The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-11-08
The Activities of the Missouri
Farmers Association

ISOLATION. C. F. Austin is Secretar,
of the county Association and has ar
office in the court house at Memphis
He receives a salary of $125 pei
month, which is derived from the SOC
county dues which every member pays
together with an assessment of pei
cent on the gross volume of business
done by the County Ashland moi
only does this revenue pay Mr.. Aus.
tins salary but there is a handsome
surplus in the County Treasury al
the present time. Mr.. Austin is the
Fright hand man" of the 81 school
house Farm Clubs and he is "on the
job" constantly. Last June he dis.
tributed two carloads of binder Irvine
while during the recent summer he
shipped in enough coal not only to
supply his 1900 members, but enough
also for every rural school in the
county. And this isn't saying any
thing about the many carloads of
flour, mill feed, cotton seed meal and
cake, linseed oil meal, tankage, pota-
toes, ETC., which he has distributed at
a saving which runs into the thou
sands of dollars. But Mr.. Austin per-
forms much other service. If mem
Der wants to buy or sell some seed,
Mr.. Austin sees that buyer and seller
get. together-and both save money.
If member is in the market for some
stock hogs, or if he has carload of
corn or oats for sale, Mr.. Austin
again gets busy and once more both
parties to the transaction are money
in pocket. Since the Farm Club
Movement is friendly to the country
town, the regular mercantile lines are
never invaded and only such commodi-
ties as feed, flour, coal, binder Irvine,
etc, are dealt in; in other words, the
Farm Clubs are vastly more interested
in getting Square deal" on the
farmers grain and live stock than on
what he has to buy--although the
saving on the above "side lines" will
run into many thousands of dollars in
any average county and reimburse the
members many times over for their
yearly dues. Also a Federal Farm
Loan ASSN has been formed and if
farmer wants to borrow money at the
lesser rate from the Government, Mr.,
Austin attends to all the details for
him. Altogether the plan represents
the most complete form of farmers
organization yet perfected and the
farmers Of Scotland county are ire
mendously pleased over it because not
only is it saving them a pile of mon
ey but when they have knotty prob
lem of some kind, they have a man
constantly at their beck and call who
is paid to help them solve it. There
is no buster place in Memphis, Mo-,
than the office of C. F. Austin, Secre-
tary of the Scotland County Farmers
Assn. just now Mr.. Austin is laying
the groundwork for several farmers
elevators and number of Live Stock
Shipping Associations. The first years
dues in the Missouri Farmers Assn
is $3.50 and the second year $1.50. 1t
has no connection with the State Col
lege of Agriculture but is move
ment purely of for and by the far
mers themselves.
A Great Farmers Conclave
During the first week of January,
the 20 odd directors of the Missouri
Farmers Association will hold a
weeks session at Columbia-and per-
haps will be the most interesting CON
clave Of the kind ever held in the his
tory of American Agriculture. There
have been meetings galore where the
farmers were the audience" and
where the "eXperts" told them by the
hour what to do "to be saved Then
there have been other meetings ga
lore where bankers and business men
sat in solemn judgement on the al
legged short comngs of the farmer,
while the said farmer himself was un-
consernedly shopping the pigs miles
away. But this time the experts, the
bankers and the bushes men will be
invited to go way back and sit down"
and keep their heads shut until they
are spoken to-for the old che farmer"
is going to get on the job himself and,
placing the spittoon where it will be
in proper range, he will, as N. J. Ball
one of the directors from Montgomery
County puts it, "try to find out what
in the Devil is the matter with a pile
of things"
First and formost the present sys-
tenn of marketing grain and live stock
is to come in for thorough airing
and it is not improbable that some of
the big grain spectators and packers
will be asked to be present in person
and state face to face why they should
not be shot at sunrise. And this Is
not by any maens said altogether in
jest-for the Missouri Farmers As
ISOLATION is on the "war path" On this
whole matter as no farmers organic
alton in the Country ever was be-
fore. In this connection, the build
ing of big farmer owned flour mill
with capacity to supply 100000 far
mer families will also receive consid-
eration-for already the project is un-
der way. Then too, the building of
Farmers Elevators and organization
of Live Stock Shipping Ass'ns will
come in for lot of attention.
Next, Pure Seed Law, Dog Law
and law against the organization of
ill advised Farmers Companies" of
one kind another will be whipped into
final shape at that time. Also, the
question of the right kind of rural
school will receive attention such as
it has never received from any group
of farmers before. The men at the