The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1912-11-14

own family the rewards of his la
Dor; therefore, the great and con-
tinual increase in the price of farm
ing lands is a matter of grave con-
Germ to the tenant, especially those
who do not wish to follow the life,
nor see their children born to the
nomadic life of tenant. This is one
of the leading features of the ten
ants problems
Still more important is the prob
lem of selling his crops for profita-
BILE prices. The price of a farm may
be ten or twenty thousand dollars,
but it does not necessarily follow
that working that farm is always a
profitable operation, even though the
soil is fertile, the workers indus
triOus, the methods successful, and
the season favorable. The price the
farmer receives is the guage of his
profits; and wherein lies the virtue
of bountiful crops if their sale does
not provide profit for the produ-
Ger?
The average farmer who owns a
farm free from debt, and is blessed
with good health, is able to make a
fairly good living under present con-
ditions. If his farm is fertile one,
with the advantages of good roads,
nearby markets and an up-to-date
equipment, he can have a moderate
amount of what were once considered
luXuries, but which modern condi-
tons have made necessities. But
the tenant, who must divide the pro-
ceeds with the owner of the farm,
is now in disheartened condition
with but small hope of better
things for himself or his children
The leading question then is: How
are the tenant-farmers ever to be
able to give to their families that
inestimable BLESSING home of
their own, and to enjoy equality of
citizenship, possessing in full meas
ure the respect and confidential re-
gard of their fellowmen, and freeing
themselves from the involuntary
stigma that has ever been associated
with tenantry?
There can be but one answer to
the question, one solution of this
great problem. The first thing to
be done is to make farming profita-
BILE by making farm products bring
profitable prices. Until this is done
there can be no solution of the prob
lem. Until this is done, the tenants
of this country will remain shackled
to q condition that as effectually pre-
vents them from gaining their reas-
enable desires as the prison wall pre-
vents the escape of a prisoner, and
deprives him of the rights and Iiber-
ties of freedom. AS soon as the
shackles are removed, however, and
the tenant farmer is assured Of a
just and profitable return for the
products of his labor, then opportu-
mites will open to him.
Up-to-Date Farming has inces-
sanity taught that under proper
system of marketing the profits in
farming would be as certain and as
remunerative as in other lines of le-
Ultimate business. For nearly ten
years it has upheld the unassailable
doctrine that the farmer is under no
legal or moral obligation to feed the
balance of the world at unfairly low
prices. 1t has shown, and furnished
proof that no reasonable man would
attempt to refute the claim that
through simple, inexpensive plan
of organization and cooperation, the
farmers of the United States could
have disposed of the largest crops
that have ever been produced at pri-
ces as profitable, if not more so, than
the crops grown in years of short
production. It has demonstrated
clearly that only through organiza-
ton and cooperation can the desired
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