The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsIxIN, Director.
Washington, ID. G.
WHAT TWO MILLION FARMER
WANT

WHAT TWO MILLION FARMERS
| WANT.
1 Washington, d. c.. Dec. 21.-Two
million farmers organized into a ma
tional association with headquarters
in Washington constitute one of the
| have grown up since the last time We
| elected a president
New political organizations, mostly
of liberal or radical type, are, becom-
Liberal Party have been created
| recently, and have made plans for con-
ventions. There is also a more or less
| political organization of soldiers. Now
1 comes to the fore national
farmers organization which appears
to have real strength and which tells
congress very plainly what 1t wants.
Big business is and always has been
| we'll. tho inconspicuously, organized
! for political purposes. Little business
lifts up a voice OF growing volume
| thru various associations The only
thing we lack is a national association
| of small-salaried consumers. A call
! is hereby issued for convention to be
held as soon as possible and wherever
/ the local lunch room proprietors will
guarantee the delegates five cent milk
| and ten cent pie.
, Returning to the two million farm
ers, they are members of the national
| board of farm organizations. There
are said to be only about seven million
real land-owning farmers in the
1 this organization speaks for nearly a
third OF them all. 1t was formed
back in 1917 when the necessities of
war time production brought the Of
| ficerS of many minor farm organiza-
tions to Washington, where they got
. to lxnOw-each other and learned to get
along with each other a little better
| than formerly
For farmers are traditionally poor
organizers One of the few things the
| farmer has is independence. He is
insulated from contact with his neigh
! boys by what the poet calls mis- broad
acres. He is not used to making con-
cessions to anyone else's point of view
because he has never had to do so.
He is independent and self-reliant, anS
like most people with those qualities.
he is also suspicious and opinionated.
At least that is the traditional
psychosis of the farmer. To some
/ extent, no doubt, it is the actual one.
But the farmers have always had Or
| ganizations, and have always done
good work with them. The national
| grange has had appreciable effects
upon legislation, and it has recently
opened a national headquarters. too.
1t has confined it's activities mostly to
such On-coEtroversial subjects as
! good roads and rural education.
This new organization is significant
| for two reasons. In the first place
it is an organization of organiza-
tions-most cooperative societies.
| which have been growing in number
| amazingly during recent years. That
cooperative movement to which peo-
| pie everywhere are turning for relief
from the high living cost has really
| grown much faster in the country
than it has in the city While in the
oft % nr -
munity store has succeeded here and
there. the cooperative movement is
still an experiment. In the country
it is an established fact of life. The
farmers, who are supposed to be in
capable of organizing, are now organ
lied all over the country both for buy
ing and for selling. The Farmers
Educational and Cooperative Union
of America, for example, is just one
of about a dozen organizations which
make up the national board. This
union has twenty-five state organiZa- :
tions. and several thousand local
chapters. The purpose of this asso-
citation is to eet better prices for pro-
duee and to buy supplies at lower
prices by communal effort. Other
member organizations of the board in
cIude the National Milk Producers
association. and the National Dairy
union, the Federation of Jewish Farm
ers of America and the Corn Belt
Meat Producers association.
All of these and all of the other
1 organizations back of the board are
| cooperative societies for buying or
for selling or for both. The board
represents the gathering up of all this
cooperative energy into an effort OF
national scope.
It's first and primary purpose is to
promote cooperation. To this end, 1t
has made its first great political fight
z - III Nil
measure is Gesignate1 to remove from
| farmers cooperative ORGANIZATIONS the
restraints which the sherman anti
trust law places upon all organizations
that operate in interstate trade The
Clayton act, amending the sherman
act, specifically exempted from the
operation of the antitrust law, farm
ers' organizations which had no capi-
tai and were not operated for profit.
But some of these organizations have
an operating capital. They want a
clear field to work in interstate COM
4 merce. The Capper-Hersman meas
ure will give them this. 1t will be a
bold candidate who refuses to endorse
this bill.
This board OF, farm organizations is
really a live political organization. 1t
is the rural equivalent of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor. The fedora
tion has recognized this fact by asking
the national board to affiliate with it.
The two organizations have been flirt-
ing with each other for some time
The question whether 1t should affili-
ate with the labor organization was
referred by the board to its mem ber
organizations. They refrained from
acting upon it rather than give labor
direct snub. So the affiliation die
Observation-Disclosures
STheGeoroe N