FARMERS' ORGANISATIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 91, Issue 14133, 9 August 1919, Page 9

FARMERS' ORGANISATIONS

(Contributed by Robert Kirk.)

[These articles are issued with the intention of pointing out to our farmers the many directions in which their Lnion has been of service, and the benefits it might confer in every direction through co-operation, education, good roads, political, scientific, social advantage, if sincerely and loyally supported by all our farmers.] For 10 weeks you have had articles setting forth very briefly the advantages you would gain from being able to act as a united community of farmers. It is now my intention to summarise, and put the whole into figures which will be very emphatic evidence of what lack of co-operation means, unless, indeed, it is that we have to discover, if it is not already a palpable fact, that the problem of stupidity ;n farmers is one of defective faculties which have to he removed, and which are difficult to remove because they are unconscious. Is it that they believe they cannot learn things? They are. they think, made in such a way that, they cannot'learn what others learn: they are predestined to ignorance. In fact they suffer from the tyranny of their own ignorance: hence it is in vain that ene attempts to remove il except by an appeal lo a low human motive, that of self-interest. When thai interest : s aroused a man will realise things without know-re that he realises them; and this will mean to him the iov and pleasure of success, as it lias done in the dairy co-operative companies. Now. let us hope this suec-ss will lead en to a live interest m mow and more subjects, in fact make, him a much more worthy citizen, and so end in the enlargement of his own and his family's'environment,'and this can ' be done very'effectually by means of a

loyal support of the "Farmers' Union."

In the second article on Go-opera-tion, I quoted I. S. Mill as saying that it was "the inordinate numbers of mere distributers" which was the cause "why so great a portion of the wealth produced does not reach the producers." That was CO years ago,, and matters are very much worse to-day. The figuresl use are taken from Part 0, "Occupations and Unemployment," of the Government Census Department (census taken 15th October, 1916). As a result of the war they are the latest reliable figures, but quite sufficient for our purpose. The population was 1099,449; children under 20, 455,000, adult females 322,070, adult males 321,779. Taking man, wife and two children as a family equals 275,000 families, the whole being about equal to such cities as Birmingham and Glasgow, and oneseventh that of London. •

' Without protection there are no selfsupporting manufactures, and protection means an excess cost of production and price. So the whole burden of maintaining this Dominion as a business entity rests absolutely and solely on the primary producers. All classes of farmers, 86,213, employees 30,000, wives and children 165,000; gold, coal, wood, flax, etc., employees 17,140, wives and children 27,000; actual primary producers 133,353, including all labour, and with families a total of 325000. rather less than a third of the entire population, thus leaving a balance of 775,000 to look after the welfare of the primary producer—in fact to see that he is properly housed, fed, clothed, and his produce taken to the Dominion consumers and put on board ship; that his political, educational, physical, spiritual and pleasurable interests am carefully attended to. Some of the following figures may make our farmers put on their thinking- caps (the caps may do the thinking if the brains don't.) Remember that co-operation means reducing the great superabundance of middlemen to actual requirements; they are indispensable, but terribly outnumber the actual necessities of a small population like ours: : — 1. Transport: Railways, sea, rivers and roads, 39,000. 2. Government Departments: Postal, Health, Education, Charity, etc., 27,286. 3. Drapers, grocers, stores, butchers, bakers, fruit, hardware, boots, etc, 35,0:00. 4. Manufacturing: Cloth, (lour, boots, furniture, iron, brewers, wool, sugar, etc., 28,230. 5. Plumber, carpenter, bricklayer, gas and electricity, trams, engineers, etc., 22,000. 6. Implements, fencing, freezing, chaffcutting, shearing, preserving, etc., 11,853.. 7. Merchants. Hour, wool, produce, coal, timber and undefined (2609), employees (5020) —7629. 8. Bank employees 2354. insurance do. 2019, lawyers & employees 3000. 9. Auctioneers, ordinary and slock, and employees (1537), land agents 694. 'employees 569 (1203)—-

2800. 10. Boarding-houses and hotel-keepers

12,942. 11. Servants, 25,000. 12. Amusement employees, 2,350

A complete total of 216,000, with families of 7i9,80<5, against primary producers 133,553, with families of 325,000, leaving a few thousands to account for various small occupations. We know, that almost all the above sections must of necessity form an indefensable part of every community, only, as I previously stated, they are out of all proportion to # thc requirements of the farmers who bear the cost of running this Dominion. As far as the farmers are concerned co-operation is the only means whereby this fearful an 1 costly incubus can be removed. The growth of the unproductive communities located in our towns and villages is the result of a vicious circle which means that every increase in any one branch (and unfortunately each is perpetually growing-) of this middleman system naturally and logically ends in an increase all round. Farmers, you are ever a prey to this huge extortionist machine, which by every sort of combination levies a terrible blackmail without a fraction of mercy by means of monopolies, price-fixing, and a general system of exploitation. Yet we have farmers' sons and daughters drifting into the maelstrom of town life, and so adding- to the load of their parents, instead of remaining on the land and becoming productive, and so useful members of this Dominion. Ye farmers of this goodly land. It's bulwark ever more In stand: For with Hie Hag' of right, unfurled, In spite of darts against you hurled. You still must feed this hungry world. Organise, oh Organise! If you would ciime into your own, Or be for ever overthrown; Yes, everywhere throughout this land The tillers of the soil must stand, And he a firm united band: i) rg-anise, oh Opganise ! Firmly to stand against each wrong. Your only hope is union strong; To break the bonds of slavery Thai bind you now from sea to sea. And from oppression to he free: Organise, oil organise! Your calling was the (lrsl of earth. And over since .has proved its worth: Then come, ye farmers, good and true, Willi good of all the world in view; The die is cast, its up to you. Organise, oil Organise!