Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1890 — The Two Alliances. [ARTICLE]

The Two Alliances.

The so-ceiled National Farmers’} Alliance at Ocala, Florida, was a democratic gathering with a fiatmoney bias. The protection principle is right f and the McKinley bill is a true,; wise, brpjwl spirited but conserva-’ tive exponent of that principle, i Out upon the weak-kin ed policy i of those Republicans who advocate a modificat ion of the bill at 'the demand of the enemies cf Americon industrial prosperity. A Washington special to the Indianapolis Journal says: Representative Owen of Indiana, chairman of the House committee on immigration, today introduced a bill making it unlawful under certain conditions for foreigners to immigrate to the United States, and imposing penalties for violations of the law. The bill practically excludes all immigrants or subjects < f any foreign powers now in this country who may leave and attempt to return, who may be personally hostile to the principles of the Constitution, or who are

insane or dependent for support. It also provides that no persons shall encourage by promise of employment or advertisement, the importation of immigration of aliens undei agreement to perform labor in the United States. The beet sugar factory at Grand Island, Neb., manufactured about' three million pounds of fine sugar this year, and the industry is now' on the eve of a great and rapid de- i velopment. The business of raising beets for the sugar manufac-j 1 tory is immensely profitable for the farmers. The opinion is held quite extensively and there is very j large probability of its being correct, that the soil of Indiana is: ; well adapted for the production of the sugar beet, and if that should prove to be the case, then it would seem that right here in Jasper county is the place, of all others, for the location of tile first Indiana beet sugar manufactory. A deep ’ sandy loam, with plenty of mois-; ture in the fall of the year, is said' to be the condition best adapted to sugar beets’ growth, and those ' conditions turely are as well fulfilled in Jasper county as in any ' place in the country. Moreover

we know’ already, of a verity, that our soil is well adapted for the production of all kinds of root crops and why not, therefore, for the sugar beet? The adoptibility of Jasper county soil to the production of sugar beets is a matter that should be investigated at once.

Between the Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union, now in session at Ocala, Fla., and the National Farmers’ Alliance there is a distinction with a difference. The first is a Southern organization which fitys gone into politics on party lines, and has achieved some measure of success in the election of Tillman, its candidate for Governor in South Carolina. Messrs. Buchanan and Northern, recently elected Governors of Tennessee and Georgia also are members of this Southern agricultural league. It may be said, once for all, that in the Southern States the Farmers’ Alliance was forced into party politics, because the Democratic party having been in sole control of affairs for long years, and having suppressed by force and frauds all efforts toward Republican representation and having refused also to do anything for the relief of the farmers, there were but two courses open to the alliance in the ( south; to submit to continued in-

justice or to put farmers’ tickets in the field. Tillman, however, openly declares himself to be quite a» much a Democrat as a farmer, and it is probable that Buchanan and Northern would declare themselves in like manner were they subjected to the same pressure which Tillman has had to endure. But, if history be merely a system of teaching by experience, the Southern Alliance is not likely to be of long continuance, no matter how numerous and strong it may be. History has this unvarying lesson on its pages; that whenever an organization of philanthropists, traders, or artisans, or farmers has been able to distribute political offices the politicians have become proprietors of the organization and have wrecked it. It will be strange If the same results do not follow same cause in the south. Indeed, signs of disintegration already are visible. The National Farmers’ Alliance on ’the other hand, is a political but hot. a partisan body. Organized in the Northern States, having free scope for its action upon two great parties, accorded the utmost freedom of speech existing in a section of the Union where every man reads, and where every corer grocery in the country is a center for a political debate, the National Farmers’ Alliance can avoid those rocks and shoals of thirdpartyism upon which the Southern organization is all but sure to be

wrecked. The National Farmers’ Alliance has a well defined body of political beliefs and aspirations which ft submits to all candidates for office. It asks the Democratic and the Republican candidate for Congressionol honors, or for a place in the State Legislature, or for any high executive office, “Will you, if elected, do all that in you lies toward procuring and enforcing the legislation mapped out on the platform of the National Farmers’ Alliance?” And it feels sure of gaining a sufficient number of affirmative responses to secure the passage of the desired legislation by non-partisan votes in Congress and in the State Legislature. It invites Democrats and Republicans to its membership and its councils, and, without seeking to interfere with their political beliefs, pledges them to influence the candidates of both parties to vote in accordance with the creed of the alliance. The Northern plan seems to be the m ost practical for the present and the most promising for the future. It is impossible to elect a majority of farmors to Congress, or to make a farmers’ party successful at a Presidential election. But it may be quite possible to organize a fanners’ vote so thoroughly on certain questions appertaining to the business of farming as to make one or both of the great political parties give pledges of conformity to. the creed of the

alliance. —Chicago Inter Ocean. To the above very fair and comprehensive summary of the status and prospects of the two Farmers’ Alliances, we mav add that an article in the Western Hural, last week, by August Post of Moulton. lowa, secretary of the National Farmers’ Alliance, fully corroborates what the Inter-Ocean, as above quoted, has to say of this last named organization. We may add further that it is the southern Alliance, the full name of which is the “Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union” to which the Jasper County Alliance audits suballiances is a part, and if it is, as it seems to be, a partisan organization and overwhelmingly democratic at that, and if so, having been organized here under false pretenses as to its political character, we can not but think that it was a serious misfortune to ti e farmers of the county, that they were not organizedjby the northern institution rather than the southern. In order to give our farmer readers who do not take the Western Rural an opportunity for a fuller knowledge of this northern institution, what it is and what it has accomplished, we will re-publish Mr. Post’s article entire, next week