The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-11-12

/ $4,000, 100000 Indebtedness taxes in
surance, hired help and farm equip
ment. Our net income is approx
mately 100000, of $500 per
farm, or $100 per capita for the So,
100000 Of people living on the farms.
This must pay for the food that is not
grown on the farm, fuel, lights, re.
pairs, improvements, household furni-
ture and utensils, clothing; for the
expense Of sickness and of death; fol
education and maintenance Of the
country churches.
Our meager incomes are not sufi-
cient to beauty our homes and make
country life what it should be, and
our ambitious boys and girls fly at
the dawn Of manhood and womanhod
to the city, to begin lifes battle in
ether vOcations. Our old farmers are
filling the cemeteries, and our young
men the towns and cities. The farm
population is decreasing in many To-
calities, not because the consumer
does not pay enough, but because the
farmer does not receive enough. The
greatest fault is in distribution. The
farmers receives $6,O0O,OOO,OOO, the
consumer pays $13,OOO,0 100000. The
Farmers Union believes in equity,
justice and the Golden Rule. So let's
make what seems to be a fair division
of this $4,000, 100000. Give the re-
taller $1,5O0, 100000, wholesaler and
jobber $1,000, 100000, transportation
$1,000, 100000, loss in handling, and
miscellaneous. 100000, leaving
to the farmer $4,000, 900, 900, or $3,-
OOO,OOO,OO0 more than he does get.
This would increase his gross income
90 per cent or double his net income,
or pay our farm Indebtedness in two
years, or pay off all mortgages in one
year. AS every dollar in this country
circulates or changes hands an aver
age Of II times per annum we lose
enough money to do $G3, 900, 900, 900
worth of business. To change these
conditions and save this waste the
farmers must cooperate. In order to
cooperate they must organize. All,
there you are! You are told that you
cannot organize the farmer, and fail
ures Of the past are pointed out to
prove the assertion.
Well, do other vOcatiOns surren-
der and quit the fight on account Of
failures? Merchants fail and heir
goods go into the hands of receivers
but no one says to the mercantile
world: Close your DOORS" Railroad
companies fail, trains run off the
track, cars and freight are destroyed,
passengers are killed, and attorneys
wind up those companies, but rail
roads still run. Our 100000 ministers
Of the gospel preach approximately
100000 sermons per annum, yet
two-thirds Of the people in this coun-
try are not church-goers, but certain
ly no one would advise discharging
the ministers and closing the church
houses. We have lawyers defending
people for crime in every court in the
country, while others prosecute crimi-
nals-they cannot always convict the
guilty nor acquit the innocent, but we
do not advise the lawyers to close
their offices and quit their profession,
because they make a few failures.
Physicians do not succeed in keep
ing everybody from sickening and
dying, for we have 100000 deaths
in the United States per annum; $780,
600 of these are untimely. We have
an average Of 100000 sick people
every day, and spend $4,000, 900, 900
every year on account of sickness and
death, but will we refuse to take any
more medicine because physicians fail
to cure everybody?
We have had a bank failure every
four days since the civil wyar (aver
aging week Of bank failures every
month"; Depositors have lost ST.
600, 100000 in Dank failures in a half
century, but will we advocate closing
the banks and bury our money in the
ground and all go back to miserdom
just because a bank sometimes fails?
To argue that the farmers should Quit
and not try to organuize on account Of
past failures, would be an unparal-
eled exhibition of unblushing gall or
extreme ignorance.