I had rather stand before you men, who are a fair representation of the tillers of the soil, and speak, than before the crowned heads of the world, because you are the ones who feed and clothe the world and make it safe for democracy,” said United States Senator Ellison D. Smith of South Carolina in a brilliant speck on co-operative marketing in Fairmont last Wednesday.
More than 750 people, chiefly members of the cotton and tobacco associations, heard the Senator and enjoyed the big barbecue dinner which was served under the personal direction of Mr. John Dixon, supervising grader of the tobacco association. Mr. W.E. Lea, field director of the tobacco association, introduced Senator Smith. Among the prominent association officials at the meeting were Miss Elizabeth Kelly, formerly with the state board of education, and Miss Susan Landon of Clinton. Misses Kelley and Landon recently have accepted positions with the association and will work among the women of the country in an effort to promote the interests of co-operative marketing among the wives of farmers.
Makes Earnest Plea
Throughout his speech, Mr. Smith reasoned and plead with his hearers to organize thoroughly for a systematic and orderly system of marketing. “I don’t believe a man can successfully conduct an appeal, or make a stand for people if his cause Is not in common and involved so that he knows by bitter experience the need of the people,” he said. He told the large crowd that he had been a member of the United States Senate for 16 years, and “thank God, I do see some chance for an awakening.” The reason some farmers do not advance is because they think they are held back automatically because they have never had the opportunity of a college education, he asserted. “Some of the best educated men I ever knew never went to school, and some of the most ignorant men I ever saw were walking around the world with a sheepskin under the arm and a sheep’s head on their shoulders.” he said. The speaker was at his best when he stated that nothing ever happened that didn’t have a cause, and he went into detail about the recent inventions, naming the radio and other results of thought. He then assailed the farmers for living in a new world and carrying on their business in the old world way without thinking. The man who makes the most money out of the cotton and tobacco which the farmers raise by hard work is the man who does not know a cotton stalk from a jimson weed and the one who never saw a tobacco plant.
Logic of Modern Progress
“Farmers you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You come to this little town after you have spent a year at hard labor. You find the usual invitation from the men who will string out your little piles of tobacco along with the others. Then the auctioneer comes down the line ‘yaaty, yatt, yatty’, etc. literally bartering off your manhood and womanhood and limiting your child’s education and advantages.”
“You never sold a pound of tobacco in your life. You never named the price in your life. Logic of modern progress is co-operation.
On a High “Hoss”
The speaker “got a high hoss” when he began taling about some of the men in the Senate who had stated that the farmer was a bad risk and the bankers of the country who would no make loans to farmers because they were a bad risk. He showed how the manufacturer of cigarettes could go to a banker and get any amount of money he needed because he could show contracts for his product, show the quality of the product, and tell the exact selling price. He then asked the farmers if they could go to a bank and tell the cashier that they knew how much tobacco they would raise, how the quality would be, or what price they would receive for it, if they did raise any. “My God, men, you don’t know a darn thing about the price you will receive for your crop. Competition may be the life of trade, but it is death to progress.” Following this he stated that there was no competition in freight rates or passenger fares and that the big corporations always figured a profit after the cost, and sold for that profit. Co-operation, he said, is a law of God and as long as you ignore that law, he is going to lash you with poverty. He illustrated the benefits of co-operation in many ways, and gave a few reasons why members were hard to secure and why others would not join. The success of the association, he said, depends not on the small organization here and there, but the majority of agriculturists who can demonstrate the thing so it will move. The principle can be easily demonstrated by the small organization or local.
Supply Exceeds Demand
“You are raising more tobacco now than the world wants and you are going into bankruptcy all the time. Ain’t that a devil of a note?” In closing he drew a pathetic picture of a man going to town with a sample of cotton, and after toing to all the buyers he could find, and giving them what they would give per pound for bail, he finally sold it for less than it cost to raise in order that he might have a little money for Christmas toys and things for his children. “Thank God the love of father and mother is not measured by the number of dollars mother and father have,” he said in closing.
The monthly meeting of the Robeson County associations was attended by a large crowd. The merchants of Fairmont added materially to the comfort and pleasure of those who attended in spite of the almost continuous downpour of rain.
From the front page of the Robesonian, Monday, July 7, 1924
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