The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-08-18

AAO SAANN0VOAASOS "O OASOOH
tered the terrible shock of the cam
Qalgn of 1892, a campaign which for
intense conviction, desperate determ-
inatl0n, and educative effectiveness is
without a parallel. When the smoke
of that battle had cleared away, the
partisans who desired the destruction
OF the Order because, instead of a
harmless playthiDg, it had become a
powerful menace to continue Unfaith-
f~ulnese, declared with a strange mix
ture of feigned regret and evident sat-
lsfaction, that the Alliance, having
gone into politics, had killed itself.
Nevertheless the Order survived that
terrible onslaught. Your lecturers
took the field the following year with
a determination to rebuild.
They inspired new hope and fresh
courage in hearts that felt the contin-
ued need Of the Alliance, which they
loved better than they loved any po-
Iltical party.
A.ceaseless campaign Of political ed
ucatiOn in the face of whatever difficult
ties, was waged undaunted IN every
section OF the State.
Il is characteristic of the Alliance to
wage c~easeless campaigns Of political
education and to apply its teaching
according to individual judgement at
the ballot blk. Therein lies it's power
for good and it's terror to it's opposers.
Should 0 the sovereign citizen be
well taught in the science Of economic
| governments Or were it better that
he be left ignorant and pliable clay in
the hands Of destructive potters2
If we went into politics, therefore,
has not u action been fully justified
by the course of events? What we de-
cIared Clevelandiem to mean in 1892,
is sadly realized in 1896 The crush
Jog stone which we then rejected is not
now set as the head of the corner even
by our former calUmniators.
For III course, therefore, we have
no apology to offer in any effort to in
crease our membership. We are not
the prodigaI. We have not wandered
into any far country to waste our sub.
stance in riotOus living. For these
four years we, who are changed with
going into politics are in no sense
chargeable with the ruin which the
financial policy of cur nation has
wrought. And now among the sincere
men who we're led away from US, will
it not be confessed that, without our
protest and breaking of party ties, our
continued efforts among the plain com
mon people, whom we have taught to
study, to think, to read by countless
humble fresIdes, the prospect of early
triumph of helpful principles Of govern.
ment would be far less e~ncouraging2
Friends always Of every species of ed.
ucation, we have largely fashioned
public thought and expression. Pho.
neers in the field of popular political
education for truths sake, we give to
the country a more intelligent, indie
pendent, and patriotic citjz 9nship than
II ever before knew. the principles
which we have studied, the problems
/ We HS1GbISA y q N~C5NCy "a ASb uOW
being taken seriously TO heart by the
commercial classes to whom we had
no access. The pamphlets to which
we gave rise, the press which we origi-
mated and maintained, are just now
finding a reinstatement of our vital CON
Uentions in a press that finds new au-
diences. Our city populations, who
thought themselves the better inform.
ed, are now in the stress of conditions
we have striven to avert, eagerly
porting over questions that have for
years engrossed the thought of the
humble tOiler at his country fireside,
and the conse quence to them, as it was
to us, is that party affiliations, life long
Or ancestral, wherein has been sung to
them many a damning political lula.
by, are breaking away with q new
sense Of danger, a better conception of
human relations, a clearer view of the
essential unity Of every industry.
When some future historian shall
recount whether in a more prosperous
or calamItOus time, the forces that
strive for a p~eac9aOle and equitable
az adjustment, in behalf of our common
humanity, of all the evil conditions of
this agitated time, if he is appropriated
enough to be just, he Will write down
this organization as a foremost factor.
The sectionalism and bitter hatred, upon
which as an evil heritage from the war;,
parties thrlVed and pIundered, have
been swept away under the name