The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-08-28

Oh Uu0 Ob6JOs lucy - S"S JAN
read the cloth-covered book.
IN TROUBLE asst SUNDAY.
ST got myself into trouble last Sun
day by one little remark. Between
now and next January I will make
1, 900 more of them. We are going to
take Populist ideas, the Jefersonian
ideas through the State. If we can't
talk them, we can sing them. We will
take a brass band. The children will
sing them. We will make it school
house campaign. We are the heads of
the movement. If the Populist are
killed in Colorado they will be killed
everywhere. We won't be killed herel
1 have nothing to do from now till
January but talk.
my remark was that I sympathized
with those poor fellows barricaded on
the top of Bull Hill. 1t costs me a good
deal. 1 don't care what it costs.
"Way back before the war a friend
of mine in Wisconsin ran a little four
page newspaper. He had about 400.
subscribers. When John Brown was
hung in 1859 he published a little four
stanza poem on his death. 1t was
worth repeating, and I wish 1 could re-
member it now. When he was dying
of pneumonia he said to me: 'Mr.
Reed, the only thing I am proud of in
my life was that little poem. 1t cost
me 200 subscribers.
Il am not a prophet, but l I'M the
son of a prophet. Ny father foresaw
the beginning of the war. l am no
prophet, but 1 see the beginning of a
war now. Those men on the hill are
lightning the first battle for it.
This is no incidental, and no local
thing. This is an idea that should not
exist. Men shall not remain masters
and serfs, few masters, many serfs.
''This is the beginning of it.
"Lines must be drawn, and all men
and all women must get IN one side or
other.
Special advantages to none, equal
opportunities to all. Under this ban
ner we fight this battle.
"a man writes me that coal miners
in Colorado have been getting the same
wages for ten years. This is partly
true. They do not receive dollars in
cash, but they receive scrip, and are
compelled to deal with this at the com
pany's store. They ask for reduction
to the old wages and cash payments,
and liberty to deal where they please.
Is there any sane man or woman here
to night who will deny the justice of
their demands7
"They are on strike, and as I said
before, 1 pray to God they win it.
"And the detestable, beastly way
the oppressors have of making mis-
takes!
ut was not sufficient that they
arrested Jesus Christ, but they tried
Him at night by Roman law and Jewish
law. They tried Him in the dark, and
without the witnesses He was entitled
to. He was insulted. A ragged red
robe, and a crown of thorns were
placed upon Him, and He was hailed
as King of the Jews 1t was not sufi-
Gent to arrest and hang John Brown.
They tried Him when He was sick and
without counsel.
81 doa't know MI. Coxey, but he was
anxious to get to Washington. He
got there. He trod on the sacred grass
that you and l own, not because he
wanted to, but because he had to.
THE WHITE HOUSE MONSTER.
''That thing in the White House;
John Atkins defined him as all throat
and stomach, should have come out
and said: Read your speech at any
length you wish. This is the nations
house, and you are the nations guest,
and when he had finished, he should
have invited him ia to dinner like a
white man. But he is arrested, tried,
sentenced, handcuffed and put in a
wagon with convicts. He was anxious
to get there, read and get away.
''Those handouts made 1000 Coxey-
ties a thousand Populists. All we need
is a little oppression, a little more out
rage, a little more blood letting to make
us wake up, for, mind you, the people
can wake up.
when a boy 1 went to abolition
meetings with my father. I belonged
to an abolition family. Do you know
what that meant2 1t meant that We
were outcasts, beyond the pale of so
ciety. 1 saw beginnings; note little
beginnings now. You are the same
kind of people they were. You are not
the best people. You are not the same