The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-11-28
THE AGRICULTURAL INTER.
EST
Necessity Of Cooperation
Extract from Com. Maptry's address At ".
Loalfs Err 0cLober 9M. 1872.



general government that degree OF con
sideration and such legislative encourage
ment for agriculture as il requires and F
deserve, its Importance when cotrasted /
with the other great interests OF the eoun- 4
try such rs commerce and navigation, /
railroading, mining, and manufacturing, /
IS, 20 say the least, quite equal to theirs; |
then why should it not receive as much I
consideration from the law-givers?
II is admitted by ali, for 1t Is practically /
demonstrated, that the railroad men, the |
merchants. the miners and the man
ufacturers have far more influence and |
power in Washington and with the State /
Legislatures, than your honest farmer and
industrious mechanic have.
How is this
Let us ascertain, and then / think YOU
vii agree with me, that if they have
more influence and power with the gov
erment than you have, it is yourselves and
not they, that are TO blame; for if you
choose to let your interests 60 by default,
while they pull together and follow theirs
up; YOU have no cause Of complaint.
Their association call men together and
yours disperse them. They assemble in
cities and villages, and congregate for work
IN arge numbers They have daily and
hourly access 10 the postoffice, the tele-
graph and the Newspaper press, and hold
constant communication by sight and cor
respondence with their fellows everywhere.
You, on the other hand, are scattered all
over the country, are all day at work IN
your own fields, and sometimes see whole
weeks pass by without q word Of converse
with a single soul, save thos Of your own
household This inciines 50 many far
mcrs TO cold fogyism' makes you ayerse
to puvl together, and 10th to hold meetings
TO discuss the interests of agriculture, and
then to combine for the purpose of pro-
curing the necessary legislation. They,
on the contrary, have their guilds, their
boards, their exchanges, societies and as
sOciations, IN which they meet daily, and
in the large cities nightly. One manu-
factuTeror miner may have in his employ
ment Il thousand hands, and one railroad
king, Sc ten thousand men And so they
combine and bring pressue upon Legisla-
tuAs and governors, while you,l true
laborers,P IRE quietly at home, happy to
see ''the ewes Craze and their lambs suck.
On my way to-your city last week, !
read how the piow-makers had held a
meetingsjn a neighboring State, and re-
solved to increase the price Of plows five
per cent. and YOU have got to pay it.
Did you ever hear OF the farmers resOlv-
iny 90 raise the price Of their produce any
per cent? But if the ylow-maker5 can do
1T, why not the farmers The answer is
simply because the plow-ma1ers know the
supply and understand the demand for
while YOU know nothing about the one or
the other, for yours. The plan of crop
statistics proposed viii give you this
knowledge.
Now, | want to persuade you-and by
'W0u,' ] aphostrophise ali those who,
taken together, represent the rural intrests
of the whole country want to persuade
you to ID more alive to your common
welfare; to turn over a new leaf and see
that hereafter agriculture suffers no wrong
through lack OF cooperation and concert
among farmers, OF through want Of advo-
in high places. In psrsuadiag l hope to
cO8UjHce.
1t is stated by those who have studied
the subject more closely than [ have,
that the least Of those other interests to
which | have alluded as 50 apt iii combi-
nation, exercises three times the inhu-
euce in the country, and thrice the con-
troll with the government that you do.
That, | take it. is because of their SUI
pcrior tact at combination, and not be-
cause Of any advantage that they have
over YOU either in wealth, numbers or in
teligence.
According to official statements, state
ments not generally very accurate, / adj
nit but sufficiently so in this instance,
TO give an idea of your wealth-your
crops last year amounted in round num-
beers 50, SOC, 600, 900; that is the annual
produce Of your labor, and it is increas-
ing. What, compared to this, is the
produce OF the mines, the gains of com
merce, or the earnings Of railroads?
According to the last census, there are
said to be l., 800, 600 "bread earners" in
Of the 80, 900, 900 of people who inhabit
the country. Thus every one who is not
a drOne has, on the average, to earn
bread for three mouths. Is Il
Following up these statistics, it APP
pears that these several industries sub
sist respectively: The agricultural and
mechanical, %, $50, 900 souls the com
mercial 2, 326, 600 souls; the manufac-
turing, LILY. 900 the mining, 472, 900
the railroad and expressmen, go, 000
Therefore you beat in commercial
strength these several industries that are
SO much more compact in the organiza-
ton and powerful with legislatures than
you and some ten, and some twenty, and
some fifty times and all combined five
TO one.
Hitherto your combinations have ex-
tended only to the forming of State and
county societies, and the influencing Of
State Legislatures Theirs are general,
they impress Congress.
Follow their example, and foster the
great National Agricultural Congress
that had its birth in this city on the 9th
day Of May, last.
GROUND PEAs.-An old farmerss ex-