The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-08-16
THR PRESIDENTS ADDRESS

THR PRESIDENTS ADDRESS
To the North Carolina State Farmers
Alliance, AT EnlsborO, August g.
1898.
Officers and Delegates of the North
Carolina State Farmers Alliance,
BRETHREN :-Wlth devout thankful
ness to God for reasonable hopes of
peace, we meet in this our twelfth
annual session. The condition Of our
order as shown by the records is about
the same as it was last year. The re-
ports of your Ulcers + full end ex
plicit and will in due time he referred
to you. for your consideration and &C
ton.
Our country is to bs congratulated
upon the approaching termination of
our war with Spain. vitality interested
in the great financial questions, agitat-
ing u country and still unsettled,
the necessity of united action in end
ing successfully val against u ene-
mics, has, for the time being,
prompted our people to obliterate par
ty lines, and patriotism, equaling that
of our Revolutionary forefathers and
the heroes Of our civil war, has caused
them to bury temporarily their just
grievances. Would to God that the
humanitarian spirit of the great
American nation, that revolted at the
enormity of Spanish misrule in Cuba,
would arouse itself for the betterment
of its own laboring classes, especially
the unremunerated tillers Of the soil.
It is true that the millionaires Of
America have been the architects Of
their own fortunes, and that the path
to fortune is open to all; but the
great bulk of u agricultural popula,
ton will never find that path. OPP
pressed by an iniquitous tariff system
that robs under the forms Of law,
feeced by great railroad corporations
in the transportation Of their crops,
the price of their agricultural staples
fixed by Trusts and ~syndicates, re-.
gardless Of the law Of supply and de
mand, our people + wonderful exam.
pies Of the vitality Of the American
farmer. Signs Of decadence are, how
ever, painfully manifest and the dispo
sition to abandon country life and con-
gregate in towns and cities BODIES i'll to
Republican institutions. Our Order
has brought the EWo great questions,
transportation and finance, prominent
~ before the people. The mechanic,
the merchants and the manufacturer
are equally interested with the farmer
in their correct solution. The national
debt. increased by the war with Spain,
will bring the financial QUESTION promi
nenIly before the American people In
the fall elections of 1900. A sincere be-
never In the necessity of silver as en-
adjunct Of gold in the channels Of
commerce, and believing that compro.
missing differences is the surest means
of success, it seems to me that the
possible in the campaign Of 1900. A
safe compromise would be the purchase
of silver by the government with sil
yer dollars, ALI the silver purchased
to be coined and carried to the Uuited
States Treasury, the government max
ing clear the difference between the
market value and the coinage value.
This compromise would add thousands
to the silver forces, and we could grad
ually approach hearts desire, the
free coinage of silver.
It grieves me to state that your eff
fcr&P, aided by those OF the Executive
head of our beloved State, to annul
the ninety-nine years lease Of the
North Carolina Railroad have proven
abortive. The manifest intention of
the Federal judiciary to decide all
questions pertaining to the ninety nine
years lease in favor of the Southern
Railway prompted the Governor of
your State to advise and request the
directors of the North Carolina Rail
road, on the part Of the State, to &C
cept the proposition Of the Southern
Railway to end the suit against them
and pay all court costs, thus saving
the State, in his opinion, a useless ex.
penditure Of many thousand dollars.
The suit was brought by the South.
ern Railway. The views of the Gov.
ernor were endorsed and the PROPOSE
ton of the Southern Railway was &C
cepted.
The unfortunate termination of this
contest on the part of the people req.
ders it imperative that they should
arouse themselves and regardless OF
party affiliations see to it that the mex,