Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1922-11-01

piOuuCISs epoCldl privileges ana SpG-
cial advantages for getting the upper
hand Of other classes, and for this
reason these attorneys declared :he
cooperative marketing law is un-
constitutional and must be swept of
the statute books.
II!
These, my friends, were the
charges that the hired opponents of
cooperative marketing repeated over
and over again before The court.
Thank God, the mask is off. Here
after when you hear some one saying
that cooperative marketing won't
amount to anything" and doesn't
promise anything to the farmer" just
l'omind him Of the sworn charges
made by the opponents OF co-opera-
tive marketing as they fought for
their lives in Nashville court. These
men are lighting cooperative mar
keting because it really does prom
isc to become powerful enough to
make the farmer master OF his own
industry. They are lighting to con-
troll the Legislatures Of North Caro-
lima, South Carolina and Virginia
next time so as to repeal the coop
erative marketing law bechuse they
admit that 1t really does give the
farmer greater advantages than he
has ever before enjoyed in any fight
TO control the products Of his own
labor.
The chief pity and shame Of it Is
| that these special interests are using
and will continue to use some So
called farmers as their dupes. tools
and cat'S-paws in this conspiracy to
keep the farmer forever at their
=,
self farmer, but who admitted that
he was now in the employ Of . ware
house fighting cooperative market
ing-he was one Of the two men de-
Tending themselves against the
charge Of having violated their con-
tract and their pledge to their bro
Their farmers. And. as ] stood in The
court houSc at Nashville. q loyal far
mer pointed to another man passing
through the crowd and said, with a
sound Of kissing through his tooth:
There goes a cOntract-brcaker."
And there was look and lonth
ing on this loyal farmers face as if
he had seen Judas lscariot passing
by with his thirty pieces OF silver, or
sfame-cursed Benedict Arnold with
his bag Of traitors gold.
| This is the spirit we have got to
develop among farmers. SO long as
q farmer really has the consent of
his mind and conscience to stay out
Of this great fight, it is not for me to |
| condemn him or rebuke him. He
must decide for himself. But once
man has decided and signed the con-
tract, he should keep the faith as
your ancestors and mine kept the
faith when they followed Washing
ton at Valley Forge or Lee at Gettys-
burg, and risked all and dared all
rather than hand down to their chill
dren and children's children the
shame of being traitor to ones fell
| lows.
I repeat that to the man who has
not signed, | would leave This mat
ter on his mind and conscience-the
question whether you can leave it to
your brother farmers to fight thisI
| battle alone.
Whether you realize it or not, 1t
is the world-old battle against privi-
| lege. What | saw in Nashville court
was but another effort on the part
Of greed and privilege to do that
which Isaiah rebuked three thousand
years ago--''To turn aside the needy
| from Judgment and to take away the
! right from the poor OF my people"
| To-day as then, with the spoil of
the poor in their houses" the bene-
iciares Of greed "hayc drawn out
the sword and have bent the bow
to cast down the poor and needy"
The men who have fattened on the
farmer, the men who have gyt
rich and powerful handling his pro-
ducts, are determined at all haza 'ds
not to let the farmer get for his own
needy wife and children the profits
that have heretofore enriched the
middlemcn and spectators. The
teaching Of all history, as George II.
stevenson says in our thought for
the week this time, is that the far
mer can never---in fact, no one can
cver-prosper as Il mere producer Of
raw materials. The men who dig
| coal live in huts; the men who sell
and handle it live in fine houses.
The men who cut timber and run
lumber saws live in Shacks and cab
ms; the men who manufacture lum-
Der and sell it are we'll housed. The
men who grow cattle make small pro-
flis; the packers, the distributors,
are prosperous. The men who make
peanuts arc poor; the cleaners and
distributors are wealthy. The men
who make cotton and tobacco and
sugar cane live humbfy; those who
| buy and handle and manufacture
these products live more prosper
OuSly.
| And so the farmer IS fighting to-
day for Il larger share Of the. wealth
thai he creates. ltc is fighting to be
something more than 4 producer OF
raw materials. He is fighting to get
and keep for himself the profits that
come from handling and distribute
| nd /, Iici,