The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-08-15
ADDRESS TO NORTH 6HR0LINR FARMERS HLLIAN6E.
Annual Graham Opening
Session, Hllsboro N. c., Aug. 8, 1905.

NoUAAOAt VI oh1ppSIS, Iuo refusal
and successful resistance of paying
taxes on a fair valuation of their ap-
propriated property, the wholesale
distribution of passes to physicians
and lawyers as their employees, and
especially the belief that all mem
bers of the General Assembly. who
will accept them, can secure passes,
or their equivalent, have prejudiced
the minds of the bulk of the people.
To remove this well-founded suspici-
ON ON the part of the public, and
as a slight rebate" for past ex-
emptions from fair taxation ON their
property, and modest acknowledge
ment of the fact that they are In
possession 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
executive State officers, judges of
Superior and Supreme Courts, and
members of the General Assembly
during its sessions, and the Corpora
tion Commissioners during their
term of office should have the right
to ride on all passenger trains within
the borders of North Carolina Gall
damages in case of accident to be
waived by these officials for them
selves, heirs and assigns), would be
of great benefit to the State and
to the railroads.
These views may be criticised as
out of place in a farmers conven-
ton, but you, and not Jones, pay
the freight. The corruption proceed
ing from corporations in securing
favorable legislation and preventing
legislation adverse to their interests
has a most baneful effect upon the
body polite. You are intensely in
terested in freight charges. There
is little profit to you in making rail
roads pay unreasonable damages fo1
injuries done to careless persons,
frequently trespassers upon their
right of way, while they have the
power to reimburse themselves by a
change of Classification of some ar.
ticle.
Social Features of the Alliance.
Let me urge upon you the cultlva,
ton of the social features of oul
Order. One of the greatest waves OF
educational progress was set in mo-
tion by the Alliance in its palmy
days when the wives and daughters
of the better educated farmers came
in contact with their less fortunate
sisters and infused into them the
hope and desire for better oppor,
tunities for themselves and for then
children. All honor to the men who
have gone uD and down Throughout
North Carolina urging you to edu
cate your children, but the burdeI
and responsibility is yours. You are
not paupers. You have learned thai
| ''hog and hominy must be raised a
home" and YOU are going it, and to-
day the farmers of North Caroline
are financially better off than at any
time since the war of the sixties.
| Country High Schools Favored.
1t is your duty to tax yourselve'
locally and thus supplement the
| States provision for the education
of your children; for without co
operation on your part your public
school system will never be success
You should establish in every count!
at the most suitable place a free