Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1890 — THE FARMERS’ ALLIANCE [ARTICLE]

THE FARMERS’ ALLIANCE

AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS A ROWER IN THE LAND. ' WkM It Proposal to Di, and How It PropoMi to Do I —An Intircstlng Aeconnt of Iti Origin and Aim*, and a Suggostive Statement of ItiKumbm, Washington Special to the New York World. What is the Farmers’ Alliance? This question has been asked of late by nearly every representative in Congress who hails from an agricultural district, and to the majority of them a comprehensive and more or less satisfactory reply has come. The general public, however, has been but meagerly enlightened by the stray paragraphs that have often times appeared in the newspapers of the country reciting the threats of the Alliance against some statesmen who could not be induced to [look at some particular public question through the eyes of the farmers of his constituency. In a tumbledown three-story buildling on Ninth street, in this city, is located the office of J. H. Turner, the initional secretary of the Farmers’ Aliliance and Industrial Union. Mr. Turner is a native of Georgia, the ’State in which the Alliance has a stronger representation in political and industrial circles than in any oth-. er in the United States. In this unpretentious building may also be found ■the office of the Executive Board of the Alliance and of the Legislative 'Committee. C. W. Macune is chairman both of the board and of the committee. Macune is a typical Texan; ■tall, strongly built, with a sharp black eye and a heavy shock of dark hair that tumbles over his broad, low forehead. He is a ready talker, and when he discusses the aims and purposes of the organization for which he is engaged in laboring before Congress he grows enthusiastic. In addition to his other duties Mr. .Macune edits the National Economist, the official organ of the Alliance. In answer to the query of the World’s correspondent as to the object and aims of the order, * ’Mr. Macune launched forth upon his subject in a style curiously combining the practical with the sentimental. Said he: “The objects of the National Farmers’Alliance and Industrial Union, as expressed in its deciration of purposes, are; First, to labor for the Government in a strictly non-partisan spirit and to bring about a more perfect union of those classes; second, to demand equal right for all and special privileges for none; third, to indorse the motto. ‘ln Things Essential, Unity, Charity”; fourth, to develop a better state, mentally, morally, socially and financially; fifth, to constantly strive to secure entire harmony and goodwill jto all mankind and brotherly love among ourselves; sixth, to suppress personal, local, sectional and national prejudices, all unhealthy rivalry and all selfish ambition; seventh to visit the homes where lacerated hearts are bleeding, to assuage the sufferings of a brother or sisto., to bury the dead, care for the widows, educate the orphans, exercise charity towards offenders, construe words and deeds in their most favorable light, grant honesty of purpose and good intention to others and to protect the principles of the Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union until death. Its laws are reason and equity, its cardinal doctrines inspire purity of thousrht and life, its intention is ‘on earth peace and goodwill to man.’ ‘ ‘These are the expressed purposes declaration of purposes from the beginning. I firmly believe it to be an evolution in modern material progress and that the highest duty its officers oan perform is to simply read the indications of the times sufficiently well to do such things as seem imperatively demanded by the people under the Burrounding circumstances-” “What is the strength of the Farmers’ Alliance in the different States?’, IT NUMBERS MILLIONS. “I oannot give you the exact strength of membership in each of the States. In reality there are in existence two National Farmers’ Alliances. H. L. Loucks, of Dakota, is President of one and L. L. Polk, of North Carolina, is President of the other. There is no plain line of division or demark&tion between them and I cannot therefore give the exact territory of each nor the exact numerical strength of each, but together they embrace a membership of something "in excess of two abd a half /nillions, according to the best estimates I have been able to get They have . organisations in Maryland, Virginia, West VirginiaNorth Carolina, South Carolina, Flor-

ida, Georgia. Alabama. Mississippi, ! Louisiana; Texas, Arkansas, Indian Territory, Colorado, MeW Mexico, j Kansas. Missouri, Kentucky, Tennes- ■ see, Indiana, South Dakota, North J California, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. The largest membership in any one State is, .perhaps, in the State of Texas. West Virginia has no State Alliance yet. but will soon be ready to organize one. “I have never seen any positive statement as to the exact'time the Alliance movement was first started or { by whom it was inaugurated. Tfie best I have been able to learn in that regard is that it was instituted about the same time both in Texas and hi the State of New York, somewhere about the year 1878. But from all accounts the movement did not make much stir until the year 1880, when it * was organized in Texas on the present L basis and chartered by the Legislature. A man by the name of Baggett, In Parker county, that State, organized the first Alliance in 1880, and it was chartered in October of that y “What means have been adopted by

the Farmers’ Alliance to influence legislation in behalf of the objects of the order?” / “The order has no method of la-' fiuenclng legislation. The last national meeting, held in St, Louis, in December, 1889, provided for & legislative committee, the chairman of which is locate# at the national capital, and it was made his duty to formulate and present the demands of the order to Congress. It has also been made his duty to receive petitions from the membership at large and present them to the members of Congress. The order depends upon the justness of its demands and the influence of its great numbers, to secure by perfectly open, fair and legitimate means the ends it seeks to achieve. We have many newspapers entirely devoted to this cause.” Robbed of all sentiment, the Farmers’ Alliance is a gigantic organization brought together for the purpose of effecting, by force of numbers and the strength of combination, such objects as seem to the farmers of certain sections of the country to be best worth attaining.. “In union there is strength” might well be the motto of the Alliance. For several months past the Farm*. ers 1 Alliance has devoted itself almost exclusively to urging upon Congress the necessity of passing a oomprehen*, sive measure of relief to the agriculturalist. Agitation of the subject in different sections of the country finally crystalized and a bill known as the “Substreasury bill” was formulated by the Executive Committee of the Alliance and indorsed by every branch Of the order. The bill is ono of the most radical measures ever brought before Congress. OTHER FAVORED BILLS. The Farmers’Alliance has taken the Sub-Treasury bill as tbe basis of its platform, and by it proposes to stand or fall. But it has other convictions. Those convictions, however, appear to be regulated by the enactment of the Legislative Committee. Under date of March 15, 1890, the organs of the Alliance published the following official notice: “The Order is hereby notified that the National Legislative Committee has given its indorsement to the following bills: H. R. 7. 162, To establish a system of sub-treasuries and for other purposes (or“S. 2.806, to the same effect). HI R. 888. To repeal the restriction upon the coinage of the silver dollar. S. 3,218. To make the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries an officer of the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes. S. 2,716. To provide for the completion of the improvemeht of the entrance to Galveston harbor, Texas. S. 1 (substitute). To protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies. H. R. S. 8,051. Permitting farmers and producers of tobacco to soil 1 eaf tobacco m any quantity to unlicensed dealers, or to any person, without restriction, and repealing all laws inconsistent herewith. H. R. 7,641. To provide for the establishment of a postal telegraph system. These bills are presented with the request that all who concur wi ( th the committee in favoring their passage so notify their member of Congress, both by letter and petition. The National Legislative Committee further present the following bills as having received their disapproval, and,. believing their passage is nottothe best interest of the nation, present to the public and Order at large, requesting that all such as agree with the committee in opposing the passage of j these bills will so notify their members ■of Congress, both by letter and petition: H. R. 4,668. To promote the efficiency of the militia. (A most dangerous bill and should be defeated.) THEY FEAR THE ALLIANCE. Though there would appear to be very little prospect of the passage of the Sub-Treasury bill, but few repre- | sentatives in Congress have had the , temerity to attack its provisions. Col. Oates, of Alabama, >s one of these. He has a strong personal following and could be returned to the House, it is said, no matter what his expressed sentiments might be. But it is. believed by those whose judgment may be trusted in the premises that at least four of his colleagues from Alabama will be retired at the close of the present Congress in favor of Farmers’ Alliance candidates.

Another Representative who has dared to beard the lion in his den is! Roswell P. Flower of New ‘York. At \ a meeting of the Ways and Means : Committee, before which Chairman Macune appeared to champion the sub-1 Treasury bill, Mr. Flower took oeca sion to free his mind. In speaking of -farm products Mr. Flo wer said : ‘•Of course, if we can raise prices, I would be glad to have that done; but there is a groat difficulty in the way. Oneway to dp it is direotly, by the law of supply and demand; and the other way to do it is by banking on j everything. I will tell you what I j think about this plan. I believe that if the farmer was allowed to deposit his corn and tobacco and wheat and oats and cotton, and to draw 80 per cent, in Treasury notes, the next thing he would want to put into these warehouses would be live shoats; and he would want to have pens for them. Then the next thing, a similar demand would be made by the mining interest, when a depression comes, and the government would; be required to have" warehouses for the oopper, lead and silver ores; and in ten years, under that the government would be nursing the children, and the women would be at work in the fields." Mr. Flower criticised sharply the proposition to issue to the farmer 80

per cent of the value of such Unstable collateral as farm produce. • ‘Have you any idea, ” said he, * ‘how prices of crops have fluctuated during the past fifty years? I can state it to you from ‘Spofford’s Almanac’ for six-ty-two years. There were only twelve years of that time in which the price of corn fluctuated less than 20 p'er cent. There were only ten years when the price of oats fluctuated less than 20 per cent. There were over thirtytwo years when there was a fluctuation of over 50 par cent, on corn. .There were thirty-nine years when there was a fluctuation of over 50 per cent. On oats. There were forty-five years when there were fluctuations of over 50 per cent. on tobacco. There were thirty years when there were fluctuations of over 50 per cent, on cotton; aad there were nineteen years when there were fluctuations of over 50 per cent, on wheat. .Now- instead of requiring an advance of 80 per cent, on the crops put in these warehouses, why not limit, -tha. ad vancetcrsopgf jent. ? One-twelfth of these crops will be wanted every month in the year. Now, if half of them are sold at the end of six months and if one thousand millions of the jnoney advanced on them is withdrawn from circulation and canceled, then I say, may God have mercy on the other haK wh© have to sell; and may the Lord in his infinite grace have mercy on all the rest of the people in commercial jjursuits when the whole of the 'crop is sold and all the currency issued on it is withdrawn from circulation.”

A LITTLE CAMPAIGN SCHEME. A few days ago pedestrians making their way into the Senate wing of the Capitol noticed a young man stasdipg in the shadow of one of the massive marble pillars holding a small leathercovered box under his arm. As certain elegant Senatorial and Congressional equipages rolled up to the east front the young man emerged from his Sheltered noc#c, and, pointing his box at the moving vehicles, pressed a s-pring quickly and again retired to the shadow of the big pillar. The box was a Kodak .camera, and the young man was engaged in taking a series of “snap shots” at the horses and carriages owned by wealthy members and Senatorz. Upon being iuter>rogated by the World correspondent, the young man spoke of his purpose with great freedom. “I represent.” said he, “the Farm-, ers’ Alliance of one of the Western States, and I am making those pictures for cumpaign purposes. . I shall have magic lantern slides prepared for them, and the Alliance proposes, when the Congressional campaign opens to show these pictures throughout the West, that the hard-working farmer can see for himself the luxury in which these men roll who masquerade before the country as champions of the horny-handed sons of toil. “There’s a man whom I have been ‘laying for’ nearly a week,” continued the young photographer, pointing to Senator Stanford, as he descended from a shabby cab and made bis way into the Senate ‘ wing. ‘ ‘Stanford rarely come 3 to the Capitol behind his own horses, but I would give something very pretty to make a picture of his turnout, with its high-stepping steeds and clanking silver chains. “I got a good picture yesterday of that little, short, fat fellow with a white heard That is Senator Sawyer; from Wisconsin, aad the Lord only knows how many million dollars he owns. U nde rpaidlabariag-menunnde . .hfilSlSnejrfor'him, He lives in a castle upon Connecticut avenue, while half the farmers in his State have mortgaged every dollar’s worth of property they own. “I have a picture, too, of Senator StewarL the Nevada Silver King. ■ His heim is level enough gn the subject of silver, but his sermons to the farmers of his State, urging them to be patient, would come w(th better grace from a man who had something to be patient about himself.” During the course of an hour the photographer made a half dozen shots at handsofne turnouts and then left the Capitol with a self-satisfied smile on his face. He declined to state his name or the particular branch of the Alliance for which he was engaged in working.