The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1910-04-21
Farmers Union Lecture.

II. NCN, n. a. ~. w ilsOu,OI Dates
willie, Miss, lecturer Of the Farm.
|er's U Mon, m de strong address
at the court house to mixed
crowd of farmers and citizens OF
the town. He was introduced by
Prof. Gooch who spoke of him as
an old friend and complim ented
his ability highly.
The speaker said he WIS a
Presbyterian country preacher; that
he was lecturiug because he
thoughtshe could do some good
and because there was money it.
He lived in a fine house that be-
longed to his father-in-law and
that it took quite a goo deal of
money to keep up the house, He
had farmed some because was
necessary to supplement his sala-
ry as preacher. Merchants, he
said, were not all mean men. Some
Union men talked about the mer-
chants giving low prices for pro-
duce yet those men tried to get
their goods from the merchants
just as low as they could. 1t was
self-interest governing in both
cases. AS classes, the merchants,
farmers, teachers and other call
ings we're about on an equality
There were some mean men in all
classes but the proportional good
ness and meanness was about the
same. The big thing With some
farmers was toAtry to break down
the merchants. They would send
to the mail order houses in Chica-
go and4 by second hand and shod-
dy goods rather than patronize
home merchants. This was wroffg
in principle and FUNGUS in prac-
tice. All classes were inter de-
pendent and must cooperate. In
deed this is an age of cooperation.
Some, people will quote competi
ton is the life of trade, " but this
was misleading. The, miserable
selfishness that caused men to cut
prices. in order to get custom wa S
ruinous in the. long run. There
must be cooperation. All class. ;
and all professions were organize
ing. The farmers were, strange
to say, a}honglthe very last but
they are doing SO at last. The
speaker thep went on Ito show the
necessity OF organization and of
cooperation. The combination
of capital for the furtheringnof in
terests could not be suppressed
but'itsshould' be controlled. /. The
warehouse question was. then con
sidered. He thoughtthat through
the warehouse system the cotton
crops could be SO handled that ahe
maximum price could always be
obtained by dealing with the spin
ners direct. The capital stock sof
the warehouse organization was
fixed at 81 900, 900, and of this
soutsiders could own d. He
thought merchants ought to buy
up this stock and do all theirsbusis
| ness through the Farmers Union
Warehouse and drop dealing with
Memphis cotton factors. The
warehouses would deal in fertili-
zers and other heavy goods, such
as wagons, etc. BY buying in
immense quantities they could
sell to retail dealers as cheaply as
they buy, elsewhere. 81
The latter part of his speech
was directed to the school ques-
ton. He preface1 his remarks
on this question by stating that
Iuka had the best school house he
had been in in the state, and he
had been in oyer 80 counties. He
then spoke very disparagingly Of
split terms, "as lie termed them,
meaning the division of PUBLIC
schools into two equal portions,
part taught nsummer and part in
winter. His treatment of this was
both humorous and sarcastic. He
then spoke about a system of high
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