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THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. RALEIGH, 1ST. O., MARCH 18, 1890. Vol, 5. No. 6 THE NATIONAL FARMERS' AL LIANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. President L. L. Polk, North Carolina. Address, 010 E. St., N. W., Washington, B.C. Vice-President B. H. Clover, Cam bridge, Kansas. ' Secretary J. H. Turner, Georgia. Ad- . j nm" G "NT TV YV'nchincrt-nn D. C. Treasurer W. H. Hickman, Puxico, Missouri. Lecturer Ben Terrell, Texas. EXECUTIVE BOARD. C. TV. Macune, "Washington, D. C. Alonzo TVardall, Huron, South Dakota. J. F. Tillman, Palmetto, Tennessee. JUDICIARY. R. C. Patty, Macon, Mississippi. Isaac McCracken, Ozone, Arkansas. Evan Jones, Dublin, Texas. HG&TH CAROLINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. President Elias Carr, Old Sparta, tf.C. Vice-President A. H. Hayes, Bird town, N. C. Secretary E. C. Beddingfield, Raleigh, N. C. Treasurer J. D. Allen, Falls, N. 0. Lecturer Thos. B. Long, Asheville, Assistant Lecturer R. B. Hunter, Char lotte, N. C. Chaplain J. J. Scott, Alfordsville, Door Keeper TV. H. Tomlinson, Fay etteville, N. C. Assistant Door Keeper H. E. King, Peanut, N. C. Sergeant-at-Arms J. S. Holt, Chalk Level, N. C. State Business Agent TV. H. Worth, Raleigh, N. C. Trustee Business Agency Fund TV. A. Graham, Machpelah, N. C. IXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH CARO LINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. S. B. Alexander, Charlotte, N. C, Chair .nan; J. M. Mewborne, KinstonN. 0.; J". S. Johnston, Ruffin, N. C. BRO. EVANS AND THE GOVERN y WENT WAREHOUSE. Mr. Editor: As you say that your columns are open for a free and fair discubLion o all economic questions, 1 now offer a few thoughts in .relation to Macune's sub-treasury plan, and the bill now before Congress to treat the great financial problems a3 they ought to bewouldN-take- fa -more space than you could give me. So that I will only attempt to give rather disjointed and short remarks upon some of the features of the plan and the bill after which, if you and your readers demand it, I will give a" bet ter plan for the real and permanent good and success of our grand ground swell movement for the glory of God and humanity. .For 25 years my thoughts and my heart have been in this direc tion, and in 1873 I attended as a vol unteer, and the only delegate from Virginia, the National Farmers' Con vention, in Chicago, and I there had a plan for the organization, co-operation and union of the farmers and me chanics of our country, including all that has yet been done and much that has not yet come but must come be fore success can crown our efforts. So you see this is no new dream of mine. A long life devoted to business, with practical experience in mercantile, banking, insurance, manufacturing and farming, has given me a chance to know something about life and business. The financial question I have given 40 years of that observation and ex perience to, and 32 years ago when my pocket interests were in the bank ing business, 1 publicly denounced the system as wrong. As a lover of truth and justice, I always go for error whether it hit3 me or my grandfather. I write this that you may know what to expect if you give me a hearing upon the financial and business prob lems both in their pocket and ethical bearings. I will now take only the new bill. Section 1 provides that no county can have the benefit of the plan except their actual sales of corn, cotton, wheat, oats and tobacco have amounted to $500,000 per annum for two years previous. Now right here in the first section there are objections suffi cient to kill this bill as dead as a last years' bird's nest: (1) It would take an expensive can vass to find out the amount of sales. (2) There are not two agricultural counties in Virginia that sell $500,000 worth of these five staples, if indeed, there are three. (3) A county might sell $500,000 worth of stock, butter, cheese, poultry, eggs and truck, and $499,000 of the five named products, and yet not be entitled to a warehouse even for goose eggs. Section 6, says: "All lawful money received at. the sub-treasury as a return of the actual amount of money advanced by the government, shall be returned to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall cancel and destroy the money so returned." If Section 1 is idiotic this takes the c ike. Iput$10,000worthof tobacco in warehouses, I get $8,000 of new greenbacks: I pay them out from Virginia to California, and before the 12 months is up I redeem the tobacco and pay $8,000 in gold, silver or national bank notes. Will Mac. please tell us how these can be honest ly and profitably "canceled and de stroyed ?" Section 7 limits the salary of a manager to $1,500, makes his bonds responsible for all losses, for spoilt, de stroyed or stolen products, as well as for shrinkages. How many managers could or would give bonds for $50,000 to $400,000 for a salary of $1,500 with its risks ? In my next I will point out the ob jections to the plan itself both as to details and the principles involved, and will also show how the idea can be practically put in better shape and then I will be ready, as I said before, to present a higher, better and more practical way to settle both the finan cial and business problems, for the greatest good to the greatest number, and without harm to any. W. M. Evans. Amherst, Va., March 590. v Alliance No. 577, Hobton, N. C, Feb. 27, '90. 'Mr. Editor: This Alliance has paid to the State business agency fund $95.50, and there is a small sum yet to collect which will be forwarded as soon as possible. There are 7 6 names on the roll, but by dimit, expulsion, suspension, withdrawal cards and death there remains 53 members in good standing on the roll, and about all that can be eaid against them only 35 attend the meetings regularly. Some of them read The Progressive Farmer and they are true as steel to the Alliance. If all would read it they could not be otherwise than true members provided they would heed its most excellent teaching. We re cently added three to our membership, and now have 33 male members. Be ing surrounded by lodges, we have worked up about all of the " timber that will split," and inferior "rails" we keep them out of the Alliance "fence." May God watch over, pro tect and prosper all the Alliance insti tutions, and may the poor farmer be come an independent instead of a de pendent factor. Much success to The Progressive Farmer and its numer ous readers. Fraternally, W. J. Craddock, Sec'y. P. S. This is brought under the head of new business every meeting : Does any member desire to subscribe for The Progressive Farmer ? W. J. C. Pine Grove Alliance, No. 1,578. Mr. Editor: Having been urged by the brethren to write for our Alli ance, I would say that we organized Feb. 20th, 1888, with 16 charter members. We now have something over tu, some as good men as can be found, with hearts as true as steel, fully determined to carry out the principles of the Alliance to the bitter end. We have enlisted for the war, and burnt the bridge behind us. We have contributed some to the State fund. We have raised a fund of $100 for our business agent to furnish the members with groceries as needed, which we get through the State Busi ness Agent on good terms. We con sider him the right man in the right place. We are a unit on the silver question as proposed by the Alliance, and we fully endorse the action of the St. Louis assembly. "We don't set ourselves up as dictators, but will act in harmony with our brethren to better our condition and build up our waste places and want good, honest men to make our laws. Some of our political opponents are scared. They fear that we will clog the wheels of the politi cal parties and cause their defeat this fall. We want our next legislature to be composed of a goodly number of Alli ancemen, and if they send a good brother to the U. S. Senate we will not object. "We have our Sub-Alliance in good trim and are working finely and in harmony with each other. One good brother was so elated over some of his neighbors joining at our last meeting that some one remarked that if "we had music he would have danced;" but that would have been out of order. We all like The Progressive Farmer, and wish it great success. Fraternallv vnnTs -v j j i W. J. Ector, Pres. GOOD ADVICE. Black Swamp Alliance, No. 1 1, Robeson Co., N. C, Mr. Editor: We believe there has been nothing in your excellent paper from this Alliance, so we ask a little space to let the worlcf know that number eleven is not dead nor sleep ing, but wide awake and quietly mov ing on in a business like manner. It has 40 male members and nearly if not quite as many lady members. With a few exceptions every good man in the community belongs to it. All are sober and moral. Its officers are men of acknowledged worth; earnestly enthusiastic for the success of the order, men who, by diligence, perseverance and economy, are steadi ly climbing to the top ot the ladder. Adhering strictly to Alliance pnnci pies, they wisely guide and direct its members. This Alliance has paid to the business agency fund nearly one hundred dollars. It has also had sev eral orders filled by our State Business Agent, Mr. Worth, and others will be made at our next meeting. H.very Allianceman who can should patronize Mr. Worth, that is the way to be ben efited financially by the Alliance. It is doing good now, but the future holds far more if we, as members, only do our duty. Three years ago when Mr. M. T. Sealy, who had left this, his native country, several years previous to seek his fortune in the Lone Star State, came back as Alliance organizing officer there arose many to predict a short life and early death of the noble order, but that all false prophets did not live in ancient days, nor in the far off Orient, is a fact which Alliance history can demonstrate. May the time soon come when no son of our Southern soil will utter words to dis- courage his fellow man from aiding in the noble cause for which the Alliance is struggling, for such are blots upon fair creation. On the 18th inst. Capt. Darden gave us a lecture, eloquent, timely and to the point. There is much to encourage the Spartan-spirited band of brothers who are so nobly striving to break the fetters of oppression which has bound them abject slaves of toil and hardship to enrich the speculator. Many of us never knew the per cent, the farmers are forced to pay for the necessaries of life until Mr. Worth published his prices. Let every Sub Alliance purchase only from him. This is the way to estab lish our order, "until we stand." Guided as we are by the best brains in the UnioD, backed by the noblest principles that ever actuated a people, urged by a necessity which, if un heeded, will doom our children to lives of servitude, equaled only by that of the Irish peasantry. Our order must not, will not die. The farmei s are awaking to the injustice with which they are treated. Your valuable paper is doing much to in- form and arouse them, and the well posted speakers, from this and other States, are bringing them to a full realization of their wrongs, showing them the way from the dark veil of debt and poverty, to the plane of in dependence, where, as freemen, they may dwell, every man under his own "vine and fig tree," never fearing the merciless liens and mortgages which sweep the barns of the last grain of corn and empties the home of all its comforts, carrying away the bed on which the tired limbs of the careworn father reposed, leaving him the cold floor a resting place, the roof for a covering. Even the rocker in which the weary mother hushed with soft lullaby the helpless babe, and around which fond memories cluster goes, under the sheriff's hammer. But there is a better day for the farmers if they will only persevere in the way now open to them. Stick to the Alliance with all the heart, soul and cash; stand firmly by its princi ples, be true, full of faith in the order. Attend every meeting and endeavor to make every succeeding one more interesting than the last. There is much to be done. Let every man put his shoulder to the wheel and press foaward with a determination to do his whole duty, and the sunlight of prosperity will beam upon us, and where debt and want now oppress in dependence and plenty will reignv Mrs. H. B. A, Corresponding Secretary. The modern definition of a dema gogue is a man who thinks for him swf, speaks the truth to the people, and refuses to be sidetracked by de signing po!i icians who receive sheckels for their services in defending com bines and trusts. LETTER FROM BLADENBORO. Some Good Advice. RlCHARDSOX, N. C. Mr. Editor: As I have not seen anything from Bladenboro Alliance, No. 528, I will try to tell you a little of what we are doing. We meet once a month, Friday before the 3d Sunday in each month. The most of us try as hard as men can to work to gether in unity and love. We have some as good material in our Alliance at Bladenboro as the township affords, while there is still good men who stand off at a distance and say by their actions, when you get that load up and started, I am going to come and help, but I think a man who never does enough to get tired don't knoV how to enjoy rest, nor how good it is to the man who has been at work hard. Brethren, we bought our guano through the proper channel last year and expect to buy right this season, and don't you forget it. Brethren, wo used cotton bagging on our cotton and wouldn't even so much as let a mn who used jute gin a lock of it. We held some of our cotton till a few da s ago, which, I think, payed us well. Our Alliance, if I mistake not, has paid to the State agency fund $75, and we only number about 40 mem bers, and are all poor men. We have at a called meeting held recently, established an Alliance store, which, I think, will be a great benefit to our brethren. And, brethren; we have some very strong opposition, of which we are thankful, for they are one great help to make us stand together and up and work. Brethren, be punctual to your meetings, and study something about them before you go there and be prepared to give your views on matters, and then your speech, perhaps, will be wrth giving attention. Brethren, who are Alli ancemen, they are honest, upright in all of their dealings with merchants and all other men. If we expect to suc3e?d in our undertakings and in tentiSus, we must have confidence in Alliancemen, and practice love and work together as a unit, be cheerful andlighthearted, and not let the yoke of trusts and combines seem heavy, but walk along in this way, and perhaps sometime in the near future we can make another quick jump and break another link, somewhat like the jute trust. Brethren, what you do in your Alliance meetings keep it to yourselves, don't be giving everybody a hint of it, you see, and that you are go ing to do some great big thing before long. Alliance wives, go to work at home, stop so much of this visiting and wearing dresses that are not paid for, or a mortgage on the home which you live on. I mean stop it till this yoke of trusts and combines is broken. Brethren, enlarge your po tato patches, make them a little richer, cultivate a better garden, make a few more peas, and raise a little more wool, plant a little more corn, feed your horse a little better, raise a few more pigs, save more hay, feed your cows little better, and don't go to those places of trade, so called, quite so often and you can live at home, you can eat your own bacon, your own potatoes, etc. Read The Pro gressive Farmer if you want to know your condition and where you are drifting to. Yours fraternally, A. A. Hilburn. LETTER FROM MARTIN. ROBERSONVILLE, N. C. Mr. Editor: I will jot down a few items this eveniner for vour much t7 S esteemed piper; provided, you think them worthy ot a smuM corner t Here in. Our Alliance, No. 1058 Cross Roads lodge this old Martin county is not dead but lazily slumbering. We number about 60 males and 20 females. Some are as true as the needle to the pole, and some are as weak as 10 proof whiskey. We need one of our bright lights to lecture to us. I received a few days ago a large lot of seed for my Alliance from the Hon. Thomas Skinner, our represen tative in Consrress. ' Yesterday 1 re- . , ceived the compendium of the census of 1SS0, from the interior aeparxmem at the instance of Mr. Skinner for my Alliance. Oar court is in session in the town f WiiliamstoD, this week. I was iner- on Tuesday and was pleased to lea- n that they got through with the Sta:.rf docket on Monday, a thing that has not been known before since the vai- I met a large number of my Alliance brethren. More deaths in this county since the year began than I ever heard of before in the same length of time. Now to my main purpose m writ- I. iag: it is to ask, beg, solicit as strong as 1 know how, Pres.dent Carr and Old Fogy (I don't like to address a gen tleman under such a nomdeplume as Fogy, but I know no other name for him, however to the point) to be present with us in our county meeting first Friday in April, in the court house in Williamston, to do all they can to strengthen the things that remain. I do hope and pray for them to come. I take this method of in viting them so they can answer through The Progressive Farmer, which I beg them to do, to give it all the pub licity possible. I will do all in my power to pay their expenses, give them pleasant homes and try and make their visit one to be long re membered. These brethren can do incalculable good in my county. I also want them to speak to the people on the objects and aims of our noble order on Saturday, the next day after county meeting in Robersonville, on their return. Please, brethren, don't deny us. Wishing all the success possible to The Progressive Farmer, and staff and praying for a united and faithful brotherhood, I close. Fraternally yours, ' J. R. Robeesox, Co. Business Ag't. AUGUSTA FARMERS' ALLIANCE Augusta Alliance, No. 1,018, Augusta, N. C. Mr. Editor: Bro. J. D. Click, of Iredell county, organized Augusta Alliance on the 25th day of July, 1888, with 12 members; we now have 60 male members ' on our roll. The world has never been, and we have no reason to suppose that it ever will be, without its doubters, its unbeliev ers and its sceptics. They exist with out regard to all progress; they com bat every movement for moral or social reform. In regard to the Farm era' Alliance, the non-believer and the sceptics are as legion; they out number us on all sides; and yet their unbelief and their scepticism prove nothing. Divine revelation fares no better, and those who are waiting for the sceptic to put away his scepticism, or the fool to put away his folly, are likely to leave the world a very little better than they found it, and them selves not improved in any respect. What is needed, therefore, is not a ceaseless wrangle about our concep tions, of our principles of love and hope that shall help us by regular steps along lifes ruggled pathway. We are not called upon, as some fool ishly imagine, to explain every diffi culty or to solve every riddle. This indeed is a task very much beyond the powers of earthly intellect; ours is the more simpler duty of perform ing our appointed work as true Alli ance men. In the language of Dickens: There if a fount fou the Btream, There is a light about to beam. There is a warmth about to clow, There is a flower about to blow, There is a midnight blackned changing Into gray; Men of thought, and men, of action, Clear the way I Lo ! a cloud is about to vanish From the day; Lo ! the right about to conquer; Clear the way ! And a brarei wrong to crumble Into clay. T. S. Butler. A MOUNTAIN BROTHER WHOSE HEAD IS LEVEL. Marshall, N. C. Mr. Editor: At our meeting held March 1st, we tried to see what we could do in the way of raising sub scribers for your paper, The Progressive Farmer, and in a short while we raised a list of ten subscrib ers. This, Mr. Editor, is our re sponse to your request in your paper of February 18th. Some time bask we received a call from our Trustee asking that we raise about $30 for the State agency fund, and in a few minutes we raised the amount. This is the way we do things in old Madison when we are appealed to for help in a worthy cause. I think every Allianceman in the State ought to read our State organ, for I notice that those who read most are our warmest members in the work, for how can a man be interested in a work he knows nothing about, and how can he know what the Alliance is doing and what it aims to do unless he reads its liter ature ? "Old Fogy's" articles in The Farmer are worth more than a dollar a year to me, and I think it is time "Old Fogy" was laying aside his ficti tious name stid going to work under his real name, for we have got a use for "Old Fogv;" so, Bro. Fogy," please lay off your mask and let us know who you are. Yours fraternally, L. M. Bryan. INTERACTING LETTER FROM OREGON. Mr. Editor: As it has been quite a long time since I've written to the chie: agricultural paper of the South, I thought a few more lines from this' the Northwest part of the United States, might not be amiss to many of its readers. Spring with all its verdure in embryo is now upon us, the whole valley is now as green as a meadow, and stock are living without any other feed upon these nutritious grasses. Had very little snow here in Williamette Valley this winter, mer cury at one time registered 12 degrees above zero, which was our coldest, and while a deep snow fell on the Cas cade and Coast mountains, we had a very slight snow-fall here in the Val ley. One to imagine our 'Valley or draw a picture of it must remember the Willamette river flows the whole length of the Valley which is about fifty by one hundred and fifty miles, and together with this river and its numerous tributaries, this strip of country is the best watered I've ever seen anywhere, so far as soil is con cerned there is no better in the world. We use no fertilizers hero never was a pound shipped into this country. But some will naturally ask does fruit do well in Oregon? To this we emphatically say it does, and in no State have we ever seen finer fruits of all kinds. A pples, paaches, pears, plumbs, quinces, grapes, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries and in fact any kind of fruit and vegetables which will grow and mature in a temperate climate. Then as to grapes we have them in superabundance. The dairy business is a fine business here, and pays well. Stock rising is a good business in this Valley on account of the great amount of pasturage and abundance of good water. Poultry business is a business which will yield a large income on money investe if properly handled. One can own even' this business and make money. Lands can be had at reasonable figures with plenty of living water on them, and should any brother farmer wish to heir more of thi3 country ,and will write me, inclosing stamps, I'll give a plain, candid an i unvarnished an swer. Fraternally, G. W. Weeks. LETTER FROM PERQUIMANS. Okisko, N. C., March 6, '90. Mr. Editor: It has been quite little while since I have presumed upon your time and columns. You will, therefore, allow me to inform you that as our "cause" is just it is but fair to ' conclude we are on the boom, notwithstanding our isolated geographical situation. Some wonder ful things occur away down here, for instance, Hon. John D. Parker, ex Representative of Perquimans county, killed three hogs, on the 2d. inst., weighing as follows: One three years old, 833 pounds; one two years old, 613 pounds, and the other, two years old, 592 pounds; total weight, 2,038 pounds which, I claim, cannot be beaten in the State. Oh, yes! breed ers of fancy stocky look to your laurels. I take this method of con gratulating the brethren of the State and United Srate3 upon their good fortune in having two such trusty "sentinels " on the watchtower as our worthy L. L. Polk and Dr. Macune, our second " Moses," who are closely watching that "political pandimoni urn" in Washington, government of railroads, banks and corporate com panies. Yours very respectfully, M. G. Greoory. THANKS, SENATOR VANCE, , Whereas, Senator Vance recently introduced a bill in Congress asking the establishment of bonded ware houses in the interest of the farmers; therefore be it Resolved, That Tarboro Alliance, No. 918, do hereby most heartily en dorse his action regarding such legis lation. Resolved , That a copy of this resolu tion be sent to. The Progressive Farmer and South Carolina Banner for publication. S. B. Bratler, L. B. Knight, W. L. Barlow, Committee. TV,o Von? Ynrlr Tr'lune said : "The banks can, in a siug.e d,y's notice, act together so thitno a:t of Con gress can resist their decision."
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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March 18, 1890, edition 1
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