The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1886-02-19
Farmers Should Organize.

u
true purposes for which Farmers clubs should
be organized. Those who have read the TINES
for six or seven years past know that one of
our great aims has been to advance the inter-
ests of the agricultural class Of our citizens,
and we have always advocated the organization
Of Farmers township and county clubs. A., The
present boom for such organizations is no new
idea; it only differs from former efforts to unite
the Farmers in clubs, in this State, in the poiti
cal element now attempted to be infused into
them, and which we believe will prove disas-
trous to the permanency of the clubs, from it's
inevitable discordant tendencies.
What the Farmers of Union now imperetively
need is relief from their incubus Of debt, which
is destroying their energies, corrupting their
integrity and transferring their property to
other hands. 1t cannot be denied that year by
year they are getting deeper in debt and more
absolutely dependent upon the merchants and
capitalists for supplies aud means to make the
single product, cotton, which, under the pres
ent credit system, costs every cent it brings to
raise and place it upon the market, leaving
neither money nor anything else for making
another crop. At the present low prices of
cotton, two-thirds Of the Farmers cannot "pay
OUT and their credit is seriously injured and
the prices of supplies obtained on credit greatly
increased to cover the risk of falling behind
the pext year. In this way our Farmers have
been going backwards ever since the lien credit
and all cotton system of farming was adopted,
and we are not Mt oil surprised at the cry of
what shall we do to save ourselves being now
raised, with cotton at 8 cents.
Politics in the Farmers Clubs may elect q
few farmers-or those who will promise any or
everything to benefit farmers-to Office, but it
will leave the mass of farmers in the depressed
financial condition that they are in at present.
What tho farmers want is q system of farming
that will enable them to own the crops they
make, so that they could sell when the market
will give them profit, and buy where they can
get supplies tue cheapest.
Under the present system our farmers pay
tribute to the western farmers, pork factors,
spectators, the railroads and the home
merchants, for almost everything consumed on
tho farm. And these tributes are often paid
out of cotton which they sell for less than it
cost to make it.
There must be concert of action and concert
of help among farmers themselves, not in oppo-
sition to any other class, but for their own pro-
lection, before they can possibly obtain any re-
lief Even now there are numbers of well.to-
do beforehand farmers in this county, who club
together and get their fertilizers and other sup
plies in large quantities at the lowest wholesale
prices, even on time. These men are making
farming profitable. Such men should be in the
township or county organizations and assist
their poorer neighbors to obtain supplies upon
the same terms, by allowing the use Of their
names as additional security when supplies are
ordered through clubs. general lien upon
the crops, would insure them against loss, and
they would thereby help struggling neighbors
out of their difficulties.
Again, politics will prove q very slow and
doubtful remedy in the present emergency.
few dollars reduction in taxes, would help, we
confess, and we think the reduction could and
should be made but the relief from that quar-
tpr, even if it was so per cent, would only be
about 81 yenr upon q one-horse farm. This
would help little, it is true, but compared
with the difference between the prices Of home
raised bacon, corn, -four, oats, hay, &c. and
those paid for at lien prices, it would not be
much more than q shadow of the substance.
Yes, we repeat it, the farmers should do as
those of all other industries are and have been
doing, organize for their own relief and pro-
lection. We can assure them, if they don't
extricate themselves from their present difficult
ties, no one else-not even political Moses
can or will do it for them. The relief they so
much need must come from themselves, and
that mainly by united action and organized
energies. They must stand shoulder to shoul-
der in supporting the interests of their calling;
united determination to raise full provision
crop, with one-half cotton crop, would do
more in one year to relieve the Farmers of this
County than any political combination could
possibly accomplish in ten years. In fact, we
do not see wherein politics can give help, ex-
cept in q sligh: reduction Of taxes.
Let us think how different the condition of
our Farmers would be to-day, if they had
supply of corn in their cribs, bacon and lour
in their storehouses and hay in their lofts, and
not even bale Of cotton on hand.
To our mind il is as clear as the MONDAY sun
that the Farmers can never be prosperous and
independent, so long as they depend upon the
merchants to provide them their supplies and
have to pay for those supplies with cotton that
costs hem about 81 bale more than they get
for it.
- . -
Death Of Mrs. T. L. Thorpe.