with steadfast
ness and fidelity to them and to
ourselves.
The men, the women, and the chil
dren for whose welfare today and to
morrow the infinite travail of this la
bor has been undertaken, are the
clothiers, the feeders, the last hope of
the American nation. Upon their
cleanliness of motive and quickness
of mind, their loftiness of soul.
hinges the dimensions of our destiny.
Their degradation means the failure
of America, the failure to realize to
the uttermost those sublime princi
ples that make this country the haven
for the desolate and the oppressed of
all lands at all times. From their
roughness, their rude power, their
genius for undaunted endurance,
comes the strength of those over
whelming impulsfes that set America
as upon a mountain top in civiliza
tion.
The Farmers’ Union is unquestion
ably the most fertile and promising
field in the country for the politician.
The farmers are the most fatally con
fiding customers in creation. Also
we have never quite recovered from
that verdant trait that causes a few
of us to buy gold bricks or to blow
out the gas. The farmer, above all
men, loves a glib tongue, a hearty
handclasp, and a solicitous inquiry
about the health of himself, Maria,
and the boys. ^You have seen the
vote-grabber who makes it his busi
ness to know the name ow every man,
woman, child, and their twenty-third
cousin in his district. When he
meets one of them ho has at the tip
of his tongue some little pertinent
question regarding their personal af
fairs. He looks into the eyes of his
victim with that nioisty gaze and that
sunny smile that would ripen peaches
at the North Pole. And you can bet
your last red cent that Bill or .Tohn
or Henry is that man’s friend and
supporter to the end of his natural
days.
If these comparatively harmless
methods are effective in every day
politics, just imagine them applied
with multiplied force to dealings with
our members. The- politician with
any right to that title, realizes the
numerical strength of the Union in
every State and locality. He knows
quite well that its vote may hold the
balance of power in a close election.
Therefore, it is up to him to cultivate
the Farmers’ Union. He does it.
A candidate for office may not
know more than one or two men in
a given district, and what I have said
and am saying applies to farmers
generally, as well as to members of
our order. If this gentlemen in
search of a job knows that there is
to be a gathering of any number of
farmers in any given cross-roads
store or town or viliage, he makes it
his business to be “Johnny-on-the-
spot.” He has never tried to make
the acquaintance of the honest, pro
ductive, quiet, and matter-of-fact men
in the community. His purpose has
been accomplished when he knows
the weakness and the susceptibilities
of the men sharp enough and flan
nel-mouthed enough to lead their
neighbors around by the nose. So he
confers with his keen-witted and
obliging friends just before the meet
ing is called to order, e finds out
not the good, the progressive, or the
higliest hopes and ambitions of those
(Continued on page 3.)
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