The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-06-06
Written expressly for PROGBE:sIvE FARNER.l
AN ANALYSIS.
Harry Hinton" Analyses the Political,
Social and Alliance Issues.

working; the robbers are robbing; the
birds are singing; the despoiled and
robbed are mourning; the preachers
are preaching and the people are wor
shipping gold, great America, good
government, happy people.
l studied botany once. While sit
ting by a wood land path picking wild
flowers into pieces to find to what
family they belonged, an old darkey
passing by, stopped and said poor fel-
low; he am crazy; see him picking dem
things to pieces The same thing would
be said of me now if l should pick the
political parties into pieces and name
their component parts, The first part
! we find is
FAITH
Faith in the party and faith in it's
leaders. Take away from every voter
faith in his party and his party dies a
sudden death The whole land is full
Of political preachers and teachers
great and small, buoying up the weak
In faith and the backsliders; giving
anon q promise to them of good things
yet to come. An infidel said once it is
an easy matter for one to believe what
he wants 20 believe and so the party
machines make iJinteresting and oene-
fetal to have faith by filling the land
with officers, by paying them exorbit
ant salaries, by favOring certain classes
and in assisting them in rObbing the
remainder. So we find the second
component part Of this wild flower
(party) is
SELFISHNESS.
John G. Calhoun was a Democrat,
and in olden times Democrats were not
afraid to tell the truth. He said the
Democratic party lived on the cohesive
power of public plumber. In the prime
days of Democracy selfshness was one
Of it's living principles. We have owo
parts of this wild flower named Faith
and Selfshness. By a still farther in
vestigatiOn We find another
EDUCATION.
As a man believes easily what he
wants to believe, he also believes read
lily what he is taught to believe, max
ing no inquiries into the why's and
wherefore's. As a rule Pagan children
are Pagans, Mohamedon children are
Mohamedons, Protestant children are
Protestants, Democratic children are
Democrats, and Republican children
are Republicans, living in the full faith
of their fathers, asking go questions.
Education makes up the man in all Of
his component parts, and IS one com
ponent part Of the partisan. What a
man believes without investigation is
superstition. So one part of this wild
flower is
SUPERSTITION.
Ignorance is the mother Of supeTsti
ton. Not to inquire for ones self into
the facts on which confidepc cei is founded
is the mother of ignorance. Thus we
see that sects and parties tend to i5nO-
rance and superstition by stopping in
dependent inquiry by promising that
my fathers Paganism is good enough
for me; my fathers and mothers sec
tarianism is good enough for me, and
also my fathers politics. And should
one be independent enough to set up
an inquiry Of more mature years into
the reasons and facts of his education
On which his religion and politics is
based, he is frightened at the yawning
chasm just ahead, Of old friendship
broken and of the slings and arrows of
social hatred behind. Thus we place
and name next part
SOCIAL PRESSURE.
1t is not pleasant to differ with
friends. 1t is not filial to differ with
ones parents. It is not a recOmmen-
dation to differ with the great and
good that any party or religious or
social institution can claim. 1t is
grievous indeed to receive the taunts
and ieers of your once confident friends
pelting you in the back. And poor
tinid mortal hesitates long before pass
ing through such an ordeal and thou
sands of honest hearts are overwhelmed
with doubts and fears and live and die
as they were born. Thus political
parties find a great aid and assistance,
notwithstanding their 0ersO11el is COM
posed of the most wicked of mankind
in keeping its cohorts together by
social pressure. But before there can
be fight there must be somebody to
fight. Zeke Bikins could have no fight
in the Dismal Swamp if the Prince Of
Wales did not come to taw. So the
component part of one party is it's
COUNTERPART
in another party. The Democratic
marty would not exist longer than four