The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-09-15

affecting the welfare of the community.
For better farming methods, better roads, bet
ter schools, and better citizenship, it should light
increasingly.
There should be generous rivalry among its
farmer members as to which shall have the best
farm. Small prizes should be offered to the farm
ers reporting the best yields of cotton, tobacco,
corn, wheat, etc.
1t should be ever watchful of the public school
should seek to get the best teachers and the best
committeeman and the best methods, and then
the best possible attendance of the young people.
1t should agitate the road question until the
highways become creditable.
1t should stir the neighborhood in behalf of
rural mail delivery and a farmers telephone
system.
1t should have a library of good books, and keep
them in circulation among its members.
1t should have the farmers bulletins and the
catalogues of the leading farm advertisers sent to
every member of the Sub.
1t should keep in touch with the Experiment
Station, the A. & M. College, and the State and
National Departments of Agriculture.
Every Alliancemen should get such an influence
from the Sub meetings as to make him a more
progressive farmer, a better husband and father,
and a greater force for good in his neighborhood.
And to every woman the Alliance should bring
recreation, closer sympathy with friends and
neighbours, a wider outlook on life, and a keener
appreciation of her responsibility as a home
maker.
In every neighborhood, better kept farms, more
beautiful country homes, better-informed farm
ers, more cheerful farmers wives, ~prettier school
houses, better feeling among neighbors, better
books in country homes, better educated boys and
girls-all these should stand as living evidences
of the influence of the Sub Alliance.
The Alliance, too, ought to stand for good citi-
zenship. It ought not to ego into politics" in the
common meaning of that term. We have seen
that there is death in that cup, and we should
profit by the experience that we have had. But
the Alliance should stand for high-minded, fear
less thinking on all public questions; for honest
sober, efficient men for public office; for "equa
and exact Justice to alp in every Legislative
matter. The man who defames the corporation
in hope of popularity, the man who serves then
in hope of gain-from both these the Alliance
should stand apart. On any matter directly af
fecting the welfare of the farmer, 1T should speal
with no uncertain voice; but on matters of gen
eral application it should leave the individual
AIlianceman to think and act for himself. The
Alliance has no right to go outside it's sphere anC
try to reform the whole world; it can only fai
in the endeavor and create dissension in it's owl
ranks as to the proper course to -pursue-Ih'
4 abut which individuals differ, and the Allianc
can only insist that its members carefully stud
\ the problem, and work in their respective politi
Alliance, for example, may properly ask for tn
4 enforcement of the anti-monopoly law agains
tie Tobacco Trust; that is a matter directly af
fecting the welfare of the farmer. But it woul
not be right to arrange a general political plat
form of antitrust legislation and ask the ALI
ance as a whole to support it. That is a matte
cal parties for the solution each member think
wisest.
all proper forms of business cooperation, and t
resist any unjust treatment of the farmer. In CO
operation in buying and selling there are number