The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-03-06
ONLY A TRAMP.
NO. 4.

famous preacher in the world to-do1
said In a sermon a few Years since
Great monopolies in any land imply
great prlvation. The time will come
when our government will have tn
limit the amount of accumulation Of
property. Unconstitutional. do vo,,
sayF hen constitutions will have to
be changed until they allow such Iimi-
tatlon. Otherwise the work of absorb.
ton Will go on, and the large fishes will
eat up the small fishes, and the shad
will swallow up the minnow. and the
porpolse swallow the shad, and the
whales swallow the porpoise, and a
Thousand greedy men will own all the
world. But would a law of limitation
OF wealth be ~unrighteous3 If dig so
near my neighbours foundation in order
u DulId my house, that I endanger his.
the law grabs me. If l have a tannerv
or q chemical factory, the malodors of
which lnjure residents in the neighbor-
hood, the law says: Stop that If I
drain Off a river from it's bed, and divert
1t to turn my mill wheel, leaving the
ped OF the river q breeding place for
malaria, the law says: Quit that out
rageP And has not a government a
right to say that a few men shall not
gorge themselves on the comfort, and
wealth, and life of governmental Your
right ends where my rights begin"
Victor Hugo once said: "The first
thing l saw was law under the form of
a gibbet; the second was wealth under
the form of a woman dead of cold and
hunger; the third was luxury under
the shape of a hunted man chained to
prison walls; the fourth was your pal
ace beneath the shadow of (which cow
cred the tramp. The rich have made
slaves and convicts of the human
race"
Surely some laws ought to be en-
acted to stop this immense accumula-
ton Of power for wealth is power.
Let's look at this from a common sense
and an historic standpoint. What
made Rome, the once proud mistress
of the world as she sat upon her seven
hills of glory, fall and in a few years
be lost to all her GRANDEUR The wealth
and power of her government vested
in the hands of a few autocrats while
the masses of the people were in pow
erty and that is why Rome fell to rise
no more. And Greece, lovely Greece,
the land Of scholars and the nurse of
arms" held high her banner of glory
till a few people gained the wealth of
the nation, and those few monopolized
this to such ar extent that in a few
short years Greece was remembered
only by the grandeur of history-gone
deeds. See France, classic, historic
France, rolling in the blood of thou
sands, her institutions destroyed, her
government almost lost, her people in
tears and blood as the revolution swept
over their fair land. You ask why
was thisf 1t was the uprising of a ma
ton of oppressed people who sought re-
dress from their wrongs, who were
willing to do and to die for their rights.
Now, history should teach us a lesson.
We are tending towards the anne fate.
The trusts and monopolies are getting
to be the forms behind the throne in
this country. There should be a limit
to their great accommodations by a few.
We do not, like fated France, make
use of the bullet and the guillotine for
we claim to live in a Christian country
whose law is the law of love. But we
must fight with the pen, the freed
mans battle-ax, and we a get home
justice. Plutocracy, plutOcracy, thou
favored child of wealth, thy days are
numbered in this LAND of the free and
home of the brave" Thou hast indeed
had a glorious reign till the laborers
are almost undone while thou rests in
thy lap of luxury and ase There Is
a tide in the affairs of men," and ma
| tions, too, (which taken at it's flood
leads on to fortune" or famine, and
that food is now before the American
people. Would that we could tell the
turn of the tide of destiny Let us all
buckle on the shield of truth and the
helmet of justice and fight for u
countrY's good" Let all the ends thou
aimest at be thy country's, thy Gods,
and truths" says Shakespeare. You
have heard of the beautiful and brave
incident in English history of how
Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans.
went from her country home, from the
feeding of her lambs and the singing of
her songs, and how she buckled on the