The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-01-25


population, we should be prepared to
go long way in assisting the farm
ers to get an equitable share of the
wealth they produce, through the in
auguration of reforms that will pro-
cure continuous and increasing
stream of farm products. They are
far from getting a fair share now.
Considering his capital and the long
hours of labor put in by the average
farmer and his family, he is remun-
Grated less than any other occupa-
tional class, with the possible exccp-
tion of teachers, religious and lay.
eral distress of the farmers is exccp-
tional and is linked with the newt
able economic readiustment following
the war, it must be remembered that,
although representing one-third of
the industrial products and half the
total population Of the nation, the
rural communities ordinarily enjoy
but fifth to quarter of the net an
nual national gain. Notwithstanding
the taste of prosperity that the farm
ers had during the war, there is to-
day lower standard of living among
the cotton farmers of the South than
in any other pursuit in the country.
In conclusion, it seems to me that
the farmers are chiefly striving for
generally beneficial intcgration of
their business, of the same kind and
character that other business enjoys.
If it should be found on examination
that the attainment of this end re-
quires methods different from those
! which other activities have followed
for the same purpose should we not
sympathctically consider the plea for
for the right to cooperate, if only
from our own enlightened self inter
est, in obtaining an abundant and
steady flow of farm products?
In examining the agricultural situa-
ton with view to its Improvement,
we shall be most helpful if we main
tain detached and judicial viewpoint
remembering that existing wrongs
may be chiefly an accident of msym-
metrlcal economic growth instead of
a creation of malevolent design and
conspiracy. We Americans arc prone,
as Professor David Friday Welt says
in his admirable book, "Profits, Wages
and Prices," to seek "criminal intent
behind ever ydi1icult and undesirable
economic situation" can positively
assert from my contact with men Of
large affairs, including bankers, that,
as a whole, they are endeavoring to
fulfill as they see them the obligations
that go with their power. Preoccupicd
with the grave problems and heavy
tasks of their own immediate affairs,
they have not turned their thoughtful
personal attention or their construc-
tive abilities to the deficiencies of ag-
ricultural business organization. Ag-
riculturc, it may be said, suffers from
their preoccupation and neglect rath-
er than from any purposeful cXploi-
tation by them. They ought now to
begin to respond to the farmers diff
ficulties, which they must realize are
their own.
| On the other hand, my contacts
with the farmers have filled me with
respect for thcm--for their sanity,
their patience, their balance. Within
the last year, and particularly at a
meeting called by the Kansas State
Board Of Agriculture and at another
called by the Committee Of Seventeen,
| have met many of the leaders of the
new farm movement, and testify in
all sincerity that they are endcavor-
ing to deal with their problems, not
as promoters of a narrow class inter
est, not as exploitcrs of the hapless
consumers, not as mcrciless monopol-
lists, but as honest men bent on the
| Improvement of the common veal.
We can and must meet such men
and such a cause half way. Their
business is our business-the nations
business. Atlanta Monthly.
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