Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-06
BARRETT TO THE world.
President Of Farmers Union Makes
Great, Speech.
TOCSIN OF war and PEAN OF HOPE.
Great and Important Subject Ably
Covered BY Man Who Has Studied
It, and Who Understands What He
Is Talkina About.

|
Is Talking About.
] ST Louis, May 2.-Before an audi
ence of farmers and public men gath
cred here from coast to coast to at
tend the national mass meeting of far
mers, Charles S. Barrett, president Of
the Farmers Union, sounded at once a
tocsin of war and pean of hope in his
address opening the weeks meeting.
| As message of hope and uplift to
the patient tiller Of the soil, II was the
most inspiring utterance in the career
of this leader of 100000 men. AS a
bold challenge to political tricksters
and those accustomed to play upon the
| prejudices OF the farmer, it sounded
stern warning of new era. No longer
is the farmer to be led or driven-he
will lead or drive, as the need be; no
longer will he heed the politicians bid
blindly and unquestioninsly-he will do
the bidding.
The speech is tremendous pulse
beat in the great awakening now
thrilling the nation, and which means
the dawn of a new day. President Bar
rett said:
President Barrett's Speech.
AS the representative of 100000
militant American farmers, whose or
ganiZed army rests one flank upon the
Atlantic and the other upon the Pacific
ocean, / give to you cordial greeting
which shall know no boundaries of
state or section, no narrowness or po-
litical partisanship or bigotry, but a
tolerance as broad as justice and as
wide as that sincerity that underlies
our common heritage of American cit
iZenship
For, first, we are Americans! After
that, we are farmers And it is as Amer
leans that We greet you in good faith,
bidding you rejoice with us in the
dawning of that day when the most
distinguished men Of our nation pay
homage to the might and the problems
Of the long NEGLECTED farmer.
Without let or hindrance. suppression
or censorship, we shall discuss the
problems that affect the feeders and
clothers of the people-save only tnat
in our deliberations we shall avoid
those topics that refer to the hysteria
or the passion of partisan politics. Al
the ultimate analysis, let us not forget
that the partisan or personnel element
in politics or craftsmanship is transient
and passing. That which abides al
ways, is principle. And it is lasting
principles that we shall debate, free Of
the embarrassment of that acrimony
invariably attending the complication
Of snort-lived political platforms or
| their authors.
| Before one may understand the sig
nificance today and tomorrow of the
Farmers Union We must analyZe brief
| ly past conditions in this country and
| the strange and startling readjuStments
that everywhere, in every phase of the
body polite, make themselves unmis-
takably manifest.
| AS a nation, we are just on the
Threshold of according to the farmer
the role he logically occupies in the
economic, industrial, financial and
commercial scheme of the nation. of
society everywhere for that matter.
The American farmer Of tradition has
been the farmer Of the more or less
humorous cartoon or caricature. Vari-
ousy represented as fair prey to the
&: zen goods man or the gold brick ar
tist, the legend has gained ground that
that the farmer was the symbol of Ver-
dancy, of lack of sophistication, of
dense ignorance, of blind and sudden
prejudice, of gullibility and, frequent
ly, of almost criminal absence of
shrewd thought for tine morrow
Folks have always known in vague
sort of way that the nation prospered
only as the farmer prospered. They
have realized that in famine crop years
the bank balance of the country was
depressed accordingly, and that suffer-
ing and deprivation and loss was WIS.,
tied without execution upon every ele-
ment of the population, whether in city
or country. They have seen, too, when
the soil returned generously of it's pro-
ducts that all was well with the nation.
and that a tide of gold sent its vitaliz-
ing magic through every channel Of In
dustry and commerce.
The nation has also recognized that at
various periods the rural districts have
been swept by cyclone of political
frency, altering preconceived pro-
grammes with an abruptness positively
dramatic for the way in which is de-
monstrated the power of the farmer
| once reused.
| A Little Known Citizen.
But outside of such developments, the
America of yesterday was almost to-
tally unacquainted with the man upon
whose energy and fidelity the dinner
tables and, largely, the very existence.
of the country is dependent. OF the
mental processes of the farmer. the
slant from which he regarded life and
its problems, little was known with any
degree of precision. OF his ambitions,
of his aspirations for mis- wife and his
children, they that dwelt in the seats
| of the mighty realized little of tangi-
BILE nature.
He might dwell in squalOr and pow
erty and ignorance: he might contend
desperately against debt and disease
and nakedness: he might see his chill
dren grow to manhood and womanhoOd
i'm an atmosphere so dreary and hope
less as to challenge belief: he might be
the victim of an isolation almost as
final, certainly as maddening. as that
| of the exile in Siberian widS.
But the man in authority, and the
dweller in cities. reckOned little of this
patient, plOdding. enduring creature.
truly the man with the hoe" whose
horizon had been warped and whose
life had been twisted out of Semblance
of joy and inspiration by the miles and
the customs that walled him from his
| fellows.
To be sure. there was the politician,
who cultivated Il penetrating love Tor
him around election time. Always the
| farmer has been viewed as Il vote, b.
the office seeker, and a vote rather cas-
lily influenced.
He has been the target for the reck-
less assaults Of demagOgy. of political
hypocrisy. Seldom have politicians
scrupled to lash his passions into a
fury, to bring his prejudices to fever
heat, if the process would serve their
turn. Also, they have tiattered him
increasingly, practiced upon him all the
Establishments of fulsOme praise. APP
pealed to him by denouncing that
which. in his Ignorance. he might hate
or distrust, filling him full of esteem
for himself, doing everything but tell
ing him the truth about men and is
sues. however unpalatable that truth
might be.
He Is No Longer Asleep.
And the farmer has. | confess. been
slow in Weakening. His environment
in the first place. was against MS
awakening. The tardiness of facilities
for communication. the infrequcncy
with which newspapers penetrated to
the far rural districts. and the natural
suspicion which is part of his tenn
permanent all initiated to keep him in
shackleS as to his own power. ana III.
duty of government In the prem
iScS.
| The era of sleep is at an end. The era
of wakefulnesS to self-duty. tn the "bli-
cation of self-help. to the obligation 81
duty to country Is already dawning. |
do not say that the farmer as Il class,