Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-12
State HeadQuartery Of
american Farm Bureau
Are MOUed TO <4tIQnta

IL IL ~ Il II ~ y
Headquarters of the Georgia branch
of the American Farm Bureau Fed
Grafton, which was recently attacked
by L. B. Jackson, director of the
state bureau of markets, have been
moved from Athens to Atlanta, with
offices in the chamber of commerce,
and the publicity department of the
organization has issued statement
saying the farmers of Georgia are
dominated and subsidized by purely
personal and political influences"
Coincident with the opening of
state headquarters in Atlanta and
the issuance of the above statement,
J. H. Mills, president OF the Farm
ers' Union of Georgia. has given out
statement replying to certain ref
erences to his organization contained
in a recent editorial in the Southern
Ruralist. The editorial was written
as a reply to L. 3. Jackson's attack
on the American Farm Bureau Fed
Grafton, and the statement was made
in the editorial that the farm Or
CARNATIONS of the south have no
voice In national 6IIdifS.
Recently in Washington before a
congressional committee investigat-
ing the An erican Farm Bureau
Federation. L. 3. Jackson testified
that the federation was not u bona
fide organization of farmers endeaV-
terests of the country, but was
private organization privately ma
nipulated by private interests Tor
their own ends, and that its methods
Il
board He further testified that
county demonstration agents We're
being used as organizers for the
American Farm Bureau Federatlon.
He considered it improper Tor these
agents, being employees OF the pup
lie, to be used for purposes OK prl-
vate exploitati zion.
on the American Farm bureau FEEDER
alton, the Southern Ruralist. farm
paper published in Atlanta took the
position that existing farm or gan1za-
tions of the south have no national
Influence, and that the south needs
such an organization as the Amer1-
can Farm Bureau Federation to rep
resent it's interests,
Bureau Statement
This reflection upon the Farmers
Union is resented by j. II. MILLS,
president of the Georgia branch, in
statement replying to the southern
In a Statement issued by the Geor-
gia branch of the American Farm
Bureau Federation, the following
statements are made with reference
to existing farm organizations:
'"The need for an effective work
ing machine entirely free from po-
litical or partisan obligations and al
filiatiors is felt just as keenly by the
farmers of the north and west as II
is by the farmers OF Georgia, where
Il f.,I nd thciG nv
purely personal and political 1nf!u-
ences.
"The American Farm Bureau Fed
Grafton, though scarcely year old,
has become recognized as body OF
intelligence and strength by reason
of it's large and rapidly increasing
membership, but more especially be-
cause of the high character and in
telligence of it's individual members.
Its official acts and utterances
and moderate in their demands. This
conservatism has characterized its
activities within the states. 1t has
already come to be recognized as an
order of great usefulness and lnflu-
ence. Legislative bodies and eXecu-
tive officials are giving respectful
consideration to it's recommendations
and recognize it as an able and use
full adviser and ally in working out
the many knotty problems that beset
our agriculture as result OF war
upheavals. The bureau commands
the defe"ential respect of Intelligent
people in all callings."
Mr.. Mills in his defense of the
Farmers union, of which the Geor-
gia branch, headed by him, is a COM
ponent part, takes sharp exception to
the assertion by the Southern Rural
list that the farm organizations OF
the south have no voice in national
Mr.. Mills, Statement
Mr.. Mills reminds the Ruralist of
some of the work accomplished by
the Georgia branch of the Farmers
union, as follows:
l.. Establishment of the cotton
warehouse that was the first to be-
come d bonded warehouse; 2, organl-
zation of the cooperative associa-
ton that built the first grain eleVa-
tor in Georgia; 3, passage of the law
legalizing farmers cooperative asso-
Citations in Georgia; 4, successfully
urging a great increase in the COM
mon school appropriation of the
state; 5, in supporting the bill estab-
fishing the district agricultural
schools.
With regard to national affairs,
Farmers union is a part of the Ma
tional Farmers union, and that the
National Farmers union is a mem
Der of the National Board of Farm
Organizations, and that Charles S,
Barrett, a Georgian, is chairman OF
the national board and president Of
the national union. He says that
the National Board of Farm Organl-
cations is supported by the leading
farm organizations of the country,
embracing all lines of farming, and
that it maintains an office building
in Washington, with information bu
reaus, assembly halls, committee
rooms, etc.
The National Farmers union and
the National Board of Farm Organi-
cations, acting separately or jointly,
Mr.. Mills goes on to say, have sue
cessfully promoted the following leg
iSlatiOn:
To authorize cooperative organi-
cations of farmers for buying and
selling; to repeal the daylight-sav-
ing law: to establish a parcel post
system; to establish federal farm
loan banks; to establish a federal
bureau Of markets.