Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-06-02
The Demaaoaue's Prey.

farmer has become an easy prey to
the designing and unscrupulous politi-
clan. And as a matter Of fact, the
demagOgue Is today the chief obstacle
between q common meeting ground for
town and country. The farmer Is sus-
picious. or that Is some of his kind
have that quality. He was born in
loneliness and brought up in adversely,
The politician Is shrewd enough to
know that. Many farmers are more
or less guileless and easily led. A few
mot all of them-have lived up to the
| gold brick type of the funny papers.
They have come to the cities and fall
| len among the Philistines. Indeed
! the word farmer" itself was once q
synonym Of denseness and guillibility
The definition has ceased to be an ac-
curate one, but here and there 1t still
applies to a sufficient degree to play
into the hands Of the man who wants
office and who Is dishonest enough to
| lie to get 1t.
Many politicians who have cunning
instead of ability and patriotism make
it, and have made 1t, their business
to implant in the minds of the farmer
the belief that the city man is his
hereditary foe. without scruple he has
declared that 1t Is absolutely impos-
sible for the city and the country to
agree upon any subject. He has fol-
lowed up his DEVILS work by con-
temptible and lying fiattery. Like a
parrot he has gone up and down the
land telling the farmer-bear in mind.
| that same farmer who Is at the basis
of your prosperity and mine-that he
| Is the salt of the earth. He has told
him that he Is the backbone of the ma
ton. He has pandered to every un-
| worthy prejudice that the farmer may
share in common with the city man.
He has not once-I speak Of the great
run of politicians-given the farmer
an ounce of honest criticism of his
own faults, the clearing away of which
would inevitably work to the univer-
sal welfare.
And If he has done this In the coun-
| try, he has no less done 1t In the city.
have in mind cases of recent date
where politicians who have gone to
congress on a country vote, started
straightway to throw cheap sop to
the country and to exert all the art at
their command to conciliate the cities.
You see, they reason this way. Il
have these darn rubes in the country
at any rate, and l can always fool
them. But 1t Is up to me to make good
with the city people II 1 want to hold
| this job So I will just play both ends
against the middle and trust to luck
and quick work just before the next
campaign to make good in the coun-
| try"
/ ask you candidly as reasoning
business men what chance on earth
there Is of bringing city and country
more closely together as long as we
permit this condition to continue? If
you want to help US, and that means
| helping yourselves, you have got to
repudiate this especial brand Of poll
ticians. 1t has long been fashionable
to denounce the representative or the
senator who assumed to answer the
voice of the special interests" Well,
great many Of our congressman,
north, east, south and west, serve
special interests all right, but these
special interests are themselves, and
they are prosecuting their ends upon
the theory that playing town against
| country is short cut to success.
The Parcels Post.
am not saying that town and coun-
try have not points Of divergence. For
instance, some of you here may hon.
estlv or mistakenly oppose a general
parcels post. We farmers believe you
are mistakenly opposed to 1t, that 1t
will help, not harm, you, and we GER
tainly intend to lombard congress un-
til we get it. The government has long
enough given pennies to the farmer
and pounds to the rest of the country.
| That sort of thing Is going to stop.
| It Is as much to your interest as 1t Is
| to ours that It should stop. At any
rate, we are going to keep on insisting
| that Federal and state governments be
more liberal with the farmer until we
make you see our cause and induce
YOU to ioin hands with US.
Now, while three or four Of you may
differ with me regarding parcels post
and one or two other issues, all OF us
still can find a great big common meet
ing ground. There Is education, for
instance, academic, agricultural and
Industrial. Not a man in this room
and not an intelligent farmer In the
land but will agree upon the desira-
hility of giving our children more ia
ciities for these brands Of education.
We are all interested in good roads.
I do not share the prejudice that puts
down the city's enthusiasm over good
roads as one Of a JOY riding origin. l
credit you with the intelligence to know
| that the fundamental function of good
roads Is to facilitate and cheaper the
exchange of commodities and the en-
hancement Of acquaintance. If we see
more of each other we shall know each
other better; knowing each other bet
ter, we shall more completely under
stand each other; understanding each
other what are largely fictitious preju-
dices will give way before the impact
of fact of interests held in common.
| That Is simply one argument for good
roads. l could cite innumerable 9TH
ers. For one thing, good roads mean
more education in the country, more
churches, more products to the acre
and better citizens. Enhance valua-
tions, increased production and better
citizens, whether they are situated In
Chatham or Muscogee counties, more
wealth and prosperity for all Georgia.
So you see we cannot get away from
| the bonds of common interest.
Marketing His Cotton.
Another common meeting ground Is
that afforded by the improvement OF
facilities for distribution and market
| ing and for the maintenance OF decent
prices. Let me cite the cotton crop as
an illustration that will suffice for ev-
cry ney-bringing crop of Georgia
soil. In the majority Of instances the
cotton crop now goes in the market IN
it's entirety within brief period OF
| four months-that Is, from September
| through December. 1t is physically
| impossible and economically absurd
that either mills or consumers can
take care Of the cotton crop In only
one third of the entire year. What Is
the result? The market is often seri-
ously glutted. Prices are inevitably
demoralized and depressed. the gamb-
ling element, which we have always
with us, Is given free play for its blood
sucking-and, what ought to interest
YOU as hard headed business men, the
farmer is likely to get anywhere from
one half to three or four cents pound
less for his cotton than its real worth.
If you will multiply, say, an eleven,
million bale crop by S. bale you Will
see the possible loss that could be
visited-upon the humblest wage-e earn
er as we'll as the business man-though
the system of marketing that Is more
that of mad men than Of sane busl-
ness. In Mississippi the Farmers Un-
ion has perfected a warehouse system
that tends to distribute the marketing
of the cotton crop over the entire year
and that enables the staple to follow
the laws of supply and demand. Ware
house certificates are negotiable. Hy-
pothecated for debts incurred, In the
raising of the crop, they enable the
farmer to pay off his pressing obliga-.
tions without fOrfeiting the cream or