Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-01-10
NEW YEAR POLICY.
TO AID FARMERS
GIVEN BY BARRETT


eraI dishonor, battle manfuiiy against
criticisms, sights and misinterpreta-
ton and finally win success for the
men who trusted them with authority.
There are the sort OF men we need
and must have to materialize the
years program. Unless you find
them. success will be impossible, and
you may as well understand that now.
There will be plenty of mistakes,
numberless failures in floating these
enterprises. There will be grafters
exposed. hypocrites unmasked. Such
developments are inevitable with so
large an organization. as it would be
In any other aggregation Of more than
two million frail human beings.
The thing to do is to keep on, even
when mistake or failures strike. Fire
out the CRATER, and replace him with
an honest man. Drop the incompe-
tent. and put In the man with ability.
Discharge the weakling. who Is unwil-
ling to sacrifice himself for your sake
and the sake OF success Keep on
trying, until building on a knowledge
OF what and whom to avoid, you
achieve the success that certainly
waits.
Next, 1t must firmly be implanted
in the mind of every farmer that his
salvation lies in his own hands and
not IN outside aid, however. well meant
and tactfully extended.
A great many individuals and or
ganizations are striving to uplift the
farmer. A large percentage Of them
are actuated by urseffish motives.
Many others of them are paid in adj
vertising and glory. But none Of
them, honest, wise, ignorant or other
wise can furnish solution TO the
keystone rural problem.
The farmer must do that himself, I
mean each individual farmer must sur
render somewhat Of bis independence,
a few of his rights" good many OF
his Ideas, and combine his efforts, not
only for his own but the general sue
cess. &a
Some people view the solution Of
the boil weevil problem as the main
Fbenefaction TO the q xarmers-S Others
think the chief need OF the rural dis
tricts are cooperative stores. Others
incline to farmers banks, Others nom
estly believe II they can annihilate the
hookworn. the farmer will enter upon
long term OF earthly paradise.
Thousands sincerely believe the farm
ers' salvation lies in tariff reform. 9th
ers are convinced il they can give every
farmer a literary education, the problem
will be solved Increase of production
and scientific agriculture have theil
hordes of adherents, who regard them as
the two things needfbl Another class OF
thinkers are persuaded that the less a
farmer has to do with politics and the
more with blowing the nearer he will
approach millennium. Others viii swear
he should literally cover himself with
politics and in 1t find an answer to all
his troubles A great many good men
just know If they can get the farmer In
the church and pray over him the rural
question will be reyolutionized. To 9TH
ers, good roads offer a way out Of the
wilderness.
cite these varying movements. not in
a spirit OF criticism, but to stress the
danger that in being swallowed up by
one small branch OF the subject, under a
catch-phrase studded with enthusiasm,
the farmer and his friends ray not be di-
verted from the. great bread task before
them, the principal ingredient In which
are self-sacrifce and self-duty, both of,
by and for the farmer.
In every case, the rural problem de-
ponds upon the way you look at 1t, the
angle from which you shed your own
peculiarities of temperament or belief
upon it.
But, in the main none of these move
ments I have outlined, Is universal
panacea- There is no one universal pam
acea.
Every man must be his own solution.
must aid in the general solution, or there
will be none at all
I have faith in some OF these move
ments outlined. but none in others. But
this I know, and I speak from an inti-
mate familiarity OF the farmer in his
every phase, and mood and weakness,
that 1t is necessary after he has selected
those movements that are necessary he
must pull with his brother, deny, sacri-
fee, forbear. study his neighbor and study
himself before the rural problem will ap-
proach solution.
We are told on every hand that the
farmer is better OF than iat any time In
history, and they point to the increasing
use of automobiles. rural free delivery IA
ciiities, the rural phone. farm machinery
and other items to back UP the argument.
That Is true, to an extent. A few
farmers are better on. The mass OF
farmers do not share in the Improvement.
wouldn't they stop going to the cities
If they were sharing in the Improvement
It is to aid this great mass of American
farmers that we are preparing our pro-
gram. If. every member of the organ
ization will do his part, as I have indi-
Gated, January /. 1912, will find that pro-
gram far on the way to fulhllment.
CHARLES s. BARRETT.