The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-08-16
PRESIDENT BUFFERS MESSAGE
To the State Alliance in Session at
Greensboro Last Week.


YOUR banner in my hands You placed
me in the front Of the N. Z. division Ol
the great national army OF retormeIs'
1t was a position of tremendous re,
sponsibility and | trust l felt IL a large
degree the gravity of the situation. IL
was at a time when the organization
was entering the most critical perloQ
of its existence, a time when we ana
orr principles were to be subjected TO
the supremest crucial test. The year
has been a stormy one. Every day, Sun
davis excluded, the fire of the enemy
has been poured upon us with mercl
less force and in an INSCRIPTIONS man
ner. The money power has LETT no
stone ~unturned to crush the movement
and drown the cry of the weak for
mercy and the demand Of freemen TOR
Justice.
To day we meet again. Let us see
what has been accomplished what the
present status of the organization is,
and what is our duty in the future.
Every reform movement has its varl-
Gus stages of growth and development.
Many of these movements sOOne or
later reach the stage of disintegratlOn
and decay. This has been the case
when the cause has been slight or local
or temporary or when the people failed
to fni the true cause for a real wrongs
and therefore could not apply The true
remedy. The cause of the present
movement is deep rooted and wide
spread. 1t is One that IN a large de-
gree affects alike every laborer and
wealth producer of the whole country.
A portion of those suffering from the
blighting effects of some great ndu-
ence caused them to organized to study
the situation. They formed themselves
into a great vigilance committee to
search for the cause, a cause that made
them poorer while each worked ha "der
and created more wealth, a cause that
has made poor the people whose labor
has made their country rich. Since this
class Of men and this condition existed
in every quarter Of the country, the
organization soon spread over the
whole country. For years the cause
or rather the causes have been stimuli
taneOuslY searched for and studied
from Maine to California and from the
lakes to the gulf. The cause or part of
the causes were found. The whole Or
g~anization agreed on them. The pub
lie generally agreed that the evil causes
existed. We then appealed to the law
makers of the country for a remedy.
Great sympathy was expressed for our
condition, but no remedy was offered.
The organization then formulated its
own remedies for each cause and ap-
pealed to the lawmakers to give Us
these remedies. They found fault with
our remedies. We then demanded that
they should give those demands or
something better. That was fair. For
If the wrongs exist, if unjust and OPP
pressive laws are on the statute books,
it is the duty of ourlaw makerstO give
us relief, to give is u remedy or
better one. Up to date the demands
of the people have been ignored, while
every request of the monopoly cOrpOr-
ations and the money power has been
promptly agreed to. We have just
realized that the organization came too
late for justice to be gotten by petition.
The people must now submit like slaves
or take political action for themselves.
While the organization has been
making this progress, what has the
been doing? and here we might
ask who the enemy ISL When under
conditions a certain class of
people are robbed of the fruits of their
some other class gets and acct
mulates what the other loses. The
great majority have been losing their
wealth, the fruits Of their labOrs; a
small minority have been getting and
accommodating their wealth, earned and
produced by the majority. Then the
enemy Is this small class who are not
wealth creators, but who are rapidly
accommodating the wealth of the country.
This class and those who serve them
either for pay or from ignorance and
party prejudice as forsoOth many or all
of us did until recently.
At first the enemy ignored the move
ment, thinking it would die for the
want of their c~Ondescending attention.
But they had not cOmprehended the
deep and widespread causes that ex-
listed and were at work; the causes
which forced the people to organize for
elf-prOtection, for self preservation.
Their next move was to capture the
organization. In this and their whole
fight on the organization their most
most powerful agents have been the
machine politician, servile or hireling
newspapers. They patted the organiza-
ton on the back and had the tools of
~plutocracy to pose as the champions of
the people and in some cases have
struggled them into the fold of mem
bership. This scheme was a partial
success, Some of these men, their
tools and hirelings, got into Congress
by the votes of the farmers and soon
showed who their masters we're by vot-
ing against the free coinage of silver
and every other measure of substantial
relief for the people. During this period
they attacked, misrepresented, abused,
villlfed your officers and leaders, while
at the same time they professed great
interest in the organization. They
tried to break your confidence in
your officers, hoping that you would
then be governed by their advice. The
great industrial conference of labor
organizations at St. Louis put an end
to their scheme. The people were too
poor to be fed on sympathy. They
were too well Informed to be cajoled,