The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-02-18

be done in the way Of afording sub
stantial relief to the people on any
line until the Senators are made more
directly responsible to the people and
less responsible to a power which
recognizes no conscience but greed and
no god but gold.
These amendments are before the
Judiciary Committee of the House. [
hope the gentlemen who compose that
committee will not make it a grave
yard of measures demanded by the
people, but that they will bring these
measures out into the open light Of
day, and if they must die, let them
die in an open fight before the House
and the country, and not die of stran
gulation in the dark at the hands of
the committee without fixing individ-
ual sponsibility. Gentlemen who
oppose legislation of this character
would then have an opportunity to go
on the record before the country on a
yea and nay vote. There could be no
question of constitutional scruples, no
quibbling or lodging, and no clearer
presentation of the issue.
Let us have a vote that will either
redeem our party promises to the peo-
pie in regard to trusts or stamp them
as falsehoods promulgated to mislead
and deceive the people. Let us have
a vote that will meet the views of the
farmers and laboring men Of the
United States on the subject Of futures
or one that will Enthusiastically repudi-
ate their demands. The farmers of
this country are between the upper
and the neither milestone. Trusts fix
the prices which they shall pay for
nearly everything they are compelled
to buy. Produce gamblers fix the
prices which they shall receive for
nearly everything they have to sell.
Mr.. Jerome Hill, of St. Louis, a mem
Der of one of the largest cotton com,
mission firms in the country, and one
of the recognized authorities on every
thing pertaining to cotton statistics,
estimates that the cotton-growers sus-
tain a loss of one entire cotton crop in
every seven on account Of the fact
that their product is sold many times
over by men who own no cotton and
have no right to sell a pound of it.
The Western farmers suffer even
greater losses on account of similar
transactions affecting their products.
Men who claim to be statesmen and
leaders of the people answer their
complaints of discrimination, injustice,
and oppression, with word pictures of
the unexampled prosperity of the
nation, and with long arrays of figures
which only emphasize the magnitude
of the robbery which class legislation
has accomplished.
Pictures Of the nations prosperity
painted in the most glowing colors
will not lift the mortgage from the
farm nor feed and clothe the wife
and children. There is no Disgusting
the fact that millions of American
laborers stand like Tantalus sur-
rounded by fruits and flowers of a
nations prosperity which they can
neither touch nor taste, up to their
-necks in streams of national prosperity
from which they may not drink.
Everything they touch turns to
gold, and many of them, like Midas
of old, r starving in the midst of the
wealth which their magic touch has
created. Long arrays of figures to
prove the prosperity of the nation will
not appease the pangs of hunger nor
shut out the cold blasts of winter. If
you would Tighten the burdens Of
laborsand smooth the wrinkled fur
COWS of care from the brow of labor,
if you would nerve the arm Of the
toiler which is well-nigh paralyzed by
the oft-repeated disappointment of
false hopes inspired by the false prom
ises of false teachers, if you would re-
store the prosperity of the masses,
take the hands of the robbers, created
by class legislation, out of the pockets
of those who toll; make the classes
who are riding the taxpayers, booted
and spurred, get down and walk; stop
piling burdens on industry for the
benefit of those who neither toll nor
spin; blot out from the face of the
earth the trusts and monopolies that
grind the faces of the poor, and force
the dealers m "wind" to live on the
wind or work for an honest living.