The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-11-12
PRESIDENT IRWIN TALKS.
annual Address of Hon. M. D. Irwin,
President of the Georgia State
Alliance. in Atlantis,

enemies or the Alliance that Cner0 never
would be another meeting of the State
body, but you have disappointed your
enemies and surprised even your
friends. To day, instead of showing de
cline, you show nearly double the num-
Der of counties represented in your last
annual meeting. The order is taking
on new life, and promises to regain Its
former vigor and power in the near
future. The great question of CO oper'
alton among the producers is forcing
itself home to every farmer at this
time as it never did before, and they
are realizing that the most practical
place to put this co operation in oper.
alton is through the Alliance organiza-
ton. In fact, the farmer has no other
place of refuge when he is assailed by
the trusts and combines except his own
order, the Alliance.
Thousands of dollars have been saved
to the farmers this year in many
counties of the State through the CO
operation of the Alliance. With a per
feet organization all over the State,
millions a be saved every year, and
instead of its going into the hands OF
the specuIator, as now, it would re-
main in the pockets of the producers.
Every organization, be its principles
ever SO true, has it's storms and sun
shine, but if its demands are based
upon Justice and equity, its final trl-
umph is assured. So with the Alliance
with equal and exact Justice to all"
inscribed upon its banner; with right,
truth and humanity as its motto, moth
ing can prevent its success save our
own neglect of duty.
Upon the action of this meeting de-
ponds the future prosperity OF the
order you represent. IF you are wise,
conservative and determined, laying
all selfshness aside and looking only
to interests of the producers as a whole,
then the order will take on life,
and much good will be accomplished
by your meeting together. Let us hope
for this line of policy-the policy that
Is to make the producer master Of the
situation.
Nothing but dire necessity eve
forced the farmers into organizat alton.
Their very existence itself is against
Organization, against monopoly of any
and all kinds.
Eight years ago, after bearing the
burdens of class legislation patiently
for years, the farmers reached a point
in their history where the necessity of
organization was forced upon them.
1t was then that the Alliance was
formed, a purely class organization,
with the emancipation of the produc-
ers as its chief object. We have
watched the rise and fall of many
farmers orders until it was a common
expression among all classes that the
producers could not unite" The
commercial world accepted the truth
of this saying and looked upon the
organization of the Alliance with that
same complacent smile that character
lied them during the organization Of
former orders of the producers. They
feared nothing from a class of men
who were so foolish as not to be able
to organize for their own promotion
and welfare.
The order moved forward and into
its ranks it swept the producers every
where the new doctrine was preached,
until its proportions were alarming to
the classes who had and were still
grow ing fat at the expense of the pro
.ducers. 1t looked for once like the
farmers were going to stick and that
Shylock would have to loose his hold
upon the throat Of agriculture and
labor. The first battle was between
the order and the merchant, and it was
Won. The merchant was compelled to
bring down his profits to a reasonable
point, and the farmer no longer had to
suffer under the burdeno of 100 per cent.
Per annum for supplies purchased.
But the order was not long in discov-
ering that the burden was not alone
due to exorbitant profits on goods, but
TO other sources. Although the farmer
had been for half a century like dumb
driven cattle" in politics, the order
now took the helm, and by the unity
and concentration, by the justice of it's
demands, by the necessity of the times.
many were its victories in this new
field. The old politicians went down
before it and found himself at sea
without a compass. 1t looked as if Che
Dolitical atmosphere would be cleared
and the drones who produced nothing,
but consumed the peoples wealth.
: would be driven out OF the temple o.