Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-09-30
DUTY OF FARMER is IN
GOOD HE CAN DO OTHERS
Continued From pn1n Ono

and that you make Jim. Tom or Bill a
good deal more tired than they make
you.
AVOID OFFICE-SEEKING.
Zone of the first principles of the
creed of the farmer ought to be, avoid
too much office-seeking.' Its likely your
conscience will get too tough to be
parboiled, If you run for Office. Very
probably you'd have to mortgage your
home to pay campaign expenses. 1t is
extremely probable you've had TO shake
hands with folks you wouldn't recognize
before you ran for office, and it's a dead
certainty you'd make any number OF
promises you couldn't keep and, some
times, never intended to keep. You
ought to remember, also, that once you
get in politics, your family skeletons
will come just a-popping out of the clos
et Your private life and your past
record, and those of your family, will
be turned inside out like a glove. and
henceforth and forever you'll cease to
enjoy the privileges of living as a pri-
vate citizen.
II know that little Office of legislator,
or town clerk. or bailiff. or jailer. or
sheriff, or what not, looks mighty daz-
zling. But how many men do you know
personally, who. having once succeeded
in attaining office have never been worth
their salt afterward? How many do
you know that stayed in Office a year
or two, then were kicked out and hav-
ing got the political bug in their sys-
tenn, wat from one failure to another
and finally - seed? Why, the woods
and especially the cemeteries are just
full of them.
1--WE must have the best men in office.
BUT YOU CAN BE ASSURED THAT
III L sTx ID Y
WATCHING THE POLITICIANS AND
THE CANDIDATES IN YOUR COM
MUNITY, MAKING THEM TAW THE
MARK, REDEEM THEIR PROMISES
OR KICKING THEM OUT IF THEY
DON'T. That is your obligation, as a
citizen, to yourself, your family and
your community. Another thing that
would help In this direction, would be
to watch the average public speaker ap-
pealing for your support.
stop being led by the speaker who
brags on you most, and abuses the fell
low who is absent, and whom you may
dislike. Turn down the politician who
is always playing to the galleries or the
grandstand. Learn to distinguish be-
tween false and the true in politics, not
letting yourself be carried off your feet
by a fellow who is good at shaking
hands, or believing about your enemies
or promising you the earth-in-a-sling.
WHEN YOU ELECT TO OFFICE THE
MAN WHO DOES THINGS AND WHO
REGARDS HIS POLITICAL PROMISES
AS SACREDLY AS HIS BUSINESS
PROMISES YOU WILL BE TAKING =
LONG STEP TOWARD THE SOLU-
TION OF THE RURAL PROBLEM.
1T have repeated the warning about
working with and bearing with and I'M
Outstanding your neighbor because that
is TRUE COOPERATION, and because
true cooperation is the only way In
which we will ever solve problems that
press for solution.
''They have learned that already in the
cities. They are learning it now in the
country. In the cities a man may dislike
office-holders. or may distrust his neigh
Dor or be unable to get along with him.
BUT EIE GETS OVER 1T AND GOES
TO WORK FOR THAT COMMUNITY's
SUCCESS WHICH MEANS HIS OWN
INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS. In the country
the farmer generally gets his back UP
and it stays up for good long time
and meanwhile his community is on the
down grade and he wonders what in
the world is the matter.
You won't find these things in any
textbook with a high-sounding title. But
they are the very LIFE OF THE
RURAL PROBLEM Until We under
stand them, and put them in force, all
our other efforts will be like a man
trying to lift himself by his boot-straps.
You know now far he gets!
CHARLES S. BARRETT.
Union City, Ga, Sept. IS"