The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-10
MEN OF THE FARMS
State Alliance in Session
at HiIlsboro. President
Graham's Address.

The State Farmers Alliance is In
session at Hilsboro this week and
will adjourn tomorrow. The address
of Prof. John Graham of Warrenton,
president of the State Alliance, touch
ed upon a number of important pub
| lie questions His address in full was
as follows:
President Graham's Address.
Representatives of the Farmers
Alliance, allow me to congratulate
you, my brethren, on the promising
| outlook for our order for the future
and the increase of membership during
| the past year. The necessity of or
ganization of farmers for their own
| protection is manifest This fact mas
been emphatically emphasized by the
success of the Cotton Growers Asso-
citation in resisting the efforts of New
| York spectators to force the price
! of cotton down to five cents or less.
| This association through the intelli-
gent efforts of those worthy gentlemen,
| Messrs. Jordan and Cheatham, not
| only thWarted the spectators in their
selfish designs of robbing you of your
| hard earnings, but have exposed the
| rotteness of our agricultural Statisti-
cal reports, and the disclosures made
| in this department Will doubtless lead
| to closer examinations OF the other
| executive departments.
| Allow me further to congratulate
| you and the American people that
there sits in the Presidential chair a
man pure in private life and fearless
| in the discharge of duty, who will not
allow scoundrels to go upwhipt of JUS
| tice. God grant that he may probe
| deep into all the departments of gov
| eminent and let out the corruption
that is sapping the life of the repub-
| lie. And let us pray that he may use
| the power vested in him to protect his
people from the CALLING oppression
of aggregated capital and the insolent
defiance of law and justice on the part
of labor agitators. Equal justice to
all, special privileges to none" the
motto of the Farmers Alliance is the
chart that will safely guide Mr.. Roose
welt through the perils that beset his
ship of state, and will anchor him
in the harbor of the hearts of his
countrymen alongside Washington,
Jefferson and Lincoln.
The reports of your various officers
will be submitted to you, and deserve
and will doubtless receive your care
full consideration.
Since your last meeting and in OPP
position to your expressed wishes, the
lease of the A. and ~ G. Railroad has
been contaminated. The action on the
part Of our State officials was brought
about by the active efforts of many of
the best men alongf the line of said
road and also by the fact that the
successful operation of this road was
to a great degree handicapped by the
unfortunate lease of the North Caro-
lima Railroad for which lease our late
Governor and his advisers were in no
way responsible. 1t is my individual
opinion and | have the backing of that
iurist, Judge Bynum, that neither
lease is in accordance with law and
Justice.
1t may be that the people of North
Carolina are incapable, of managing
railroads built by themselves for the
development of their own State and
for their own convenience. 1t is to be
hoped that they will see to it that the
rates for transportation are reasonable
and that the convenience of our peo-
ple who built the roads, will be con-
suited in the running of trains. There
should not be that hostility towards
railroads manifested by juries in rem
dering verdicts for fictitious damages
in suits brought on commission; but
the. corporations have themselves to
blame for this alienation on the part
of their best patrons. The refusal TO
the contemptuOuS tn eatment of ship
pers, the refusal and successful re-
sistance of paying taxes on fair val
uation of their appropriated property,
the wholesale distribution of passes to
physicians and lawyers as their en-
ployeeS, and especially the belief that
all members of the General Assent bly,,
who will accept them, can secure
passes. or their equivalent, have pre-
I'D he mir nf n
people. To remove this well-founded
suspicion on the part of the public.
and as a slight rebate for past eX-
emptions from fair taxation on their
property, and a modest acknowledge
ment of the fact that they are in pos
session of millions of property for
which the State and the citizens
thereof have received no adequate
value, a proposal on the part of the
corporations controlling the various
systems of railroads in North Caro-
lima that their charters should be so
amended as to provide that the eXecu-
tive State officers, judges of Superior
and Supreme courts, and members OIL
the General Assembly during its Ses-
sions, and the Corporation Commls-
sioners during their term of Offices
should have the right to ride on all
passenger trains within the borders OF
North Carolina, Call damage in case
of accident to be waived by these oth-
Gals for themselves, heirs and aSslgnsl
would be of great benefit to the State
and to the railroads.
These views may be criticised as out
of place in a farme%S convention but
you and not Jones pay the freight.
The corruption proceeding from cor
porations in securing favorable legls-
latior and preventing legislation ad-
verse to their interests has most
baneful effect upon the body polite.
You are intensely interested IN freight
charges. There is little profit to you
in making railroads pay unreasonable
damages for injuries done to careless
persons, frequently trespassers upon
their right-o way, while they have the
power to reimburse themselves by
change of classification of some article.
Let me urge upon you the cultlVa-s
ton of the social features of our or
der. One of the greatest waves OF
educational progress was set i'll mo-
ton by the Alliance in its palmy days
when the wives and daughters of the
better educated farmers came in con-
"a with 1acC fortunate sisters