The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-10-24

I mo" IL d uOuS0 u6CuS IOP0H dAN U4VO
foundation is giving away, and the
roof is giving away, and the roof is be-
coming rotten, and the weather board
ing is coming off, and the doors and
windows rattle in the wind, and you
come along with a carpenter and you
tell him your house needs repair and
he must repair the roof first, and If he
repairs the roof the foundation will be
all right; and if be makes the doors
close tightly and the windows cease to
rattle that the foundation is bound to
| be all right, if the roof and the win.
dows and the doors prosper, that is not
| exactly according to the common sense
that characterizes the people of this
country. You can get the commonest
mechanic in Wake county, or in North
Carolina, a fellow who will mash his
thumb and lose religion every time he
drives a nail, and he will tell you to fix
the foundation first; the roof is bad, it
is true and the doors and the windows
need fixing, and the plastering needs
fixing, but my dear sir, if we fix them
ever so good, and the foundation gives
away the whole concern sinks. Is not
that so2 Now the farmers interest is
the first in this great land. The farm
| er's interest is the foundation of all
| other interests. Without the cotton
and the wheat and the beef and the
hog products which grow in the South
and upon the Western plains, the sails
of every ship in our harbOrs would flap
idly against the mastS; every railroad
would cease to run a freight train,
every mandatory in the country
would discharge half of it's hands, if it
did not shut up altogether, If it were
not for the products of the farms, but
whenever they are abundant and find
ready sale at a fair price, they furnish
life and vitality and energy like the
circulation of the blood into the re
hottest 1bres of the whole social struc
ture, and all flourish together. There
fore, in selecting the remedy for the
hard times, and in providing a means
against the recurrence of them say,
we should consider the needs of the
agricultural classes of the community
first and when they are secured, all
other good things will follow. If they
continue to languish, If the farms of the
country continue to be covered with
mortgages, if the homestead continues
to dwindle in means and in prosperity,
then everything else will laDguish also,
except the auctioneer, and his business
will become enlarged and "a greatly.
Those are the ideas | have of these
things.
Fellow citizens, l know you have got
too much sense to suppose that [ came
here to talk to you about agriculture
[ don't know anything about it, more
than any other man of ordinary intelli-
gence. | followed the pillow as a young
man, but w overlook it. My OBJ
servation5 of agriculture were all taken
from the outside of the fence, at a safe
distance. But, my friends, if there is
any nan in North Carolina, or in the
United States of America, who has
been under obligations to his people for
oft-repeated, undeserved kindness and
confidence, | am that man. And with
all the strength of mind and soul that l
possess, | have studied tn Ose questions
that affect you. 1t Is not out of place,
[ conceive, to speak to you of this silver
matter, although at an agricultural
fair, for it is not a partisan question.
The great Democratic party issplit wide
in two on this question of silver. The
Republican party, while not so abso
lutety divided is very much divided
upon the subject of silver, and, there
fore, | say it is not inappropriate, or
out Of taste, for me % speak to you at q
strictly agricultural meeting on this
HNOSOAOAS OLAO HfANObAO1A VI IICS1ASO
which SO greatly interests You have
done so to the best Ofmy ability. [ wish
you all prosperity and happiness.
l do trust that IN some things you will
think l am competent to advise yOu.
I advise you to do nothing rash. l ad
wise you to continue your conservative
methods, and [ do pray that you will
take means to combine and organize
and make your strength felt in the
affairs of the nation as it has been felt
IL the affairs of your State with such
beneficial results. I trust earnestly
that you will do it, and my word for
it, you will never regret it.
One of the happiest things to me
that has occurred IN the past several
years is the fact that you have as a
farming class determined that you had
other duties to perform besides making
your daily bread and mine, and your
people, with great unanimity, like
little children going to school, have
been seeking information and learning
of those questions of finance which so
much affect you. Keep on at it. The
day will come when power will be held
by those who have a majority, and
you have the majority in this great
land ours. The only question is that
when that power comes into your
hands, whether you will abuse it. Let
us pray God that you will not, II is
natural when men have been oppressed
and wrong has been done to them for
so great a while, hat when their hour
Of power comes they can't stop at the
line of moderation. The horrors of the
French Revolution were just in pro
portion to the iniquity which had been
heaped upon the people there for cen
turtles. 1t was begun by the Girondists,