The Progress., 1893-11-04
Published by request. :.
THE PICAYUNE'S REPLY,
A BaseIess SANDER.

fetal journal of the Caddo farl'n
Farmers Union, in its issue OF Oct.
IA. prints a communication which Is
signed Louisiana Alliance Man." and
dated in Richland parish, and which
sets out with the following:
"If you will be so good as to allow
us the use of your columns. L would
be glad to reply to sundry slanderous
attacks which the New Orleans Plea
yune is pleased to make against the
Farmera' Alliance in louisiana and
the adjoining States.
"The Farmers Alliance is law
abiding organization, and its teachings
are uniformly in favor of morality
and good order. They do not In any
wise uphold or incite to lawlessness-
They do not favor or incite to vlo-
lence of any kind. They are not
gin burners, nor the friends OF gin
burners. On the contrary they have
every possible reason for opposing
such a course of conduct, as well as
every other species of white capism
and crime. and we defy the Picayune
or any of it's ilk to lay their finger on
single instance where our order, or
anv of its sub-lodges, have sane
toned or condoned any kind of vlo-
lence.
.Rut the Picayune has been most
industriously endeavoring to bring
us and our order into unmerited re-
proach among our fellow countrymen,
and to make political capital against
us. as an order, by hue and cry
about white caps and gin burners,
who are reported to have burned
numerous and sundry ginhouses, and
terrorized men, women and children
in large sections of Louisiana and
Mississippi.
IF these malicious exaggerations
were true as to fact, it no more fol
lows that the Alliance or its teachings
are responsible for it than they are
responsible for the hanging of the Ju-
lien brothers in the suburbs Of New
Orleans recently, concerning which
the Picayune's correspondents dis
played such enterprise in knowing so
much and telling so much at the time,
and knows wondrous little now."
If the above anonymous tissue of
loose and vagne statements is intend
ed to assert or insinuate that the Pic
ayune has charged white Gaping, gin
burning, or any other sort of lawless-
ness, upon the Farmers Alliance, such
charge or insinuation, whatever If may
be, is wholly false, base and malig-
nant, and betrays deliberate inten-
ton to injure the Picayune with the
agricultural classes of Louisiana and
other Southern States.
The Picayune defies any living be-
, ing to find a paragraph or line in
which the Plcayune has ever charged
upon the Farmers Alliance as an or
ganization any act or teaching which
J was unpatriotic or Intentionally iDju-
rious to the best interests of the coUn-
: try. much less any sort of lawlessness
9 or immortality. The Picayune has
differed widely with the financial
policy declared in the Alliance plat
: forms, but it has treated the Alliance
] doctrines with respect and met them
in temperate discussion with reason
and argument. The Picayune has
constantly denounced white caps, gin
taggers, gin burners, lynchers and
lawless people of every class; but il
S has not so much as dreamed of attri
D buting the crimes ofthese outlaws
to the Farmers's Alliance, or to any
:, other class of the people of Louis
lana. Doubtless there are criminals
in every class in city and country
but no sane person, much less on
S with any sense of justice, would eve
e charge the crimes of individuals uDoI
the community or class to which the.
might belong. Nihilistic and anarch
:, istic doctrines have been freely dis
seminated throughout the country
and to these, and to those who bav'
y circulated them, are due the lawles
d acts that have SC much disturbed tn
e public peace in every part OF tn
Uuion.
: If this anonymous assailant OF tn
~ P;cavune is hurt by the denunciation