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

stored products as the basis of credit.
cient to enable the marketing of pro-
ducts in an orderly manner.
Fourth: the Department of Agricul-
ture should collect, tabulate, summa-
| rize, and regularly and frequently pub
lish and distribute to the farmers, full
| information from all the markets of
| the world, so that they shall be as
! well Informed Of their selling position
| as buyers now are Of their buying
position.
Fifth: freedom to integrate the bu-
siness of agriculture by means of con-
solidated selling agencies, co ?ordinat-
ing and cooperating in such way as to
| put the farmer on an equal footing
with the large buyers of his products,
! and with commercial relations in 9TH
er industries.
When business requires specializ-
ed talent, it has to buy it. So will the
farmers; and perhaps the best way for
| them to get it would be to utilize some
of the present machinery of the larg-
est tablished agencies dealing in
farm. roducts. Of course, if he wishes
gage in flour-milling and other manu-
features of food products. In my opin-
ion, however, he would be wise to
| stop short Of that. Public interest
may he opposed to all great integra-
tions; but, in Justice, should they be
forbidden to the farmer and permit
ted to others? The corporate form of
| association cannot now be wholly
adapted to his objects and conditions.
The looser cooperative form seems
more. generally suitable. Therefore,
he wishes to be free, if he finds it de-
! sirable and feasible, to resort to CO.
operation with his fellows and neigh
! bors, without running afoul of the
| should have the same liberty to con-
solidate and coordinate their peculiar
economic functions, which other in
dustries in their fields enjoy is not,
however, to concede that any bust
ness integration should have legisla-
tive sanction to exercise monopolistic
power. The American people are as
firmly opposed to industrial as to po-
litical autocracy, whether attempted
by rural or by urban industry
For lack of united effort the farm
ers as a whole are still marketing
their crops by antiquated methods, or
by no methods at all, but they are
surrounded by business world that
has been modernized to the last min
ute and is tirelessly striving for eff
cheney. This efficiency is due in large
measure to big business, to united bu-
siness, to integrated business. The
farmers now seek the benefits Of such
largeness, union and integration.
The American farmer is modern
Of the moderns in the use of labor
saving machinery, and he has made
vast strides in recent years in scien-
tific tillage and efficient farm man.
agement, but as a business in contact
with other businesses agriculture is
a "one horse shay" in competition
with high power autom obiles. The
American farmer is the greatest and
most intractable Of individualists.
While industrial production and all
phases of the huge commercial me-
chanism and it's myraid accessories
have articulated and co-ordinated
themselves all the way from natural
raw materials to retail sales, the
business of agriculture has gone on in
much the one man fashion of the back
woods Of the first part, Of the nine
teenth century, when the farmer was
self sufficient and did not depend up
on, or care very much, what the great
world was doing. The result is that
the agricultural group is almost as
much at a disadvantage in dealing
with other economic groups as the
jay farmer of the funny pages in the
hands Of sleek urban confidence men,
who sell him acreage in Central Park