The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-02-26
THE ANNUAL ADDRESS
Of President Marion Butler, of the Ma
tional Farmers Alliance and
Industrial Union.


BRETHREN:-This is an age of organ
ization and cooperation.
That organization was economical
and otherwise beneficial for the coop
erative advancement of mutual inter
est, has long been evident 1t is more
evident to day. We have reached that
point in our civilization, even under a
republican form of government, where
organization is not only beneficial, but
also necessary. This IS true with ref
erence to every class Of our citizens
and to every division of our various in
dustries and professions. To no one
does it apply with more force than to the
agricultural and industrial class. Yet
they are among the last to avail them
selves of the advantage of organization
as well as the absolute necessity there
for.
At various times in the past, numer-
GUS efforts to organize permanently
have been made, and, with what result,
is a matter of history and is well
known. And while the result is we'll
known, yet herdly think the cause of
such failures is generally understood
by us.
1t is true, that whenever an organi-
zation has been started or attempted,
that those classes of our citizens who,
being organized, have had the advan-
tage of us being unorganized, (and
knowing that our organization on our
part would soon result in increased in
telligence, and therefore united action
for the protection of our rights and in
terest,l have used every agency that
united brain could devise and COM
bined money could control, to demoral
ize, defeat and disrupt the organiza-
tion. The newspapers and politicians
have been largely used to make the at
tack from the outside by misrepresen-
tation and appeals to prejudice, while
the Judases in the organization, whose
price was thirty pieces of silver (more
or less,) have always been found to do
the work of spies and traitors on the
inside.
But this is not necess arily the cause
of the failures. The basic cause that
makes such hostile agencies successful,
in my opinion, lies deeper. In fact, it
is inherent in the rank and file of the
majority of the members themselves of
such organizations. 1t is a cause pro
duced by our surroundings, supple
mented by false teachings. It is a
cause that may be termed accumula-
tive, hereditary trait of our social
character refer to cause which,
for the want of name, will describe as
produced by the want of a sufficient
social contact and a fair and toler-
ant exchange of opinions and ideas.
I refer to the want of cohesion;
to our failure to pool our divergent
opinions and agree upon common line
of action that would represent the
combined wisdom of all.
When we violate Gods great social
laws; when we fail to put our hearts
next to our neighbors' hearts; when we
fail to bring our intellect in contact
with our neighbors, then both the soul
and the intellect, instead of developing,
broadening and elevating, making US
more like our Maker, and becoming fit
to work out the highest destiny of in
tellectual Christianity, our souls con-
tract and shrivel, our intellects grow
weak and narrow.
Here is the great trouble, here lies
the defeat; here lies the cause of failure.
To bridge over the great want OF so
cial intercourse in rural life, to stimu-
late intellectual development by the
contact of intellect with intellect, to
exchange opinions so as to avoid ex-
perimental errors in business as we'll
as to get the benefit of multitude of
counsel for future efforts, to learn the
lesson of making two blades of grass
grow where one grew before, has been
the great object of the past efforts
among the agricultural and industrial
classes at organization. And especially
is this the great original purpose of the
Alliance, and is now the basic idea for
its perpetual existence.
So we see that the corner stones on
which the Alliance was founded and is
standing to-day, are: First, social and
moral development; second, intellec-
tual development followed by co-opera-
ton in business efforts and industrial
pursuits.
In towns and cities the various bust
ness, professional and monopoly organ
izations have for their original purpose