The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-02-07
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
A Blast Against Trusts.

holds the key to the Nations prosperl-
ty, and were he to use his power with
such merciless and relentless grasp as
characterizes the leaders in the bag
ging, wheat and other trusts, he could
ruin the mercantile world. OF late we
have seen the farmers in council every
where looking to measures to defeat
the Bagging Trust. Notice the effect
the first part of the season. Cotton
came in slowly, merchants and buyers
began to consider the situation as
serious, newspapers saw the effect 1t
produced, and while patting the
farmer on the back in a we're
with-you sort of style, at the same
time long editorials on encouraging the
farmer to come in and pay up his lit
tie guano and grocery bill-for what?
Why, to put money in circulation and
then prepare (after the trust has got
what they wanted) to beat them at
their own game next year. At the first
stage of this grab game, the farmers
were dumb-struck. They had no
time to recover and the trust knew
/ that. In dumb establishment the farm
ers knotted together, talked over the
situation among themselves and in the
Alliance, Grange and agricultural
clubs, and slowly began bringing in a
few bales, not for the purpose of walk
ing up to the yoke and halter, but to
be true to those who had assisted them
with supplies during the past year.
Now, Mr. Editor, compare this class
of producers to any other, and what
would have been the outcomeP A no.
tice on the doors: ''Made an Assign
ment-Couldn't Meet our Drafts and
Obligations Why? Gould not make
collections. Why againP Expenses
too heavy and middle men, non-pro-
ducers, eating them up. Now then,
change the programme. Suppose the
farmer posted up notice like this
| CLOSED. Could not afford, on prin-
ciple, to support a monopoly" just
suppose that all farmers had done this
sixty or ninety days ago, what would
have been the result? Puck or the
Judge would have illustrated it splen
didly by showing these grabbers il
their flying colors, with tears as big al
marbles and faces as long as the mora
law. Now, who holds the balance o
powerp True, the farmer would suf
fer, but he suffers on principle, while
1.-The other fellow" suffers over his no
ill-gotton gains.
Any observant gentleman can easil!
read the handwriting on the wall 0
the future. It will be ''war to tn,
knife" between the farmer produce
and the money-bags of the ''trus
cormorants," middle Qoafng) me-
and spectators. who would not stop a
getting a corner on a mans soul
Money will still be on the aggressive
and unless Congress enacts some lay
that will protect and defend those VIII
come under its power, woe and wan
will be read on the door-steps of tn
I peoples homes. This aggregation Q
wealth is for the protection of its car
ital by absorbing the smaller capita
and widening the field of the larger, S
that the aggregation of small amount
; makes tremendous total. Hence tn
final absorption of all small industrie
into few immense trusts, whic
carries with it power, or, more con
monty speaking, corners"
We now think the ''Bagging Trust
can be beaten by the manufacture c
!. pine straw for cotton covers, yet VIII,
> is to prevent that from becoming
. trust, and what assurance have we th;
money will not (if it has not alread
y entered the field) gobble up that pro
posed new industry, and the farmer /
called upon by that Caesar to ps
: tribute to its god?
e If there is any way that relief ca
i come to the farmer from this continl
r Gus exaction by the money power, it
by and through the Alliance ip adoV
ing such measures as will tend to in
- prove his condition and permanent
present solid front against all N
nopolies and trusts.
I sincerely believe the time b
COluC WAACn bAlC A11SA III cboGCLt l.
lo power, if necessary, to keep fro
:. being trodden under foot by the
- dragons of greedy ''monopolistic CO
- nerers." History, we are told, W
- repeat itself, and / mistake the sig
= of the times if there is not trout
"a brewing between that class of {
pressors and those who come in
IN way Gall for greed and GAIN, and Z
n it not affect that very class Of peoI
~ whom it should not affect, it would
IA different thing.
Ia Therefore, to conclude, the farmt
~ (producers) hold the balance
bn power so far as the Natio
Is welfare and prosperity are CT
M cerned, and if that power becon
he abusive, it will only do so throu
ts those instrumentalities that bring
ar- preston; that same power, on
re- other hand, can be productive of gr
mo- good when it finds that its products
40 not made the spool" by which
nv profits are divided by the speculat
- and the loss saddied l1pon the farr