The Monroe journal., 1922-02-03
NOR 4 PERSONAL MATTER AT
ALL


that q bad economic system OF which
the business Of farming seems to be
the victim. is an individual affair the
result Of personal planning and plot
ting based upon hostility TO farm
ers as individuals.
w nave never known a man VINO
contributed thought worth two
cents on the subject to lake this view
Of Il. Nor have we ever known any
one with brains enough 70 grease
simlet take the attitude towards
farmers which Mr. Roddy assumes
that all other people take. The day
is past when epithets and inliscrim-
mate vituperation can set,le any
question. much less a great one ike
this. The time has passed when fists
and blows can settle even personal
differences.
None are striving harder to get at
the foundation Of the defects in this
huge economic system tha, modern
life has built up SO ponderously and
efectually that it runs like a huge
iuggernaut over the vocation in which
fifty per cent Of our people are en-
gagged, than the men who are not
engaged in it. Such men as these
will be the ones who will find the dif-
feulty and help solve it, and not the
unjust and vindictiye variety to
which Mr.. Roddy prefers to attach
himself.
The farmers are now making what
is believed to be a sound and logical
effort to establish the principle and
practice OF cooperative marketing.
There are some two by fours who
class themselves as business men who
oppose this. Perhaps they are the
game which Mr. Roddy is firing at,
Judging by his ammunition. But no bus
mess man who is student of business
rather than a mere nickle catcher, is
seeking to put anything in the way;
rather are they trying to help it. For
instance, the morning paper contain
ed an item to the effect that the
chamber of commerce Of Goldsboro
had passed a resolution endorsing the
movement in that locality Edmund
Burke said that you could not indict
a people. If all the non-farming peo-
pie entertained the sentiments that
Mr.. Roody attributes to them it
would be terrible comment on the
human race.
Let us have done with such child
ishness as this. 1t can do no one any
good but may injure those who have
no better sense. No one knows any
better than this paper that the busi-
ness Of farming has been caught at
a great disadvantage and that these
disadvantages must be overcome, not
only if farmers are to prosper, but
even if the country is to live. But no
enc knows better, also, that talk of
this kind will not contribute penny's
worth to that end. The farmers diff
ficulty is not his alone. Neither is it
different from that of most other bus
inesses. These difficulties are not
the result of any conspiracy or i'll will
among other classes. They have re-
suited from an evolution of modren
economic methods which no one will
ed, no one planned, and no one con-
sc;ously directed. But it will require
thought, understanding, cooperation
and leadership to correct them. No
amount of the seed of ill will, resent
ment, and chagrin, will do it.
1t is true that farmers must sell
their products for what they can get.
So does the producer Of all other raw
material So do most of the dwellers
of the towns and cities whom Mr..
Roddy rails against, for the great
mass Of these have only Their labor
to sell and for this they get only what
is given them. The only exception
to this rule is such labor as has been
able to effectually organize itself.
Many Of the farmers are now trying
to so organize that they can dictate
the price of their labor which goes
to the marke. in the form of raw pro-
ducts, ye. an organizer recently told
rs that it was like pulling eye teeth
TO get a farmer to sign up for coop
erative marketing.
We believe that the error of our
whole system is based upon the mon
opolization of natural resources, in
cluding land values. These unearned
values accumulate yearly in the hands
of non producers and they are the
largest force piling up the useless
wealth which makes a store for the
support of hordes of useless workers
or idlers. Upon this mass of ever in
ereasing wealth taken out of produc-
tion and wholly usless to production,
rests the expensive manufacturing
n 4 l.