The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-10-22

WuO 1dII AOb W. OeSNO w.
of such state of things. Having no
option in buying or selling is burning
the candle at both ends. We thus,
especially, play in the hands OF the
snecnIative class. The laws are str1n-
gent against usury, but where can you
find a money lender whose extortions
(even if the law permitted) compare
with these Shylocks fostered and
shielded by the government to filch
illimitably and with impunity, regard
less of legal restrictions to satisfy
their insatiate greed without being
called to a reckoning? They are
banditti whose prerogatives to rifle
and plunder, ad Ebttuna, are rights
which, like Robinson Cruse on his
island, it seems, "there are none to
dispute"
We must have our own commission
agents, factories, mercantile estab-
lishments, importing and exporting
commissions-au the machinery that
enters into the ultimate disposal of our
products we must put in operation if
we expect to reap the maximum (aye,
the whole hog or none) worth of our
toll. We must dispose of and control
our produce in every shape into which
it is converted through all the chan
nels of commerce-follow it up, like
sleuth-hounds upon trail, and not
give up the scent until the very ulti
mate use is brought to bay and made
to stand and deliver for our benefit
and just deserts. From wheat to
-four; cotton and wool to their differ
ent fabrics; tobacco to it's manufac-
tured state of every sort; in short all
our products we must follow up, reap
ing the profits thereof in every shape
they may assume Thus handled and
manipulated, what will become of the
army of speculative land-sharks who
have so long fattened at the sacrifice
of our utter impoverishment? Othello's
occupation will be gone. Your Ar
mours and Hutchinsons, and the like.
will be relegated to the limbo of the
past only to be resurrected as some
incubus of horrible by-g gone dream.
As it is an i'll wind that blows nobody
any good, thus viii these vlllsinous
combinations result in some good if
they only teach us what we can ac-
complish by counter cooperation
that will save, for our own benefit,
the millions fraudulently obtained by
these insatiate monopolists, and finally
see the way out of our debt-ridden
thraldom THAT desolation of abomina-
tions) into the broad highway of agri-
cultural prosperity and individual in
dependence. Thus, through 1er talSonts,
will we enter upon a renascence that
will make life worth living, and if
ever people had just cause to retaliate
we certainly have, and unless we free
ourselves of these insufferable shackles
we will, Prometheuslike, have to en-
dure the torture of these ravanous vul-
lures forever gnawing at and gorging
themselves on our vitals.
1t is the same thing year after year
no profits whatever accruing-but
an everlasting looking forward to the
subsequent years to make up for the
DEFICIENCIES of the previous. With no
balance of clear income at the end
of each year as it expires, it is always
the same old disheartening refrain of
ultimate lack in the future to make
up for former DEFICIENCIES until the out
look has resolved itself into chronic
dependence upon "better times (that
myth of myths when we pursue not
the proper course to bring it about) to
come when all hopes of betterment
have assumed prospective forecast,
although with no reliance upon Ger.
titude of coming out at the end of the
year free of incumbrance. In fact,
we lean upon sort of hopeless hope
to tide us over the present pecuniary
stress in the face of a doubtful and
deceptive futurity-a fatuous delusion
indeed But such is the relation be-
tween sale of products and cost of
production that there is no respite
from the inevitable pecuniary depres-
sion-the liabilities of one year
amounting to more than the succeed
ing can iquidate. And this failure
TO tide over the previous years obli-
cations entails perpetual insolvency
out of which there seems to be no
escape so long as the products of the
soil bear the ruinous relation, in price,
with the cost of producing them.
But ours is wilful decrepitude,
out OF which we can merge with a
self-sustained remedy by casting aside
these humping, hobbling crutches,
and, instead of using them as super.
tuous supports to uphold inaction,
shoulder them as formidable weapons
with which to knock out the brains of
our plutocratic taskmasters. So. let's
hurry along our business agency fund;
without it we can accomplish nothing
to further our material interests. and
we will we'll deserve the ranrooob of