Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-17
Some Things You Want to Know
Incorporating the Farmer.

Efforts to organize the farmers OF the
country into offensive and defensive in
dustrial alliances have not met with the
success which has attended similar efforts
IN manufacture and Strangely
enough the impulse toward organization
became manifest at about the same time
Just after the civil war-but the subsequent
history Of the two movements has been
entirely dissimilar. Just now there Is a
recrudescencs Of the spirit OF cooperative
organization among the farmers OF the
country, and it is resulting in a movement
which may affect the whole future Of the
country.
During this week the American Society
Of Equity will hold its national convention
in IndianaI oils, the National Orange,
Patrons Of Husbandry, will meet in Des
Moines. and the National Farm Land con-
gress will be held in Chicago. The Farm
ers' union held its national convention the
first week in November at Raleigh, n. c.
These meetings represent some Of the
larger organizations Of farmers, each
differing from the others in detail. but
each aiming at the principal business Of
Incorporating the farmer.
The Patrons of Husbandry was the name
of the first farmers organization. 1t was
planned on secret society models and each
lodge was known as a Grange" Thus
the name Of "Grsngers" came to be APP
piled to the members Of the order and to
the order itself. The meeting Of the Ma
tional Grange at Des Moines this week will
celebrate the forty-fifth anniversary Of
the foundation of the first Grange at FREE
donia, N. Y. The father Of the movement
was o. II. Kelly Of Minnesota. He became
a clerk in what was then the bureau Of
agricultural in Washington just after the
close Of the war. In 1866 he was sant
south to make the statistical inquiries,
and it was the sad estate Of southern far
mers in those troubled days which inn
pressed upon him the need for a farmers
organization.
The Granger movement spread over the
country like wild-fire, and soon became Of
national Importance. Oranges were estab-
Iished in every community, cooperative
stores were opened, and some effort was
made to control prices Of farm products.
AT the same time the social side Of the
Grange was developed. The invasion and
capture of the machinery Of the Grange by
politicians resulted in its eclipse, but It's
social features and its recognition OF the
equality of woman on the farm, saved the
order from extinction. The Grange is no
longer a great national factor, as an
organization, but 1t must be credited with
some excellent work. Monuments to the
Grange are the numbers Of cooperative
farmers insurance societies over the coun-
try. The Grange initiated the movement
which resulted in the efforts to regulate
railroad rates and abolish rebates and
discriminatory freight charges. Rural
free delivery Of mail had its origin in the
2 Grange, and its successor the Farmer
, Alliance. Pure food laws owe much to
: the support and early championship Of the
Changers.
: After the occultation Of the Grange, the
next considerable movement was the Far
mer's Alliance. This organization became
very powerful in the west and south. AL
p though it aimed at control of crop prices
I and cooperation In business, its chief mis-.
{ sion and purpose was political. 1t arose
e to supreme power in many western states
g controlling Kansas and Nebraska. 1t main.
taIned the balance Of power in such states
. as Illinois and Indiana. The Farmers AL,
lance is the only political organization
. which has been able to unhorse the dem
|. ocratic party in the south since the war
1t carried openly North Carolina, Georges
and Tennessee, and in every southern stat,
!, it changed absolutely the current Of poi
teal thought. The Farmers Alliance ros,
: during the late eighties, flourished In tn,
early ~nineties, dissolved into the populls
e party and was swallowed up in the cam
paingn of 1896.
Since that time there has been no ma
tional organization Of farmers which ha
invited the attention Of politicians. TIL.
r organizations now building are making tn,
II business Of controlling prices their frs
consideration, leaving politics and kindred
/ questions of secondary consideration.
The American Society OF Equity is al
G example of this kind Of organization, be
ing similar TO the farmers union OF tn
cotton states and other new organization
a The Society Of Equity avowes the purpos
Of controlling prices Of farm products a
n it's chief aim. Declaring that the farme
must buy his supplies from a highly or
ganized market, representing trust-con
trolled labor; declaring that the farme
must sell his products to a highly organ
ICED market which is able largely to regu
late demand the Society of Equity pro
N poses to meet organization with organiza
he ton. 1t is its purpose to organize tn
10 farmers, institute a system of crop cor
ID troll, fix prices, and regulate the supply a
the buying market regulates the demand
"a II the ultimate consumer desires to kno'
d where he comes out in this little deal, Il
re him make his own calculations.
Two years ago the cotton manufacturer
Of the world met in England and mutual
agreed that under no circumstances wou!
they sell their fabrics under prices fixe
by a certain schedule. and that under n
= circumstances would they pay more han
certain schedule for raw cotton. The col
ton growing farmers Of the southern state
denounced this combination bitterly, Will
2 the trade journals representing the cotto
textile industry praised the agreement 6
a great triumph of economic foresight
Id whereupon the cotton growers have as
H. ssmbled themselves. and they have de
IL COURT CUTS RECEIVERS FE