The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-01-27

GNSOOAoSHNO0S 0AA
their conclusions are represented IN the
demands" submitted to Congress and
to the country. They have tried existing
theories and practices until bad conditions
have continually AID steadily grown
worse. They are now deeply in earnest,
have felt the force OF tina power born Of
organization and strengthened by initial
victory, and they will not yield one jot
or little Of their just demands until their
Mission is accomplished, and equality and
Justice is substituted for special privileges
and cl ASS legislation. The most important
of these demands" are % patriotic in
principle, so closely allied to the broad
fundamental teachings of the founders of
our government that the wonder is they
are not universally accepted, and promptly
complied with. ULless all experience is
worthless and human Judgment unreliable,
the presant financial condition of our coun-
try is critical, and the i'm nedeate future
fraught with convu sion and disasters that
will embrace in their destructive conse-
quences AIl sections of he country and all
classes of citizens. In this emergency
the representative farmers of the United
States, without regard to sections or DC
litical affiliations, and embracing all ard
every agricultural organization in the land,
supplemented by the labor organizations
of the villages, towns and great cities, de-
mand a oomblete restoration of silver
coinage to a perfect equality with gold,
that the criminal discrimination first made
il the act of 1873 and partially sustained
to this hour shalt be done away with in
an at for the free and unlimited coinage
Of silver dollars. / do not contend that
this will bring complete relief, it is only a
single step in the right direction. But the
demand for it comes from an overwhelm-
ing majority of our people, and if not
complied with at this time, will be persist
emily insisted upon until it is ACCOMPLISH /.
The gradual and steady decline of farm
products began with the demonstration
OF silver; | confidently believe that its res
toratlon to a perfect equality with gold as
to coinage bullion and certificates, based
upon the ratio fixed by our laws will be
greatly oene icial in restoring prices of
farm products to an average that will be
remunerativt, If not profitable, to the pro-
duc7rS. Free coinage of silver, with an
increase of III paper circulation common
surate With gu increased population and
constantly adgmenting commercial de-
al "A4A H44LS az IA aSOlN1JI IA T. duCS
hope and buoyancy in all lines of COM
MERGE, and certain relief as well as in
creased prosperity to our great productive
industries. Our people further demand that
the most exaggerated system of high ma
tiOnal taxation ever devised ID mu@ern
times must be r~eadjusted upon the pin
ciples of right, equality and justice; must
be so laid that the consumers who consti-
tute the masses of the people, embracing
all who labor for daily bread and sub
sistence, may be lightly burdened, and
that the great producers of the country,
the sgriculturists' shall not be specially
taxed beyond their share Of the national
demands; that national taxation shall be
limited to the actual needs Of the govern
ment economically and honestly admins
terd and that we shall return to certain
abandoned but just subjects of taxation
upon wealth and capital and to this end
the prompt restoration of a fair and equit-
able tax upon incomes. That we shall re-
turn to the principles and administrations
of the founders of our system of govern
ment and recognize in our laws that ON
merce and manufactures may be fostered
and encouraged as the landmarks of agri-
culture, but not specially protected until
as now agriculture becomes the slave of
thease great industries, chained to their
victorious chariot wheels until its destruc-
ton means financial enslavement of the
greater class of our people, and a ciminu-
ton if not destruction of national pros
peritY. A fruitful source Of the ills com
planned of comes from the n odern methods
aud practices of our Boards of Trade, so
called; as arule they should be demon
mated licensed gamblers in the products
of tee soil" Legitimate trading is the SELL
ing of that which n owns, not that which
one does not own. The legitimate merchant
or trader is the one who has for sale that
which he sells. And the party who sells
a thing before he acquires it is, in fact, no
matter what his purpose may be, simply a
speculator or gambler in that particular
contract. The evil in these practices is in
the fact that every crop produced and har-
vested in the country is sold in advance
of its delivery for legitimate consumption
an hundred or a thousand times over.
Sold by future delivery by men who
never owned and never expect to own in
good faith one pound or bushel Of the
commodity sold, but whose sole purpose
and endeavOr is in concert with hundreds
of others, allied in interest and organized
by selfish greed, to depreciate, lower,
break down, and if possible destroy the
actual value Of such commodities in the
markets of the world based upon the legiti-
mate, and but for these practices the in
exorsble laws of supply and demand.
With united voice and determined purpose
the farmers of the United S ates have
decreed that these nefarious, illegitimate,
and demoralizing practices shall cease.
Viii the present Congress give heed to
this reasonable demand2 And give the re-
lief that will come to the promised crops
of 1891 by honest and legitimate trading2
Or will they postpone so just a measure
of relief to the detriment of all classes OF
our people in the interest alone of an in
significant and undeserving few2- Vim.
H. Hatch, IN american A~gricuturiSt.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF