Middletown transcript., 1920-04-17
FARMERS SHOULD ORGANIZE

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FARMERS SHOULD ORGANIZE
FARMERS need TO organize more
: thoroughly for their own protec-
ton. Every other trade. craft or en-
ployment has been thus organized, and
through its Unions seeks with the
greatest care and the keenest attention
to further the interests of its members.
Labor has thus won higher wages.
better working conditions, and many
other benefits, and has, moreover, be-
come power in politics with which
not only politicians but also the govern
ment itself has had to reckon. The
American Federation of Labor. which
claims two million members, has
through such an organization become a
mighty power both in business and in
government.
The Farmer only has till recently re-
NAMED almost solitary, and but slightly
organized. AS a consequence, his in
terests have received scant considera-
ton at the hands of politicians, legis-
lators or business men generally.
AS q political factor the powerful
farmer class has been scarcely more
united than flock Of his own black
birds. Fugitively, as in the free silver
coinage movement, or the greenback
craze, and in a few other politico
nomic movements, he has asserted his
powers, but never continuously or scien-
tifcally as these labor unions all about
him are doing to their own manifest
advantage.
True since 1881 there has been q
Farmers National Congress that has
obtained for him not a few benefits;
and later there has arisen the wider
and more useful Grange movement, and
in various single states organizations
for his special benefit and protection,
such 40 The Farmers Union, of Kan
sas, the Penn. Rural Progress Associa-
tion, etc., besides Cooperative. Socie-
ties which have achieved for the farmer
great economic benefit.
But all these organizations have
fallen far short of the powers and use
fulness of unionized labor methods,
though farmers are at last showing
some inclination to employ these effec-
tive instruments for self-protection.
AS body of men farmers have here
tofore been too conservative. lingering
too much in the rear of other mems ad-
vances and achievements. Perhaps
this is in part a result Of the very
nature Of their business. Their occu-
patton Of necessity isolated them on
their farms remote from the bustling,
progressive town and city life where
the keen competition Of business sharp
ened mems wits and spurred their am
billions; and being thus isolated they
had much less incentive to participate
in the eager, forward, movements Of
those urban dwellers.
Then, too, Science and the college
formerly paid less attention to Agricul
ture than to any other business, and as
9 consequence the farmer was left to
follow methods much out Of date as
compared with those used in the mills
and shops.
All this has been changed to a great
extent, and is rapidly being yet further
changed. Modern machinery has trans.
formed farming, and this, together
with agricultural chemistry and the
study of plant life, is fast placing
farming among the exact sciences.
Finally, comes the last improvement
needed to change completely this i'm
portant and oldest Of the employments
Of men-the Motor, gasoline and cleo
tricity have become the docile slaves Of
the farmer and the farmers wife as
well. It plows and harrows his fields,
plants, reaps, threshes, and garners his
crops and gets them ready for market.
Moreover it transforms the farmers
home, hghtens its drudgery and as
leaves his wife and himself
more leisure for rest, social pleasures
and mental and spiritual cultivation.
Then. too, it brings him, his family and
his workers, closer to the village, town
Or city whittier it whirls them in jiffy
when they so desire.
Therefore, because of all these things
It behooves the farmer to assert him.
self and place his business and interests
upon that scientific basis which only