The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-05-31
A FEW RAMBLING THOUGHTS
ON COOPERATION AND THE
"TRANSACTINGO OF OUR OWN


| On CUT 11ON AND
"TRANSACTING OF OUR OWN
BUSINESS"
/ Brother ZHomas:-I feel very much
like writing a confidential statement to
the farmers of our country. / might state
some stale truths, or something that has
been stated over and over again. But
such is their importance that | think they
cannot be stated too often. The reason
would make them confidential" it looks
| like acknowledging our weakness to out
siders. We, who should be so strong, the
merely stating that such is the condition
of things, and that there is such great
need for united action on the part OF our
agricultural classes-a need OF supporting
Strengthening our cooperative schemes
and agencies.
THE NECESSITY OF COOPERATION
at the present time is apparent, and its
benefits certainly self-evident to every one.
Yet slack of confidencep which is in a
great measure necessary in cooperation,
seems to have taken possession of our PEG
ple They do trust, but it is the very ones
whom they should not Those of their
own household they refuse to trust, but
give themselves away to strangers. Is
not this so, fellow farmers and fellow Pa
irons? 1t is true that we should care for
the stranger that cometh within our gates,
but should we by smooth tongue allow
| him to carry off our substance and hard
earned savings?
| They co-operate-these strangers.
''They all do it" Even the tramp has his
mark on your gate-post, we are told, to
guide his fellow traveller on his way; while
we sons of the soil oftimes do begrudge
the assistance we give to our fellow, and
envy the possession of information or
wealth he may have obtained.
So accustomed have we been in the
past to be guided, or have other people do
our business for us, that we hug the vain
de!usion that we are "doing our own bus
mess" making our own sales and purchas-
es, when, in reality we have little more
to do with it than the holman has with
the architecture of the building, who inn
AGNES that the oman above does all the
work" Truly, we are hewers of wood
and bearers of water.
TALK ABOUT AMERICAN FREEMEN.
1t is query whether, were it not for
our votes and earnings, which draw to-
ward us the attention of politicians and
middlemen, we would be the most de-
pendent class upon the face of the earth,
getting less for our labor and opportuni-
ties than any other people The uncount-
ed millions of Asia have but few wants
in their crowded State and halftropical
country; the untamed African and South
Sea Islander are fed by the spontaneous
production that grow around their homes;
the European is cared for in a way that |
makes the 'cares of king" heavier than |
those of his subjects, while we dance at
tendance to rings of politicians who lead |
us to vote. After which we are turned
out to the tender mercies of specializing
rings and monopolies, who fix price
upon our products and upon our
supplies, leaving a wide margin be-
tween the two, between us and the real
market, upon which they grow rich, while
we are growing poorer every day. Are
not these facts? and yet you imagine that
WE DO OUR OWN BUSINESS.
We raise pork for the miner, the planter
and manufacturer. In word, for the
consumer. SO we harvest our grain and
grow our wool. Do we sell it to the con-
sumner? No! In steps class of men who
endeaver to distribute this for u.s. and they S
do it. Weight it up, name a price-the :
rings do. We accept; may be the price a
is doubled before it reaches the consumer. {
No matter. "We are transacting our own {
businessr' t
Now, we need some supplies of goods, t
etc. May be from our own wool or pork S
or grain. They are brought to us; price S
is named; they are measured and weighed
to us, and we imagine that eve are doing L
our own business" Yes, much the way
that the infant does when it fights its moth
er away, and soldering mess we make /
of it. In the present system of trade do
we not often waste more than we saver y
And waste brings want
The road our produce travels, in going 4
to the consumer is not often long. The
return of supplies is not from far coun-
try, yet that road is magnificent
highway. Along its we'll trodden,
and well-protected course, we find
costly palaces of trade, fine residences
and well-ordered establishments. 1t takes 3
40 learned sage or deep expounder of To-
;al and political economy to inform us at
he expense of whose toll these ways were
or structures built.
May be at times these kind guardians,
who distributed our produce, place the {
price so low, and the price of supplies so
nigh that the receipts for one will not pur-
chase what we need of the other; then
comes debt, a note in bank (banks handle
Ill surplus money now days, mortgage,
the veil be drawn as the family
gathers around the fireside for the last time
and when we again look, the banker I
las gathered in his own, and his family
where are they?
1t is not my intention to go further in
his direction, only as such circumstances
Effect the political economy of our coun-
ry, although volumes might be written full 7
If happy homes and buried hopes, bright
prospects and blighted lives. 1t is but =
ours to ask, should these things be? &C
lnowledging, as all must, that neither So
:iety nor "trads" is benefited by the above
hahge of proprietors; and this is no fancy, e
n exceptional picture. One by one, in fiji
e IL L l..