The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-11-22
WORK, NOT LUCK THE WAY TO
SUCCESS.

An Ol1 Ldl4LLCA 49,
noI to his sons: Boys, never trust
70 Iuck: YOU will never get anything
worth having in that way trusting 10
IT1ck for getting anything Is like taxing
O miJkpail out into a pasture and SET
ting down on a milking stool n walt
ing for the COWS to back themselves p
to be MIXED" -.
There are a great many of our ALI
ance brethren who seem to De Golng
the way the old man warned ms poyo
NOT to do and are standing idly III Ghe
field waiting for the benefits the AIu
ance organization was formed 10 orHIS
to come along to them WlChouI any
other effort on their part imam sUaAoLnS
still and waiting for them.
But the founders OF U q nau
no such idle dreams. They knew II
was a contest they were entering lhCC
Alliance and put forth their demands.
Looking at the actual and unwelcOme
facts of the situation, they saw that IN
the contention for supremacy in all
lines of business and legislation, the
farmers acting without concert or
plan. had been vanquished and the
victOrs Corporations, monOpOlles and
favored classes) were dividing as spOlls
that which they had taken from the
producers and consumers IN many IN
Just ways.
So now, Alliance brother, remember
that the great aim and end of the ALI
ance is to retake what has been lost.
We have demanded of these mon
Opolies and their political allies the re-
turn OF our just rights hat they have
taken from US and our demands have
been treated with utmost contempt.
Now we must either proceed TO IN
ter into an earnest contest for our de-
mands or else back down with the loss
of our ~self-respect and also become the
object of the contempt of the @hole
country.
We have something to gain
than the mere supremacy of a theory
or the getting into power of any set Of
men It is whether we shall be a ma
ton composed of a few purse-proud
~aristOcrats, with the great majority of
the people mere drudges, without any
of the comforts and only a few of the
barest necessities Of life, or whether
we shall become what the founders of
the republic designed-a free and pros
porous nation where every IN shall
have a free and untrammeled chance
for prosperity and happiness.
Can we trust to mere luck and for
tune that these things which now op-
press us shall pass away? That trusts
and combines will fall apart of their
own vOlition9 That railroads Will cease
to exact unjust charges from the small
shippers and to make equally unjust
rebates to trusts and mOnOpOlieS? That
Street shall cease to oppose free coin
age of silver and $50 per capita. And
SO OF for all the other forms of the evils
that aff1ict us.
Why we might as well expect to go
out and pick a good crop of peaches
off the scrub pine thickets of this Pen
insula as to expect any such consum
G1atLon of our wishes to come by luck
Our desired ends in this case can
only come to us as the reward Of united
and persistent effort. There is no elo-
ment of chance or luck a, all in this
contest. 1t is a strife of mind against
mind; of one unity Of interest against
another unity Of interest. As well
might the signers Of the Declaration Of
Independence have gone to their homes
and waited to see the effect of their
paper defiance of King George and his
ministry as for the Alliance to stand
idly and await the results of the Ocala
Demands without making a vigorous
effort IN every way to gain every point
demanded.
You cannot drive such a trust IS the
Standard Oil or Sugar Refiners out of
existence by passing resolutions any
more than you can wash. the spots off
the sun with a squirt gun. We have
a much heavier work to do than even
joining the Alliance and paying UP our
dues and getting others to join. 1t is
nothing more or less than the complete
Overturning of many institutions now
existing and replacing them with our
own.
And this process of destruction and
replacing must be done in the face Of
the bitter and relentless opposition of
those who r prOfiting by the present
state of things. To stand still and
make no effort to help Oursel yes, is
simply to surrender and give up all.
and this is equally so either in the
business field or in respect to the Iegi5-
lation that we desire.
Our opponents are utterly unscru-
pulOus, well provided with money
with most Of our great newspapers
either owned by them or friendly to
them and then they have a majority
of the leading politicians Of the old
parties.
So strongly are they entrenched that
many who sympathize with us believe
that any victory over the money power
is impossible, although they admit that
the interests of the great body of the
people are opposed by asmall minority
only, who are rObbing the rest.
If it were a mere chance that had
happened to us, if tho hard times for
the producers had not been brought
about by careful scheming, then the
idle, waiting policy might be used with
success.
But trusts and combines and class
legislation are not the results of chance.
They are the results of careful study
and unremitting work on the part OF