The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-28

cause can be tempOrlZed to death. All
this equivocatiOn only means indecis-
ion. We must know our surroundings
or we will be dashed to pieces amid
the breakers before we know it. These
tame qualifications and pusillanimous
dOdges are only so many concessions
of weakened inactiOn. It is an
avowal of timidity and a shame-faced
acknowledgment of what we would
fain accomplish. We should come
out open and above board and be done
with it, so that outsiders can see that
we have no smOthered meaning, no
smOuldering intent. We will obtain
outside respect ten times more by com
ing out defantly, if need be, backed by
and replying upon our own indomitable
strength, than by an exhibition of all
this shilly-shally, higgle-haggling
Sooner or later it's got to come to this
we've got to be baptized before the
world with some sort of political shib-
bOleth. The nondescript role has got
to be dispensed with, and mawkish
squeamishness laid upon the shelf to
give place to something more tangible.
If we act unconditionally with any
party we've got to submit to it's name,
and that would be a death-blOw to us
as an independent order. The creed of
the politicians is to be true to the party
first, and to the people next. No such
doctrine as this suits us. Party must
be subOrdinated to suit the best inter
eSts of the people. Politicians who
are slaves to caucuses and the party
lash must be made to step down and
out. We need statesmen and not mar
row politicians.
Call that a new party movement
which ignores existing parties, if you
choose, but, one thing certain, desig
mated as it may be by outsiders and the
scurvy press, we've got to pursue, if
necessary, an independent course, a
course in harmony with the policy and
aims which have been antagOnized by
both the great political factions which
have not adopted one measure that &C
cords with the proposed reforms that
have sprung into existence in cOnse-
quence Of the intolerable grievances
that corrupt legislation, with it's soul
less Indifference towards the desperate
wrongs of the people, have engendered
If no other resource is left us, we
should upon an independent agricul-
tural platform, relying upon our in
herent strength and instinct of self
preservation to combat the antagon-
izing elements which confront us on
all sides, and live and die on that line
Yes! if there is no other alternative
left us, (and from present Indications
Judging from the attitude of outsiders
toward us, such a course seems mevi-
table, we must be a law unto ourselves,
turning our backs upon and caring
for no faction, no party, no creed that
hampers the great reforms we are
struggling to cOnsummate. By pur-
suing such a course we can, with per-
feet consistency, hold ourselves free
from all political complications. In
short, it is very apparent, we've got
to use superior to Democracy, superior
to Republicanism. We must make our
politics fit our Alliance principles
We should make, if anything a party
to use us for party purposes. To reach
our ends we must have no political
partnership with the dirty work of
partisan politics, or else we will resem-
BILE, or may be compared with, couple
of tumble-bugs rolling their ball along
in fitting companionship together.
AS to leadership, the very term is
obnoxious to independent individual
ism. The political demagogue'5 day is
at an end; his occupation is gone; the
good sense of the people, having at last
seen through his shallow-minded sell
fishness, no longer look upon him as
an oracal, but have relegated him to
Craze in a pasture where he properly
belongs-the silurian depths of politi-
cal oblivion. The idea of any man, or
set of men, leading the masses in an
imputation of a total obliteration of
personal independence, and subordi-
mates judgment and conviction to an
object dependence upon outside per
suasion to wild and sway us at its own
sweet will A blind subsection to
leadership is an ignominious surrender
of ourselves into the hands of those
who choose to use us as plant tools to
advance their own selfish aims, and
the people, instead of having servants
to do their bidding, will be servants
themselves by such blind subserviency.