Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-02-14
AN ABLE. ADDRESS
BY COUNTY LECTURER l..
j. MS.
Delivered at the January Meet
ing of the Fdgefield
County Alliance.
Bro. President and Gentlemen:

County Alliance.
Bro. President and Gentlemen:
1t not having been the custom OF
the Edge6eld County Alliance to
call on its Lecturer for quarterly
addresses, | know you will par.
don me for being unprepared to
lecture to-day.
But in complying with your re-
quest to state my views on the
question under discussion, "What
is the cause of the fall in member
ship of the Alliance" I will be
as brief and succinct as possible.
I confess l have been panied to
note that so little real study has
been bestowed on the subject by
the brethren that have just given
us their opinions. The leading
idea seems to be that it is 'swant
of interest,"" but that does not an
swer the question. What we want
to know is what has caused that
want of interest? Our brother
stated that the loss to good men,
bers caused by signing "joint
notes" has caused it, and that is a
good reason. Cooperative buying
and selling is one of the best
cards of the Alliance, done with
caution and prudence, but if done
in a lax slipshod manner it will
destroy confidence and prove a
trump against US. When a brother
has to go down in his pocket and
pay few dollars for a defaulting
brother he considers that clear
loss, and fails in most cases to
give the Alliance credit for saving
him perhaps ten times that amount
in the articles of jute bagging and
guano alone.
But I promised to be brief, and
in nv humble opinion the whole
situation can be boiled down and
answered in one wUrd-inactlon.
Yes, Bro. President, we are not
as an. organization aoorking our
selves to death as charged by our
enemies, that our aggressive mis-
takes are proving boomerang and
destroying us on the rebound, but
we are simply r1sting out. The
great body of farmers are decld-
edly utilitarian in their ideas, and
if we are not active and aggres-
sive, and accomplish practical
tangible benefits for our members
we Just lose the members.
Right here the question arises
"whGt shall We do to accomplish
practical tangible benefts?"
That, Bro. President, seems to be
the question that we are at sea
upon, that makes us appear as a
"Aock without a shepherd" and
right here is where we need "Dorn
leadership"
I don't profess to oe a "born
leader" butif my counsel is worth
anything this is the salient point
Before the physician can benefit
his patient he must learn the ma
ture of his disease, and then some
times doctors disagree" just the
dilemma we are now IN.
T don't think it can be success
fully denied by any thinking man
that the primary cause of most OF
our ills can be traced to sectlonal
or class legislation; and no true
Allianceman will deny that it If
our right and duty to use our best
efforts to right those polltica
wrongs. And while endorse anc
40, ,,rove the earnest efforts of oul
Alliance leaders in political di
rection, I AIN inclined to thini
that other important matters ar
lost sight of.
II will take time and a good dea
of it to reap practical tangibl
benefits" fran corrective legisla
ton and just now t'"'e Is one III lli'
we most need. Legitimate ALL
ance work can be summed up un
der two general heads; which !
political education, and bushes
cooperation.
The only fault I find with pres
ent leadership of the Alliance i
that the cart is put before tn
horse; our needs being immediat
and pressing, we should not Civ
less attention to the political sid
which is necessarily slow in its re
suits, but we should give more a.