FARMERS' UNION
The largest and in many respects most important organization in the four counties is the Farmers' Union. This great organization is national in its aims and membership. Washington and Northern Idaho constitute one unit of the National, and in turn it is divided into county units, either single counties, as the large ones of the state like Yakima or Whitman, or by grouping, as in the smaller. Our counties belong in the latter category, and we find the Tri-County Union of Walla Walla, Columbia, and Garfield. Of this union G. M. Thompson of Dayton is at this date president, and A. C. Moore of Walla Walla is secretary. In the Tri-County Union there are eight local unions. They appear, with the secretary of each in this enumeration: Waitsburg No. 1, W. D. Wallace; Prescott, No. 2, O. V. Crow; Dayton, No. 3, Roy Ream; Mayview, No. 4, C. W. Cotton; Pomeroy, No. 10, W. J. Schmidt; Walla Walla, No. 27, W. J. McLean; Starbuck, No. 119, E. W. Powers; Central, No. 145, J. E. Tueth. As will be seen, Waitsburg has the distinction of being the premier union in point of time. It was organized in May, 1907, the first president being N. B. Atkinson, and the first secretary. J. A. Enochs.
The total membership of the Tri-Sate Union is about six hundred. That of the Walla Walla Local is about one hundred and fifty.
Intimately related to the Farmers' Union is the Farmers' Agency. While the officers are entirely distinct, the membership is practically identical, since the provisions of membership require any who own stock in the agency to belong to the union. Any farmer, however, may market his grain with the agency. At the present day Hon. Oliver Cornwell is president of the Agency, and the secretary is Eugene Kelly. As first organized and conducted for several years under the presidency of Hector McLean, the Agency was an information bureau only. But when Mr. Cornwell became president he entered upon the large task of creating out of it a genuine co-operative grain buying organization. After some years of experiment and adjusting, at times with very strenuous conditions, the effort was wholly successful and the Agency became a coherent organization, backed by the united force of the Farmers' Union and by the main weight of the farming community of Walla Walla. The primary object of the Agency is to co-operate to advantage in the marketing of crops. The local Walla Walla Agency has come to be a tremendous factor in the wheat market. Its existence has been abundantly justified by its success during these recent years in maintaining steady markets and in securing to its members all possible advantages.
Aside from the immediate business aim of marketing crops through the Agency, the Farmer' Unions, both in their local capacity and in the Tri-County organization, have come to be one of the great forces in the political and social life of the region. Questions of roads and bridges, taxes, public buildings, state educational and penal institutions, problems affecting transportation and the labor market and labor union questions, have been subjects of discussion and recommendation at the regular weekly meetings. Lectures from time to time by recognized experts in the various problems involved have been presented and public men in state and county positions have been glad to consider with the unions the subjects relating to their functions.
PUBLIC SCHOOL, PRESCOTT
FRONTIER DAY IN WALLA WALLA—SCENE ON MAIN STREET