The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-12-17

twenty-three years there have been one
hundred and sixty-three thousand fail
ures, amounting to So, 1898, 600, 900 The
experience OF our own and all other ma
tlons-thej Judgment of our own and the
economists OF all other nations, of OuI
own and all other ages-agree that a
contraction OF the volume of currency
is invariably attended by a correspond
ing shrinkage in values, and that an in.
adequate circulating medium is always
followed by the same disastrous results.
Does the farmer share these results
l point to the fact that the average de-
crease in the value of farms throughout
the country, is not less than twenty PEI
cent. I point to the ten great leading
agricultural States of the Northwest,
loaded down with farm mortgages to
the extent of $3,425 600, 900, and in
which the assessed value of the farms in
1880, but little exceeded So, 200, 600, 900.
With the accumulated interest on these
mortgages at high rates, and the con-
slant decline Of the values of the farms,
what must be the condition of the farms
of those States? 1t was my fortune, a
few days since, to pass across the three
great States of Ohio, Illinois and In
diana, and the most significant feature;
as indicating their condition, was the
striking absence of new or improved
buildings on the farms. Again, l point
to the mortgage-ridden, mortgage
cursed farms all over the land, north,
south, east and west. / point to the
cattle grower of Kansas, selling his beef
at one cent per pound, to the Illinois
cOrn-grower selling his corn at fourteen
cents per bushel, and the cottonzgrower
of the South selling his cotton at barely
the cost of its production. I.point to the
populous States of Vermont and" New
Hampshire, when the farmers had cash
markets for their products at their
doors, and who used the bells and
their dinner hours" In the small
State of New Hampshire alone, the hum
of machinery, the ringing of bells and
the scream of whistles reverberate over
the hills and plains of 851 abandoned
farms, and find no echo in the happy
song of contented husbandmen. I point
to the great and prosperous State of
Michigan, with its great diversity Of in
dustries, and to it's richest agricultural
county, in which, during the year 1888,
three hundred and sixty-six of it's farms
passed under the hammer of it's sheriff
n for every day in the year. I point
to this fruitful land, from ocean to ocean,
the richest and grandest heritage yer
~vouchsafed to man, and whose very air
should be vocal with the thrilling notes
of peace and plenty, but which is laden
with the dismal, universal wall of 'hard
times"
President Garfield said, "Whoever
controls the currency of a country on
trolls the people," This vast aggregation
of capital, enriching the few to the i'm
poverishment of the many, is entrenched
behind law, but it has heard the sullen
and ominous murmur of an oppressed
people.
Over one thousand years ago, the old
Sheik Ilderim, of Medina, said to GER
tain Roman migrate: do. you dream
that because the prophet of Allah dwells
now beyond the bridge of Al Sirat, that
therefore he is deaf, and dumb, and
blind? 1 tell you by the splendor of
God! that a tempest is brooding On his
brow, there is lightning gathering in his
soul for you" Do men dream that be-
drawn and no longer presides in the
councils of the nation, that therefore it
has become deaf, and dumb, and blind?
Let them not deceive themselves with
such delusion.
We are told that the unjust and ruin
GUS exactions of capital and corporate
power are made in conformity to law.
I answer az an American citizen, as a
North Carolinian, aye, Is a descendant
of our Mecklenburg father, that the ty-
rannical mandates of George the Third,
were accompanied by the boastful decla-
ration that he, too, was the rightful occu-
pant of the British throne.
There is no tyranny so degrading as
legalized tyranny-there is no injustice
so oppressive as that which stands en-
trenched behind the forms of law.
Thus, Mr.. Chairman, l have very
referred to some of the causes
which have inaugurated the "new
luton" and which assumed form and
life and being in the great convention
at st. Louis, last week. The cry for re-
lief, which swells up all over the land
will not, it cannot, be suppressed. JUS
tice, and not charity, is what we demande
Warning on 10 legitimate interest, legiti-
prosecuted, we earnestly invoke
the sympathy and aid of all good citi-
zens of whatever rank, or class, or VOC
ton.
Thank God! that between the hearts of
the promoters and their co-workers of
this mighty reform movement, there is
room o place for sectional lines or
divisions.
Thank God! that the farmers of the
great ana or the SOuth-rep-
resentatives of a constituency of 3,O0O,-
900, of the most conservative of all our
people, were at last permitted to convene
in st. Louis, without the oficious and
wicked interference of designing sec
tional agitatOrs-those men who were
in wal and who have been in
vincible in peace" Many of the farmers
were war-scarred veterans who had faced
each other in the red blaze of battle.
But periodically and magnanimously
turning their backs to the past, they clasp
ed hands as brethren. and standing around
the grave of sectionalism, they planted
thereon the white rose of peace, with
the united prayer, that it might bloom
perpetually and forever.
Thus united in purpose, and impelled
by common interest and common peril,
the new revolution" will move for
ward with resistless force until the SOW
ereignty of the peoples shall be- e-establish-