The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-08
The GREAT REFORM MOVE
MENT.
A Better Time is Coming.

Mr.. ED1roR:-Cdn the Alliance do
anything? l do not propose to discuss
the principles of the Alliance, nor do
[ propose to show wherein it will
benefit the farmer financially in every
particular. A little over one year
ago the Farmers Alliance was not
dreamed of in North Carolina, and to.
day there is not a hill top in the State
but what is the meeting place of one
of these bodies. Il has sprung up
like a magic, and North Carolina is so
thoroughly organized today that if a
man standing on the shore of the At
lantic at sunrise was to give the distress
sign it would be carried from hill top to
valley and from valley to hill top until
every nook and corner of North Caro-
lima, from the Atlantic to the summit
of Mt. Mitchell, would resound with
that unusual sound before the setting
of the sun. What does this mean ?
We are told upon every hand that it's
political demagogues are working for
their own personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT by
binding the people and when their
own nests are feathered the Alliance
will die, and this Alliance will be as
short-lived as a mushroom. Be that
as it may, they have handed out a
sentiment to the masses that will
never die. There has been wars and
rumors of wars, earthquakes and
famines that have agitated the minds
of men for awhile, but it would soon
subside. Men have completed inven-
tons that will produce the seven pris-
matte colors of the rainbow, but they
are soon gone. But | as much believe
as | believe there is a God in heaven
that it means a revolution such as has
never been witnessed by any nation
on earth.
Nations have conquered nation,
kingdoms have conquered kingdoms,
empires have conquered empires, and
in 1865, after a struggle of five years,
this government conquered her rebel,
hous States. These grand victories
have all been won at the point of the
bayonet, and the cost of them has
caused the rivers to run red with hui
man blood. But the Alliance is to
astonish the world; it is to bring
about a rebellion by reason and gain
the victory without one drop of human
blood being split.
It has undertaken to wrench this
free government from the iron grasp
of the monopolists and place it into
the hands of honest and patriotic
men,. In order that justice may be
meeted out to the sixty-fve millions
of people in this country, and when
men tell US it is an absurdity of ab,
surdities for farmers to attempt to
have a voice in this government, what
better can you do than to refer them
to the thirteen little colonies that
yer scattered along the Atlantic
coast, from Maine to Florida, in the
year seventeen hundred and seventy.
six, when they were forbidden com.
m%unication between each other; when
every western breeze that they
breathed bore with It the spear, the
tomahawk, and the fame of the In.
dian torch; when they were forced to
submit to the stamp act, when they
were forbidden to cut a tree on their
own farm without the consent of the
King; when they we're forbidden to
send their products to any country
save that of England and only in
English ships, when every vessel that
left the shores of the old world
bore its load of tyrants to the
new world to enforce these and
many other laws which we're
grievous, when England would, if it
could have done it, infested the pure
air that they brc1thed with poison
and focused the pure sunlight of
heaven, the only true light that they
enjoyed, and caused it to have shined
down upon them with intense heat.
When they were surrounded by all
these evils, when they were subject to
England, the most powerful nation of
earth, those old liberty,loving and pa
triotic men met at Philadelphia, wrote
out the declaration of independence,
in which they declared themselve yes
free and independent States, and alter
a struggle of seven long, weary years,
their independence and established
this free government. Then take
courage, brother; do not stumble. |
Though thy path be dark as night,
There's a star to guide the humble;
"Trust in God and do the right"
And we will form a host against
which all the trusts, combines and
monopolies of earth cannot prevail.
We are confronted with as great evils
to-day as they were; there are laws
which l need not mention, that are
obnoxious, and will they be righted
by men in high places? The history
of the past answers no! in laundering
tones.
When this world was doomed,
Christ, who was to save the world
from death, and who was the son of