The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1913-01-31
FARMERS CIVIL AND BUSINESS
ASSOCIATION.
Enthusiastic Meeting Held At Call
vert Addresses By Prom
lnent Speakers.

held their first public meeting at Rose
bank Hall, Calvert. Saturday. January
I25th. j. P. Shippers presiding.
The hall was filled with farmers. The
close attention given to the speakers. and
the character of the questions which were
asked, promised very big for the future
success of the organization.
Prof. Wilmer Krusen Of Temple Uni-
versity, reviewed the evolution Of roads.
from the early trail to the highest devel-
opment Of road building He said the
cost of wagon transportation in the United
States is three times as much as it Is in
Europe This condition is not due to an
| insufficient amount of money being ex
/ pended on roads in the United States, but
is due to the enoi nous waste in road con-
struction and repair. This waste is due
to three causes:
Ist Lack Of comprehensive plan for
building and maintenance Of permanent
roads. aud repair of dirt roads,
end. Inefficient road supervisors and
engineers.
| 3rd Lack of organized effort on the
part of farmers to insist upon the right
kind of road building and repair.
| Prof. L. c. Corbett, head of the Pomo-
logical and Vegetable Gardening Investi-
CATION at Washington, spoke on the nee
essity OF farmers organizing. In the
early days of this country there was but
very little money exhanged in the transac-
tion Of business. 1t was nearly all
matter of barter. and there was not the
necessity for organized effort in either
lbuying or selling. But now the days of
barter have passed. and money is the
common medium of exchange, lndepen-
/ dence and individualism must give way
to Organization and cooperation, and for
the cooperation to be successful from
business standpoint it must be composed
of group of men who will stand together
and in such an organization the fraternal
spirit is not enough. It must have
lstronger chain, and some form of a forfeit
for lack Of good faith.
land selling All the farmrs' products
should be sold through the Exchange,
land many Of the things which he pnr-
chases, such as fertilizers and seeds.
could be brought through the Exchange.
This would result in saving to the farm
er each year of very considerable money.
1 With reference to the increased prices
which would result to the farmer from
Iselling bis products through the Exchange
Prof. Corbett explained that the farmers
Hproducts were heldin storage in certain
large cities. To illustrate, we will say
Scranton, Pa, draws from New York
City, and the Farmers Exchange Of Cal
3vert, Md, instead of shipping to New
York City, would ship directly to Scran-
ton, and Scranton would pay F. o. B.
cars Rising Sun. Md. the same price that
they would pay F. O. B. cars New York
lCity, and thus the freight between Rising
Sun and New York City would be saved
to the farmers working through the Ex-
lchange. and the consumers in Scranton.
while paying the New York City prices,
Hwould have the satisfaction of knowing
that the goods were very much fresher.
and could be relied upon. This saves the
profits that heretofore have gone to
several different people, and to do this it
is necessary to be organized. Every
other line of business is organized, and
the farmer must meet organization with
Organization, and capital with capital. In
the future there would be no competition,
o-operaton would rule, and farmers
must get into that game.
Frank E. Williams. editor of the Cecil
Whig. in ringing speech reviewing the
local situation, deplored the high tax rate,
the failure to make proper assessments,
and mentioned that there were many
valuable properties in Cecil County that
were not assessed or taxed at all, some of
these properties being valued at ten
to fifteen thousand dollars each. He
predicted that unless present methods
i were changed taxes would merely in
crease. He claimed that the county
would not be able to bear the expanse of
the present method of road building and
the waste from the inefficient repair Of
i dirt roads.
With an organization such as is pro-
posed. the farmers could and would get
together. and they could be able. as a re-
suit of their organization, to comand at
tention when bills of interest tosthe farm
er, were before the State Legislature. All
taxes are regulated to very great extent
by the state appropriations and legisla-
ton. therefore 1t would become of para
/ mount importance to those who paid taxes
to see that the proper legislation was had.
The Rev. w. H. Briggs. and the Rev.
B. !. Brinkema each made ringing
speech in favor of the organization. and
urged the farmers to join. Membership
/ application blanks were then distributed,
and nearly fifty of the farmers signed.
A committee was appointed, consisting of