The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-08-13
Living Issues.
THE RISE OF THE FARMERS ALLIANCE.

of the Biblical Recorder, on the Occasion
of an Alliance Picnic at Rock Ridge, Will
son County, N. c., July 26, 1901.
Great movements of the masses of
the people are always. significant.
Though not directed by scholarship,
and even without advantage of a
great deal of information, the masses
when they are moved profoundly
are moved by instincts that surpass
in power to perceive the need the
mere Investigations of the scholar
or the reasonings of the statesman.
They may be led into false means of
supplying the need that they per-
ceive and for this reason great pop
ular movements are not long sus-
tanned. But they serve their pur-
pose in pointing out what must be
done. The question of lean comes
later. Great results are achieved by
a process too slow for human pa
thence.
Such movements T invariably
disappointing even to the people.
They make their demands; they
clear the ground; they SOW. But
they do not reap at once. They
grow impatient. Their methods
fail. They abandon their move
ment. They even lose sight of the
goal they tried for. They deride
and let others dertde their nee cher
ished standards. But by and by all
that was really longed for and
fought for is brought TO pass.
A LESSON FROM THE PAST.
Irecan the rise of the farmers of
England. They arose in might.
They did not know a great deal about
their Empire but they knew enough {:
Cromwell and Hampden had led
them into the knowledge that their
rulers were false to their rights and
Indifferent to their interests. They
arose in behalf of liberty. Never
mind their ignorance. They took
their King from his throne and cut
off his head they drove their Parlia-
ment, Lords and all, from the seat of
legislation. They set up a Common
wealth and made one of themselves
Protector.
But at length he died. The Com
monwealth fell. The son of the King
that was beheaded assembled the
throne from which his father had
been unceremoniously hurled. The
Parliament, Lords and all, came
back, and the old abuses came with
them. Cromwell's farmers were no
better off than they were before. All
England hated them and him. They
made Cromwell out as a monster.
Not until a century had passed was
it possible to write an honest story
of his life. Even the farmers went
back on him.
But to day we reckon Cromwell a
father of liberty; even England
counts him one of her greatest sons.
To the labors of him and his farmer
followers are due in greatmeasure the
liberties that you and I enjoy to-day.
Cromwell's movement was the great
est succes that ever was in this
world. We are reaping every day
the harvest of his sowing.
In this spirit Icome to speak about
the Farmers Alliance. propose to
set forth some of the things it stood
for. 1 believe it stood for good
things. I believe that they will yet
come. In course of my remarks 1
may give my notion of why they
have not come, and why the Farm
ers' Alliance has lost so much of it's
former strength.
The rise of the Farmers Alliance
was a movement of the masses. 1t
swept from Texas northward, east
ward and westward. 1t was a par.
tentous spectacle. No mere dema
goguery, no mere ignorance, no mere
fanaticism was behind that clamor-
Gus uprising of the tillers of the soil.
1t had power in it and many a man
who laughs at it now, stood silent or
bowed down before it then.
The Farmers Alliance had a varie-
ty of missions. ~ 1t had a social
mission. (2) 1t had a commercial
mission. 81 1t had a political mis-
sion. a. 1t had an educational mis-.
sion. am not talking about plat
forms. They are nothing. They
are made by men who cannot inter
pref the heart of the people. Our
great mistake to-day is that of max