The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-05-02
The Good the Alliance Has Done.
CLEMENT A. EVANS,
Adjt.-Gen'l and Chief of Staff.

Many members and old members have
asked the question, what good has the
Union done?" and / have no doubt that
hundreds will say It has done no good.
Such is the answer of only the unthink-
ing.
Though we have been benefited wonder
fully,our benefits have been more of know
ledge than practice. We have learned
where the shoe pinches and how it pinch
es, but we have not taken the shoe off and
we cannot hope to take it off unless we
make united and concerted effort.
There is much yet unleared of the causes
and we need the brain of every laborer to
help find them. Then we will need the
help of every man whose head wears
Adams mask 10 help US to have this law,
law of liberty, truly. There is but lit
tie antagonism of interest between the
learned professions, the mercantile world
and the farmers and laborers. In this
land OF ours law that will Cypress me
today, in the changes of life may Cypress
you to morrow. The merchant may be
a prosperous man to-day and tramp to-
morrow. His family may roll in wealth
today and his sons be farm labors next
week. While laws that are Just to all
millionaire in a decade, they may help
keep millionaire sous and daughters
from being oppressed, when the tide of
fortune turns. There are men foolish
eLough to want an equal distribution of
the wealth of this country but you will
not find many OF them foremost in the
rank Of any farmers organization.
What we want distributed equally to all
men, "reg ardle~s of race, color, or previ-
Gus condition of servitude," is the oppor-
tunity for the rersuit of happiness. Some
men who do not look below the surface,
will say. why have that now; you can
be millionaire now if you have the mon
ey" or" yom can be a banker now if you
have the spondulix; the chance is OPEN"
We all could enjoy the privileges of eth
er class if We had the cash and there is
no law prohibiting all from trying, but
| il is the privileges of the Glasses / am
Directing 10, and not the classes themselves.
1t is the privileges of The ins, that makes
it so easy for them to stay i'll and so hard
for the outs to get in. If the classes had
less privileges and the individuals
more it would be better for the country,
and it can he brought about only by the
anited effort of the unprivIleged classes.
So long as they remain divided in senti-
ment and undisciplined in purpose, 50
long will the working men be the
outs and the privileged classes the ins.
Organization has taught us the weak
place IN human nature. Taking a sur
| face view of the Union many who have
not studied it might conclude that it was
going into decline, but / can assure its
| friends that they need not be looking for
cards to its tdneral," 1t sleeneth only
and will awaken like Samson aud turn
upon its enemies, The seeds that have
been falling for the last FIVE Years have
fallen on fertile soil and are taking deep
root, and they will develop into plants of
liberty that will so occupy the grounds as
to overshadow and shake the noxious
weeks of ignorance, lethargy, selfshness
and humble submission.
There are true patriots alive to-day oD
! Americas soil who are "a true friends of
true liberty as were ever Pstric Henry,
Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin and
their teachings are going out over the
| land arousing the manhood that remains
in the prosperity of the fathers of this
| free land. The union has brought care
less and uneducated men under the same
roof with men who have studied the his
tory of dead nations and can read the
hand writing on the wall, and they have
assimilated and now through labor press
established and maintained by them to-
gether, are sending out into the world
facts and theories that will yet bring glad
ness to the toiler and hope to the father
Of poor children.
The Union has done what the sword,
the press and the pulpit have faiIed to do,
and ii had died without accomplishing
more it may have claimed a monument
with this inscription: Il am mightier
than all" For twenty -four years of POI
litical reconstruction, forty years of phi
lanthropy and hundred years of preach
ing, it was left to the Alliance to blot out
Mason and Dickson's line-that magma
ry line on which the bloody shirt has
been waved every tour years. Oae of the
last il not greatest things the Alliance has
done has been to inspire the masses with
renewed hope, encourage the tOiler upon
the grea, Importance of political and
social economy, that the future genera
tions may profit. JAS. r. SwEEToN.