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THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. 2 r 5- Vol. 6 RMjMGH, N. O., MARCH 12, 1891. v CIRCULATION. The actual circulation of Volume V, which closed with the issue of Febru ary 17th; 1891, was as follows: February 1H, 190, 12,0 23, 12,240 August it Sept. 19,1890, 18,680 26, " 16,680 March 12,000 10,560 10,560 10,8(1) 10,800 10,800 10,800 10,800 11,040 11,040 11,160 11,160 11,400 11,280 11,280 11,400 11,400 11,400 11,520 11,640 12,360 13,800 16,320 16,680 16,800 16.800 " . 11, " 18, 9, " 16, 23, " 30, " 7, " H, " 28, " 4. " 11, " 17,040 16,800 17,20 17,040 17,280 17,280 17,280 17,280 17,760 17,760 17,760 18,230 18,240 18,240 April 1, 44 October 8, " 15, " 22 " 29', " t, " 13, " S), " 27, " in, 17, " i T' , " 13, " - u ., n " 12, " May Nov. " 25 " Decemb'r 2,' " 9, " 16, " 44 4 4 Jane 18,:J4U July January 6. 1891, 18,240 13. " 18,240 20, " 18,240 27, " 18,240 February 3, " 18,240 7 10 " 18,240 17, " 18,240 Second 6 months, 458,160 August, First 6 months, 307,080 Making a total circulation for the year of 765,240; averaging for 52 suc cessive issues, per issue, 14,716, and showing a net increase for the year of 5,400, or more than 113 per week. The above statement is taken from the records kept in the office of The Progressive Farmer, and U correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. J. w. Denmark, Business Manager. I am Book-keeper for Edwards & Broughton, Printers and Binders, Ral eigh, N. C. The press-work on The Progressive Farmer has been done for the past three years by Edwards & Broughton, and I have kept account of the same. I have compared the above statement with the account I have kept, and find it tallies throughout, and is correct. J. T. Bashford. Personally appeared before me, W. T. Womble, Notary Public, J. W. Den mark, Business Manager of The Pro gressive Farmer, als; T. J. Bashford, Book-keeper for Edwards & Broughton, and mike oath that the statements contained above are correct to the best f their knowledge and belief. In witness where f , I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my notarial seal of office this day, February 26th, 1891. W. T. Womble, Notarial Seal Notary Public. EDITORIAL NOTES. If "Alliance'1 will send us a copy of "Miss Columbia's Spelling School" we will gladly publish it. We have no copy at hand just now. We have receiyed a resolution, signed by J. L. Thompson, Secretary pro tern, denouncing a certain man as having been guilty of falsehood. We cannot take the responsibility of pub lishing such things. The party who sent this failed to put the seal of bis Alliance upon it ; and we cannot pub lish it without clear authority from his Alliance to do so. The dowager Empress Frederick, of Germany, recently visited France, and the President of the French Republic declined to call upon her in person, but sent a flunkey to call upon her as his representative. We confess that we cannot-see the difference in princi ple between the sending of a represen tative and going in person. But then, we are not President of the French Re public. Come to think of it, we are rather glad we are not President of any country, where a lot of fools can be found to 'hold daily meetings of protest against the offering of ordi nary civilities to an illustrious woman who comes visiting in the most peace ful fashion imaginable. It is evident that all the fools in France are not yet dead. The Congress that has just expired by constitutional limitation will go into history as remarkable for several things. It will be celebrated upon the page of the future historian as the first American Congress that made a suc cessful conspiracy through a committee upon rules to strangle the freedom of debate. Posterity will read of the late Congress as distinguished from all its predecessors in the attempt it made to pass a force bill. It will be spoken of by future patriots as the first Congress that was rebuked by the organized farmers. It will be mentioned in ages to come as being so infatuated in its purposes and attempts to serve the 'few at the expense of the many, as not to be able to read its own doom in the indignant protests (, n outraged peo ple. But history speak of it as distinguished abovi nd beyond all other things by its ' upreme sense of humor. It will be mentioned for years to come, with explosions of most spon taneous laughter, as the Congress that brought forward and passed a tariff bill to 'discourage and destroy our foreign commerce; and then paid large sums out of the public purse to assist certain steamship lines in their efforts to create a foreign commerce. Its hu morous speech-making against free trade, and its amusing position upon the question of reciprocity will be held up, in the future, as the only original and absolutely unique specimens of roaring farce to be found in the annals of American statesmanship. It seems a pity, that a Congress so uproariously funny as the late Congress has shown itself to be cannot be continued forever. We shall sadly miss our morning's fun, as we look over the newspapers, and try to find some amusing thing to help us over the depressing cares of our toilsome days. We feel easier now that the Fiftv first Congress has expired. There will be no further organized raids upon the public treasury for some months to come. There will creep across the landscape of our free American life in the f uture no baleful shadow of a Force bill. The farmer, who has been and is being robbed by the minions of a thieving tariff, will submit to the pro cesses which take the bread away from his children, and prosperity and hope fulness out of his home, with a feeling of some slight relief, that the mis creants who set those minions on are dispersed from the National Capitol, some of them not to return any more forever. It is some little comfort to know that the dastards who have stolen millions of the people's money to waste it in all sorts of v jobbery have gone away for a time at least to divide and enjoy their stolen swag. There are some elements of relief to over strained honest natures in the fact that some of those who have stood, for the greater part of two whole years, upon the elevation of the Congressional tri bune, reeking with every species of venality and rottenness, are gone away for the time being from the public gaze into we know not what places of darkness, to plot for future spoliations and robbery. Yes, we are glad the Fifty-first Congress has expired. If it has done one thing during its ignoble existence to lighten the weight of the burdens that press upon the shoulders of the toiling people, we do not know what it is. If it has done one thing to widen the horizon of hope for the com mon people if it has dpne one thing to quicken and encourage the aspira tions of the lowly masses it has not come under our notice. Yes, we' are glad the Fifty-first Congress has ex pired. 'THEY HAD NOT. Hon. C. W. McClammy, has been a true and consistent friend of the Sub Treasury plan throughout. He has in troduced a number of, resolutions in Congress in regard to this measure, but of course he nor anyone else expected any favorable action. Last week he introduced the following : "Whereas, The last session of the Fifty-first Tjongress is drawing rapidly to a close ; and whereas, the Committee on Rules has ignored the resolution in troduced in this House discharging the Committee on Ways and Means from the further consideration xf the Sub Treasury, bill, which was referred to that committee early in the first session of this Congress ; and whereas, this con templated legislation, so paramount in its importance to the farmers through out the United States, should be con sidered by the Representatives on the floor of the House : Be it Resolved, That the Committee on Rules be discharged from thefurthir consideration of the resolution and that the Committee on Ways and Means be directed to report the bill to the House for immediate consideration. Be it further Resolved, That night sessions during the remaining days of this session' be set apart for the consideration of this bill." It may be that the day will come when the people, through their repre sentatives, can be heard. Our National Legislative Committee has recently been after the Senate Committee, which has the Vance bill in charge, but with no perceptible effect. The people are watching these things, and they will be heard from in due time, Hogg, Democrat, has 162. 845 majority for Governor of Texas. He came near getting all the corn. THE TARIFF, AND RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. Townsend Centre, Mass. Some historians have said that there was a time when theft was not con sidered dishonerable, and that the only "right" to our property as a private possession is a conventional right. t, also, believe there is no absolute ownership of property. "Society" has always had more or less authority over the disposal of property, but even so ciety in the form of a CommtJnwealth or in any other form never absolutely owns property ' Society controls prop erty but as a trustee, acting on behalf of an ever-changing copartnership. The "legal right" of property own ing is as the words imply conferred by the law, and it is possible for a person to own property legally, yet not morally. The inheritor of property stolen a few centuries ago has now a legal right to own it, but has he a moral right ! The receivers of goods that were stolen yesterday, or last year, are not now regarded as either the legal or the moral owners of them, and it is regarded as an immoral act to purchase goods from such receiv ers, even though it may be "buying in the cheapest market." When the trustees of a nation decide that on some imported goods a tax shall be levied, they emphatically affirm the truth of the theory that 'private property is but a convention al right," agreed upon in behalf of the public welfare. They exercise the right f eminent domain over the goods and chattels of private parsons; and the only possible justification for a tariff must be that it is beneficial to the society they are the servants of. The peoples of the werld are not yet all free. In some way direct or indi rect there are many pauper and coolie laborers who are robbed. Their wage is not honestly proportioned to their labor, or to the products of their labor, and those who get the products "cheap" are receivers of (partly) stolen goods. The condition of "such laborers is degraded, and it issaid that a high tariff is needed to secure American workers against such degra dation. What, then, is the condition of the American workers, in whose behalf all consumers are taxed f Let us, for instance, consider, the condition of the warkers in the mills of Lowell. Do they receive the increased pay "provided for" in the high tariff, at the cost of the people, at large; or do the corporations steal the bounty, and divide it amongst the shareholders f Again, is the condition of the workers less degrading than that of the workers in English mills? If not, the tariff on calicos is a public spoliation that cannot be justified. A few months since I talked with a "second hand" of a Lowell mill. I will give his own words : "I used to be overseer in a Lan cashire factory, and when 1 started work here I was fairly disgusted, I was told that the girls were not al lowed to talk or to sing. Thinks I, this is a queer "free country." You see I'd been used to hearing the girls talk, laugh and sing over their work in the English mills without any boss daring to complain about it." I witnessed, in the Lowell mills, conditions of ignoble servility that cannot be surpassed in Europe, and were seldom exacted from slaves. Men afraid to whistle over their work, and scarcely daring to turn their heads for a moment. Some of the corpora tions have imported bosses free f dutywho have introduced systems more tyrannical and humiliating than would be submitted to in the monarch ical countries they came from. Better far it would be for this Re public to have noble men and women, and the old spinning-wheel and head loom, than to have great mills and an ignoble people. If the bounty granted by the citi zens at large is being diverted into the pockets of mill-owners who use their power to degrade the workers below the standard of Europe, the conven tional rights of property are being violated both by the tariff and the mill lords who profit by it. If the tariff does not prevent the degradation of American workers, its advocates have "no case." The social conditions under which Americans work are, generally, better than in Europe, but the worse than European despotism now being prac ticed in some of the Lowell mills is infections, and is gradually extending to other places and to other industries, The protected mills should not be permitted to be used as hotbeds for the propagation of monarchial institutions. The citizens of this Republic will not jlohg consent to be taxed to support such a wrong' If the bounty provided "to increase the welfare of American workers" is not used for that purpose, then, as suredly, it has been obtained on false pretense, its beneficiaries are receivers of stolen goods, and the only condi tions on which the government has any right to interfere with the prop erty of the citizens at large have been grossly violated. Wm. Harrison Riley. . AN OPEN LETTER TO ROGER Q. MILLS. Mr. Mills: The Associate Press dispatches of Nov. 24th quote you as saying in reply to a query of a reporter : " It is idle to talk of the Sub-Treasury bill. The Democratic party, as long as it exists, which will be as long as it is true to strict constructionist ideas, will not endorse such an unconstitutional scheme." Upon tho supposition that the above quotation is correct, we would respect fully ask, why would it be idle to talk of the Sub-Treasury f Is not a bill which is the unanimous request of the farmers, Knights of Labor and all other productive elements of this country, of any importance to the Democratic party?" Or is the Democratic party owned by the money power and to be used to further the" robber schemes of Wall street, as it was during the Cleve land administration? With Grover Cleveland and Daniel Manning doing their best to assassinate the people's money? Never was there a more hu miliating spectacle than that of President-elect Cleveland while still Gover nor of New York State writing a letter to A. J. Warner and other members of the 4Sth Congress, in which he advo cated the "present suspension of the purchase and coinage of silver." All this looked to the poor farmer and other working slaves of the nation as if the money power owned Grover Cleveland and his Democratic party. You know yourself that your party and the Republican party are both owned, body and soul, by the money power, and it does not make a particle of difference which one is elected. The money power wins and continues to get all the cream, while the masses get water and skimmed milk. For proof, see Cleveland and Dan Manning's finan cial course, and then watch Harrison, Windom & Co., aided by John Sher man, the Financial Weather Cock of the 19th century. Now I disagree with you as to the length of time the Democratic party will exist. Its existence will be very short-livecUif it leans upon such guides as yourself, Senator Carlisle and other constitutional exponents. There is only one course left for the Democrats and Republicans, and that is for the mis-named statesmen in parties to form a little party of money robbers and bloodlers, monopolies and trusts all by yourselves and then whoop her up and see which are the biggest thieves. You are both working for the same boss now, and you might as well come out and do it openly, for the people have found you out. They have left your old scuttled party-ship and boarded the new party-ship the constitutional rights of the people to legislate for themselves. This new ship will be called the "Alliance of all Producers." Did you ever hear of it ? I suppose you and Grover Cleveland thought it was tariff reform that so efficiently thrashed .you out in November last. Was it the tariff in South Carolina, was it the tariff in Georgia, was it the tariff in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and other points ? Not much. It was the universal demand for more money. Money enough to enable producers to live and pay their debts; money to re place that which your Democratic and the Republican parties had stealthily stolen from the masses for the past twenty-six years, changing their con dition from one of prosperity and out of debt, to one of poverty and total loss of property, changing the condition of the workingman from good wages and comfort, to idlers, tramps and paupers ; changing the small business men from prosperous conditions to bankrupts, until the bankrupties of business men over $10,000 amounted to the enormous sum of ($4,151,794,423) four billion, one hundred and fifty-one million, seven hundred and ninety-four thousand, four' hundred and twenty three dollars, between the years 1866 and the first months of 1879, inclusive. If we added to these failures those under ten thousand, it would have still in creased this fabulous sum. But this was only a small part. The farmers' losses through the depreciation of their lands and farm products, contributed $3,042,435,798; and labor, through loss of work and years of idleness, con tributed $4,800,000,000, making a grand total of losses amounting to $11,994, 230,221, almost twelve billions of dol lars. And now, when these robbed people propose to stop this robbery and to relieve their wants and necessities by establishing Sub-Treasury ware houses, where they will deposit their products, and have issued to them legal tender currency for 80 per cent, of the value of the product, we find you and other financial idiots crying out, " We will not endorse such an unconstitu tional scheme." I now ask you, first. Will you kindly point out just what part of the Consti tution this Sub-Treasury bill is antag onistic to? Second. Tell me who made the Constitution? Third. Who can wipe out the Constitution, change it, amend it, or do what they please with it ? Did it ever occur to your unconstitu tional mind that the people made the Constitution? Or has it ever dawned upon you that whatsoever the people demand is constitutional, by the very fact that the people demand it? You and brother Carlisle should get together and study the Constitution from the people's standpoint, after which you will possibly know a little more about it than you do now. And right here perhaps it would not be out of place to give you some of the views of Democratic statesmen on the financial question who lived before your time. Jeff erson said : " The States should be applied to transfer the right of issu ing circulating paper to Congress ex clusively, in peryetuum Bank paper must be suppressed and the issue of the circulating medium restored to the nation to whom it belongs. Treas ury bills bottomed on taxes thrown into circulation, will take the place of so much gold and silver." Jefferson's Works, page 400, Vol. 6. In a letter to John Taylor, among other things, he said: "And I sincerely believe with you that banking estab lishments are more dangerous than standing armies." Vol. 6, pages 605 and 609. Jackson's Message in 1832 says : " In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whethe the power and money of great corporations are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgement and control their decisions. It must now be determined whether the bank is to have its candidate for all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest." John C. Calhoun, one of the bright est financial minds that has ever been developed, said in the Senate in 1837-8: 4 'I shall oppose strenuously all attempts to originate a new debt, to create Na tional banks, to re unite the political and money power more dangerous than that of Church or State many form or shape. It is my impres sion that in the present condition of the world, a paper currency, in some form, is almost indispensable in finan cial and economical operations of civil ized and- extensive communities. I now undertake to affirm positively that a paper issued by government with the simple promise to receive in all dues, leaving its creditors to take it or gold and silver, at their option, would to the extent to which it would circulate, form a perfect paper circulation that could not be abused by the govern ment. That would be as steady and uniform a value as the metals them selves. I shall be able to make good every word I have uttered. I will be able to prove that it is within the con stitutional power of Congress to use such paper in the management of its finances. According to the most rigid rule of construing the Constitution, and that those at least who think that Congress can authorize the notes of private corporations to be received in the public dues are stopping from deny ing its right to receive its own paper." The views of Jefferson and Calhoun and Jackson may be considered as pretty good Democratic doctrine for Democrats of to-day to follow. I com mend their wisdom to your careful con sideration. You will observe that they do not think it an unconstitutional scheme " to supply the people with money.' Respectfully yours, , R. H. Fkruuson. Buffalo, New York. ISSUED TO THE WRONG PAR TIES. Mr. Editor : I see that the Secretary of the U. S. Treasury claims to have paid out one hundred millions in pur chasing the unmatured obligations of the government in the last four months and it has had no preceptible effect on the tight money market. Well it was paid to the wrong men, that's all. Persons who do not need money so bad that they will not part with govern ment bonds except at 25 per cent, pre mium, are not likely to spend it and will hoard it for choice bargains at the right time. It is to their interest to have but little money available for business purposes. Had Mr. Windom gone into the market and bought cotton with his one hundred million dollars it would have advanced the price of it, helped the producer and placed the money in the hands of men who would have had it in circulation very quick in paying debts and buying clothing, horses, buggies, baby carriages, etc. But Senator Vance thinks such a proceed ure as' that would not do at all, and all Tar Heels and the balance of mankind should remember that Vance knows what's good for them and dismiss all such Utopian ideas at once. No man can question Vance and be considered a good Democrat or a sane man. I am beginning to believe that one cannot be a Democrat and an Alliance tnX ' ,t the same time, and when I observe that you declared yourself a Democrat in your salutatory last week I wondered if Polk had not made a mistake in his selection of an editor for an Alliance paper. Can we expect the Republican AHiancemen of the West to give up their political idols while we retain eurs, 'and the colored voter .to join a can't-pull the-wool-over-your-eye soci-. ety, whilst we continue to "whoop it up" for the old leaders ? If we are to achieve success we must stick to the St. Louis and Ocala platforms, and those in the order who are unwilling' to "toe the work" will do the order much good when they take a with drawal card. Dajt. COLD WAVES. Cold waves are those sudden changes from high to very low temperature which constitute the most noteworthy feature of winter weather in the United States. They are produced by the flow of masses of cold, dry air from the regions East of the Rocky Moun tains in British America, towards the south or southeast. During vthe long winter nights of the Arctic regions dry, clear air accumulates iu deep layers which is cooled by radiation to a temperature many degrees below zero; and then commences to flow to wards any place wlere warm air is ascending, as it does in the lo w pressure areas of storms which constantly pass from west to east across the United States. A "low area " is produced by the air somewhere becoming heated from un known Causes, above the surrounding atmosphere. This excessively heated air ascends and air is drawn in below from all sides to replace it. That drawn in on the south to east side is warm and moist; that drawn from the north to west side is dry and cold. The cold wave follows after the low area as it moves easward. The severer and prolonged cold waves are associated with extensive areas of high presure. Their rate of progess averages eight hundred miles in twenty four hours. It is of great advantage to many business and agricultural interests to know in advance when the temperature will fall quickly and decidedly, besides affecting the comfort and health of thousands of people C. F. von Herr mann, Meteorologist, N. C. Experiment Station. . m ' The young German Kaiser wishes to keep Greek and Latin out of the edu cational course. Nonsense. The Bal timore Herald much more wisely sug gests that as "to the Universities, it ' would be better to eliminate beer and the ridiculous duel."
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 10, 1891, edition 1
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