Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-09-27
TO THE
ENrWNevs NMA NovwA
ANNoveys.

A number of gentlemen having organized
leagues or fellowship, intended to be CON-
posed exclusively of farmers and farm
laborers, and having for its object directly
the interest and comfort of the agricnltur,st,
have selected us acommittee to prepare and
publish an address which is directed to the
sober, dispassionate Judgment of every son
of toll and production of our whole land.
In endeavoring to discharge this duty we
will not insult you with an argument as to
the necessity of combination among our.
selves as a class. Heretofore we have toll
ed and produced the sinews of war i'm trou-
Bile, the necessities and comforts of life in
peace. Others have fed and grown rich in
speculation upon the blood of our labor |;
because, by combination, they worked har-
moni0usly for their interests, while we, by
muscle and individual action, toll on from
generation to generation, and receive but
pittance of the blood of our toll, and the
only reason is that we have depended too
much upon muscle, and have not put into
our business the full capital of our brains.
BY more exercise of brain we will see the
necessity of combining eur forces together
to cultivate the moral and Christian yir-
tues toward each other; to have charity
for each others faults and failings, and
thereby eradicate prejudices and riyalriea
so that generous confidence and reliance
in each other may be built mp and strength
cned, to the end that with one united and
combined voice we will at last, and for the
first time in the worlds history; by right.
take and hold the position of the first and
most powerful class and calling on the face
of earth.
For years aud years the toiling farmer
has looked anxiously with puzzled brain
and aching eye for some measure of relief !:
and during the last few years could hear
faint and confused accounts of the
efforts of the laboring man in England in
his heroic, nevertiring fight against capital.
and was cheered to learn that by strict re.
lance in each other, and firm, practicable.
combined force, their emancipation was
steady, until even the barriers of nobility
and royalty were making concessions to a
force that was too powerful TO be resisted.
Again, when the seed of the same cause
was planted in the Northwest, and farmers
began to organize into leagues called gran
ges, distant echoes would find their way to
even the poor cabin of the farm laborer.
and quiet, anxious, earnest inquiries were
made OF us and others for information as
to the benefits of the organization; and the
cabin at last felt ray of hope silver
llning to cloud yet far distant, and manv
Of these toilers Of the field were anxious
for the establishment of oranges in our own
State and parish W.
After delay, we at last were informed "a
to the nature, the objects and working of
tine order known as the Patrons of Illus
bandry, now organized into a grand ma
ti0nal institution.
While we found it's objects noble and
glorious, and the operations plain and
practical for substantial good to the toilino
la6orer, we found the order clothed with
rules that to us seemed entirely impracti-
cable Tor our section and our producing
We found the Institution to he a social
one, while we were longing for one of
sharp, substantial business and the very
foundation on the social idea, in our locali-
W, shuts out from the doors of the order
the colored man, whose labor in our parish
produces eighty out of every hundred bales
OF cotton and and bushels of corn made
within its limits. The National Grange.
therefore, could not benefit the great BODY
OF the toilers on our farms, and was fred
on the exclusive Caucasian basis.
Another consideration if this Last wers
not enough, was the fast that we of the
south were the producers of Gotten. sugar