The Atlanta Georgian in its Tuesday edition contains an editorial
headed “A Misleading Epigram,” anent Tom Watson’s splendid speech to
the Farmers’ Union convention in New Orleans.
During the course of Mr. Watson’s speech he had occasion to coin the
following epigram: “If the farmers are the backbone of the country, we
have a complicated case of spinal trouble.”
The Georgian goes on to say that the farmer of today is in better shape
than ever before. If this statement had been made two, or even one,
year ago, it could have been overlooked.
To say that the farmer is in good shape now, or words to that effect,
is a great deal more misleading than the above epigram. The writer
lives in one of the very best and most progressive farming sections
of the state. He comes in daily contact with the farmer. Taking the
conditions that exist here as an example, we find the farmers as
a whole in worse shape than they have been in several years. As a
consequence of this those who depend on the farmer, as most everybody
does in the small towns, are in worse shape than the farmer. The
Georgian gives as a reason for the good condition in which the farmer
finds himself, that they are diversifying their crops. Our observation
that his failure to diversify is the main cause of his helpless
condition now. Too much cotton has broken, in a sense, the backbone
of the country, and, as Mr. Watson remarks, it is afflicted with a
complicated case of spinal trouble.
The Georgian merely has a pipe dream of what should be, and what would
be if the farmer would diversify, and arrives at the conclusion that it
already exists.—Royston Record.