Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-10-07
BARRETT Says FARMERS
SHOULD OWN THEIR FARMS
Says Great Evil of Feudalism
Is Facing Country
Districts
lsnecial nisnatch to The IournalO


UNION CITY, Ca, Oct. A plea for
,rmers of Georgia to own their own
arms is made by President Charles S.
}arrett, of the National Farmers Edu-
ational and Cooperative union in an
.ddress issued today. President Barrett
says:
To the officers and Members of the
Farmers Union: One of the greatest
wills America is facing today is feudal-
ISM in the country districts-in other
words, that condition which makes mil
lions of farmers tenants upon the land
from which they must earn living.
Americans have fought to the last
Itch for their homes. 1t is a humorous
xiom that no man ever stood I'm the last
ditch for his boarding house. and it is
certain that no farmer is going to dis
charge his duty, in times of peace or
var, If the roof that shelters MIN is the
property of another man, and the acres
that feed him are simply rented for
year or a term of years.
FACES THE SOUTH.
The entire nation is more or less wrest-
ling with the problem or tenancy. But ii
is probable the southern states is called
upon to face il in its most aggravated
form.
l know of, not one, but scores of in
stances in which southern farmers actu-
ally rejected proposals by which they
might easily have acquired their own
farms. They preferred instead to rent
the land upon either system Of crop
ping" or of money payments which, in
few years would aggregate more than the
entire cost of the place.
Such a policy, and it is pursued in the
south to a ru1nous extent, leads nowhere
save to dependency or indifferent pros
perity.
So that one thing the Farmers union
has endeavored to encourage, has been
personal ownership of the farmers of
tenn of cropping" by which the tenant
is little better than slave to the land
holder.
The man who does not own his farm is
likely to be almost constantly in debt
to his landlord. From one years end
to another, his obligations are perpetual
and self-renewing. He must consult
his landlord regarding what crops and
how much of eacn crop he shall Guilt
vate- often he is under debt for the
very necessities of life, and in a few
cases l have known his type to drag out
a hand-to-mouth existence.
SOUND WARNING NOW, so FAR
AS REGARDS THE SOUTH AS WELL
AS EVERY OTHER SECTION OF THE
NATION, THAT AT THE GALLOPING
RATE LANDS ARE ENHANCING,
OWNING YOUR OWN FARM. A FEW
YEARS HENCE WILL BE A LUXU-
RY. Today, only a certain amount of
enterprises, self-denial and thrift is es-
sential. The process is open to the
humblest and poorest farmer in Amer
lea.
SCIENTIFIC. FARMING.
Hand in hand with homecoming.
should go the policy of scientific and
diversified farming.
During the panic of 1907 1 know sew
eral wise farmers in the immediate
neighborhood of my home, who raised
on their places every product neces-
sary to the sustenanee of man and
beast .a.. sd.
These men weathered the toughest
part of the pane almost in ignorance
of the existence of such a thing. They
would not, in fact, have not known of
the existence of a panic had 1t not been
for the Strengthened circumstances Of
their wideawake friends, many of VIII ON
had to borrow money with which to
buy food brought from outside the state.
when that food should have been raised
upon their own acres.
WE ARE NOT YET IMMUNE TO
PANICS IN THIS COUNTRY. THE
VISITATION OF 1907 WILL SOONhn
OR LATER BE REPEATED.
IF YOU RAISE YOUR OWN FOOD
SUPPLIES AS VEL AS FOOD FOR
YOUR CATTLE AND STOCK YOU
WILL NOT FEEL THE PINCH OF
PANIC.
In this Connection, it is hardly neces-
sary for me to say that diversified ag-
rculture means you shall make cotton
largely a surplus crop.
The farmer who single shots" on cot
ton is putting all his eggs in one bas-
ket. He is paying tribute to the west
ern cattle and grain dealer out of his
cotton money for the supplies with
which to raise his cotton crop.
He is mortgaging his main money crop
before the latter goes in the ground
and that is the worst economic fallacy
that could be. perpetrated.
1 know that it will require self-sac-
rifice for time, the denying ones self
OF small Injuries, both to own ones
own farm and, perhaps, to practice di-
viserfied agriculture. The game is
worth the candle.
(Signed) CHARES S. BARRETT.