The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-02-23
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.


If there is any one thing that demon
strates fact, it Is that the farmer
holds the key to the Nations prosperi-
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 Begging 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 it
produced. and while patting the
farmer on the back in 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
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 outcome? A no.
tice on the doors: made an Assign
ment-Couldn't Meet our Drafts and
Obligations. Whyp Could not make
collections. Why again? 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 in
their flying colors, with tears as big as
marbles and faces as long as the moral
law. Now. who holds the balance of
power? True. the farmer would suf-
fer, but he suffers on principle, while
.sthe other fellow" suffers over his not
ill-gotton gains.
Any observant gentleman can easily
read the handwriting on the wall of
the future. 1t will be swar to the
knife" between the farmer producer
and the .money-bags of the ''trust
cormorants," middle Qoafing) men
and spectators. who would not stop at
getting a couper on a mans soul.
Money will still be on the. aggressive,
and unless Congress enacts some law
that will protect and defend those who
come under its power, woe and want
will be read on the door-steps of the
peoples homes. This aggregation of
wealth is for the protection of its cap
ital by absorbing the smaller capital
and widening the field of the larger. so
that the aggregation of small amounts
makes tremendous total. Hence the
final absorption of all small industries
into a few immense trusts, which
carries with it mower. or, more COM
monty speaking, corners.
We now think the ..Bagging Trust"
can be beaten by the manufacture of
pine straw for cotton covers, yet who
is to prevent that from becoming a
trust. and what assurance have we that
money will not (if it has not already
entered the field) gobble up that pro-
posed new industry, and the farmer be
called upon by that Cesar to pay
tribute to its god?
If there is any way that relief can
come to the farmer from this continu-
Gus exaction by the money power, it is
by and through the Alliance in adopt
ing such measures as will tend to i'm
prove his condition and permanently
present solid front against all mo-
nopolies and trusts.
1 sincerely believe the time has
come when the farmer will assert his
power, if necessary, to keep from
being trodden under foot by these
dragons of greedy ''monopolistic COR
nerers."' History, we are told, will
repeat itself. and mistake the signs
of the times if there is not trouble
brewing between that class of OPP
pressors and those who come in its
way GALL for greed and gain), and did
it not affect that very class of people