The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-11-26
III ..u.:c+
)u'U1 fM
E.U.C.T.A..

LlIlOOll1 ~ ANOOCCNCANs
For All This-Thanks.
He Is On the March.
Farm Freedom Dawns.
The custom of giving thanks and
expressing gratitude for the harvest,
that brought into the granaries, bins
and storehouses the food and fibre
necessary for the preservation of hui
man life, is not new with this nation
of ours. The pagan people of Greece
and Rome, more than $500 years ago,
brought in the last of the harvest
sheaves, dedicating them to the grain
goddess, Demeter in Greece and Ceres
in Rome. That impulse to give
thanks and show gratitude took new
impetus with the rise and spread Of
belief in one God and of the Christian
faith. Hence when the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth, at the end of
their first ar-1621-they held
feast in October to acknowledge the
bountiful harvest. Not until George
Washington, at the request of con-
gress, issued his proclamation which
set apart November 26, 1889, as day
of Thanksgiving, was formal recogni-
ton given to this festival that is pc
culiarly American. The first nation
wide Thanksgiving proclamation, aft
er that, was that issued by Abraham
Lincoln on October 8, 1863-and every
year since, in good years and in bad,
Thanksgiving has been proclaimed
Lincoln's proclamation begins:
1.-THE year that is drawing toward
it's close has been filled with the bless
ings of fruitful fields and healthful
skies" The words, written 80 years
ago, apply equally to this year. Then,
too, great war racked the nation
as the present war shakes it. Yet
the harvest was hountiful and the
American people then as now were
granted food to win their freedom.
1t is natural therefore to find the
echo of Lincoln in the words of Preyi-
dent Roosevelts proclamation: Our
farmers have gathered and stored
heavy harvest in barns and bins and
cellars. Our total field production for
this year is the greatest in the annals
Of our country" These gifts of Prov
dence at times of great stress and
LANCER in our national history are
worth consideration and invite
and devout acknowledge
nent by every citizen.
Those who are members of the
Farmers Union or stockholders in the
Farmers Union Grain Terminal Asso-
,iation have an added cause for graft
ude. They have seen their co-opera-
i've organization grow amazingly.
they have seen it develop into the
lation's largest grain marketing CO.
operative, with added processing
plants, such as it's durum mill and
,leavtor at Rush City, Mimi, and its
eeds and concentrates mill at Mime
polls. 1t has enlarged it's borders
until they cover eight great north
western states. The man who says
le won his harvest by hard toll and
Who ignores the gift of favoring rain
nd sun on good soil, would be in the
anne position as the man who would
ssert that the building of this great
rain marketing cooperative was sole
Y the work of human hand and brain.
t is written for all to read: Except
be Lord build the house, they labor
n vain who build it."
Nor does our reason for an express
ion of true gratitude end with ma
erial possessions and progress. We
ave seen the Farmers Union take
s place in the nations affairs and
fleet such change in the laws of the
ountry as have brought to the farm
r and his family the protection which
ad been too long denied. He has
ow entrance to the public markets
here formerly he was barred. He
as been aided to step out from the
lralldon of rental of land into the
of it. He has seen his in
3me grow from pittance to some
here near parity with other indus
y. Better than all, he is on the
arch, conscious of his power to aid
mself. That alone calls for a true
at every farm home in
le land
These evil days of war will pass
zen as they did in Lincoln's time.
the farmer will only remain united
Id loyal within his organization,
hen the last gun is silent, he will
lin a new freedom undreamed ofeby
e generations of til1ers of the soil
ho have gone before. He will have
his hand the gift most to be de-
red - freedom from discriminatory
actices and laws and that liberty
nich is the Unborn desire of every
ue American. That era has begun
dawn for the farmer. Let him
We thanks this week for that which
e dawning presages.
WOOD HAS WAR USES