The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-01-19
WHAT ARE THE FARMERS TO Doa

this Christmas day, gazing at the hick-
ory and blackjack logs as they lie
squirming and sparkling on the friendly
hearth, waging war with the cold De-
cember atmosphere, my thoughts go
back to the Christmas of a few years
ago; and l can hardly refrain from
brushing away o tear when memory
glldes over the changes a few short
years have wrought. A few years ago,
along during the Christmas holidays,
when you went out upon the public
highway, smile illumined the coun
tenance of almost every one you met,
now in the place of that smile OF con-
tentment, woe is depicted, and those
you meet look as though they had been
attending funeral Now the question
naturally arises, why such change?
Why are the once happy people so de-
spOndent2 Is it caused by laZiness,
extravaganza or OVerprOductiOn2
We answer no; thousand times no;
1t was brought about by none of those
causes, but was caused by O. miserable
plutoCratic form of government When
| say plutocratic government, | mean
a government controlled and run by a
few m1lionaires solely in the interest
OF corporations trust syndicates and
such like. Are the farmers to blame
for the existing state of affairs? We
answer no, they are not much to blame
up to now. tut we DO say If they
allow it to continue, and don't remedy
it in the next election, they are to blame,
greatly to blame. And unless they
arise in their might and shake off the
shackles of shylocks who now threaten
to enguf every liberty they possess,
this once proud land of America will
be doomed to everlasting destruction.
Read the annals of the world, and you
will find wherever the wealth of ma
tiOn becomes concentrated into the
hands of few individuals. that nation
went to pieces, as did the Roman and
Persian empires, Babylon, Egypt and
others. If those mighty Iations fell
before the merciless grasp of Shylock,
why should the United States of Amer
lea be an eXceptiOn2
We bid you arise, ye honest yeomen
of the land, if not for your own sake,
for the sake of those you see growing
up around you, listen not to the song of
the scheming politician, nor to the
hireling tool of monopoly no longer.
But say by your votes before the year
of 1892 is numbered with the past, that
pie and for the people
What are the farmers to do? is the
question we set out to answer. That
we will proceed to do from an Alliance
meR's sta .5point. We have already
told you there was something wrong
in the administration of the affairs of
this once happy nation. We will now
take up one of the evils that is nearest
our door: The American Tobacco Com
pany known as the cigarette or to
baCcO trust-that a partially legalized
swindle on a gigantic scale is perpet
uated on the honest farmers of the
tobacco growing sections of the cOun-
try is fact that no one will deny unless
he is miniOn ofsaid American tobacco
swindle. Now what we all want is a
remedy to meet that evil. One remedy
proposed, mostly by the partisan press,
is to establish opposition factories and
| fight the devil with fire Fighting the
devil with fire is always a dangerous
| experiment. for the old fellow has a
| monopoly of that article, and man
would be pretty fool to try to run
| the devil out of hell with fire; or to put
it in plain English, how in the name of
| common sense are the poor farmers
who can hardly get money enough to
dress apiece, to build cigarette fac
tory to compete with a concern con-
| trolling thirty five or forty million dol
lars. Say that the tobacco trade out
side the trust build an opposition fac
tory, it would be a small potato, at
| least, as far as it's benefiting the farm
ers is concerned. Is the legitimate
trade philanthropic enough to build
| opposition cigarette factories and force
up the price of smokers and cutters
solely for the benefit Of the farmers? If
so, why such a depression in the price
| Of other goods? Why did the western
plug manufacturers take advantage of
the cutter trust and reduce the price of
yellow wrappers fully one hundred per
cent? We have opposition factories
for those goods; do they try to force
the price up? If they do, it is a mighty
poor try. We advise the farmers to
take no stock in the plan to fight the
devil with fire unless we had more fire
than we have got. Say that the trade
started an opposition factory, with a
capital of one million dollars to com
pete with the trusts with it's thirty five
millions, the trust factory would re-
duce the price of their goods to under
| sell the opposition and force it out of
| the way. Inc OppOslLlOn would nave
to reduce also or work for nothing.
Now the presumption is that they
are not going to work for nothing. The
trust cuts under; they cut under. Both
have to have their profits, consequently
the price of the farmers raw material
will be reduced to a mere pittance and
| the factories will have all the fun cut
| ting at one another, while the poor
| farmers foot the bill
We advise you to stick to the Ocala
| demands and not to move either to the
right or to the left. The plutocrats and
their allies want you to fight the devil
with fire. They have a monopoly of
| that article and will 1Ga IL to THAR ad-