Morris tribune., 1891-11-25
Opposition to Farmers,

OppOSIliOIl W L al IIlSf =.
Under the above head that grand
agricultural paper, the Western Rur-
al and American Stockman, has the
following stirring and truthful cticle.
Read it and treasure up the truths it
contains:
Of course cooperation and every
other movement of reform is ridiculed,
denounced and termed unsafe by
those whose interests are affected ad-
versely and by those who appear to
be glued in their tracks and refuse to
move forward. But opposition and
denunciation, however loud .or wide
spread must Ee permitted toinhuence
the individual reformer or the man
who thinks that things as they exist
are wrong. He should invistigate
for himself. He should remember
that the world has been burning
people at the stake, poisoning them
with cup of hemlock and hanging
them to the cross, simply because the
victims saw the truth which the blind
ed and stupid intellects of the masses
could not discern. 1t has been the
few resolute spirits of the world and
usually too from the common people
who have been the coulters to the
plow of progress in the whole history
of the world. The audacity and as
sumption of the few have led the
world to shut their ears to the de-
mands of justice and and to close its
eyes to the existence of abuses almost
from the beginning of time.
Wendell Philips and William Lloyd
Garrison thundered against the evils
of slavery, while fashion and wealth
and even the pulpit not only laughed
at the wretchedness of the slave, but
pelted Philips with eggs and threath-
ened to hang Garrison. When this
modern John theB aptist was preach
ing the gospel of repentance to the
American people and numerically
lashing the oppressor of the helpless,
he was dragged from the platform in
this nation of professed liberty and
free speech, rope placed about his
neck, and amidst the taunts of the
multitude was led through the streets
of Boston for execution. The wealthy
and educated and refined of the Ath-
ems of America looked upon the out
rage in practical approval. 1t was in
spirit of the heartlessness, the brutal
ity, of the old gladitorial contest over
again. 1t was gloating over the cruel
ty to the black man. It was repitition
of hurting Manlius from the top of the
Tarpeian rock once more. But there
was Jack Cade in the mob, a COM
mon man; man of the peoples a man
who did not sympathise with senti
ments which Garrison advanced, but
who beneath his rough exterior had
the heart of true manhood and keen
sense of fair play. This common,
robust mechanic rushed to the side of
the imperiled emancipation and with
strong right arm uplifted Threatened
to brain any man who laid his hand
upon the Threatened, insulted Ameri-
can citizen. Wealth would not offer
this protection, the educated would
not do it; refinement would not do it.
It was left to one of the common peo-
| pie to do it and we refer to it only as
an Illustration of what history teach
es, that it is the common people who
are the best lovers of truth and who
are the bravest in the work of reform.
While there is always powerful fac
tion in society that is interested in
the oppression of the masses, and in
perpetuating wrong, they would be,
after all, comparatively powerless if it
were not for the mentally indolent
who never take trouble to investigate
public questions, and who are content
to permit affairs to drift along in any
direction. 1t is not strange, therefore,
that in this young republic of ours,
founded on the principle of equal
rights and equal responsibilities, mat
ters should have drifted into such an
undesirable shape. The tendencies
have been and are the same here and
now as they have been anywhere or at
any time in the worlds history, for