The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-21

protective tax OF 35 per conG., mas Oo0A
realized on it. But was labor the
gamer by it, Who reaped the proht9
Every man through whose hands it
had passed. Who were the losers?
The man who produced it and sold 1t
at a price barely covering the cost OF
production, and who, in its final pur-
chase, paid all these added profits.
Who else9 That frail and pale-faced
girl, who stood on her weary feet for
10 to IA hours per day in manufacture
ing it, and who was forced to receive
her pay in the scrip of the firm, that
must be honored at the store Of the
firm only at a heavy discount, and
which reduces her wages below living
rates. Is labor benefited, when a dol
lar will purchase more Of its products
than ever before? Away with such
fraudulent and hypOcritical assertions!
It is not so much in the purchasing
power of the dollar that the farmer is
interested, but he is profoundly inter
ested in the debt-payimg power of the
dollar. Will this dollar, which cost
him two to four times as much as when
money was plentiful-w1l it pay more
debt? Will it pay O interest? Will
it way more on his mortgage? Will it
pay more taxes7 Will it pay more to-
ward the education of his children?
These are the questions which deeply
concern our depressed, oppressed and
debt-ridden people.
have thus briefly adverted to some
of the prominent causes and conditions
which have forced into being, one of
the mightiest revolutions ever known
to the world. The advocates and pro
motors of this great reform movement,
make war on no legitimate interests
and extend the cordial right hand of
fraternity and friendship to all men
who are earnestly striving to make an
honest living in the world. They seek
to rescue agriculture and restore it to
it's just position among the other great
industries of the country. They are
not begging for charity, but they r
demanding simple justice. They ask
for no class legislation in favor of agri-
culture, but they demand for it only an
open field and an equal chance with
every other great interest in the rae
of progress. They 9 in the perilous
conditions confronting them-in the
class legislation of Congress, in the
monOpOlistic combinations of money
power, that we have demonstrated to
the world that this government can be
run in the interest of the few. They
propose to solve the question as to
whether it can be run in the interest of
the many. They see it rapidly resolving
our population into paupers and mil
%lionaires, and they propose to protect
and preserve that great middle class
which, in all ages, in all civilizations,
in all countries, has always proved it.
self the surest and safest defender of
civil liberty. AS I walk the avenues of
this beautiful capital city, and look
upon its magnificent buildings; as I
travel over the country and see it's
rapidly growing villages, towns and
cities, our wonderful development and
growth, splendid fertile plains u
forests and beautiful rivers, I am made
to feel that this is truly and indeed the
greatest country on the earth. But as
l stand in this presence, and look into
the faces of men who have always been
the great c~onservators of the peace and
liberties of the people, who have al
ways been the breakwater against the
surging tides of fanaticism, whether in
church or State, and reflect that with
in their quiet, transformations homes
are inculcated those lessons of virtue
and patriotism, which is the citadel of
civil and religious liberty, I forget our
splendid cities, magnificent plains,
and beautiful rivers, and mighty works
of internal improvement, and saw in
my heart that after all, the greatness,
grandeur, glory, and power of this
country, and of Jul government, rests
in the homes of the middle class of our
people. Intheir OminOus surroundings
they read not only the threatened doom
of agriculture and the enslavement of
labor, but the rapid approach of disso-
luton and death, to the republic.
They have formulated and announced
to the world a platform of principles
which they believe will bring the great
est good to the greatest number, and
will conserve the highest and best in
terests of all the people of this country.
A1liancemen, Democrats and Republi-
cans alike, believe that these principles