PROGRESSIVE FSMBH
DECEMBER 6, 1692
2 - '
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17"
THE , PROGRESSIVE FARMER.
MRS TIirPOLK, - PEPPRIKTOR.
f if Ramsey, editor.
f W. DENMARK, - Business Manaq'b.
Raleigh. N. C.
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N. O-
BALKH.H, N C DEC. 6 1892
Thin imi r etutrea ?ewivl-cla imUlcr at the
The Progressive Farmer is the Official
Organ of the M C. Farmers' State Alliance
Do you want your paper enangea to
another office ? State the one at which
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In writing to anybody ; always be
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fggr Our friends in writing to any of
our advertisers will favor us by men
tioning the fact that they saw the
advertisement in The Progressive
Farmer
pgF" Tno date on your label tells you
when vour time is out.
N. R. P. A.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
Now is the time to discuss Alli
ance matters and read up on all the
reforms contemplated.
Gladstone is in the saddle in
England. What will he do for the
country? is the burning question.
Rock Ridge Alliance, Wilson
county, will have a large meeting on
next Saturday evening, the 10th, at 1
o'clock.
The Savannah, Ga., Cotton Ex
change will oppose all anti-option bills.
They say that dealing in futures is ab
solutely necessary. Bah I
The New York State Alliance
advertises for 50 organizers to go to
work in that State at once. The entire
State will be organized this winter.
Bro. Howard F. Jones, Secretary
of Warren County Alliance, writes:
"We are determined to push on with
the grand Alliance educational work.
We are yet firm in the faith."
Messrs. Flake & Green have re
cently started a new Alliance paper at
Beaver Dam, N. C, called Our Home.
It is a neat and well edited paper. We
wish it abundant success.
A bill has been introduced in the
Georgia legislature allowing State
banks of issue in the State, provided
Congress repeals the 10 per cent tax
on State banks which it is not likely
to do.
The farmers have nothing ti
complain of, so far as the weather is
concerned, this fall. It has been fine
for gathering crops and plowing. Re
member that every day's plowing done
now will be worth a great deal.
The State Board of Canvassers,
which met in this city Friday, investi
gated the election casfs in the Fifth
Congressional district and declared
Thos. A. Settle, Republican, duly
elected to Congress in that district.
Some time ago the Washington
Gazette told the public that a gentle
man was "building a well" in that
locality. Now the Weldon Neivs re
ports that a company is building a
"peanut factory" near that place.
What next!
The great overshadowing curse of
America to day is the monopolist. He
puts his hand on every bushel of wheat,,
every sack of flour and every ton of
coal, and not a man, woman or child
ia America but feels the touch of the
moneyed despotism. Talmage
Bro. Green is correct when he
says in Our Home : " We have been
impressed that during the heat of a po
litical campaign is no time to conduct
educational work. Bulldozing and
appeals to passion a ad prejudices pro
duce such an effect as to render it well-
nigh impossible to convince by any
process of reasoning."
Now is the time to revive the in
terest in the Alliance. Every member
should see to it that the meetings are
held regularly and made interesting.
See to it that something more than the
regular routine work is accomplished.
Di3cus3 the different issues, local and
others, that is of interest to all alike.
Secure a few books as a circulating
library, and above all induce all your
friends an J neighbors to join in with
you, thereby aiding in the social enjoy
ment of your meeting, which should
be made social and interesting.
Another big trust has been
formed. It is a beer trust this time,
and the profis will be $750,000 a year.
The Rothschilds are into it. The Presi
dent of the combine is to get a salary
of $75,000 per annum. Of course beer
is a luxury. But the principle is the
same. Why can't the bankers attend
to their business? Their profits are
bad enough without helping others to
form trusts and rob the people.
Some of our exchanges are mak
ing a squeaking kinde of noise about
the Executive Committee of the State
Alliance refusing to pay the expenses
of two delegates to the National Alli
ance. The Executive Committee have
nothing to do with such matters. The
National Alliance seats delegates and
pays iheir expenses to meetings and if
some people knew day from night,
such absur 1 reports, would not get out.
Oil your squeakers and come again.
When prominent papers and men
can boldly and persistently support
and defend what they are convinced is
destruction to the best interests of the
people, in order to achieve success for
a political party claiming their alle
giance, and then, when their party is
defeated, utter their honest convictions
not only without shame or humility,
but with boastful vanity, we may well
consider if this nation is not on the
verge of moral ruin, says the Kansas
Commoner.
CAN IT BE NON-PARTISAN.
Our exchanges are discussing the
question: "Can The Progressive
Farmer be non partisan since the Peo
ple's party has adopted the Alliance
platform?" The awkward way many
of them go at it is proof that they will
never settle the matter. They are
filled with prejudice and blinded by
the same monster.
The Progressive Farmer didn't
cause the People's party to endorse
our principles. They did it of their
own free will and accord. If either of
the other parties had done so, we
would have had nothing but kind
words for them. There is the whole
matter in a nutshell. That is why
The Progressive Farmer and many
other Alliance papers and officials
have been accused of being "partisan "
and being "in politics." Gentlemen,
get your brains in better shape, dis
miss that monster, prejudice, and you
will be more charitable in your discus
sions. MAKING SMALL FARMS PAY.
The American Cultivator says:
American farmers almost always de
sire more land than they can work. If
they do not make money they gener
ally think the reason is they have not
land enough, and often run in debt for
more. But the mortgage runs on un
ceasingly while the land produces only
in the growing season. So in the end
the mortgage usually wins, some one
else takes the farm, and the old pro
cess is repeated with new actors in the
programme. This fact oft repeated
his set many farmers to thinking
Possibly they have been mistaken in
believing that more land was the
requisite condition of prosperity.
Fewer acres and better tillage gives
better promise o success.
Unless farm methods radically
change the advocates of the large farm
are right. If the small farm is only
half tilled its product will not meet the
necessary expenses of even the most
economical living, and the man, be he
farmer or engaged in any other busi
ness, whose expenses regularly exceed
his income is sure sometime to fail.
Temporary causes may postpone fail
ure, but the end is certain.
It is entirely true that if the small
farmer grows only the crops which
modern harvesting machinery enables
the large farmer to grow successfully
he cannot compete. In the cost of
such machinery the small farmer has
to pay as much as one who owns sev
eral hundred acres. He does not get a
tenth part of the use from it. Hence
he is at a great disadvantage, the only
relief from which is the co operative
owning of such machinery by a num
ber of small farmers, and devoting
most of the land to crops where more
abor may be required, but where such
expensive machinery need not bo pur
chased. Ihere mav be nmhahlu will
be, far more expense per acre, but it
will result in enough larger sales to
mate it a profit, which cannot be done
on the large farm as such farms must
almost necessarily be managed.
Most ot the abandoned farms of tha
Eastern States, and, indeed, we may
say all of them, were made unprofit
able Dy attempts to grow grain or other
crops in competitition with the West.
The Eastern farmer has lost in such
competition. Yet this land is worth
more if equally fertile than that of the
Western firmer. Not worth more,
perhaps, for growing grain,, but for
growing something in which the man
cultivating hundreds of acres is less
likely to compete.
FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.
Now is a good time to read up on
the question of free coinage. During
the past few months the Alliance
papers and books have shed much
light on the subject, but there is much
to learn yet. The gold-bugs try to
mystify the money question, and lead
ing papers that lean that way poo poo
anything said in favor of free coinage
or an increase in the volume of cur
rency, by any method suggested
Statesmen, philosophers and political
economists from the time of Aristotle
to the present d ly have always agreed
upon two points that money is the
creation of 1 iw, and that to destroy or
withdraw one-half of the money in cir
culation doubles the purchasing power
of the half that remain in circulation.
The efforts is felt rather than seen in
the decline of prices. In 1864, the Su
preme Court of Iowa handed down the
following decision: " When the legal
test is applied each dollar of every
mode or form of currency, declared to
be legal tender, has the same value,
without reference to the material of
which it is composed "
In the legal tender decision the
United States Supreme Court covers
the same point. After saying that 100
eagles coined after 1831 would pay a
debt of $1,000 contracted before that
date, though they contained no more
gold than ninety four eagles at the time
the contract was made, it says, "and
this not because of the intrinsic value
or the' coin, but because of its legal
value." Two values are recognized by
the court, a bullion value and a coinage
value.
Up to 1873 silver had been a full legal
tender for all debts public and private.
At that time this quality that had been
conferred upon it by law was taken
away and has never been restored.
Silver is money now only in the sense
that paper is money and for the same
reason. Neither is a full legal tender.
Both represent gold which alone is
money. In gold standard countries
gold does all the work of money.
Having settled the question of "what
constitutes money," its "legal value,"
the next thing is to consider the effect
of demonetization. The methods
adopted to secure the passage of the
bill in 1873, by the use of English
boodle, and the insertion of a word
after the bill was disposed of, ought to
be looked upon as crimes of the black
est hue by all honest people. That Con
gress has failed to remedy the wrong
since is another crime.
We have shown in these columns al
ready how cotton fell in price about $2
per hundred since 1873, until it became
impossible for farmers to raise it and
live. Tne demonetization act no doubt
had much to do with it, but there are
other causes, most of them growing
out of the same legislation.
It is the same thing to say that it
takes more wheat, cotton, beef, etc., to
pay a debt than it did before; and that
is the same as to say that the dollar is
harder to get it takes more work to
get it than before. The natural effect
is to dwarf enterprise, cramp business,
oppress labor, prevent the debtor from
paying his debts, stagnate agriculture
and reduce the value of all real estate.
The value of land must decline as the
value of the produce the of land declines.
Here is where the laborer, farmer, me
chanic, banker, merchant and profes-.
sional man all find a common interest
in the silver question. By the fiat of
law we have decreed a short crop, an
artificial famine of money. As with a
short crop of anything, so with this;
what there is, is more valuable because
it will exchange for more of other
things. As money increases in value,
everything else decreases in value.
FARMERS. FAIL IN ENGLAND.
From all accounts the farmers in
England are not getting along any
better than they are in some parts of
America. The London correspondent
of the American Agriculturist says a
large number of farmers are selling
out everything to pay debts and many
are bankrupt. That should not be
where there is no tariff, eee? The
wheat crop there is about 18 per cent,
below the average yield. That loss is
estimated to be not less than one hun
dred million dollars. Now if it be true
that supply and demand has anything
to do with prices, the price of wheat
ought to go up to make up this short
age in quantity. The correspondent
adds that fine horse3 cannot be sold,
and the price of wool and other prod
ucts is too low to be profitable. Many
tenants are beseeching the landlords to
reduce rents. This is a pitiable state
of affairs in what should be the easiest
place in the world to live.
England, like America, has pro
duced many millionaires. The lords
and noblemen there live in splendor.
Their coffers are filled to the brim.
After this is done they come over to
America and buy up our lands, rail
road and telegraph stock, lend money
and buy everything in Eight. This has
drained the common people there and
now we are feeling the effects o their
mbnopolizin tendencies here. It is
no wonder that agriculture is depressed
in England. It is becoming more so
every year and the farmers in Engl nd
and America will all go down if some
steps are not taken soon to remedy
the existing evils. Friends, think
about these matters. The destiny of
the nation hangs suspended by but one
little thread.
HELP BRO. BUTLER.
We trust that our friends are making
e ?ery effort possible to assist President
Butler to start his paper again. We
know that times are hard, but if the
reform press is not kept up the chances
to remedy matters will be greatly les
sened. Go to work in each Alliance
and see how much can be raised. Due
credit will be given for any contribu
tions sent to this office, and the same
will hi promptly turned over to Bro.
Butler.
LOOKS THAT WAY.
Whenever a railroad becomes all
t tngled up in business affairs, the gov
ernment is ask d to come to its assis
tance and help it out. The govern
ment does as requested, appoints a re
ceiver and runs the thing until it can
keep its head above water, when it is
turned over to the owners If the gov
ernment can run a poor railroad, don't
you think it could run a good one? The
government should own the railroads.
Libor Herald Fort Wayne.)
NO HURRY NOW.
Some of our exchanges are already
preparing to crawfish on the tariff
issue. They think there is no hurry
for a reduction, and gravely hint that
"a radical reduction would injure
business." Now if the high tariff is
so much to blame for the ills of which
the country complains, as these jour
nals have heretofore preached, why
not push up your sleeves and go at it
with all your might If half they have
alleged is true, the manufacturers
could afford a "radical" change, for
they have become vastly wealthy.
Let the howl for tariff reform grow
stronger and longer. We want to see
what effect that sort of reform will
have No crawfishing now.
QUESTIONAND ANSWER.
Woodland, N. C, Nov. 30, '92.
Mr. Editor: 1 saw sometime ago in
The Progressive Farmer that C. E.
Cole, of Bucner, Mo., bad sent you a
sample of the coffee berry so you could
test its merits. Please tell me what
you think of it as a substitute for
coffee. Yours fraternally,
R. W. Blanchard.
I took the sample home with me and
we gave it a test which proved any
thing but satisfactory at my home. I
have also learned by showing the bean
sent that it is nothing more than the
soj a bean that has been planted Jby
several farmers around Raleigh and
they could not make it profitable. We
would not advise our readers to pur
chase seed, especially at the price Mr.
Cole advertises. He has evidently been
imposed upon. J. W. Denmark,
Business Manager.
DRIED PEACHES.
A few days ago the Business Man
ager of this paper called at his grocer's
and asked the price of dried peache3,
and was informed that they were re
tailing at 20 cents per pound. This re
minded him of what he heard a farmer
say about a month ago. He said that
he raised on a few trees this year more
Deache than the family could eat and
that at least one hundred bushels of
the very best lay upon the ground and
rotted under the trees Now suppose
thif farmer, and this case is no rarity
in North Carolina, had propeny dried
and saved these peaches," would they
not have well paid him for his trouble
either on his own table- or on the mar
ket? How much is going to waste" on
our farms and how little do we realize?
The time is at hand when everything
grown on a farm must be saved if we
expect prosperity to follow our labors.
A SENSIBLE VIEW OF IT.
Keith, N. C, Nov. 27, 1892.
Editor Wilmington Messenger ':
Please allow me as a solid Democrat
to enter through the columns of your
excellent paper a protest against the
treatment which some of the Demo
crats have given our People's party
friends. I consider the practice, of
burying and burning in effigy both un
kind and heathenish and should never
be indulged in by civilized people. We
should be charitable toward those who
differ from us. Our political oppo
nents have fought us and have been
defeated, and, so far as I can see, they
are accepting their defeat as gentle.'
men. Can we not accept our victory
in the same way? Instead of ins alt
and abuse let us give them their dues
love and relief. This is all they ask ;
this we have. F.-Thomas
Jrou do send at once. We have waited
ong enough.
j THE GREAT FINANCIER DEAD.
i
I Jay Gouli died at his home in New
i York City at 9:15 last Friday morning.
It is said that pulmonary consumption
carried him off. He was born in Rox
bury, N. Y. He began life as a land
surveyor and by that business accumu
lated $5000. Later on he engaged in
the tanning and lumber business,
which he continued up to 1857. After
that he became a broker in New York
and invested in Erie railroad stock,
also telegraph stock. At the time of
his death he owned more miles of rail
roads, telegraphs and bonds than any
living man, perhaps. His operations
had wrecked the fortunes of thousands
of other men. By a single movement
he could affect the stock markets of
the entire world. If he went off on a
business trip or became sick, some
change was sure to occur in the Ftock
market. He sometimes attended
church, but was not considered pious.
At the time of his death his relatives
were all present, and it is said that the
end was peaceful. We can only hope
that h e experienced a change of heart
at last, and is now in a better world.
FROM EVENING STAR.
Bro. D. D. Barnes, Corresponding
Secretary of Evening Star Alliance,
No. 1,895, Washington county, writes
that his Alliance was organized three
years ago with nine members. It now
has 40 male and 15 female members,
all of pure Alliance grit. They have
recently lost one of their members by
death, Bro. M. A. Phelps, who died of
pneumonia.
HOW MANY BUSHELS?
Some busy person has recently been
asking questions through the State
Chronicle as to how matters are con
ducted at Alliance headquarters in this
city. This person would create the im
pression that something is wrong if he
could. If this anxious inquirer puts
any confidence in the Executive Com
mittee he would not ask such insinuat
ing questions, since the committee has
recently been in session here three days
without finding anything "rotten."
We will ask this questioner a ques
tion or two. Were you ever a candi
date for the position of Business Agent?
Were you ever a candidate for the po
sition of State Secretary? If these
questions were ansA-ered, then the mo
tives that prompted the other inquiries
might be plainer.
The questioner next says that the
State Business Agency costs the farm
ers of the State $3,700 per annum, and
asks some "calamity howler" to figure
out how many bushels of low-priced,
corn it will take to foot the bill. There
are eeveral thousand other business
concerns in North Carolina The aver
age cost per annum would not fall far
below $3,700 each. These are run a .
the expense, directly and indirectly, of
the farmers. Now figure out what
several thousand times $3,700 amounts
to and then compare it with the cost of
the State Alliance Business Agency.
The State Agency costs less and is of
more benefit, from an economical
standpoint, than any l,f 00 other con
cerns in the State that cost as much or
more each as it does. Now figure that
out, Mr. Questioner. The State Busi
ness Agent does an annual business of
from four to five hundred thousand
dollars. Is there any other concern
doing that amount of business at even
twice or three times $3 700 expenses?
POVERTY-AND FRANCHISE.
The Spirit of Reform, organ of the
New York State Alliance, has this to
say about the purchase of votes in the
recent election :
"An empty stomach and the cry of
hungry children does much to perpetu
ate old political creeds. Extreme op
pression creates poverty and he who
has the fatherly feeling for his children,
can with difficulty resist the tempta
tion to accept the bribe and be false to
himself, his fellow men and country;
and cast his ballot at the dictation of
the enemy. Immediate need blinds
the eyes of men to future welfare and
food or clothing obtained with money
gotten for the sale of franchise is as
acceptable as that obtained by the re
turns of labor. The raising of large
campaign funds is a sure indication of
an oppressed people. Money for the
sale of the greatest privilege afforded
to man is loathsome to him who is in
circumstances of ease and comfort. No
greater campaign funds were ever
raised than at this last election, prov
ing beyond a doubt that it could be
used to good advantage among the
laboring people, especially m cities
AS TO MORTGAGES.
The Rural New-Yorker tells the fol
lowing incident about a mortgage that
has been running for 83 years;
"The propensity of American farm
ers, as a class, to pay interest, often at
exorbitant rates, upon mortgages year
after year, is phenomenal. The burden
is oftentimes so heavy that it seems al
most impossible to lift it. Yet there
are many instances in which a 1 ttle ex
tra exertion, a little more self-denial, a
little closer figuring and better plan
ning would have removed the incubus,
and cut off the interest that is eating
the very life out of all that is best and
noblest in the farmer's existence. An
illustration oftP
one it eeenw to
mortgage forelL13 orT1
macea m Samtr :rt.B i
the year 1808. aSrt
is
Buiruisum tor su,-h ; i " n'
of vears? Tv, k ... lu n a lon?t
treme case, but it only aQ
case of thousands of f,mti'
strorger light." arraeriS in J
i
TRIBUTE TO COL. qlk.
At the national mcetirgo
ance at Memphis, durm -Memorial
meeting, Dr. q ' Fi
made an add
"I feel deeply the tokmmu
occasion If any one can m? J
to frame words that will d eSCt
Christian gentleman, a model h-1
and father, a true patriot
to a glorious cause, an orator iT
man, a friend, a brother and,
who possessed every other triU, P?
commands respect and horor T
apply that desmptiuii to our d2
chieltam and it will lit K
" He was a typical Alliancetnan-k
conceived something above au-i u'l
cooperation for personal earn n
saw m the Alliance a power for n
good of the Alliance, and i e uit,
such. He 19 the man lo w hom te2
the conception of the idea of
the river of sectional hate, audi,
large desrre carrvin it out. i , ,
accomplished the grandest life wwv5
any man I ever knew, and a m,h ,
mighty brain and generous heart w
nated the principles which are to enTn
ci pate mankind. In pajingatnU
to him as a martvr to the i.n..i.
form, we give him no more than b
BUTLER ON POLK.
We clip the following from the r
port of the Avelanche Appeal of
IrolK Memorial meeting at Memphis
vuiiuMuu ui ins auurca
Marion Butler of North Carolina,
ot me uesi orators or tne Allanoe,
introduced and spoke as follows -'
I do not wish to address m self to
those who knew our dead lead-r, but
rather those who did noG. Tbeir'idsa
of him are doubtless as far frum cjt
rect as my first ideas of him vm
They were formed when I was a boy
10 years old. I was present hen he
was being diseusied by some premi
nent politicians and legal hi'hts. Tm
said he was a dangerous m&, one a
be feared above all others 1 thought
if these men, who are my ideals of
courage and wisdom, fear him, whati
terrible man he must be. This impres
sion vanished when I met UoJ. IW I
studied the man all the hirder for hav
ing once feared him, and found tiimto
be a man -who never spoke an unkind
word against any one, who had g.ven
his life to protecting the interests of
the downtrodden. 1 found him to bea
devout Christian and a grand huraani
tarian. WJien I learned this of him I
asked myself why he was feared. It
was because h.9 was the people's tried;
it was because he stood on the waui
tower of the people's rights and garj
warning when they were infringe
upon. I found that he was res-peed
by all but those who, from tbeircr
rupt practice, had reason to fear hia
If Providence ever moulded a man fori
special purpose, L. L. Folk wastU
man. His mission was to breik dofl
Mason and Dixon's line. Let me mj
patriots that you owe a debt of
tude that will be hard to pay. YiJ
by action and not by words. Ours
sion now is to break don the
between town and country, and ta
the way will be open for reformat
for good government "
CLIMATOLOGY OF NORTH CARO
LINA. The above is a title of a public?
of 181 nages just issued by th8A
Agricultural Experiment Station.
embraces all of the meteowtJ
records ever taken in North UW
from the earliest times to the pju,
1 ia in 1820 aU
The first
recora is iu wu "r.:n
Hill and was
Qin hv Dr. tai"1-
President of tne university, v-- .
dred and seventy-one separate
observations are embodied id,
port taken in seventy counties.
the results of these observatic
ascertained that the mean anou
perature of the whole rLoetf
grees, and almost exactly tw q
the mean annual temperature
whole northern hemisphere- i
annual precipitation is oJ &
Among the table of contenB M i
Weather Service in P?d
theU. S. Weather Bureau. ary
work done in 1891, anB fcfyr tfce
for 1891, tables of 22Sis
State, index of all obserw
in the State, tables ot at all
temperature and PrecTfin.? ton0?
stations from 16 ,q to 1$&
in North Carolina. froM hy of
sketch of the phj eical m1
of the State.
an 52
It is believed that ie - d
ever issued any PuSuV2reSt
present one, and it shows
Carolina is fully abreast w
-trJ
that
CI
An exchange . rero-; baS
been
of the "twins" of PluSSS-tbea
wiped out in this camgugg lbat
publican party.. It prea.dtbeJg
will now go to Vx9 gho
party in 1?53. Tune will sno
v
V