The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-10-10
TWO PARTIES IN CONTROL.
How They Have Managed the Public
Affairs.

m0nG mas D66n IN Gu6 udIu5 VI WV PO
litical parties. The law making power
has become the fearfully efficient i'm
plement of such classes, corporations,
cIiques and combinations as could by
fair means or foul obtain control of it.
Tt has been made to subserve purely
perzonal ends. In divers ways the tax
ing power of the government has been
perverted from political to private pur-
poses. Money is levied thereby to en-
rich manufacturers and to suppress
rivalry in business and in every con
ceivable way to help the favored few
at the expense of the many. The varied
corrupting influences upon the business
world arising from this legislation pro
duce these natural effects. The classes
whose business is favored by legisla-
ton, fourishes while the unfavored
have experienced in the midst Of peace
and plenty all the losses and h~ardshlps
which are commonly felt only IN time
of public calamity, and the extraordl-
nary spectacle is presented of a nation
whose aggregate wealth is rapidly and
vastly increasing while the individual
wealth of its chief toilers and wealth
producers have diminished to a state
of poverty. How is the reform that
we desire and need to be obtained? And
right here it seems to me this illustra-
ton will f5tingly suit the case: Take
an. OK and tether him to a stake in the
grass. Grazing around and around
he winds his rope around the stake
until he stands a close prisoner. There
around him is all the rich grass he
could wish for but he cannot reach n
mtorseI. unable even to toss his head to
rid the flies that cluster on his shout
ders. Now and again he struggles vain
" and then after pitiful believing re
lapses into silent misery. This OK, the
very type OF massive strength, who,
because he has not wit enough to see
how he might be free, suffers want in
sight Of plenty and is helplessly preyed
upon by weaker creatures. Seems to
me no unfit emblem Of the working
masses. IL ali lands men whose toll
creates Astounding wealth are pinched
with poverty, and while advancing
civilization, opens wider views and
awakens new desires. Under such leg
islation they are held down to british
levels, bitterly conscious of injustice,
feeling in their inm0st souls that they
were made for something more than so
7SFz Tnnwr cE~110rlo 0rI 0Yu
out, bu5untiI they trace effects to cause,
until tLey see how they are fettered
and how they may be freed, their
struggles are as vain asthe OK nay they
are vainer. We could go out and
drive the OK in the way that would IN
twist his rope, but who shall drive men
into freedom till they use the reason
with which they have been gifted?
Nothing can avail for them. There is
no especial providence. Under all
forms Of government the ultimate
power lies with the masses. Tt is not
kings nor a~ristocracies nor landowners
nor capitalists that anywhere really
enslaves the people; it is their ignor-
n more especially where the power
of government rests at the ballot-box.
The workingmen of the United States
may mould to their will legislators,
courts and constitution; politicians
strive for their favor and political par
ties bid against one another for their
votes, but what avails so long as they
use their good reason? But when they
fail to use good reason the little finger
of capital is thicker than the working
loins, and how far from any agreement
as to practical reform are even those
who must feel the injustice of existing
conditions may be seen in reform
organizations though beginning to real
iza the wastefulness of time and feel
the necessity Of acting on general con-
ditions through l~egislations, These or
CARNATIONS when they come to formu-
late political demands seem unable to
unite upon any measure capable of
large results. Their political impo
tency must continue until the masses
or that sprinkling Of more thoughtful
men who are the leaders of popular
opinion shall give such heed to larger
questions as will enable them to agree
on the path reform shall take. 1t was
with the hope of promoting such an
agreement that the great body of the
AFarmers' Alliance was organized and
TO examine a vexed question which
must be settled before there can be any
efcient union in political action or So
lcial reform.