The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-05-19

has seemingly not occurred to the
average farmer; he accepts without
question the market price for the
market price for the product of his
labor; accepts it humbly, gratefully
or resignedly as the case may be;
or, i'll few instances, grumblingly;
but he accepts it; and again comes
the potent 'why?'
The average farmer has not yet
learned independence; so long in
leading strings, he is only begin
ming to realize that he can walk
alone; he has been slave for so
many years to the market price as
arbitrarily set for him by the mid
dleman that he has almost come to
believe that it is right for him to
so continue; but he is waking up;
some Of his neighbors are even sit
ting up and taking notice to what
the Grange is doing; and a few of
the harder ones are putting their
heads together and planning how
to rectify these injustices under
which they have helplessly strug
gled for past decades; there will
SOON be a grand final awakening
and when this occurs, it will mean
something; the organized farmer
will be vast power; he is still be-
ing exploited, but the era is fast
brewing to a close; the farmer is
learning that setting a price OH his
own product is matter of justice;
matter of principle; the organized
farmers power is greater than leg
islatures, courts of law, and WELD
ers of the pen, when it comes to
breaking up monopolies and trusts;
fortified in his home, with an
abundance of food of his own pro-
viding, he can better afford to stand
a ;siege against high priced ma
chinery and farming implements
than the manufacturers can afford
to wait his pleasure in delivering
the vital necessities of life; the far
mer can fix a price for his product
and obtain it more readily than
any other class of business men i'll
the universe, because, in case of a
siege if it came to this pass the]
farmer alone would not suffer; his]
home would be his fortress.
When the five millions of farmers
in the United States, organize, as
the labor unions have organized,
and receive for the first time their
Just compensation for tilling the
soil, thirty millions of people living
on farms will be directly benefited;
so that it is up to the farmer to
work out not only his own saliva
ton, but that of millions of others,
directly dependent upon him.
Speed the day when the farmers
word will be this will I take
not the servile, cringing, what
will you give me''
Farmers are not everywhere as
prosperous as are the majority i'll
this state of Washington; i'll the
southeast. the small farmers (and
these are numerous) usurlly have
their crops mortgaged, long before
they are grown; these farmers can
not be independent; but even in
this great and prosperous farming
state, a farmer with large mort
gage is terribly handicapped; and
I
in order to make good, with this
handicap, it requires more than
ordinary ability; farmer must be
business man in every sense of
the word, with superior acumen
and indcfatigible energy; farmer
who takes hold of a mortgaged
property and with grim determina-
ton sets to, to clear it of incum-
brance deserves the respect of the
community; and, if he succeeds,
he merits their applause; such
farmer would succeed in any situa-
+,o,,