The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-06-12

to see the Importance and necessity OF
the farmers and laborers organizing
for their own protection against mo
nopolists, trusts, combines, class legis-
lation, etc., and subsequently called to-
gether a convention of the people that
organized the North Carolina Farmers
Association and took Elias Carr from
private life and obscurity and elected
him it's president and has since been
the means of making him the Cover
nor of a great State. Further on at a
convention of the cotton farmers of
the South held in Atlanta, Ga, in 1887
an association was formed to be known
as s'the Interstate Farmers Associa
ton" He was unanimously elected
president of this association for two
successive terms.
Having briefly adverted to a small
part of his history from his birth to
1887, we are now brought to the time
when he Joined the Farmers Alliance
and under the name Of which we meet
to day to contribute to the perpetual
ton of his memory and his acts and
deeds done in the upbuilding of this
noble order. Uniting with the Alliance
an humble member he rapidly became
it's head in the nation. And through
his great executive abilities, his wide
acquaintance with men, and with a
heart full of sympathy for the disor-
ganized and helpless farmers and
laborers, he made its membership
greater and it's influence more effective
than any other industrial organization
the world has ever known. In a word,
his able and fearless v~indicatiOn of
what should be the peoples rights, the
just, deserved condemnation and war
fare he waged upon the subsidized
press for their contemplate methods
of falsehood, skill and chicanery to
fool the people, his devotion to his
country-never shrinking from the
path of duty-but ever waving the
banner of equal rights to all and
special privileges to none" made him
the idoliz9d leader of the people in the
United States of America. He was
elected President of the N. f. A. and L.
U. for three successive years. The last
two terms he was unanimously en-
dorsed and elected by reclamation.
Col. Folks conception of the awful
consequences of the money power, if
not checked, and his great anxiety to
see the principles of the Alliance tri
umph caused him to tax his power, it
is said, more that his strength could
bear, and in consequence fell in Wash
ington City, June 18th, 1892, in the
midst of the fight with his face to the
front. The grim monster death visited
him and the lamp of life was extin-
guished. His body was left a lifeless
corpse. His eloquent tongue was
hushed. The brain that directed our
course and guided US so wisely and
successfully in the past had ceased to
throb. His facile pen was laid down
never more to picture in vivid color
ings the wonderful prophecy of Abra
ham Lincoln, nor to illume the columns
of THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER that
pulled the wool from over our eyes.
Yet he had done a work that will ever
place his name upon the colossal statue
of fame. In a few short months he
did more to bury sectional animosities
between the North and South and
bring about fraternal love than all of
the great line Of statesmen from 1865
to 1894. The bloody-s shirt has lost it's
baleful charm in exciting the preju
dices of the people. The white flag of
peace now waves over the masses in,
scribedupon itaperfectand established
Union with equal rights to ALL" Some
statesman's name and fame are known
and bounded by State lines, but L. L.
Folks reached to the outer limits of
the Union.
As an editor his pen yielded a far
greater influence than that of any
other the State has ever known. The
circulation of The PROGRESSIVE FARMER
of which he was founder more than
doubled that of any other newspaper
in the State. In perusing its columns
one was lost in admiration of his bril-
liant ideas expressed in such easy,
flowing language and graceful style.
He was a natural born orator and
his eloquence at st. Louis, Washington
City, Indianapolis is still felt and will
continue to strike the heart of all true
patriots with electric thrills of inspir-
alton in warm appreciation of civil lib
erty and free government. These
speeches, I have no doubt, will go