The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-08-02

as broad and vital as if il were the
whole text and letter of our organic
law. In representative and fguratlve
sense he is lord proprietor of the
great national domain, and it is right
not to petition, but to demand. He
has done both, and in whatever charac
ter he appeared the relief asked has
been denied. He asked only that the
benefits accruing from an honest ad
ministratiOn of public affairs be equit
able and equally distributed, and that
burdens imposed by the government
be placed alike upon every man. This
done, and we shall hear no more of the
problems of experimental government,
! Sub Treasury, government ownership
of railroads, etc Will this be done?
To answer yes, would contradict the
experience Of hundred years. There
is universal distress, the want Of money
and credit has paraly zed the nerve
centres OF the whole country, and the
statesman who is wise enough and just
enough to pilot the old craft through
the bOisterOus seas of political chaos
will deserve better of his countrymen
than all the philosophers the world ever
saw. Such an act of relief and cOncilia-
tiOn will place the refOrmer in the
front rank Of modern statesmen. Revo
lutiOns never go backward, however
weak their start or compromising their
alliances, they go on and on to perfect
development.
To one who will take the pains to
look critically into our theory of gov
ernment, he will discern what has all
along purposely been hidden from our
view that the people are the ultimate
| oF o11
protection from our individual re-
sources and not under the agis of the
State. The old line politicians for half
a century through their platforms,
have proclaimed that great wrongs
have crept into the administration of
government, and yet these wrongs are
| permitted to go on Unabated. What
are the people to do? Wait and expect
better thin gs2 While they wait what
will become of their hungry children
and unfortunate creditors?
But one avenue of escape from this
political and material ruin presents it.
self, and that is by committing our
selves into the hands of our friends
only. Our plans, our demands, one
and all. We know that the most vital
obstruction in seeking relief is that
the administrative party is too far
from the people. 1t is out of sympathy
and touch with the teemi1g, toiling
masses. When we say the government
should own the railroads, we are
promptly and at once charged with
the detestible crime of confscation.
Such an act as this they tell us would
be extra hazardous, if not altogether
revolutionary. We don't want to take
from any man by sheer force single
dollar, nor do we wish to be robbed
and gulled by them. The emergency
cannot arise in our day or time when
the government, by reason Of constitu
tional sanction, will exercise the right
of confiscation, but there is a principle
sovereign that should be invoked in
aid of She people, and this would be
neither an act of confscation nor abso
luton. This principle is engrafted in
the Interstate Commerce law, and
will allow the government to manage
and control all inter State railroad
lines But why may not the govern
ment become the owner by purchase
If it can purchase from the contractor
a steamship, if it may buy the s1news
of war from a private armory, why
NAV it not buv the franchise and prop
erty rights of a railroad company3
But" says the objector, g. that
would be confiscation, and would con,
travene the theory of representative
government. Did you ever know a
government to fall into pieces because
of centralized power7 Or is power and
oppression always SYNONYMOUS terms9
The perpetual menace to government
is from consolidated wealth In corpora
ton, whereby there become the active
dissolving agents of unity and power
in government. The canker worm