The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-05-11
FARMER TO GET HIS RIGHTS
National Political Fences Rocking and
Keeling as They Have Not IN
Fifty Years Past.

10 Lu0 oAlSSAS e'A1u A'1SAAASSAo =
| Farmers Union:
If the great American farmer does
1 not get his rights from the great
American politician in this year OF
grace. 1912, he will voluntarily throw
AWAY the best opportunity he has had
| for SO years.
Every political condition and indi-
cation fights on our side as it has not
done in the memory of the oldest
member of the union. The field MS
p1owed and fertilized. If the farmer
does not plant and reap a bumper
| harvest Of these reforms for Wn1ch
he has these years been contending he
will come near confessing himself
political cipher 1t is not alone that
president and congress are to be
elected, and prospective and actual
candidates gifted with keener hearing
!. than usual Peculiar conditions IN all
parties create a wagon load OF open,
ings for the American citizen with
sense enough to see them and courage
/ enough to use them.
Factionalism tears all of the par
: ties to pieces today. No leader, no
: member of the rank and file OF any
political organization, knows where ne
stands or where the country STANDS.
: The politician is going accounting az
he has not since the Civil war. lie 10
$ humble and anxious and on the mourn
: ers' bench as he has not been since
Appomattox He can see individual
r votes or state delegations farther
|
i cloudy day. He is feverish to concl1-
G ate, eager to concede, staying awake
e nights to frame up ways in which ne
can save his fences from storm which
n is bound to break, but he doesn't know
n from which quarter.
With leaders and privates alike
e fighting for their political lives, the
1t farmer has chance for his day IN
fcourt. It Is up to~him to take it. Such
e an opportunity may not recur in i've
u or ten or twenty years. What may
come tomorrow is a matter of specula-
70 ton We had better grasp what we
n can get today. II every American
lie farmer will, therefore, urge action on
specific measures upen his congress
Ut man or his senator, he will find both
k gentlemen as receptive as the recelV'
d. ing teller of a new bank.
In legislation interesting the farmer
re and now pending before congress, the
ID thing to do is push results and lg
g, more excuses. You have the whip
le hand. Keep it! Don't swallow the
~ Old song and dance your congressman
may hand you that, personally, he ia
yors this or that bill, but that he IS il
n the minority The minority that can
make itself felt is not fit to be made
in majority. There never was vet
few men in congress, or in the leg1sla
lures who, by agreeing upon DEF
mite program and prosecuting Y
IA couldn't achieve substa tia1 progress
ri What force is it that gets thing
an done in a legislative or any othe
"a way in this country? Is it the big
Is unwield1y mass, sWayfng hither ant
n. thither without leader and not know
to ing just what 1t wants, or, if 1t does
rht how to go about getting it? No. 1t
IAN the intelligent, skillful, faithful few
,av who cling together, who never get Of
ras the job, who are awake when the ma
500 jority is asleep who remember Whe
We ! the majority forgets. Just remln
your congressman or senator Of thes
-, principles of human nature when mex
Ia they tell you that they're dying
of enact measures that would prove the1
~ the farmers friend, but that they'r
vou in minority.
NIT Just let any representative or SEN
-;oo tor believe in a farmers measu1
var strong enough today, and get up 9
o.s the floor of the house and senate an
talk loud enough and long enoue
ion. about it-and I guarantee his &C
.on, leagues, with an eye on their own r
I'D election and on the chaotic nation
t,uo political situation, will be scared
i'm. they'll listen and get busy.
of In legislation in which We are
how terested, or in issues in the, pendi1
campaign, hold candidates to a pc
= sonal accountability! Don't let the
:. squirn. Don't let them blind you wi
,o,,r excuses. Paralyze the squirmers al
the excuse makers. Trim the hedge1
In this critical political year they
: - got to take stand fatfooted, one W
or the other. The fences OF eve
~ party are Keeling and rocking. TIL
~ won't support straddlers
eAos Merely as an illustration, take t
U.s. oN1, parcels post. Every farmer wants
a. and so agitated are both parties, a
seo' all factions, about corraling the far
-, ~ ers' vote, that we're likely to get
~ parcels post, not because the pe
tician wants specially to sgiVe 1t, t
- because he's afraid not to give
rood W 49,, ao,ra rieh+ in orr dema
cat 80 49, =. 81. o+1ar raforme Pre-
;, it while the men who must grant it {
sens in a position where they can't put
very wall behind their backs. At the rece
ohe state convention Of the union in &c
VI gia a resolution was unanimou
. on passed calling upon every member
uIuS -. q ao1orraec.ianol da1auat