Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-10-28
BARRETT URGES FARMERS
TO PERFECT THEIR union
Declares Country Can Be no
Greater Than Principles of
Rural Population

UNION CITY. Ga. Oct. 25.-The future
purposes and ideals Of the National
Farmers Union are told in a statement
! Issued by President Charles S. Bar
rett. who also writes of the difficulty Of
perfecting its organization. His state
ment follows:
STATEMENT OF BARRETT.
To the officers and Members of the
Farmers Union: Today the Farmers UNI
ion is national in the largest sense. It
has state organizations on the Pacific
coast, state organizations on the Allan
tic coast. state organizations on the
Gulf coast and on the Great Lakes. In
seven years II has grown from a hand
full of energetic and hopeful men cap
tained by Newt Gresham at Point. Tex.
TO an American army varying from two
million 10 two and a half million men,
bers, covering men engaged in every
species OF agriculture in the United
States.
1 think 1 can detach myself sufficiently
from my love for and interest in this
work to realize that this expansion rep
resents achievement and phenomenal
achievement 1T that.
I cheerfully venture the assertion that
no agricultural organization in the civ
illized world has ever recorded so mar
ve,ous a growth. The best feature is its
stability.
We have organized the American farm
er FOR keeps-'
Yet even I'm the face OF ;his notable
achievement. and the shadow OF greater
things TO come, We find here and there
within the order, and here and there
from carping critics without the order.
questioning as to why We have not made
vaSter strides.
10 ,e
tional organization is the most arduous
ana gradual task in the range Of hui
manity's endeavOrs. ] might cite two
Overshadowing organizations from the in
. dustrial world as Illustrations: The
Standrd Oil company and the United
I States Steel corporation. In their way
. and in their peculiar spheres they are
models of Organization-at least the av-
erage citizen who feels the effect OF
their force. will not deny the fact
Now the Farmers union has no desire
or intention TO rival these overreach-
ing monopolies. but their matchless tri-
umph Of organization can teach us
something beneficial. We can profit
from the constructive lesson they have
to offer and reject the practices that
have placed some of their promoters up
on an evil eminence I'm this country.
Now. then-it took decades and decades
to perfect these two great organizations:
they began first with struggling and
struggling E-oups- At various stages In
their histor, they were dealt blows that
would have been deadly had not the
men behind hem been actuated by fix
ed purpose ald unwavering courage.
Another thing-these two concerns have
always, or nearly always, had at their
disposal all the advantages afforded by
command OF 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 discourage
ments and panics. until today they stand
as the supreme embodiments of organiZa-
ton.
The Farmers union has made progress
even more phenomenal than these two
organizations. and that without the ad-
vantage conferred by money, for the
reason that our guiding principles have
been righteous, where theirs have been
those rising from greed.
But on the side OF patience and OF the
value and efficacy Of organization, and
of the spirit that is willing TO walt for
results. perfectly confident OF Ultimate
success. they abound I'm object lessons.
| want every member If the Farmers
union. however obscure, to remember we
are building for -omorrow as we'll as
for today; TO- our children's children as
well as Gar ourselves; that we are lay
ing & solid foundation for the solving
OF problems that will test American met
tie decades after we are dust.
/ look forward to the day when every
American farmer belongs TO an agri-
cultural organization one of the
brightest days in the history of this
country II may not come in my time,
nor in the time of my children. But
know Il is destined, and that at the
rate the Farmers union is growing we
will not have to wait an indefinite num-
Der OF years for the contamination.
Let us, first, concede that the farmer
is the most important element in the
national life. Let us. next, concede that
he has been systematically neglected. in
the way of legislation and social view
point, since the founding Of the repub-
lie Let US. next, cOncede that the day
he is formed into one compact, unani-
nous national organization he will be
able to secure his rights, 70. redress his
wrongs and 10 inject sanity and equity
into the nations government in de-
gree that has never been approximated
I'm American history. -..-
These are some OF the ends to which
we are working. While we labor 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 disintegration than is its great