Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1890 — THE FARMER’S ALLIANCE [ARTICLE]

THE FARMER’S ALLIANCE

'AUTHORIZED STATEMENT OF THE POLITICAL. SITUATION. t Tb«lr Demands Munt Be Granted or An* '! oilier Party Will Be Org nlzed—A Brief ; Talk With McKinley—Other Politie.il Matters. t• • / |SL Louis Globe-Democrat The tirst{declaration from the Nation!al Farmers’ Alliance since the election !is given below. It is furnished from ithe National headquarters of the Alliiance in this city. As a commentary {upon the results, and as an official forecast of what the Alliance will try =toxto nrCongress. it is very interesting, ilt will be seen that the National 'officers of the Alliance claim sixtythree members in the next Houge. The declaration is as follows: The elections just held show conclusively that the farmers’ and laborers’ organizations are a power in politics. Justin proportion to membership and unity of action, so has been the proportion of the changes wrought 5 Not a single exception to this broad statement will be found when an analysis of the elections just had is made. In the Southern States the issue was

made in the primaries long beforaAhe.. adjournment of Congress, and before the bayseeders decided to make a strong fight. The Alliance has no Stale organization in the following States, to-wit: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington. ' In New Hampshire the Farmers’ League, Grangers and Knights of Labor are fairly strong, and in New York the League and Knights have great strength. In the States not enumerated the Alliance has great strength, either alone or by combination with the Patrons of Industry, as was the ease in Michigan or the Mutual Benefit Assoc.. t' nin Indiana and Illinois. It is not proj osed to give the inner facts; the membership knows this full well. But th 9 figures as given in the State returns show conclusively that the groundswell has been in proportion to the organized efforts of the farmers’and laborers’ movement. It is freely admitted by all that it was supposed by the old loaders that party fealty would draw the membership back, and they made their fight on the old lines. The enormous combination could result in a tremendous avalaache against any party the combination op. posed.

The question has been raised, if the Alliance is non-partisan, as the Alliance claims, how is it the members have voted solidly against the Repubcan party? They have not done so. Take Democratic Georgia for an example. Another antipodal State is Kansas. In Kansas the fight for reform was certainly against sectionalism. The Republican party being in power; holding bbthathe executive and legislative branches of the National gov eminent, wa» responsible for legislation had, and aso for failures to pass such measures as the people desired. This made it a shining mark. The people had not taken a hand in re.'onig for many years, aiid they came to thir Congress asking them by petitions, then through their organizations. They male their demands on Congress - -noton party. First they asked for free coinage of silver The party in power said: "We know better what, you need than yefu yourselves know; we will pass a bill that will put the power in our Secretary’s hands; we will aid our spec ilatork, not the people.” So they passed a silver bill the people opposed. Tho people said: The party in power protects the iron and steel industries, why not protect our silver industries?” But their demands were denied. The people thought the petitions of over 4,000,000 voters should be be heeded. The Con - gressmen said: "The petitions do not amount to anything. We coqld get the fanners and laborers to sign just as many opposing the very measures they now demand.” We thought our request ought to have been heeded. We then said: "Wo will make you heed your masters.” And they did by giving us sixth-three membsrs of Congress when wo did not want twentyfour this lime. Party politicians say it was the tariff Both old parties want that to be the light again in 1892- Once more wo tell them that is a Bide issue. You could not get the farmers to listen to your tariff speeches in 1890; you will not in 1892. There were no petitions sent in for froe traders. We never said a word against the tariff. We did say we desired a fair adjustment of the tariff. We wanted a revenue for the government economically administered. If 50 per centum (average) Is necessary for protection to the laborer and manufacturer we want this average of per centum so adjusted that it will not oppress the poor and be o(advantage to the rich. We did not think wo were fairly treated when 80 per centtim was put on many of the necessaries, while 20 per centum was put on luxuries to (bring about the average. We said if binding-twine ought to be free (and it oughtl cotton ties and bagging ought to be treated in the same way. The brotherhood North said wo will stand by tho bretbern in the South, and they did. We said. “War issues are dead: we want a reunited country. Ingalls and others wanted to fight the war over ugn n; the brothorhood stood together. Veterans of both armies were there and are there. We stood united for more currency. Foreign investments have so increased that to pay the interest it takes not only our annual products of gold, but we are drawing on our reserved already oolned —-even with the balance of trade In our favor. Yet the annual interest and dlvidens eall our geld all of oyr country. The legal tenders are fixed In amount by law; the national bank currency is constantly being reduced

by the retiring progress; fire and flood is destroying our currency yearly. The reserves grow greater just in proportion to deposits, while our population is increasing, and our demand for currency is also increasing, but our currency is steadily decreasing. We ask that our currency shall be increased. We want as many dollars per capita as the rate of tariff is per hundred. This would not equal the per capita of France, and we have need for more than France. We said, , and we challenge criticism, that if the farmers were as well off prior to the war—so that they were just one crop ahead—the entire circulating medium would not pay fdr their crops. If they put the money into their pockets and went home with it not a merchant, banker or broker would have a dol.ar. We presented bills with a view of increasing the currency; we were ridiculed and called 'agrarian humbugs,’ So the people in their wrath hurledthese men from power. If the Fifty-second Congress gives usjno relief—if they do not makean effort so to do —they,too, will be hurled from power. If a Democratic House is disposed to, aid us and a Republican Senate opposes! we will wipe the earth up with the' American House of Lords. We shall wait patiently and see what tho Democrats will do; if they do not aid us. then a third party is just as inevitable as death.”

WHAT PRESIDENT POLK SAYS. • Mr. L. L. Polk, president of the National Farmers’ Alliance, is very jubilant over the result of the elections. In the course of an interview lately he said: ••The Democrats and Republicans are claiming everything just now. but when they come to sift the chaff from the wheat they will find that the Farmers’ Alliance had something to do with electing a fair proportion of the good men who will have seats in the next Congress. Up to the present time it is a certainty that Congress will contain thirty-eight straight-out Alliance men, and there are twelve or fifteen more who are pledged to us. These men are from the South and and Northwest—the two sections in which most of our work was done. The Alliance in Nebraska, Minnesota and lowa is not our organization, has cot amalgamated with us, but it made the same fight, and will join us this winter. Our Alliance co-operated with them; we will co-operate with any farmers’ association, and in a little while nave a grip on the situation in almost every corner of the land. ‘•We are here to stay. This great reform movement will not cease until it has impressed itself indelibly in the Nation’s history. Financial reform is the necessity of the hour, and it must come. The press and the voice of the stump-speaker were our. only assistants. The Alliance had no campaign fund, no boodle;’if wehadhsdmoney we would not have used it. The virtue and patriotism of tho people were the things we appealed to. Our methods were fair and square, and the whole world could Bee what we wore doing. The principles on which the Alliance is founded are solid and correct; we must succeed. The fight was no small affair. The extremists of both parties attacked us bitterly and gave no inch of ground. In the tiouth it was tho Democrats who opposed us. In the North our most vigorous antagonists were Republicans.” ill,:' J

TALK WITH MR. M’KINLEr. Congressman McKinley, speaking to a reporter about the recent election, said: "I am well satisfied with the result of my own district. I gained 2,600 votes during a campaign which lastdd but three weeks. That was even more than I had any right to expect. It is certainly very gratifying to me.” "What do you think of the result in the State?” was asked. "The Republican victory on the State ticket was splendid. The unfairness of the gerrymander was manifested most clearly by the recent election. The Republicans carried the State by a popular majority of over 12,000 while the Democrats secured two-thirds of the Representatives in Congress, and the Republicans onethird. This shows the effect of the gerrymander very clearly.” "Has the cause of protection suffered any by the recent Democratic victories throughout the country?” "Protection is stronger to-day than it ever was and it will continue to grow in favor. The tariff bill, which was made the issue during the campaign, wks but three and one-half weeks old when the election occurred, and many of its provisions have not yet gone into effect. The bill was misunderstood and shamefully misrepresented. The latter was done by the importers, many of whom are not citizens of the United States and are free-traders.” "What will be tho future of the billP” "I am sure that It will win in tho end. All great measures have met with temporary defeat. The emancipation of tho slaves and the passage of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to tho Constitution may be pointed to as examples. The same issue wilt come to the front in 1892. and it will then be better understood. Our defeat this year is not greater than it was in 1882, two years after Garfield was elected. The Republicans haVe not had a majority in the House of Representatives buttwice since 1875, In this Congress we have twenty-six members from the South, while in the next there will be but two or ihhee. We have little to fear in the future if we have a free oallot and fair count” CLEVELAND NOMIFATED BV THURMAN. Allen W. Thurman, son of Judge Thurman, in whose honor a banquet was to be given November IS, addressed a jollification meeting at Hamilton, Butler county, the home of Governor Campbell, recently, and gave the credit of the recent victory to ex-Presldent ■ 0 ' v- ijifc : .. • ’ -

Cleveland, and at the same time paid the following handsome tribute: “Yet this was the issue, plain and simple, brought about by the McKinley bill, and to the mofe Grover Cleveland, who three years ago boldly and fearlessly attacked this whole system, more than anv other do we owe this victor*. Never fcF one moment, amidst all the abuse that was heaped upon him. CM he falter or his courage fail. Believj n.! in the truth and justice of his post tlon, believing that the government had no right to take money out of the pockets of the people for the benefit of a particular class, he continued year after year, when others hesitated, to battle for the right, and now, when all are eager to join in the fray, certainly this fact that he dared to leaA when scarcely any dared to follow, shows the metal he is made of, and 1 believe that the whole people will see to it that he, and only he, shall be again chosen as their leader in 1892. If ever man spoke the truth, surely he did when he said, a few days ago: ‘Nr one has a greater right to rejoice thar, I have.’ ’’

how m’kinley was BEATEN. There is an interesting story told of the way the politicians worked the Ornish settlement in Holmes county., As is well known, these people are very clannish. The Democratic managers engaged a number of men to rig up old wagons, stock them with tinware, then go through the settlement and try to sell tinware at fabulous prices. They would go to the Ornish farmer and offer to sell him a 5-Gent' tin cup for sl, while an ordinary dishpan was out of the reach of even n millionaire. When the paralyzed farmer would kick he was told that was the best that could be done under the circumstances: that the McKinley bill had so increased the price of everything that they could not sell at lower figures. Once the Omi3h got this idea in their heads, tho most eloquentof Republican speakers could not convince them of the contrary. They would shake their heads sullenly, confer together and answe.-: “We saw the men ourselves; they had the tinware with them.” In despair the Republicans fought to the end, and there is little doubt the tin peddlers contributed to the defeat of the champion of protection.