Reformers in Alabama are to-day fought hardest and persecuted most by the sons of the class of men who fought the poor white man during the late war and spoliated his meagre possessions, in order that the shackles might be kept on the ankles of the black man so the rich landlord could prolong his princely ways. Opposing the present movement for universal industrial freedom are represented those who have strangled Liberty at every stage of her growth, and who respect the needs of the poor white man now, as little as they did the wants of the poor slaves then. The common people always fight all the battles in times of war, create all the wealth in periods of peace; but, whether in the battle of blood or the struggle for bread, they have never reaped a substantial benefit from either contest. They have been engaged in a prolonged, though varying struggle, all down the history of the ages, and greed and avarice have always sapped their energies and sucked their life-blood. Such is truly a too real recital of the actual experience of the Alabama citizen ex-soldier, as he now is in the ranks of "the common masses of the common people," battling for bread with about as much hope of reaping a happy reward in this contest, as he had of winning a soul-swelling victory in that of the sixties. How sad is the narrative of the real life of the average Alabamian, who has always been loyal to the political leaders of his native state, worshiping even at the shrine of the name "Democracy," but, after years of toil, privation and endurance, approaches the verge of eternity unable to bequeath a heritage of neither full-fledged liberty nor free-titled land to uneducated, homeless and hopeless children. CHAPTER V. WANT PRODUCES THINKERS. Some species of the brute creation open their eyes in nine days, but some of the poor, blinded and burden-bearing creatures of humanity scarcely ever succeed in getting their eyes fully open to the light of God's blessed bestowals to mankind. Others soon realize the repulsiveness of the black shadows that enthrall them and bite the dust in anguish in their struggle to be free. And often, when higher reason fails to prompt one to action, unsatiated appetite constitutes a never-failing reminder. As necessity is the mother of invention, so is poverty productive of thought. The earlier one's condition is reduced to want, the sooner will the thought "materialize into action." Thus it is with the debt-ridden toiler, the farmless farmer and the produceless producer in their unrest in Alabama to-day. The general want has produced general thought. Thought has instituted inquiry. Investigation has inaugurated a revolt. The opposition to the Democratic party was, in this manner, born out of want. Term it the "third party," or whatever you may choose, it is really a necessary party; and its growth will continue as long as the wants and demands of the neglected productive interests go unheeded.