The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-02
SUGGESTIONS FROM A COTTON
FARMER.

Nh. NDIIOh."1 SS0 Ii LIZ nv
GREssIvE FARMER of February 26th,
1889, a communication under the
heading, "Well Timed" that in my
Judgment has the right ring. In this
communication the writer, signing
himself Farmer" tells US that ait is
getting value received for what a
farmer sells that makes him prosper"
How true is this? And yet many
farmers appear to think that their
poverty is altogether owing to the
enormous prices they have to pay for
what they buy. This is a great mis-
take, and all farmers will find out,
sooner or later, that they never can
prosper until they get a better price
for their produce. And a better price
they never will get unless it is brought
about by the Farmers Alliance or
some kindred organization.
It is absurd for a man, .. e., afarmer,
to think of being anything else but a
slave, a newer of wood and drawer of
water SO long as we allow the mer-
chants to put their Owl prices upon
the goods they sell to us and then let
them price u cotton, tobacco, peas
and every farm product we carry to
them to pay for the goods we bought
at their price. Any man of common
sense can see how unjust that is and
see what is running every tiller of the
soil. 1t is just giving the merchants
the long end of the single-tree every
time; and of course having the ad-
vantage and two pulls at the farmer,
while the farmer has none at the mer-
chant, the result will be, if it has not
already come to pass, that the mer-
chant will o pull the farmer into a
mortgage; and then the next pull,
the merchant will pull away from the
farmer the last old COW, mule, horse
and pig and leave him as fiat as ahoun-
der. Our cotton buyers in our home
markets are ~fattening at the farmers
expense. They profess to be paying
the farmer the highest market price
for his cotton, but it is not so I had
an opportunity the last cotton season
to find out something on this line, and
[ do know that some buyers made
from $75 to 500 per day buying cot
ton and were only on the yard about
half their time. Just think of it, a
s~peculator in cotton makes more in
one-half of a day clear money than
that Woodworking farmer made all the
year. Brethren of the Alliance every
where, [ ask you in all the earnest
ness of my heart, does not this call
aloud for us to so arrange Jul matters
that we, as Alliance men, may have
a good man at one of the best cotton
markets in the land, to whom we may
ship our cotton and thereby obtain the
very highest price possible for the
cotton we toll so hard to make. I
am confident that by adopting this
plan we could pay the salary neces-
sary and realize from S. to $40 more
on the bale for our. Just let some
one that is posted on the number of
bales of cotton raised by Alliance men
in North Carolina make the ~calcula-
ton and see what an immense sum of
money would be saved in this way to
the farmers, even at the moderate
figure of SIS per bale. But some seem
to think that there is no way for the
farmer to manage but to carry his
cotton to the merchant, as he made a
mortgage to get supplies, &c. [ say
there is a way, and [ will take the
liberty to suggest a plan, and l hope
and believe that we have enough
moneyed members who feel interest
enough in their less fortunate brethren
to help them out of bondage, and
especially as it can be done without
running any risk whatever. Ny plan
is this, viz: Let every n who has
given a mortgage pick out his cotton
next fall, have it packed and baled,
and as soon as he gets out n or two
bales carry them to some brother
Alliance man or give him a lien on his
cotton for as much money as both are
sure his cotton will bring, and take
that money and carry it to your mer-
chant and tell him you have come to
pay that much OF your debt or mort
gage, and that you will bring the
UdInuOO JUSU . SUN "O JOU OoA, oAO
my word for it, merchants love the
sight of money too well not to take
it and give you credit or your mort
gage or account, as the case may be;
and If we will arrange to have some
one to whom we can ship our cotton;
the cotton deposited, as stated above,
may be shipped, and in a few days the
money for the same will be sent back;
the merchant was paid as much as the
cotton would have sold for here, and
now the brother Alliance man gets all
the money he advanced for his needy
brother, and there is SIS or Sc over to
be handed to that needy Alliance man,
enough to buy his family a barrel of
-four or so or IS lbs. of meat, and yet