The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-24
(ApeX Journal

S1iA eoAO ~ o"y
Farmers Union. I appreciate this
opportunity. If I shall be able to
say anything that will add one mite
Of interest to this subject that will
cause my brother farmers to more
fully appreciate the dignity Of agri-
s%ulture, it's blessedness, it's greatness,
l will feel fully repaid for my feeble
effort.
Sometimes the public mistakes the
true definition Of the term
Not every man who can walk behind
a half starved, crippled mule and
grow a hill of beans is a farmer; not
the man who does service on the farm
as a daily drudgery, and is constantly
hooking for something better, is a
farmer. But the man who loves his
profession, who magnities his calling,
who realizes that in tilling the soil he
is walking with God; the man who
takes business methods into accounts,
Mho quits a premium on scientific
knowledge, who applies his Com
stock to his C~ornstalk," the man who
knows how to convert the sunshine
and hover into profitable merchan-
disc, the man who knows how to col
lect the nitrogen from the air. and,
in combination with the gases of the
earth, produce the material for the
finest fabric that decorates. or the
daintieSt food. he is the arme 1t
is gratifying to note that the terms
"hay-seeder." "clod-hopper' and Mr..
Corntossel" are growing into disuse.
The farmer Of today ''doffs his over
alls and "dons' his business suit and
panama, and, driving his best team
to a rubber-tired buggy. makes his
appearance in public, the equal in ap-
p~earance and intelligence of any class
OF earth.
Secretary Wilson. Of the National
Department of Agriculture, is al
thority for the statement hat more
than one-half the people of this coun-
try till the soil for a livelihood" He
also stated some months age that the
aggregate alu of Our farms pro-
ducts for the year 1908 was $1,000
OOO, 900. There are 100000 of cot
ton farmers in the South producing
From the point of view of numbers
and Of productiveness the farmer is
the strongest class on earth.
The fact is the farmer is the only
primal producer of wealth 1t is a
mistake to say the lawyer, the mer-
chant, the doctor makes money. Use
full as they are, they only accumulate.
Look into any store you will, and find
something the merchant has made
not a piece of cloth, not a bolt of silk,
not a pair Of shoes, not a suit nor
a dress. not a hat nor a bag of meal,
flour, sugar, coffee, tea or anything
else-all produced primarily upon the
farm. The manufacturer~has trans
formed some Of these materials into
more useful articles. but he has pro-
duced nothing. Even the great ium-
Der industry is. in this day, a product
OF the farm, of the present day farm
er tends his trees and forests with
as much assiduity as he does his corn,
or wheat
If then the farmer represents so
important a place in the economy of
the world, what doth hinder him from
organizing? The more Intelligent
and stronger for the sake of the weak,
the weak to receive help and impetus
from the stronger, and all Of each
others good. All other classes under
the sun are organized from the
Wealthiest railroad magnate to the
fhdha-the merchants, the bankers,
the %spinners, the weavers, the printers,
the binders. the doctors, the teachers,
the lawyers, the preachers, the gamb-
lers, the butchers, the bakers, the
church, with its conferences, union
meetings, State and national conven-
tons, Sunday school, Baracas, Phila-
theas, Bright Jewels, Sunbeams Cad
infinitum), the cradle makers, the
undertakers-so from the cradle to the
grave there is a ceaselesS stream of
organization. And wherefore? All
for the betterment Of their own con-
dition-to accomplish by united effort
that which they could not do singly.
To a large extent the farmer has
been the prey of many of these or
CARNATIONS. When he had anything
to sell he has taken what he could get
When he has had to buy, he has paid
the other fellows price.
But what of the Farmers Union !?
II is coming. "Dinna We hear it,"
Chartered in the State of Texas seven
years 6 with very small beginnings,
it has spread all over the South till
there is not a Southern State@but has
its organization Of farmers. It's
membership now numbers 5000, 600
Of as lOyaI men as the sun shines nnop