The Green Forest tribune., 1910-11-25
GROWTH OF FARMERS UNION
President Barrett Issues Statement Setting Forth Rapid Strides
 Made by Organizati n.

al in the largest sense. It has state organizations on the Pacific coast. state organizations on the Atlantic coast, state organizations on the gulf coast and on the great lakes. In seven years it has grown from a handful of energetic and hopeful men, explained by Newt Gresham at Point, Tex, to an American army varying l from 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 members, covering men engaged in every spe- cies of agriculture in the United States.
 l think I can detach myself sufT1- i eiently from my love for and interest in this work to realize that this ex- pansiOn represents achievement, and 1 phenomenal achievement at that
 l cheerfully venture the assertion l that no agricultural organization in the civilized world has ever recorded so marvellous a growth. The best ] feature Is it stability
 We have organized the American 1 farmer for keeps"
 Yet in the face of this notable achievement, and the shadow of great CT things to come, we find here and there earping critics questioning as to why we have not made vaster strides.
 The perfection of national or inter- national organization is the most arduous and gradual task in the range of humanity's endeavors. I might cite | two oyershadowing organizations from l the industrial world as illustrations: | The Standard Oil company and the United States Steel corporation. In | their way and in their peculiar | spheres they are models of organiza- | tiOn-at least the average citizen who feels the effect of their force. will not deny the fact.
 Now the Farmers union has no de- sire or intention to rival these over- | reaching monopolies, sbut their match less triumph of organization can teach us something beneficial. We can l profit from the constructive lesson they have to offer and reject the prac- | tises that have placed some of their promoters upon an evil eminence in this country.
 Now, then-ft took decades and de cades to perfect these two great or ganizations-they begun first with struggling and struggling groups At various stages in their history they were dealt blows that would have been deadly had not the men behind been actuated by fixed purpose and un- wayering courage.
 An,fnO, +-,-a have always, or nearly always, had at l their disposal all the advantages af- forded by unlimited capital and the best order of trained brains in the country
 Yet they have grown piecemeal, so to speak, by a process of evolution. | through infinite backsets and dis couragements and panics. until today they tand as the supreme embodi- ments of organization
 The Farmers union has made prog ress even more phenomenal than these two organizations and without l the advantage conferred by money 1 for the reason that our guiding prfn- ciples have been righteous where | l greed.
 But on the side of patience and of 1 the value and efficacy of organization, and of the spirit that is willing to wait for results, perfectly confident of ultimate success, they abound in object lessons.
 l want every member of the Farm CTS union. however obscure. to re- member we are building for tomorrow as well as for today; for our child ren's children as well as for our selves; that We are laying a solid l foundation for the solving of prob l lens that will test American mettle decades after we are dust. look forward to the day when every American farmer belongs to an agricultural organization as one of the brightest days in the history of this country. It may not come in my time, nor in the time of my children. but I know it is destined and that at the rate the Farmers union is growing We will not have to wait an indefinite number of years for the consumma- 1 ton
 Let us first concede that the farm CT is the most important element in the national life. Let us next concede that he has been systematically neg lected, in the way of legislation and social viewpoint since the founding of the republic. Let us next concede that the day he Is formed into one ] compact, unanimous national organi- 2ation he will be able to secure his rights, to redress his wrongs and to l inject sanity and equity into the na- 1 tion's government in a degree that has never been approximated in Amer l ican history.
 These are some of the ends to which we are working While we la bor for the farmer, we labor for the entire country, for the country is no greater, no more prosperous, no more moral or safe from canker of disin- tegration than is it's great rural popu- lation.
 Cost of Silaun