The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-08-20

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l realized as a boy all the privations
and nardships which the farmers in
the South have anywhere to endure.
have worked many a day to make
cotton which sold for six cents a
pound-for less than the cost Of pro-
duction; and the most poignant bit .
terness of my life, apart from be-
reavementS, was when l heard the
threat Of a mortgage foreclosure for
our little farm home. If / know my
own heart, / have no higher am
bitiOn than to be of. service to other
Southern farm boys such as | was, to
other struggling Southern farmers
such as my father was, and to other
mother was. And l am fighting for
the Farmers Union because 1 be-
lieve it is one Of the best of all
agencies for helping them-because
it means self help.
What we ought to aim at all over
the South is the development of a
great rural civilization such as Sir
Horace Plunkett has wrought out in
Ireland and such as others have
wrought out in Denmark. / should
rather be the Sir Horace Plunkett of
the SOuth-or hold up the hands of
other Southern Sir Horace Plunketts
abler than II should rather do this
than to have any other distinction:
that could come to me.
Why the Farmers Union is Our Hope.
l come, then, to say that l see no
way to work out such a great rural
civilization in the South, no way to
have such a development of rural
education and rural cooperation, ex-
cept through the organization of the
farmers; and / see no hope of gen
eral organization of the farmers in
this generation except through tie
Farmers Union. How shall they
hear without preacher" There
are ten thousand cooperative enter
prises that should be established, but
the first thing to do is to get the peO.
pie together to discuss their advan-
tages; even If we can get the people
to meeting regularly together in ev-
cry school district in the South to
operate, the cooperation itself will
surely follow-Co-operation that
would take a generation longer to
get if we were without such a mis-
sionary organization as the Union to
start with.
And we are fortunate in that the
Union has learned the lesson taught
by the experience of other farmers
organizations. 1t has learned tire
great folly OF depending upon poll
tical or governmental help instead of
self-help as the way out. 1t is true
that there are many political abuses
that need correcting. But it is so i'm
portant for us in the South to learn
our new lesson-the big. paramount
lesson of NeighbOrhOd Business CO.
operation--that we perhaps ought not
to say word about politics for years
to come, except to throw our influence
for better and longer schools and
other measures affecting education
and cooperation.
"EAiucatiOn and CO-OperatiOn'-The
Magic Formula.
Education and CO-operation-thes
are our two great needs! This must
be our motto and our shibboleth. The
longer | live the more l honor the
memory Of old Newt Graham an6
those other plain, simple farmer }
who formed the first Farmers Edu-
cational and Cooperative Union away
out on the Texas plains and wrote its
Declaration of Purpose! At times it
would seem as If they acted by di-
rect inspiration. The Farmers "Edu-
cdtioHdl anu CO-OperatlVe Union,
they called it-called such to forever
emphasize the idea that Educational
and Cooperation, these two things
and these two only should be the su-
preme aim OF the organization. And
at every local Union meeting and at
every county Union meeting it seems
to me, the one big pre-eminent ques-
tion should be, What can we do in
the line of Education and Co-opera-
ton ? For this is what we are here
for-for Education and Cooperation
and nothing else"
THE greatest result OF agriculture
cooperation in Ireland" as Sir Hor-
ace Plunkett said to me last year, "is
not the profits we have made, but
the fact that we have made business
men of farmers" They have worked
out new civiliZation-have learned
to believe in themselves and in their
neighbOrs have learned to do team