The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-02-19
The Merchant and the People.

The Merchant and the People.
Some years ago false teachers wer
parading through the country, seekln
to array the rural citizen against tn
man in town and the farmer against hi
home merchant. This kind of senti
ment had its origin at period contem
poraneous with the organization of th'
Wheelers, later known in politics as
Populists. In 0bion County the doc
trine OF classes was dwelt upon with
much avidity. There was malice pre-
pense and there was method i'll the
madness. Truth of the matter was that
it came from an INSCRIPTIONS genius,
fanatic, so well covered with the guise
of wisdom and impartial judgment that
the decoy was effective. There arose a
feeling in this country, almost wholly
unaccountable, estranging the rural cit
izen from that Of the townsman, preju-
dice without cause and manufactured
out of the whole cioth-a falsity abso-
lutte.
The county was thoroughly canvassed,
more so probably than any other sec
ton of the State, and people were taught
to believe that the merchant or the
citizen in town was their commercial or
political foe. The man who preached
this doctrine has led many political
fights and has been in almost every po-
litical camp which offered the richest
prospects of booty. No home, no faith,
no creed, he espoused every cause with
as much espionage and boldness as the
most daring political buccaneer.
This was the character of the man
who advocated the establishment of
stores and other lines of business to take
the place of those whose propretors had
for years and years Accommodated the
farmer The middle man was the tar
get of assault, and the merchant and
the business man in town was the mid
die man.
Never was more erroneous idea
never premise SO false. And yet the
county has just gone through an expe-
rience, unparalleled probably, except in
the dark tobacco region of Kentucky. |
The seed sown by this mischievous agi- |
tator brought forth an hundred fold, !
and the result was harvest of laWIess- !
ness and murder.
What an object lesSon
The accused stands charged, but what
of the facts.
There were never friends whose inter
ests were SO mutual as the country mer-
chant and the farmer Their business
success is almost inseparably inter
linked The farmer plants his crop and
the merchant furnishes the supplies
without pay until harvest time. The
country merchant belongs to no trust,
no combine, no monopoly He is ex-
posed to the sharpest competition. He
lives practically in the country, and his
interests are in the country, especially
since the days of free delivery and tele-
phones have brought the farmer almost
every advantage the citizen in town en-
joys He is the farmers neighbor and
best friend, one who has done more for
the farmer than all the political agita-
tors in the world. No matter how great
the seed of prejudice was sown the coun-
try merchant saw and understood and
still held out the warmest invitation to
the farmer to be his friend.
The conditions haven t changed much,
except to bring the farmer and the coun-
try merchant closer together There
we're never any conditions iustifying OPP
position to the country merchant The
was false, as every man who
will open his eyes can see.
Coneede, for argument, that farmers
should be their own merchants and law
yers, how long until those farmer mer-
,hants and lawyers would occupy the
Iane position as their predecessors
Let the people in town and country
each other. Let their in q