the inQtrial and educational interests op our people paramount to all other considerations of state policy.
- RALEIGH, N. C, OCTOBER 1, 1889.
No. 34
VoL 4.
DIRECTORY OF FARMERS' OR-
GANIZATIONS.
STH CAROLINA FARMERS' TATK AU1.
President-Elis Car, Old SparU,
Vice-President A. H- -Hayes, xmu
town, N. C. Raleigh. N. O.
LSxer-ThoS. B. Long, Longs, N. C.
iSiSLeotarer-R. B. Hunter, Char-
l0tCh.5ain-J. J. Scott, Alfordsville,
NDoor Keeper W. H. Tomlinson, Faj
Door Keeper-H. E. King,
e'i-Arms-J. S. Holt, Chalk
Level, N. C. ,
State Business Agent W. H. Worth,
E Tnfsee Business Agency Fund W. A.
Graham, Machpelah, N. C.
EXSCimVI COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH CARO
LINA farmers' STATE ALLIANCE.
S B. Alexander, Chariot e, N. C,
Chair ,n; J. M. Mewborne, Kmston N.
C; J. S. Johnston, Ruffin, N. C.
OEFICERS OF TOE VIRGINIA STATE ALLIANCE.
President G. T. Brbee, Bridgewater,
Va.
Yice-Pres dent tfaj. Marm Page,
BrandoD, Va.
Secretary J. J. Silvey, Arnissille, Va.
Treasurer-Isaiah Printz, Stonyman,
Va.
Lecturer J. D. Shepperson, Smithville,
Va.
Assistant-Lecturer P. H. Strode, Step
hen City, Va.
Chaplain Wm. M. Rosser, Luray, Ta.
Doorkeeper B. Frank Beahen, Kim
ball, Va.
Assistant-Doorkeeper, G. E. Brubaker,
luray, Va.
Sergeant-at-Arms Milton Pence, For
estville, Va.
State Business Agent S. P. A. Bruba
ker, Luray, Va.
Ch'mn Ex. Com. E. T. Brumback,
Ida,Va.
AN ADDRESS BY " OLD FOGY
Delivered Before his Alliance, No. 884,
Panacea Springs,-Nr C, - r -;
Sept. 13, 1889.
Published by Request.
Brother President and Brethren
of the Alliance: I ask at your
hands a patient hearing. I shall not
appeal to your sympathies nor seek' to
excite your prejudices in favor of my
cause. .
I shall agrue the questions at issue,
and shall draw such conclusions as
the data before me warrants; and if
any brother, or any lover of right or
justice thinks my conclusions false,
I shall be indebted to him if he will
show wherein my error lies.
The toiler, whether he be laborer,
farmer or artisan,' tell the same story.
Not only that labor is poorly paid,
hut that thousands are out of employ
ment. The farmer, with his broad acres,
with wife and children, toil the day
long, and yet at the end of the year
he has but little, if any more than
When the year was vouner.
If during the year he wishes to ex.
tend his operations, if he wishes to
save the profits rif?htfnllv duo him
by cash purchases, he cannot do ro.
for he has not, nor can he borrow the
funds necessary so to do. Money
luaaersmtne Soutn and West are
scarce, and the rates of interest ex.
ceedingly high.
I hare, brethren, briefly sketched
the situation here.
how is it elsewhere.
Farms in the North and West are
mortgaged for their cash value,
btnkes by poorly paid and illy fed
laborers in the North and in England,
ten the heart-sickening story that
children go to bed supperless. Ire
land is being depopulated and starved.
- ine artisans of England make a bare
hving and the toiler there with
mother, wife and children toil with
them in field, factory and mine all the
Jay long to eke out a miserable living
1 the Fatherland, in France and
bpain, in sunny Italy Trusts are being
formed, and the common people are
everywhere oppressed by the " Money
Jjords" and to-day America's proud
boast that she gives an asylum to all,
a home to all, and riches to all has be
come a mocking bye word, a delusion
and a snare.
a laboring machine.
aFL00?7 under Hean to
day the laborer has become a labor-
productive, and thrown aside when
emXgeerr.ValUablef0r " his
r,i3eSTTP0psitions wm not be de
nied. Unfortunately for us they are
no longer propositions, but truths.
affL u.?fortte condition of
affairs prevails everywhere, then the
same general Jaw that produces theso
conditions obtain everywhere.
DOES THIS LAW AFFKCT EVERYBODY?
Before proceed ing with the argu
ment, let us see if this law whichwe
find obtains everywhere, affects every
body. Centralized governments
England, France and Germany borrow
readily at 4 per cent. Even bankrupt
Russia is now borrowing at 5 per
cent.
In our country 4 per cent bonds are
from 27 to 28 cents above par thus
netting the money loaner less than
3 1-4 per cent interest. In New York
money is loaned on call frequently at
2 to 3 per cent. In fact, we are the
wealthiest nation on earth and we
have more millionaires than all Eu
ropa together.
MONEY IS PLENTIFUL.
In the government vaults are
locked up hundreds of millions in
gold and silver. In the national and
saving banks there are thousands of
millions, and yeariy we are growing
richer. Foreign capitalists are pour
ing money into our coffers at the rate
of $500,000,000 yearly and yet with
all this vast aggregation, of capital
the farmer the laborer is daily grow
ing poorer.
But when we come to seek the
cause of the general prostration of
farming industries, and the cause of
low wages we are met -by specialists
who advocate every possible position.
And why ? The lawyer hired by a
client is bound to defend him, and if
his cause is a bad one, he invents one
plea after another, raises an objection
here and another there, and if .possi
ble directs the mind from the true
issue, and then so twists and contorts
the evidence that we are frequently
left in confusion and doubt. In our
case, brethren, the laywers are nearly
all on the other side the jury is
packed and after listening to these
eloquent specialists,, we sometimes
wonder if we are .not the most shift
less people on the face of the earth.
I freely admit that we "are" not as
careful and as provident as we should
be, for if we had not been careless
and indifferent our liberties would not
well nigh be a thing of the past and
from a proud position of freemen,
down to that of slaves to Plutocrats.
HAS THIS CONDITION ALWAYS OBTAINED?
If not, let us examine the cause of
events that produced the change, and
better still let us examine the pro
cesses when this condition of affairs
was unknown.
In the beginning, my brethren, man
was made lor agriculture. In Para
dise, Adam had to work "to dress
and keep the garden. In historic
time all colonies have been agricul
tural.
A PARALLEL.
Let me parallel the history of a
century. In 1775, a few North Caro
linians gave to the world a " Declara
tion of Rights;" these eminently just
and righteous principles were sown
broadcast and in 1776 our National
Declaration of Independence was
thrown in the face of Tyrants, the
father of Monopolies and Trusts. Just
13 years later, after the most unequal
struggle history records, the right
prevailed and Equal Rights to all was
emblazoned on our banners and we
adopted a constitution broad and just
and our country became the farmers'
and laborers' paradise. We sent up
as our representatives, men who had
our interests at heart.
We called our Governors from the
plow. Many of our Presidents were
farmers, . and at the expiration of
office retired to their farms and again
mingled with the people. , Now. your
corporation lawyers and penny-a-liners
ridicule the farmers, and talk
about our hayseed legislatures. So
did thetories and emmisaries of King
George 100 years ago.
If you will look over the list of
Congressmen from the 13 original
States you will be astonished to . find
68 per cent of them were farmers. It
was but natural that the . legislation
should be to, aid the farmer and
laborer. ,
They legislated in their own inter
ests, and that such legislation was for
the good of the country, is proven by
the fact that ours was the most pros
perous country on the face of the
earth. Strikes were unknown.
Wealth was more evenly distributed
than ever before. We had fewer xnil:
lionaires 'tis true,- but we had infinite
ly fewer paupers. Our Legislators
and Congressmen were " Old Fogies,"
they gave the public lands for homes
only to actual settlers.
WHAT RESULTS FOLLOWED ?
Our merchants in country villages
and small , cities borrowed money
whenever they wished to extend their
business of farmers and up to , 1860
the farmers of the older States were
the money loaners of our country.
In ft carefully prepared paper by
C. C. Burr and read at a Jeffersonian
anniversary, 1858, it was shown that
65 percent, of the money loaned on
real estate was loaned by farmers,
and excluding cities of 50,000 inhabi
tants and upward, 98 per cent, of the
money loaned on town and city prop
erty was also loaned by farmers.
I ask you to think of this. All over
our country the farmers and laborers
were then prosperous. The present
Secretary of State, Hon. James G.
Blaine, in his 20 years in Congress re
fers to the Walker period as one
when prosperity was general -was
universal in our country. 1
ALL THIS IS NOW CHANGED.
. The farmers as a class are poor and
getting poorer. Their farms are mort
gaged for 75 per cent, of their face
value. We are to-day a race of
90
borrowers. We are paying from 4 to
10 times as much interest , as our
money lords get on call. On time we
are paying or were before the Alliance
was organized, from 20 to 50 times
as much as tney, eitner in interest,
profits or commissions. "
THE CYCLE COMPLETE. .
In 1875, in the Lone Star State!
the Farmers' Alliance gave to the
world its Declaration of Principles.
It attracted about as much attention
among the tyrants (now called com.
bines and trusts) as did the Mecklen
burg Declaration of Rights' in 1775,
just one hundred years before.'- In
St. Louis in December, 1889, and like
a century ago, just 13 years later, we
will ratify our Constitution, broad and
just as was the one our ; forefathers
ratified one hundred years ago.
We, too, will have as they did, 13
States represented, and we will have
as great a membership, 3,000,000, as
the original colonies had inhabitants.
And we do , intend to return to the
principles and "practices that obtained
one century ago. We shall no. longer
be dominated by astocrats, by the
money power, by trusts and combines.
Like them we must free ourselves
from this oppressive yoke. Instead
of sending now and then a member
to our Legislature or Congress who
plays at farming we will do as they
did in the good olden time.
To complete the parallel let me
quote from an address that Washing
ton was directed by the Continental
Congress to read to his troops:
We have pursued every temper
ate, every respectful measure, we
have even proceeded to break off our
commercial intercourse with our fel
lows, as the last peaceable admonition
that our attachment to no nation on
earth should supplant our attachment
to Liberty." Does this not describe
our course to-day ? even to the
breaking off of our intercourse with
those merchants who have upheld the
tyrant known as combines ? .
Again, "We exhibit to mankind
the remarkable spectacle of a people
attacked without any imputation or
even suspicion of offence. They
boast of their privileges and proffer
no milder condition than servitude
or death. How applicable to our
railroads, who with force have thrust
back at the point of the bayonet,
laborers who were pleading for ad
vances in wages to keep their wives
and families from starvation.
I quote again, " Humble and reason
able petitions from the . people have
been fruitless." How like our last
legislature. " Commerce has been
burthened with many useless and op
pressive restrictions." How like our
National policy that has forced . our
merchant marine off the sea.
Later on these patriots gave to the
world . these truths. - "We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are en
dowed by their Creator with" certain
inalienable rights, that among these
are life and liberty and the pursuit of
happiness." To-day as was the case
then, the pursuit is all that i3 left for
us.
"To secure these rights,- govern
ments are instituted among men, de
riving their just -powers from the con
sent of the governed. To-day we ex
hibit the remarkable spectacle of a
people governed and controlled by
combines. without our consent. A cen
tury ago it was charged that King
George exacted taxation without rep
resentation. To-day our railroads
here and the money kings elsewhere
are smarter than he, they reverse it-
they have representation without
taxation. And as King tfeorge am,
so do they they fill our country with
spies in times of peace Pinkerton's
men and like him they seek to cor
rupt us by keeping swarms of Lobby
members around and in our Legisla--tive
halls.
i RAILROADS.
And now brethren, I wish to close
by P&ymg my respects to railroad and
other.corporations.
If railroad corporations, instead of
being; a benefit to all, are managed
for the few, then it is high time the
rightij of common carriers be defined
by Legislative enactment. If they,leav
ing tleir proper sphere, seek by issu
ing scrip and watered stock to evade
their just share of taxation, then the
people will, as they did in Boston
harbofr with a cargo of tea, throw
them f overboard and that right
speedily.
1 dd believe that railroad companies
have rights that we are bound to re
spect, fbut I as firmly believe that we
have rights they must respect also;
but wnen in their arrogance they no
longer respect ours, then is it time to
call a halt, and compel them to bear
their share of the burdens of taxa
tion? Brethren, were not all these rail
road lines chartered by the State
by the people ? Did we not concede
for thq general good that public crr
riers might trespass on our lands
might take them from us indeed in
this country of ours we have given
them millions of acres of our best
lands, have we not aided in the con
tributions direct, amounting to many
millions of dollars and have we not
done all this freely ?
In turn what have they done for
us? They have all over our country
destroyed our crops by fire, they
have burned millions of dollars worth
of property, they have killed hundreds
of thousands of our cattle, they have
charged us excessive rates for freight
and passenger, traffic, they , have in
vaded our Legislatures and as boast
ingly as King George they have asked
us Wha are you going to do about
it V"
: You Vill remember, brethren, that
the evil bne came and talked with our
Saviour talked nicely said the
angels should hold him up, etc., and
just so does his children, the emis
aries of the railroad do to-day. How
feelingly they talk to you of your de
plorable condition how they sympa
thize withyou. Why they, too, have
plans to turn stones into bread. They
grasp the sons of toil by the hand,
and like the serpent whom they re
semble, they pour their saliva over the
farmer before swallowing him; or like
the spider to the fly, they invite you
into their parlor, "when these signs
appear know ye then that the destruc
tion" not of Jerusalem, but the
farmer is at hand, and another appro -propriation
for a railroad is desired.
Then it is they tell you how your
property will advance in value, that
they will ship your fruit from the
West to the East, and prosperity will
obtain. And when in good faith, you
vote the appropriation demanded,
they forget you entirely until they
need your vote and money again, and
charge you more freight on your bar
rel of apples from Clay to Currituck
than I can buy a barrel of Michigan
apples for in Liverpool, England.
And not only so,, but they refuse to
pay taxes on the property they in
duced you to give them they have
sought to obstruct justice in our
courts and their paid hirelings have
the effrontery to tell us that we can
not help ourselves.
MORE HISTORY.
Let me give them one more lesson
in history. A handful of brave and
determined men a century ago were
told by lories, whose love of British
gold was greater than their love of
country, the same tale our " lick
spitles" tell us to-day; but those
brave men and true, rose in . their
might and destroyed kingly charters.'
Some other points in history may par
allel ere we are done.
We gave National banks unheard
ot privileges and deprived ourselves
the opportunity; of borrowing money
on our lands. To-day we have to use
a go-between and then get money at
such rates as Shylock himself would
have been ashamed to demand. We
have given railroad corporations a
larger area of land than the combined
areas of England and France. We
have been stripped of our proud heri
tage and for less than a mess of pot-
age- -
vve are allowing our country to oe
bought up by aliens who have no in
terest in our government, and think
you, foreigners would invest over two
billions of dollars if they did not
feel that capitalists would be protect
ed by the strong arm of centralized
government ? The idea is prevalent
that in this country as in England the
farmer and laborer is a slave to capi
tal. .In the good olden time when
we had a majority of farmers in Con
gress and in our Legislatures, the
money lords of Europe had no
thought of making such investments.
. Brethren, we must return to first
principles, and with the help of our
God we will.
We deny that railroad corporations
have the right to charge excessive
rates either on freight or passenger
traffic. We deny the right of railroad
companies to water stock so as to
evade payment of taxes on property
owned y them. We deny the right
of Legislatures or Congress to create
monopolies and assert that their crea
tion by law was unwarranted, unjus
tifiable and unconstitutional and we
care not whether these monopolies are
banks or trusts, pools or combines.
Brethren, we stand to-day on a
Constitution that will give us a
bloodless victory, and once again give
to the farmer and laborer the vantage
ground we had in days of yore.
In the year of grace, 1890, we will
go into the fight with a vast army of
voters 3,000,000 strong and under
the leadership of Macune and Polk,
and better, truer or braver field mar
shalls never before challenged the
admiration of mankind, and because
justice and right is with us we will
prevail.
As our forefathers did, so must we
go to the primaries and the polls,
and we must see that good men and
true are placed in nomination. We
are not seeking to aid in upbuilding
the Democratic or the Republican
party; nor do we desire to form a
third party. We have no need to do
either. We stand pledged, a band
of brothers 3,000,000 strong, to vote
for no man who will not in public
print pledge himself to support our in
terests.
We can force either party or both
to nominate for the Legislature and
for Congress only such men as will
devote their time, their ability, their
votes for the just reforms demanded,
and then let either party win. We
shall have accomplished our object.
We need no third party. We are
not here for spoils if that were our
object, God in Heaven knows that
we never could hope to organize a
party that would equal those we now
have.
We will follow in the footsteps of
our illustrious sires of a century ago.
It shall no longer be a disgrace to
enter the Legislative halls. No longer
must the barrel be requisite for a
nomination but we must send our
best, our ablest, our purest men to
make our laws, and then let us see
that the Legislative halls are fcept
clean, let them not be defiled with
money changers and the hirelings of
corporations and corporations.
Men and brethren, are you less
patriotic than your sires ? You who
with unfaltering step, led where shot
and shell fell like hail, will you, for
your wives and children, for your
proud heritage for our common
country, do less than then ? Will
you not here and now in the sight of
high Heaven pledge once again your
fealty to our cause, to advance the
interests of our country, to aid in
building up our waste places, and
with charity for all, give the grand
rallying cry: Down with monopolies,
trusts and combines, and up with our
banner, graven on .it Equal rights
for all and special rights to none.
FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY.
Lee's Mills, N. C, Sept. 13, '89.
Mb. Editor: Our County Business
Agent is now taking steps in regard
to cotton bagging to cover our cotton.
Small orders are being sent to the
State Business Agent in order to start
our cotton to market, that we may
have the money to pay as we need the
bagging. '
'You have not had but very little
Alliance i news from Washington
county. We are slowly advancing in
the grand cause of self -protection, and
every, farmer that takes hold of the
order holds with the grip of a bull
dog that never lets up on his hold,
and is fully enthused, and is aroused
to a keen sense of the injustice that
he has been compelled to submit to
for the want of being organized, to
fight -with more success the trusts
and monopolies that have combined
to make the best class of people on
the earth hewers of wood and draw
ers of water. While we have never
known the farmers to lobby any leg
islative body, neither State or Nation
al, (Gov. Vance says he
never knew one to do so)
to enact laws in the interest or
benefit of the farmer, but on the other
hand there is not a Legislature, either
State or National but the lobby rooms
are filled with lobbiests from all other
professions and especially the money
lords, buying laws from the lawmaker
for his own benefit.
While the old clod hoppers are
busy wearing away the hours in toil
earning his bread by the sweat of his
brow, not thinking that other parties
or other professions are scheming to
get his labor from him beneath its
real value. And to day the specula
tors are busying themselves to find
out the number of bales of cottoa
grown in order that they may price
our cotton for us before it is out of
the patch, showing plainly to the
farmer that he is incapable of pricing
his own production.
The merchants of Washington
county are at a stand still, not know
ing whether to buy jute or not. The
Alliance men tell them very plainly
they are not going to use jute bag
ging again : no, never.
Mr. Editor, I think you have not
had a single word from White Oak
Alliance, No. 1,637, yet. Our Alli
ance organized with nineteen mem
bers and to-day we number forty-one
and constantly increasing and I am
proud to say we are harmonious in
all our transactions and each member
comes with the grip of a bull dog that
never releases his hold until death
breaks it. I have never talked with
any Alliance man yet but what he
seems to be fully alive to the work
before him and says the Farmers'
Alliance has come and come to stay.
Since the Alliance has been organ
ized in Washington county it is one
of the pleasures of our lives to meet
a brother. They seem to be friendlier
and more sociable and have more chat
and a warmer and kinder feeling for
each other which, I think, is a good
indication that every man is trying to
do his duty. White Oak AJliance
will pay to the business agency fund
in November fifty-one "dollars and
fiftv cents. We are dAsirnna that
every Alliance man in the countv will
nftV-OTlA nCkWAV. ftT rt.f -fntrrf and am
much more as he can.
Brethren of Washington county, let
us oestir ourselves m behalf of the
agency' fund. It is necessary that we
should have it and let us not come up
in the rear of any other county that
does not outnumber us. We believe
that Washington county will not be
weighed and found wanting; she will
do her whole duty, though her crops
are very poor indeed through the
county because ol; so much rain:
The more The Progressive Farmex
is read among the brethren the bet
ter we are prepared to fight the trusts
and monopolies. I would that every
Alliance man would take and read it
It would build him up and make him
strong in the cause and he would see
more clearly how to advance the
cause which he has espoused.
Fraternally yours,
Oaks.
A SISTER'S LETTER.
Wadeville, N. C, Sept. 14, '89.
Mr. Editor: At a stated meeting
held on the 7th of September, 1889,
by Dyson Creek Alliance, No. 212, I
was elected Corresponding Secretary
of said Alliance and ordered to send
to The Progressive Farmer for pub
lication the following resolutions
passed by said Alliance:
Resolved, That we will not use jute
bagging as a covering for cotton.
Rt solved, That we will not patronize
any ginner that uses jute as a cover
ing for cotton.
Now, Mr. Editor, I suppose your
many subscribers will not expect
much from a female correspondent,
and if so, they will not be disappoint
ed when they read this article, but if
I can be of any service to the Alliance
by putting in my little mite, I am
willing to do what I can. I think
ladies ought to take a great interest
in the Alliance and encourage the
men all the can to be good Alliance
men. We have some in our Alliance
as true at steel, while there are aoms
that don't take much interest.
, Crops are very poor in this section.
Corn is fairly good, where it was
worked, but cotton is very nearly a
failure, and that causes the farmers
to be low spirited and the merchants
to ware long faces. There was so
much rain that farmers could not
work their crops as they ought.
I will close by asking my Alliance
sisters to throw in their mite and
help the Alliance cause. I think it a
worthy) cause, one that should bring
out the talent of our male and female
members, and put to work the ener
gies of both sexes. Success to The
Progressive Farmer.
E. L. Crowder.
A tailor-made man should never be
considered responsible.