The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-08-07
INTOLERABLE OUTRAGE
MANLY RESOLVES-DUTY
OF. THE HOUR.

the steady and sure Oacnl
made by the moneyed power Of the
land, which threatens to impoverlsh
and enslave them. This is strong
language, but we weigh it well. 1t
struts into our halls of legislation and
by bribery or intimidation controls
and shapes legislation in itsafavor.
Trusts and combines-nanes that
should be synonymous with highway
robbers-are being formed every day
to extort through the power Of money,
exorbitant and ruinous prices from
those who are compelled to buy. "A
few, millionares get together and
agree: that they will get control of the
manufacture or product of a certain
commodity-will stop its production,
if need be, and raise the price to what
ever their greed may demand, and
thus force the consumer to pay it.
1t has just been discovered that a
few firms, the manufacturers of bag
cling in St. Louis, Indiana, Boston,
Louisville and New Orleans, have
formed a "Bagging Trust" and that
they control the product and the price
for this whole country. At the time
this robbery was concocted, bagging
was selling for seven cents per yard,
and the probabilities are that it would
have gone no higher for the season,
but for this scheme to plumber the
struggling cotton planters of the South.
But as soon as their plans were per-
fected and they got control of the
mills, they advanced the price four
and th%ree-fourth cents per yard. What
does this mean to the cotton farmers
of the South :? 1t means simply that
these half dozen firms have demanded
and will force the cotton farmers of
the South to pay into their pockets
two millions of dollars. To the honor
of the Ludlow Bagging Company, of
Boston, it refused to go into this bold
scheme for robbing us, but unfor-
tunately, nearly all of it's stock had
been engaged.
Two millions dollars to be put into
the hands of a few men simply be-
cause by a combination of their money
they can force the people to pay it.
This outrage is stirring the farmers
from Texas to Virginia, and they are
seriously discussing the question as to
whether they will buy a yard beyond
what they may be compelled to have.
The Florida Alliance, and we hope all
the Alliances of the South, will move
in the matter, and if possible devise
some means by which not a single
member of our order or of the Grange
will have to buy a single yard.
In this connection we are proud to
give space for the action of the farm
ers of Edgecombe county. If all the
farmers belonging to the Alliance and
the Grange in the South would take
similar action. and stand by their brave
and manly brethren in Edgecombe, we
would bring this band of robbers to
justice. = Read the resolutions of
Grange No.H43, which were adopted
without a dissenting voice, and which
were unanimously adopted by Cocoa
Alliance, No. 1853. We would rejoice
to see every man in North Carolina
who is not compelled to pack his cot
ton, go heartily into this compact and
stand, by it.
Now is the opportunity, and now
the occasion for the farmers of North.
Carolina and of the South to show
that they have rights and they are
determined they shall be protected.
Let them covenant together hat they
will support nc man for the State
Legislature or for Congress who will
not pledge himself to enact laws
against the wholesale robbery that is
grinding the industrial classes into a
state ofpoverty and slavery, and put
out of existence the "trust," "com-
bines" and Spectators in futures.