Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-07-11
WEST TENNESSEE FARMERS
Called to Meet at Jackson on the
18th of August for Organization.
The Strong Necessity for Imme-
diate Action on Their Part In
order TO Keep Abreast
of the Times.


Fellow Farmers Of West Tennessee:
At a meeting of the farmers in
jackson, on the 4th inst, TO organize
Farmers Association for West Ten
nessee similar to the Farmers Asso-
Citations already organized and success
fully operating in East and Middle
Tennessee, the following resolutions
were passed:
Resolved, That this meeting appoint
a committee Of FIVE to issue an address
to the farmers of West Tennessee,
calling them In Convention at Jackson
on the 10th day Of August next, for
the purpose of organizing farmers
association for West Tennessee. That
this committee also prepare a plan OF
organization for said Association and
present the same to the general con-
vention. That the committee be fur
Their empowered to appoint sub COM
mittees TO arrange for and provide
barbecue dinner for the occasion, and
this committee be further empowered
TO take any action necessary 10 carry
out the above plan. The report was
unanimously adopted with the follow.
ing amendment.
Resolved, That the committee re-
commend and request the farmers in
each civil district of each county in
West Tennessee to meet and form
farmers clubs before the day fixed for
the meeting Of the convention, and
see that their sections are represented
in the convention.
The following named gentlemen
were appointed as a committee to carry
out the plans embraced in the resolu-
tons adopted above: Captain A. d
Hurt, M. V. B. Exum, William
Anderson, Robert French and w. G.
McUaslin.
We ask and urge your co operation,
one and all, in the wise and necessary
movement set forth in the resolutions
quoted above.
This is an age of progress, Of combs
nations in special interests, of earnest
and far reaching policies. The inter
est that fails to appreciate the spirit
of the times must suffer the conse
quences of inaction. Of all the inter.
ests Of this country, especially Of West
Tennessee, that of agriculture in its
various branches is the overshadowing
one. And yet other pursuits, through
the agency of organization and intelh
gent manipulation, are outstripping
that of primary production, upon
which all true prosperity and progress
rests. This is an alarming fact and is
exercising the deepest thought and
the profoundest anxiety of political
and social economists. The threatened
evil is over development in adjunctive
or secondary lines of industrial life, a
development that is breeding commu-
nism, unsettling society and fostering
agrarianism by exaggerated growth
under the dollhouse policy Of sumptu-
airy legislation. The remedy against
threatened peril lies in the elevation
and development of the agricultural
interest. Agriculture is the basis
of all national and social health and
prosperity. Farmers the world over
are the conservative force
in politics-the power that
holds fastest to established orders
But in an age like this-an age in
which single year counts more than
centuries did in distant tlmes-the
agricultural interest must move in its
own behalf, or unfathomed evils will
result to society and government.
We therefore urge you to meet with
US in jackson the 18th Of August, for
the purpose Of organization and co.
operation. Let US organize for the
elevation and promotion of our noble
calling. Let US combine to make our
industry as powerful In fact IS 1t is
10 theory. Let US stand together in
demanding and shaping legislation for
our own, and the general good.
By organization, frequent discus
sions, the comparing OF theories and
experience, the watching OF our inter.
ests through committees, the power
that combination gives in commerce,
the mighty influence of intelligent
care, study and aetien, we would De
that power for good We should and
can be.
1t is a source of especial pride that
our great interest is so essential to all
others that everything done to ad
vance it advances all others. Hence
in this special effort in our own be
half, we feel that we are serving the
general good.
We again appeal to the farmers of
West Tennessee to assemble in con
VeDtion in Jackson the 10Th Of Au-
gust peKt, that organization and CO.
operation may bs effected.