The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-07-02

piness and prosperity of all the people.
Not to create a better market for the
products of labor, not to lift the pail of
novertv from the horizon of labor by
giving better wages. Not to pluck the
sting of starvation from the hearts of
the unemployed by giving them en-
ployment; nor to lift the gloomy pail
of despair from the lives of their coun-
trymen by helping to repeal the class
legislation now on our statute books,
and opening up the avenue for progress
and prosperity, happiness and content
ment. No, none of these. Nothing
good. What, then9 Toprostitute this
country to the single gold standard.
To bring a thou sandfold more misery
and hunger and death to the people of
the once boosted Land of the free and
the home of the brave" To bind the
producers of wealth in want, destltu-
ton and despair. To crush their ener-
gy and their manhood. To steal their
liberty little by little. To create debts
on Dur government, payable by unborn
generations. To manacle the tender
wrists of the infants peaceful in their
mothers arms, and yoke their little
necks in poverty. To make this yoke
hereditary, step across the boundary
of this generation and take it to the
next as a legacy at it's birth, for pow
erty breeds only poverty, and slaves
only slaves. To make of the common
people at once and forever serfs, slaves,
tools and paupers-sources of wealth
to the wealthy-poverty to their own
posterity. To create and environ them
with such conditions, that their love of
independence will be exEinguished, and
the fires of liberty in every heart will
cease to burn. And then libety! Oh,
where will liberty be! (Liberty, thou
sweet and prime essential to civiliza-
ton, thou wilt be gomez. Poverty will
reign. Poverty, that worst form of
slavery-that mock of freedom. The
limbs are not actually manacled, but
life, existence itself is. Yet it carries
with it On the surface an appearance
of freedom, and the irony of that ap
pearance burns the quick of the soul.
The object of the bankers convention
in Memphis, in ali it's bearings, is no
doubt hidden to the public eye If
that object is ever accomplished. l
shudder for the destiny of my country.
The aggressiveness of accumulated
wealth is fearful. 1t violates law and
is rewarded with fortunes for the vic
lators, and the same people whose law
is violated pay those fortunes. 1t casts
innocent men into prison, and corrupts
legislation. When Carlisle's schemes
are accomplished, when Sherman's
hopes have materialized, when Cleve-
lands ambition is gratifed, when the
bankers and the avaricious are satisfied,
and country's glory has vanished
with ftful chances, and it's last faint
glow crimsoned with blood-the blood
of patriots who turn at the edge Of dis
solution and make a last firm stand for
freedom, home and country; when our
institutions have crumbled and govern
ment swings on the will of a 0espot;
when the dissolution of this republic is
complete and it's ashes are laid in his
tory by the side of those of Greece and
Rome, and up from it's ruins and it's
corruption, like a mushroom, springs a
throne, and a tyrant in a false fash Of
glory seats himself upon it, and Amer
lea mourns for her chivalry, and your
oppression becoms u~nbearable, in de-
spair you will cry, "Where is Code"
and the answer will be, "Where he was
when Sodom was burned" Then you
will have had your warning. Seldom
had hers. Then America will shed
tears as the cloud does its rain. But
those tears will not wash away autoc
racy or alleviate the sting of a tyrant.
Yes, Sodom had her warning and you
are having yours. There is a warning
in the decision on the income tax.
Wealth nc longer pays it's proportion
of the expenses of the government. It
no longer pays for it's own protection.
But it has made free speech a crime.
A man in New Hampshire criticised
the decision on the income tax, and lol
what did they do9 Put him under a
bond of $500. Free speech-criticism
of public ofices-the peoples servants
a crime7 God forbid. In olden times
when kings ruled, the people dared not
criticise the king Or his law. If they
did, the king had their heads cut off.
Are we coming to that again?
The Imprisonment of Eugene V. DeEs