The Monroe journal., 1922-10-27
THROW OFF
THEIR SLEEPS CLOTHING
Continued from page onel

lal advantages for getting the upper
hard OF other classes, and for this
reason these attorneys declared the
cooperative marketing law Is uncon-
stitutional and must be swept of the
statute books.
IL.
"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 someone saying
that cooperative marketing Won't
amount to anything" and Doesn't
promise anything 10 the farmer, Just
remind him ~ the sworn charges
made BY the opponents of co-o9era-
tive marketing as they fought for
their lives in Nashville Court. These
men are fighting cooperative market
ing because II really does promise to
become powerful enough to make the
farmer master of his own industry.
They are fighting to control the legis-
latures Of North Carolina, South Car
clina. and Virginia next time so as
to repeal the cooperative marketing
law because they admit that It really
does give the farmer greater advant-
ages than he has ever before enjoyed
n any fight % control the products
of his own labor.
Ill.
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 eats paws in this conspiracy TO
keep the farmer forever al their
mercy. Il was a man who calls HIM
self farmer but who admitted that
he was now in the employ of ware
house fighting cooperative marketing
he was one Of the two men defend
ing themselves against the charge of
having violated their contract and
their pledge to their brother farmers.
And as | stood in the courthouse in
Nashville, . loyal farmer pointed to
another man passing through the
crowd and said with sound of hiss
ing through his teeth:
There goes a contract breaker,
And there was look and loath
ing on this loyal farmers face as if
he had seen Judas lscarot passing by
with his thirty pieces of silver or
shame-eursei Benedict Arnold with
his bag Of trai or's gold.
That is the spirit we have got to .
develop among farmers. So long as
a farmer really has the consent OF
his mind and conscience TO stay out
of this great fight. il is not for me to .
condemn him or rebuke him. He mus;
decide for himself But once a man
has decided and signed the contract,
he should keep the faith as your an
cestors and mine kept the faith when
they followed Washington at Valley
Forge or Lee at Gettysberg, and risk
ed all and dared all rather than hand
down to Their children and ehildren's .
children the shame of being a traitor
to ones fellows.
".
~ repeat that 10 the man who has I
MT signed. | would leave this matter
on his mind and conscience-the ques-
ton whether you can leave il to our
brother farmers to fight this battle
alone.
whether you realize it or not, it
is the world-old battle against priv
ilege. 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"
Today as then, with the spoil of
the poor in their houses" the bene-
ficiaries Of greed "have 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 grown
rich and powerful handling his pro-
ducts, are determined at all hazards
not to let the farmer get for his own
needy wife and children the profits
that have heretofore enriched the I
middlemen and spectators. The
teaching of all history, as George II.
Stevenson says in our thought for 4
the week this time, is that the farm
er can never-in fact no one can ever
prosper as mere producer of raw
materials. The men who dig coal
live in huts; the men who sell and
handle it in fine houses.
"The men who cut timber and run
lumber-saws live in shacks and cab
ms; the men who manufacture lumber
and sell it are well housed The men
who grow cattle make small profits;
the packers. the distributors. are
prosperous. The men who make pea
nuts are poor; the cleaners and dis
tribu.ors are wealthy. The men who
make cotton and tobacco and sugar
cane live humbly; those who buy and
handle and manufacture these pro-
ducts live more prosperously.
And so the farmer is fighting to-
day for larger share of the wealth
that he creates. He is fighting to
be something more than a producer
of raw materials. He is fighting to
get and keep for himself the profits
that come from handling and distribu-
ting, and wiser handling and distribu-
tion--of the products of his soil He
lis fighting to bring about a realiza-
ton Of the prophecy uttered nearly
three thousand years ago
They shall build houses and in
habit them; and they shall plant
vineyards and eat the fruit of
them They shall not build and
another inhabit; they shall not
plant and another eat"
"Nor do I think II too much to ha