The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-10-10
BARRETT PLEADS WITH
FARMERS TO ORGANIZE
The Protection of The Country Need
ed In Present Great Crisis of
>, Industrial World

sident of the Farmers Union, has is
sued the following call to the farm
ers of the United States to organize.
To the Farmers of the United States:
We are facing in our country,
which you have done so much to build
up, the most troublous times that it
has ever known. The forces of capt.
tai and or organized labor after many
years of constant struggle and tenn
porary agreement seemed to have
joined issue in a much sharper way
than ever before.
The President has called a confer
ence of these forces, the purpose of
which is to see if better relations
can be establish in our industrial life.
There is today no man alive wise
enough to foresee what is to be the
result of that conference. The pos
sibilities for god or evil are beyond
calculation, and the results will af-
feet either favorably or unfavorably
every human being in this broad land.
From the foundation of our coun-
try up to the present, you have been
the real conserving force. Staying
at home as you do, leading a rather
isolated life, as you do, you have
naturally developed strong indivi-
dualism and self-reliance, which
makes it hard for you to cooperate
with your fellows. The conditions
which have arisen and which are not
of your making, are such that it may
be necessary for you to move in a
new direction. In every emergency
which our country has ever had to
face, you have responded. 1t was
embattled farmers who won our
struggle for independence, In every
war from that day to this you have
shed your blood freely. In every
crisis, you have met, without stint,
every call that has ben made upon
you In this last great war, when you
were told that food must win the war,
notwithstanding your shortage of
help; Notwithstanding the hundreds
of thousands of your sons gone to the
front, you put on high pressure and
turned loose such an immense sup
ply of all necessary foodstuffs as en-
abled our people not only to feed
themselves, but to feed Europe, and
this, more than any other one thing,
led to the triumph of our cause.
You had right to expect that you
would be allowed to sit down in peace
to til your fields, to look after your
flocks and herds, and to enjoy such
leisure as your labor would permit,
without having to face, Immediately,
another great crisis. Despite your
efforts to do your part, the conditions
referred to have brought upon the
country the most dangerous crisis it
has ever known This means that in
addition to tilling your fields and
attending to your own affairs you
must take up questions of govern
mental and social policies more ac-
lively and more unitedly than you
have ever done before.
You represent the largest sinble
element in our population; you re-
present the largest invested capital
of any industry, and anything there
fore, which Injuries the country in
lures more farmers and larger in
vested capital then can be possible
to any other class.
1t becomes therefore, necessary
for you to act, not only as matter
of self protection to yourselves, but
of saving the whole United States
from the evil results which will fol-
low failure of the conference which
has been called.
The purpose of this address is to
call your attention to the facts. as
they now exist, and TO ask that you
will organize more thoroughly, more
unanimously and more promptly than
YOU have ever before done or thought
of doing, in order that you may be in
a position by reason of your num-
bers and the political power in these
number to do those things which
may become necessary to restore a
conditions of health to the country
which you have so faithfully served,
and which it may be truthfully said
is now in danger.
Let US urge you therefore, to move
at once. Forget all your past ex-
periences in this direction, the strong
man does not stop because Of one
failure, or two failures, or three
failures, and the urgency of the sit
uation is such that you cannot afford
to let any past experiences or pats
prejudices deter you one moment IN
getting in elbow touch with your fell
lows in order that your children and
your children's children may be pre-
served from calamity.
CHAS. S. BARRETT.
Union City, Ga, Sept. 27, 1919.