The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-01
What 7He FaYmeYs' Union
 Seeks 10 AccOmbHsh
BY WALTER HARPER.

More than 5000 of the organized farm CTS of Alabama are represented in Bir- mingham at the annual convention of the Alabama Educational and Co-Operative union.
 Birmingham has had the honor of enter taining some of the largest organizations in the country, but it is not often that it has the honor of having within it's gates so important gathering. A little more than a year ago Birmingham had tue annual convention of the Southern Cot ton Growers association, but that is not an exclusive organization, since it num- bers in it's affiliations men who not only produce cotton but those who handle it in any way, banker, broker and manu- facturer.
 The Farmers union represents the real | essence of the brawn and sinew of the farm itself and has a regularly organized
 membership.
 They are here from every section of the state and represent every degree of agricultural progress; from the rocky
 slopes of Cullman and Winston to the all luvial plains of Baldwin; from the moon shine scented woodlands of Randolph and
 Cherokee to the Samatra wrapper perfum- ed tobacco fields of Perry and Sumter.
 Every type of farmer is also represented from the one-ox renter of DeKalb to the vegetable king of the gulf border with
 his battery of automobiles; from the hill- billy with his ingrowing mortgage to 1 the parlor agrlculturalist with his theo- letical wen. But God bless them all = they are the salt of the earth and the savior thereof.
 1 One honest farmer is worth a dump cart load of other men and they are ait lonest--as honest as the average profess
 sion affords. What if he does put the
 largest apples and potatoes on top of l the barrel?
 l He is only trying to offset the practice 1 ofthe man from whom he buys his sup Lilies, and then-the big apples look nicer. 1 But within the farmers corduroy bosom there beats a heart of generous propor- tons that would burst with universal com- passion were 1t not reinforced by corns
 worn by hard experience. Beneath thls shock of sorrel and hayseed that bounds the northern extremity of his face there ,eposes a brain of supra-fneness from whose fountain of wisdom and sober judgment flows the most powerful in telligence of the world.
 The presidents of nations, masters of finance and trade, stars of literary and artistic genius spring from fathers who till the soil and mothers who engineer the operations of the churn and preserve inc apple butter. One generation from the farm the species becomes extinct and the world of endeavor has to return to the original source of supply for men to direct it's affairs
 If the farmer did not fulfill his Mas ter,s share in the worlds economy Tn sup rlying its food fuel he would still serve tho Master nobly and divinely in sup n,v;ne the world with its best men ana women. , u
 >I,,,a+v-nine her cent of men in all ,,ros os usefulness date their career rom tbo stubbing of toe in the COW pasture
 ar a first trip on load or nay 'o s''o
 nearest railroad station. Our dearest
 raool,ections cluster about heWn uouoie ,oe house and sun-kissed meaoo"s in
 .The Childhood Home Down on the
 Farm
 Many previous attempts at organiza- t,on and cooperation have been attempt ed bv the farmers of the south, but all have failed so far for various reasons. The last attempt was in the Farmers
 Alliance. which turned to politics Tor re- forms that the farmer felt that he need cd in the national and state governments. The two old parties saw the formidable ness of the organization, and, like big, oyerbearing school boys, came to the ut- He brother and talked him out of his l apple, promising to bring him another finer one next morning. The old parties | adopted the young party's principles on | promise, laughed the populists out or | the field and then left him to work out | his salvation again, rendering promised | reforms with back-action effects.
 No one denies that the fundamental | principles of the populist party were | good and wholesome. The farmers of the l country were being neglected in the coun- l cs of the country, and they made | try for their rights Going into politics l proved fatal to the organization but it | has put the old parties on notice that 1 there is Sampson in the land to be l