The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-01-17
GETTING lIRMER FOOTING.
MIR. Green Says That the Farmers
Union is Now Settling Down to a
Fine Class Of Conservative Member
ship and the Future Looks Bright.
Journal

I1l1C &ldSS u &OiI@tIs1 4
ship and the Future Looks bright.
Monroe Journal.)
Mr.. J. Z. Green, now serving his
third year as State Lecturer Of the
Farmers Union. and one Of the most
enterprising and influential mem
bers of the body, was in town Satur-
day. Mr.. Green spoke on the work
of the union as follows:
1T looks now like the Farmers
Union is to be a permanent organi-
zation for the general uplift OF farm
ing interests. 1t is true that it has
to pass through the reacionary
period. In some Of the older organ
lied counties in the State it is catch
ing up it's second growth. and this
means that where it has lost some
members who Joined just for the
novelty Of the thing, the organiza-
ton is gaining a more substantial
vative and slow to move and who
want to see the organization prove
itself before they align themselves
with it.
The Farmers Union has been
criticised by some loyal members
for being too conservative, but when
results depend entirely upon educa-
ton the slow and conservative way
is the only safe way. The fatal mis-
takes of kindred farmers organiza-
tons, it is true, may be responsible
largely for the seemingly extreme
conservatism Of the union. which
caueses it to feel it's way with cou-
ton.
with our limited means for CO.
, operative selling-with only a ware
house here and there. VIZ have been
an important factor in bringing the
price of cotton up from 8 to Is cents
and cotton seed from 80 to 55 cents,
and the commercial world accords to
the Farmers Union a big share of
the credit for h unparalleled pros
perity hat has come to the South
through it's natural monopoly of cot
ton production. The basic, funda-
mental, "li~ve-at-home' doctrine that
this organization has beer preach
ing in $4,000 or more local unions
in the cotton belt, has had the double
effect of correcting the suicidal policy
of buying a living at the stores and
at the same time limiting the cot
ton production to a figure that makes
the worlds markets hungrey enough
to pay q fairly ~rernunerative price for
cotton, n it must not be forgotten
that not only the farmers, but every
Legitimate business interest in the
South is a beneficiary.
Il believe the farmers Of the South
have a moral right to use a monop-
oAS $4,000 A0\ 4AN@ LiA1A4A.
and limited production and ultimate
tly controlled marketing, are the only
practical ways to use this monopoly
scarcity of farm labor in the
South is making this country rich.
and if the growth Of town and city
population continues at the same
ratio with the growth of rural popu-
lation. as has been recorded for the
past twenty years, farm labor in the
South will become 50 scarce and
high that big landowners. who farm
on the old land skinning and SOL
robbing method, will find that theS
car no longer compete With the one
growing cotton. and they will hun1
other fields of operation and invest
ment. This will help to do jus,
what the Farmers Union is trying
to do. 1t will still further limit the
production of cotton and cause the
/ price to continue to
You may call this method Of lin
iting production II gradual mar
keting, trust methods. but it's the
only way We can profit by q monop-
oily which nature has given US. Be
sides, it's the way the modern organ
lied commercial interests do bust
ness, and if it Is a correct principle
for distributing agents and -
producers, it ought to be all rIgh,
for the folks who feed and clothe
the world