The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-06-17

fabricating fashioned shape business"
would have been called plain stealing.
To-day it is enfranchised by corporate
law, making it not only respectable,
but a certificate of a highly "intelli-
gent citizenship, vested with peculiar
rights" one of which is to make OF
the raw producer a stepping-stone for
reaching greater wealth and political
influence, giving power to take the
unadulterated products at less than
cost of production and paying for
them with the "~faoricated article as
much below standard purity as Is
price above its value. The meekly
submitting to this kind Of imposition
is not the worst feature. Our com
bined vote is strong enough to remove
all obstacles in the way of giving
equal compensation for equal mental
and physical exertion. If our organl,
cation could take a common ground
in which all would find a plain, practi-
cal common interest, self evident
enough in it's nature to bring together
and hold our scattered forces, our
| efforts will all prove failures till we
find a rope on which we can all pull
1t is sheer folly and a brainless waste
of time looking or hoping for any
partisan assistance in this matter. A
jack.o:lantsrn would be a more sensi-
ble and safer guide to solid ground
than any partisan guide, and so far
has proven but a veritable "swsmp
angel leading into greater depths of
the slough of dependency" while
trying to fascinate us with specious
promises of the grand scope" of
political campaigns, inaugurated for
the sole purpose of drying the tears
of a poverty-stri ,ken people and wip-
ing the sweat from the brow of an
Overworked producing class. Such
promises are but the rehe Arsing of the
old, old story, given our fathers and
our grandfathers also before them as
the glorious budding of pageant
glittering and brilliant with the full
ness of future prosperity and the fruit
fulness of a millennium ever coming,
but alas! "Stlll waiting till the clouds
pass by" to drop ripe plums into our
open mouths like a "heaven, sent
manns," as rewards for faithful fdel
ity in staying by traditional leir looms
that will certainly make US rich
when we get them.
1t is the inert ~imbecility of awaiting
this kind of lightning to strike u.s."
that will prove our greatest danger.
Present political economy has too
much of the Harrison dollar 3 day"
wages in it, and the seed corn veto"
principle bed-rocked into it to ever
willingly lift a burden from the back
of a wealth producer. 1t has already
accomplished its object reducing his
productions to the lowest point in
which he can maintain an existence
by extra diligence that enriches the
non producer, leaving only the stalk
field and straw stack for himself to
winter through on" No, this is
not exactly an age of a "Remus and
Romulus" motherhood and you are
not adopted by the politicians for the
purpose of absorbing "pap" anyway;
and the longer we stay working III
these strictly partisan ranks, fostering
party prejudice and the supine indol
ence of the inherited belief that vot-
ing the "party ticket" is a divine
" birth, right, and not voting i; is the
selling for a "mess of pottage," the
more occasion are we giving for In
gersoll eulogies on ourselves and our
productions.
If we we're numerically weak,
mentally or physically inferior to the
non,producers there would be reason
for sympathy and the shedding of
tears in our behalf, but we are not. 1t
is from our ranks that the best talent
is being constantly rec uited, and
scarcely can a brick fall from the top
wall to the pavement in a village,
country town or city without endan-
gering the head once engaged with
mind and muscle in directing the
plow-share and helping to provide the
comforts of a rural home, but which
is now an active Intelligence, rein
franchised with "fabricating new
methods for beating the old man
and old woman out Of the home they
have spent a lifetime il aequiring. Is
there no way, no commun ground and
common interest on which we can
stand shoulder to shoulder, clearly
within the statute of the constitution,
demanding and asking by our ballot
a recognition of our Just rights 2"
There certainly is, and we have votes
and brains enough to find this way
and make it available by mixing more
brains and less prejudices in our bal
lots in the future. If we would use
the same practical common sense in
looking after our inherent rights "
under the Constitution of this Repub,
lie as we do in looking after the quail,