The Farmer — an Undeveloped Force
By Editor
If we read signs aright, the farmer as an economic and political power must be recognized in this country; and if he has his way, as he seems destined to have, there will not be much of a drop in prices governing the commodities and necessities of life, unless a few thousand or million middlemen who fatten on producer and consumer are left out of the barter and trade between the two important classes. For the indications: November 15 we were, through the courtesy of Messrs. Currier and Lammers, officers of the county organization, a guest of the California state meeting of the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America, held in Odd Fellows' Hall in San Jose. The hall was literally packed with a fine class of men and women, mostly the former. The principal speaker of the occasion was Senator T. J. Brooks of Tennessee, the president of the National organization, who gave an exceedingly impressive, convincing, and powerful address on the rise and necessity of the organization. Its purposes were threefold: (1) To teach the farmer scientific agriculture; (2) to teach scientific marketing; (3) to make the farmer a compact moral force in public life. He stated that12 when this Government was established the farmer owned 90 per cent of the wealth; now he owns 20 per cent; that of the farmers in the country now only 4 per cent were prospering; the 96 per cent were merely holding their own or running behind; that 82 per cent of the wealth of this country at this hour was controlled by the corporations; that every class of trade and manufacture and service in the United States set its own price on its product or service, and the farmer paid it or went without, while he alone, upon whom all depended, asked, “What will you give?” He must come together, or perish. The Union began its work in the South eight years ago, or practically five years ago. Then 70 per cent of the farms were under mortgage. Now only 35 per cent are. The great burden of those five years, preached everywhere, was to discourage the credit system and lift the mortgage. It is a movement, it seems to us, which will make itself felt, and in which, too, there is blessing if held to its original purpose. We regret that we could not stay all through.