Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-20
AN EXAMPLE FOR THE SOUTH.
How Sir Horace Plunkett Revolution
lied Things in ireland.

Suppose we had in each county IN
the south two cooperative creameries
one or two farmers cooperative banks
and one or two cooperative societies
for the sale Of poultry and truck; such
development would correspond. to
what has been accomplished in Ire
land.
OF course, all this. has not been
brought about in a day. The move
ment started away back in 1889 when
Mr.. Horace Plunkett began to tell the
Irish farmers that what they needed
was less politics and more business
or at any rate, a good deal more busi-
ness along with their politics. For a
long time his voice was that Of one
crying in the wilderness. He held fifty
meetines and pleaded with fifty differ
ent groups Of farmers. asking each
group to join in some cooperative bus
mess organization, before a single en-
thusiastic response varied the long
monotony of deaf-eared failure. But
Mr.. Plunkett was an Irishman terribly
in earnest; and anybody who Is terri
bly, in earnest Is likely to go long
way-especially If he is an Irishman.
The Irish farmer, at that time, was
the joint prey Of landlords and "gom-
been men," the latter phrase being used
to describe a class Of credit merchants
whose exorbitant time-prices kept the
poor peasants in virtual slavery. What
profit the landlord did not get in the
shape Of rent, the "gombeen- man" got
when the money for the farmers pro-
ducts came in. Or, to be exact, should
say that the credit merchant took the
farmers goods at prices named by HIM
self, and credited them on the farmers 8
account, and about all the poor soil-til-
ler knew was that he was getting deep
er and deeper into debt all the time. 1t
was our blood sucking credit system"
of the south of a generation ago in an
even more abominable form; and the
"gombeen- men," furnishing not only
supplies, but liquor as we'll, often took
further advantage Of the peasant after
getting him full Of drink.
In a word, middlemen were absorb
ing all the profits Of the Irish farmer.
Nothing was done directly. There was
a circuitous route from the farmers
produce to the city consumer, with tolls
taken all along the way; and there
was a circuitous route between the fer
tilizer- maker or implement-manufac-
turer and his farmer purchaser, with
tolls taken along the way.
Another thing that Sir Horace saw
Il say Sir Horace because the king Of
England has since knighted Mr.. Plum
kett in recognition Of his great ser
vices) was that If the farmers were to
succeed, they must organize and CO.
operate. Only a considerable number
Of farmers working together could sell
their products to advantage small
farmer cannot profitably ship a dozen
or two eggs or a pound or two Of but
ter or a basket or two Of vegetables,
whereas, 1t is very different If hun
dred farmers together wish to ship
their eggs. poultry, or truck-and they
must work together along very busi-
ness-like and scientific lines He saw
that the farmers were suffering not
only because the middlemen's tolls
were excessive, but also because their
failure to unite prevented them from
giving consumers uniform; high-qual-
ity products. He declared they must
furnish lone good kind Of butter-not
many samples Of bad and stale ones; a
uniformly fresh egg-not a dozen stale
ones Of different shapes and sizes,
with occasional fresh ones rubbing
shells with their dingy neighbors;" and
that they must furnish regular supplies
at regular intervals-not three long
weeks Of famine and then a week of
surfeit.
Better Farming, Better Business,
Better Living''-this was the threefold
program which Sir Horace proposed
for Ireland: more productive farming
methods, better methods of buying and
selling, and a r1cner rural lie. ana he
kept everlastingly at 1t, in season and
out Of season. After fifty meetings he
got one society started in 1899. and
1890 ended without another one being
added to this lonesome first one. But
in 1891 the number jumped to seven
teen; next year there were twenty five:
next year. thirty; next year, thirty
three; and then the day Of small
things was over. In 1896 the number
of societies doubled; in 1896 the one
hundred mark was passed; in 1898, the
two hundred mark; in 1899, the four
hundred MARYLAND now there are
more than eight hundred.-Clarence
Poe, in the Progressive Farmer.