Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1890 — FARMERS IN TOE FIELD. [ARTICLE]

FARMERS IN TOE FIELD.

WHAT THE ALLIANCE HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH. Annual Convention of the Order at Oeala, Fla. —Talk of Rutting a .Presidential Ticket in the Field in 1893—Possibility of an Alliance with the 'Workingman's Organizations. ( [Washington dispatch.] The annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Alliance will be held at Coala, Fla., beginning Tuesday, Doc. 2. In many respects it will bo the most Important industrial meeting held In this country in many years, and the action taken there will either clear the political atmosphere wonderfully or complicate mattors so that tho wisest political guessers will be put to their wits’ends to divine the course of affairs In the next Presidential election. There is a strong possibility that, tho Farmers’ Alliance will bloom out as a full-fledged third party with a full ticket in tho field in 1892. This matter will De settlod practically at tho Ocala convention. Just what the action of the convention will be in this regard it Is impossible to forecast. It Is safo to say, however, that the sub-treasury bill, with such modifications as have been suggested by the criticism that tho publication of the measure evoked, will be pushed for all it Is worth. What other principles of the organization will be pushed to tho front it Is too early to surmise. The convention will be thoroughly representative. • At its recent meeting at Denver, Col., the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor appointed General Master Workman Powderly, A. W. Wright of Can* ada, and Ralph Beaumont of Now York to attend the Alliance Convention as fraternal delegates. These three are clear, forcible speakers and earnest men, and it is altogether likely that the partial combination effected between these two great industrial organizations will be niado closor In the matter of political! action at all events. Tho Knights of Labor boar a proposition to tho Alliance to join with that order In calling, at as early a date as possible, a convention of all labor and reform organizations to decide the question of Independent political action. They are strongly of tho opinion that the Alliance will take this action. Such a convention would take In the Patrons of. Husbandry, the Grange, tho Farmers’ Mutual Bonolit Association, and the Now England Farmers’ Organization, all of which are thoroughly In sympathy with tho Alliance, but havo not as yet joined It. Then tho Knights of Labor,! tlie Federation of Railroad Employes,' the American Federation of Labor, and the big trades unions would be Invited to attend tlio convention. The actual voting strength of these organizations will roach well up toward throo millions, aud It can readily be seen it such a convention is called , and should decide to take Independent action, It would caustv some qnoor overturriings in 1892, and It Is among the probabilities. In speaking of the Ocala convention C. W. Macelne, Chairman of tho Executive Committee and editor of tho JVatlonal Economist, tho organ of tho Alliance, said: “The meeting Is a most important one from tho Farmers' Alliance standpoint, a political 'standpoint, and an oconomic standpoint. Being tho national meeting of tho order, it will probably take tho next stop In the development of this great new force, and slnco there Is every indication that sectionalism, so far as it depends upon prejudice between the farmers of tho South and Northwest, will be forever burled, the political significance cannot bo overestimated. It is Impossible for us to obtain oxact data as to tho victories In tho recent ejections; many men havo been elected as partisans on whom wo can depend on almost all questions to represent the farmers. It Is probably now a conservative estlmato to say wo will have forty men In tho Fifty-second Congress who can be depended on to represent tho farmers’ Interest on all occasions. “With a thorough understanding from all sections, enlightenod and educating, and sectionalism replaced by cu-opera-tlon and unity, the economic possibilities for the good of ‘this great order are almost immeasurable.” Tho Farmers’ Alliance was started In Texas In 1876, but It was not until eleven years later that tho ortlor became national and began to develop strength.. It absorbed the old Agricultural Wheel, in 1889, at St. Louis. At that' convention tho Knights of Labor wero represented and after a long diifcussloo and many conforoneos tho “St. Louis platform” was adopted. Among other things it* includes practically the Knights of Labor planks on land, currency, and transpotortion, which read as follows: The land. Including the natural sources of wealth, Is the heritage of all tho people, and should not bo subject to speculative traffic. Occupancy should bo tho only title to the possession of land. The taxes upon land should bo levied upon Us full value for uso, exclusive of Improvements, and should be sufficient to take for the community all unearned increments.’ The establishment of a national monetary system, In which a circulating medium In necessary quantity shall Issue direct to the people without the intervention of bunks; that all the national issues shall be full legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, and that the Government shall not guarantee or recognize any private banks, or croate any banking corporations; that Interest-bearing bonds, bills of credit, or notes shall never be Issued by tho Government; but that when need arises the emergency shall be met by Issue of legal tender, non-interest bearing money. _ , That tho Government shall obtain possession by purchase, under the right of eminent domain, of all telegraph, telephone, and railroads: and that hereafter no charter or license bo Issued to any corporation for construction or operation of any means of transporting intelligence, passengeis, or freight. The meeting at Ocala will consist of about 250 delegates, representing thirtytwo States. The session will last from a week to ton days. After the adjourn* meat arrangements have been made fop a free excursion all over the State of Florida, 1 stopping at all the principal points and giving the delegates a geneial good time for a week or so.