Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-06-06
Farmers ORGANIZATIONS.

deal sight of experience in organiz-
ing farmers. The old line of farm
ers' societies-the Grange, the ALI
ance and Institute Clubs-have all
come and gone up in the smoke of
ne like the burning down or the
Totting away of old buildings that
have disappeared and better struc-
lures have taken their places. So it
is with the Farmers Union. We
had vast amount of experience
in farmers organizations and know
that the union lie building mp struc-
cure upon better plan and upon q
firmer foundation than all the other
organizations that have gone before.
We have learned many valuable
lessons in our mistakes heretofore,
and about all these mistakes can be
turned into good for the union if we
manage rightly.
We want to impress upon the
minds of each and every member of
the Farmers Union that he is one
of the stones in the walls of the
castle that the farmers are building,
and that the whole structure can be
no better than the material of which
the union is composed. Let every
member ask of himself the one ques-
ton, If every member of our union
did just as l am doing what sort of
a union would we haveP
And then when all union men
have done this comparative lesson
let the unorganized farmer ask him
self this same question. Suppose all
farmers thought themselves too wise,
too good or too selfish to organize,
what would we have gotten for our
two last crops of cotton?
In reply to D. F. Wigin, president
of Lodge 274, Louisiana Union, and
all others who have recently called
upon our bureau for cheap plans of
cotton warehouses, that just 80 soon
as we can get in answers from in
quiries sent out that our union col
umn will publish in concentrated
form about all the information
needed on the warehouse matter.
All county unions should begin
now to inaugurate a regular Farmers
Union campaign in each county to
begin when farmers have laid by
crops. Let this campaign be one of
educating the farmer along the bust
ness side of his farming interest.
Chief among these subjects is that as
the farmer is the greatest producer
on earth, he is, of course, the biggest
seller on earth, and that he needs
clearing houses or warehouses to
concentrate his cotton and other i'm
perishable products in.
Before we 60 out into the mercan-
tile or the manufacturing business
we must first make good in our sell
ing business. Putting it plain, we
must manage our own farming bust
ness first, and when we have COM
pleted this great work of controlling
ourselves then we can begin to think
about controlling others.
Local Union, No. 112, of Leak
County (Miss.) Union, E. B. Sasbee,
~ ,,,. }retary, informs cur bureau that
many locals have recommended the
secret business bureau as set forth
by the National Committee.
Fifteen determined, resolute farm
ers in any local union lodge can
build good one-section cotton ware
house if they will come together
with the conviction that this thing
must be done for their mutual pro-
lection.
If the actual cash to pay for all
this warehouse cannot be raised by
the local lodge q the members
have the true cooperative spirit
among them that all union farmers
should have, there is nothing in the