Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1907-10-19
Organization of
the Farmers.
Continued from First Page.)

TtSuidUc Uic nldl hCJIuB. uc puCobiou
is not one Of holding products, but OF
selling them. The proposition as l
understand it, In that your products
shall be held only for the purpose Of
securing a fair price. In word the
farmers must make a seeking market
instead Of dumping their fine yalu-
able products, without system like in
the case of bankrupt stocks. Con-
sumption OF your products Is increas-
ing, thereby making now the accept
able time for putting your plan into
operation.
when prices are tending upward,
is the time TO act.
IF the farmers will organize. one
Of the first results will no doubt be
decreased production of grain crops.
AS in the case Of the organization of
laboring men, the result was shorter
hours. thereby decreased production.
So with farmers, profitable price
would not necesSitate so large a crop.
the tendency would be not to work so
hard and cut down the acreage. At
all events short crop at a profitable
price is always better than bumper
crop at losing price.
scientific farming tends to in
crease the crops but if you do not get
profitable prices, it is detriment.
Business men do not run their
factories to see how much they can
make without regard to prices re-
ceived.
"You are asked to conduct your
business as other business men con-
duct theirs at the present time. 1t
has been said that the Goth century
farmer is business man. 1t Is for
HIM to show it. 1t is for him to
Show that he can get what he goes
after. To say that he cannot do this
is to impeach his intelligence. The
people at large, who love fair play,
will support the movement when
they fully understand 1t.
Undoubtedly one great and pro-
babe unsurmo untahle obstacle that
has hitherto stood in the way Of any
effective and lasting organization Of
farmers, has been the isolation Of the
agricultural class. When towns were
few and scattered, means of commun-
ication meager. and when the nearest
neighbour was dozen miles away and
without any means of frequent COM
municaJion. the farmer could, in the
nature of things, know little of what
was going on in the world Lacking
knowledge of the lives Of others he
lacked sympathy. There was no
sense of relationship or interdepend-
ence. Men in the same county were
farther apart than are men now in
widely separated states Organization
implies some closeness Of touch. Men
must know something Of one another;
have common interests and also
realization of the fact that their in
terests are the same. The farmer, to
be sure. knew that there were mil
lions of others engaged in the same
occupation as his, but he never saw
them, knew nothing about them and
he could hardly help feeling that he
was lone skirmisher, not certain
whether lie would be supported by the
main body or not. He worked for
himself as others did for themsel YES,
and, as a consequence each was sub
jected to the severest competition
from the others. Isolation was the
bar to organization. But now al this
Is changed and henceforth the ten
dency will be strong in the direction
of combination. The rural mail de-
livery, the spread Of the telephone
into all the rural communities. the
inter urban trolly, good roads, the
wider deiusion of books and papers.
the growth Of cities and towns
throughout the rural region have all
served and will increasingly serve to
bring the farmers together. The
farmer can get to town every day
now, whereas % years ago he could
not or did not do so once week
or once month. He meets his
neighbors in societies and Institutes
where they discuss subjects of great
interest to all.
lie, too, feels the touch Of elbows on
each side him and knows that mill
lions of Others are fighting the same
battle tnat he has to fight and that
they can fight It best by com bining
forces. Rural America today is one
vast neighborhood with interests
common from ocean 10 ocean,"