Dakota farmers' leader., December 25, 1890, Image 3

About Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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DEPENDENT PARTY THE
NATION'S SAVIOR.
....It Mult Roll Back the Tidal Wave of Cor
ruptlon That la Sapping the Life of Our
Free Republic.
No greater work was ever undertaken
by men than that which lies before the
now rapidl/forming independent party.
The American public has degenerated
rirfrom that higji state of public morals
••'and private purity and simplicity of
A character for which its founders were
i-i distinguished. The time was when the
A.aveSaee man wc uld ask himself the
i' '"question, Is it right? Now the question
^is, Will it pay? Principle and trutU are
^no longer taken into consideration.
expediency are the leading
icrations. A prominent United
iiitor, Ingalls, of Kansas, sar
eferred to honesty in. politics
escent dream." He deserves
for this bold expression of
the sentiments of the»average American
statesman of to-day.
Such are the sentiments of the haughty
plutocrats, and they are magnified
in the swarming parasites, willing
pif"- lackeys and servile imitators who follow
'•j* in their train. Tho virtues of candor,
integrity and truth which characterized
the heroes of 1776, have faded out of the
dominant aristocracy of to-day, and the
low and vicious .take this as an example
t0 justify
«very violation of moral law.
These virtues which make men stronger
X-j i' and better are fading out of the present
Itj
ru'ln8
u'j
class and in their place we find
iis-the vices which rot, corrupt and destroy
jthe tyring soul of humanity.
Qg,Ainong tho common people we still
*,!-« ijaiBe honest differenees of opinion. One
v'^Hkrepublican, another a democrat,
r, |Hlfier a prohibitionist and so on to
"1= end of the, catalogue. They meet,
discuss and defend their respective
S 'opinions. The average plutocrat has
f,i no such thing as an honest opinion.,
$ Jay Gould expressed the true position
of the present ruling class in regard to
jthls matter before an Investigating com
jmittee. He said that in a democratic
^district he was a democrat, In a repub
lican.district he was a republican, in a
/^doubtful district he was doubtful, but in
every district he was an Erie man. In
1876 Samuel J. Tilden addressed the
democratic convention at St. Louis to
see that tho democratic platform was as
much like the republican as possible, so
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that the democratic party might get as
/large a campaign fund from the bond
holders as the republicans could. I# is
needless to say that the democratic com
mittee followed that advice. If anyone
doubts it let him read the platforms of
the two parties in 1870. And the advice
.certainly was good as shown by the large
.vote polled for Tilden. They got the cam
paign fund that Tilden put them on the
'track of.
These facts are ominous of a deca
de in public morals that presages an
'ly death of the republic unless the
uncorrupted wealth producers of
%he country can roll back this tidal wave
of corruption. At last, after years of
'^agitation, the farmers and the working
-men of the nation seem to be waking up
|to the dangerous tendencies of the times.
and are moving toward the formation of
an independent party from which the in
fluence of the paid tools and servile imi
'-.v tators of a corrupt plutocracy shall be
'1 eliminated. On the success of this move
ment depends tho perpetuity of free in
stitutions on this continent.
I For more thfen twenty/years earnest
spirits in the rahks of latior have been
^calling attention, to the ccprruption off:
our. political machinery and the danger--'
ous encroachments of organized wealth/
But it was hard to make the farmers as
|a class believe that they were in danger
Afrom the corruption of their favorite po
litical leaders. Nothing but experience,
f'Jow prices for their products and the
farm mortgage could do this. Unlike
tho.better class of the workingmen of the
cities, tho farmers have not been brought
?.face to face with the corruptions and
profligacies which exist among these
dense masses of population. Their only
knowledge of the city laborer who was
itrylng to hold his own against these
vil tendencies came from the monopoly
iress, which sought to make them
lelievo that the labor agitator was a
human fiend who ought to be incarcer
ated in prison or swung upon a gibbet.
!e
On the other hand the average city la
borer was taught to look upon the farmer
as an employer of labor who had less re
gard for the laborer than for the cattle
he was feeding. But a few of the more
intelligent in all branches of productive
'/industry realized from the beginning
that all branches of honorable toil were
oppressed by the same general causes
and could only be relieved by the same
-measures. And in spite of the misrep
resentations of a satanic press and the
work of agitation, organization and ed
ucation has gone on until the large
masses of farmers, mechanics, miners
and all other classes of labor are ready
to step upon a common platform
and make a common cause
against a common enemy that is cor
rupting the life blood of the nation. Our
"demands for economic reforms are right
and let us secure them by the right
means. Any attempt to secure results
..by affiliation with the corrupt old party
machinery will only tend to corrupt and
'degrade the new party, while at the
/same time all of our past experience
•/demonstrates that in the end we can
:gain nothing of much importance by this
'means. An open, honest, manly course
'is the only one that deserves success.
Let us give disorganizes In our own
ranks a back seat, close up the lines and
'•move forward to victory over corruption,
tooodle and plutocracy.—St. Paul (Minn.)
Industrial Age.
TO SUCCEED NATIONAL BANKS.
'iThe Plan Proposed by an Kanrnt Be
former That Would Be lp. the Interests of
the People.
Little things are often overlooked.
What has become of my government
banking policy? I have been waiting
with patience to hear front some of our
dictators on this policy, and as I have
not beard nor saw anything in your
paper on this
subject, it becomes my duty
.and pleasure to say something more
about this matter.
The voice of the eagle, the owl, the
«row, the hawk, all unite in saying that
if we had more money in circulation,
the cry of depression among the masses
of the people would be hushed. The
demands of our order in the government
issuing legal tender treasury notes in
lieu of national bank notes, issued in
Sufficient volume to do the business
'of the country on a cash system,
regulating the amount needed on
a per capita basis as the business inter
ests of the country expands, and that all
... s&r
iiii'Sf' i-iii-'liiiii'i n"it' Hiiriifr
money issued by the government shall of ignoring brain labor against us is that
be legal tender in payment of all debts,
both public and private, doing away
with the national banking system as this
policy, and it is in harmony with the
government banking system. From the
fact that after the government has abol
ished tho national banking system, and
has issued greenbacks as a legal tender
for the payment of all debts in Volumes
sufficient to answer all the necessary de
mands of trade and public enterprise
then how is tho government going to
keep the money combinations from ab
sorbing this circulating medium to that
extent. In a few years they would have
the currency contracted and consequently
there would be still more trouble.
The idea is now to establish a system
by which the people could be, and would
be, protected from all fixture contrac
tions, as well as the present supplied
with plenty circulating medium. If we
can have a better and more safe way to
distribute money than that of the gov
ernment, having to establish govern
ment banks in each county in the United
states, I will submit to it' with the
greatest of pleasure. It would not cost
our government $50,000 to have a gov
ernment. bank in each county in tho
United Stales, with a sufficient amount
of capital stock to answer the necessary
demands of the people. And the inter
est at 2 per cent, on good time, would
pay all the government expenses in pay
ing agents to attend to tho keeping of
those banks and much more.
What would it bo for our gov
ernment to raise 850,000,000? But
a little thing.' And I am
somewhat persuaded the government
could establish those banks as above
named without issuing any greenbacks.
If she could not sparo §50,000,000 she
would be a very poor government. All
we need is money where we can reach it
without giving away our lands and prop
erty, in having to( pay such high rates of
interest. For an illustration: if I owned
a farm worth $1,000 and wanted to im
provo it, or if I needed some mouey to
pay off some debts, I could goto the gov
ernment bank in my county and borrow
8300 or $400 on from two to ten years
time at 2 per cent, interest, giving a
mortgage on my farm for security.
Would it not be better than to have to
borrow from other banks on less time
with a great deal higher rate
of interest? And if should
fail on my payments, and the
government would have to close the
mortgage the. government would get my
land and have it for some other citizen,
instead of going into the hands of rich
moneyed corporations for the purpose of
speculation. Sq let the government
abolish the nation banking system in the
most legal and satisfactorily way, and
establish in each county in the United
States a government bank with a suffi
cient amount of capital stock to answer
all the necessary demands of the people
in each county respectively, making real
estate property a security for all loans,
charging 3 or 3 per cent, interest using
same to pay government expenses. This
is the government banking policy, and
if it is not reasonable or logical or con
stitutional, let some brother tell where
and how and I will be very grateful.—
J. A. Howard in Kentucky State Union.
PULL TOGETHER.-
All classes 6f labor should "pull to
gether," in order to succeed in this life.
It is impossible for us to be a prosperous
nation as long as one class is prosperous
and another impoverished, says the
Workman and Farmer." There should
be a perfect unity of interest among all
classes of labor. The farmer who at
tempt^ to buy his farm implements at a.
price which ho knows must represent
starveid labor in tjbc workshops and fac
tories is directly aiming to lessen the
purchasing power of the consumer of
his wheat, meats and potatoes. The
mechanic who attempts to buy farm pro
ducts at a price that will give the farmer
no profit, is simply crippling the pur
chasing power of millions of consumers
of the article in the manufacture which
he i& employed. If the farmer is pros
perous the mechanics will be pros
perous, and the impoverishment of the
one is the impoverishment of the other.
But it is a fact that the diiTerent classes
do not, as a whole, realize this. Hence
there is antagonism where there should
be the most earnest co-operation and the
cause of reform is greatly impeded in
consequence. What is now needed, is
the co-operation of all classes. We
firmly believe that the day of emancipa
tion from oppression will soon be reached
if we only can get all classes of labor to
"pull together."—Omaha United Labor.
THE VALUE OP BRAIN WORK.
It is often charged against labor re
formers that they habitually think and
speak of "labor" in a very restricted
sense. We are accused of underrating
the value of brain work. "You talk
about the rights of labor," it is often
said, "as. though the only workers to be
considered were those who work with
their hands. Those whom you denounce
as idlers and parasites are among the'
world's hardest workers, and their Tabor
is as worthy of consideration as that of
the carpenter or the drain digger." It
is not true that we overlook brain
labor or regard muscular work as
the only kind to be taken into
account. The class line was not drawn
by us. The distinction between brain
work and hand work goes back much
further than the modern labor move
ment, and is one of those relics of the
days of feudalism and caste which it is
the object of that movement to eradi
cate. The cry that we want to ignore
the brain worker comes from the
very peoDle who are trying to perpetu
ate the evil system. The classes who
live by mental exertion are for the most
part so very anxious to have it under
stood that they are not laborers, and
have no part or lot in the move
ment for labor's enfranchisement, that
even if we did employ the word "labor"
in the limited sense complained of it
would be excusable. Brain labor is of
such various kinds and degrees of utility
or uselessness that it is misleading to
lump them all in the same category.
There are brain workers whose services
are of immense value to mankind, such
as skillful physicians, great engineers
and real statesmen, like Jefferson and
Lincoln. To such men society owes a
debt of gratitude for their labors. No
labor reformer undervalues their work.
Then there are the mass of those whose
administrative and organizing capacities
are essential to the ordinary work of the
world, whether as employers, or public
servants, or salaried employes. Tho
utility of all this class of labor employed
in directing industrial operations, man
aging public Institutions, keeping ac
counts, teaching and attending to all the
details of commerce, is likewise freely
admitted. But what is too often Ipst
sight of by those who bring the charge
•sfcd
•Ahnia£ai Simbin mil
a very large proportion of the brain work
for which so much is claimed is either
absolutely useless or positively injurious.
Under this head we may include the
labor of stock brokers, real estate spec
ulators, gamblers, burglars and the like,
without exception, as well as nine-tenths
of the "work" of politicians,
editors, lawyers, bankers and so
called public instructors. These men
work hard in their way. They
are not idlers, but society would be bet
ter off if they were. Their activity is
positively pernicious in cases where it is
not simply useless. How can labor re
formers be expected to praise the indus
try of a corporation lawyer fighting to
secure unjust privileges for a railroad
monopoly, or of a capitalistic editor
working fourteen hours a day to mislead
the public, or a politician hustling to
make himself solid for a nomination
by making deals and giving pledges
never to be kept? It i9 ail "work"
to be sure. But 'it is injurious
work. So far as the interests
of society are concerned, its value i3 less
than nothing. Then, again, much of the
work that is intrinsically necessary, such
as that of organization of industry and
exchange, buying and selling, etc., is
really superfluous. Owing to the system
of competition a dozen men are doing
the work which could more efficiently be
done by one, and are devoting the best
part of their energies to circumventing
the rest. The merchant, manufacturer,
trader and agent are all doing necessary
work in supplying the means of distribu
tion and exchange. But it is not neces
sary that these agencies should be multi
plied to the present extent, and that they
should spend, most of their time fighting
each other. It is a waste of means, and
energy, jjrhich can be prevented only by
a thorough reorganization of the system.
The sum and substance of the whole
matter is that brain,work is worthy of
recognition and reward only when it is
valuable to society. The test is not how
hard a man works, but what are the re
sults of it—what does it accomplish for
tho goneral benefit? Judged from this
standpoint, a large percentage of those
who claim that they are entitled to a
living because they labor will be found
wanting.—Journal of the Knights of.
Labor.
HALSTEAD COMPLIMENTS THE
FARMERS.
"Hayseeds" Shouldn't Meddle in Polities
if They Want Hit Lore.
The following is the way Vurat Hal
stead, the leading republican journalist,
speaks of the Farmer^' alliance move
ment, "hay fever," "parasites on the
air," and refering to a criticism by the:
Bome, N. Y., Sentinel, he says in the
Commerclal-Oazette of Saturday, Nov. 27:
"What does the Bome Sentinel know
about the best interests of the farmers?
The idea that the Farmers' alliance rep
resents the best interests of the farmers
or of anybody else is sheer bumming
demagogy and preposterous. A lot of
politicians having failed to become im
portant in tho old parties, are always
seeking novelties and working up new
parties in which they are to be the gifted,
great and good. They have about as
'much intelligence as to public affairs as
the Indian Messiah, and the farmers'
doctrines are touched up with the same
globing imagination that appears in
the noble redskins when they prophesy
the return of the buffalo. The cranks
have taken a turn at agriculture, and
they have irrigated the grounds of agri
culturists, who profess politics as a trade
with the oldest and most foolish doctrines
of inflation. Does the Bomo Sentinel
propose to convert the government into
a pawn shop, and to undertake 'free
coinage' that means forced issues of pa
per?"
The above clearly illustrates the make
up of the men who succeed in getting
front seats in the two old parties, What
do you, you mudsills, know? Your lead
ers whom you called forth from your own
ranks on account of their fitness for the
position, are bummers, demagogues, and
all of your ideas are "sheer bummer
demagogy and preposterous." The idea
of a 40-acre farmer, with a hickory shirt
on his back, a smutty, dirty miner, a
greasy shopman, a common ditcher, or a
dollar per day section hand on the rail
road to think, to profess to know what
is good for themselves in governmental
affairs, is "sheer bumming demagogy
and preposterous." We, the upperten
dum, are to attend.to that for you. If
we hear of you doing so again, we will
hang you for a lot of communists!
Halstead and men of his class have
dictated the policies of this government
until the people are homeless and
without employment. Their class
laws have laid the foun
dation for an aristocracy composed of
just such men, who have traveled In
Europe on what they robbed toil here,
and when they condescend to return
home, cram their narrow paits with the
idea that thoy should be dictators and be
Worshipped, that the masses ought to
act the part of sheep and .follow the bell
weather. Wo want to. warn them in
time that thero is considerable of the
spirit left that went aboard of the ves
sels in Boston harbor and pitched British
tea into the sea. The American people
are very slow to act in affairs like this,
but get out of the road when they get
started—Bluffton (Ind.,) TUler and
Toiler.
"KEEP politics 'out 'of the alliance,"
cries the fogy. Why God have mercy on
your poor benighted soul, politics is a
grand good thing to have around. Show
us a church, a school, a mercantile
establishment, a fantil? without politics
in it and we will show you an aching
void. Politics is the art and science of
good government, and any well governed
institution obtains its distinguishing po
litical characteristics from the political
bodies surrounding and effecting it.
Next to the theories and practices of
agriculture, the government of these
United States most vitally effect the
farmers' weal or woe is it not most wise,
then, that the farmers' alliance care
fully scrutinize the every action of po
litical parties of the nation? Is it not an
imperative duty that the farmers ana
lyze the motives prompting every act
and forecast the effect of every statute?
Then why no politics in the alliance?
Like Jefferson we firmly believe that
"prosperity or adversity can be legis
lated" upon tho country.—Re
porter,
THE demands of the F. M. B. A. and
other labor organizations are the pur
chase and operation by the government
of the railroad and telegraph systems in
the interest of the people the issuing of
all money dircct from the government to
the people, and the holding of Mic
lands for actual settlers. No foreign
syndicates are eutitled to hold possess
ion. America for Americans is their
motto and is good enough.
'i
RXRUR'I
I
i^va
QUNT WITHOUT BOSKS
8. L. HIRBERT SO CALLS THE
S
1
What the Farniera Lack la Organization—
They Ar.i the Mast Powerful Factor In
the Nation—He Who Auks Timidly
Teaelies Denial—A Danger Signal.
Agriculture is the greatest productive
industry in the United States, gtad the
farmers create really more than 80 per
cent, of the surplus wealth of tho nation.
Yet they present this unique spectacle.
Though the largest and most important
class—adding more than all others to
our wealth and stability, and employing
four times the amount of capital in
vested in all the manufacturing enter
prises of the country yet they exert the
least influence in state and national af
fairs, and remain the most unconscious
of their vast power and many wrongs.
Of the 20,000,000 belonging to the agri
cultural classes nearly 8,000,000 are ac
tive farmers, and there is probably not in
the whole world so large a body of
homogeneous people, actiyely employed
and holding property, who have so little
organization, cohesion and influence.
Though constituting the greatest class
in the country, having common inter
ests and suffering from common ills,
yet the newsboys and bootblacks of
New York city are far better organized
to protect themselves against injustice,
and more united and determined, in de
manding and gaining what they consider
their rights. Talleyrand once said: "The
United States is a giant without bones."
While this can no longer be asserted of
us as a nation, it can with perfect truth be
"Said, the agricultural class is an immense
"giant without bones." A great, patient,
credulous unresisting,mass of men with
out disciplined organization, purposes.of
power, or leaders of enthusiasm. But
perhaps in these long years of physical
toil and mental sleep, this giant has been
growing bones, and only needs the bur
dens of oppression, and tho blows of in
justice, to harden* them for warfare.
Time will prove. Though he may be a
boneless giant, he is no longer a sleeping
one.- At last the farmers are awake,
widely, angrily awake but they have
neither the strength that comes from
unity, nor the self-confidence that ac
companies self-knowledge and faith in
their own immense resources.
Though there are less than 1,000,000
manufacturers, and nearly 8,000,000
farmers, yet the manufacturers exercise
a thousand times more influence and
power in controlling and adjusting their
environment in our complex civilization
than the farmers, who blindly, stupidly,
submit to every injustice, and all extor
tions—to a tariff which levies an enor
mous tax upon alt they wear and use
railway monopolies that rob them of all
profit on their labor a debased currency
foisted upon them by silver kings, insults
from the press and tho drama, and the
indifference and contempt of senators,
statesmen and demagogues.
8trike the farmer!. "He is a giant
without bones." Manufacturers and
monopolists already have the bones, sin
ews and nerves of power in this keen
battle of commercial and political life,
that means "the survival of none but
the fittest." They control state and na
tional legislation, lowering and raising
tariffs at will. They bribe senators sup
port lobbyists—who live and entertain
11 ke princes—buy and regulate railroads
build and run their own steamships own
powerful journals that lead and form
public opinion corner our taarkets
build themselves palaces oppress labor
ers starve strikers, and make every
farmer from Dakota to Texas, from Cali
fornia to Maine, pay them tribute on *11
they buy and use. Why should they
noit laugh to scorn "a giant without
bones," who has been asleep for, over
twenty years? The farmers' enemies,
who rotr and pray upon him, consolidate?,
co-operate and make common cause in
all .they do. The farmers—isolated on'
their broad acres, slow, stolid, distrust
ful of each other—have but now realized
the truth of the simplest principle of co
operative civilization, "in union there is
strength," and that to be feared and re
spected collectively, they must trust and
respect each other individually. More
than all, they lack self esteem and self
confidence. Worse than all, they can
not^see that the price for all th^ir pro
duce Is settled in Europe, and not at
home, in Mark Lane, London,
and not in Chicago and New
York. After paving an enormous
toll to the pirates who own the railways,
the farmers' grain must enter a foreign
market, and compete with that from In
dia, Bussia and South America. The
farmer must stand in a fierce commercial
battle—taking odds against the world—
while the manufacturer, sheltered behind
his wall of tariff, free from outside com
petition, smiles as he thinks: "The
farmer may sell his wheat, corn and
pork in Europe, where coats, carpets,
finery and furniture are cheaper than in
his wife's wildest dreams, but he must
buy all'these things at home—of me—
his master." And tho "giant without
bones" meekly pays the American man
ufacturer a tax of 100 per cent, on his
Blanket and flannels 50 percent. on his
calico and clothing, and CO per cent, on
•is crocEery and furniture, not to men
tion hundreds of other articles that he
must buy, but does havo to sell. All of
which he could buy cheaper and better
where he sells his corn, if arbitrary laws
that have protected "infant industries"
till they have grown to bloated monsters
did not hold him fast in bondage.
One wishes for a thousand voices,
making a million echoes, to cry to the
people: Awake! arouse yourselves, or
in this fair land will bo repeated the his
tory of every empire and every republic
that yet has risen under the sun. "The
rich aro growing richer, the poor grow
ing poorer," and the many b'ecoming
the slaves of the few. Land monopolies,
railway monopolies, manufacturing mo
nopolies, and the political monopolies
all make slaves of the many and lords of
the few, and the farmer is the scourged
and beaten serf of each and all of these
monstrous giants of modern civilization.
Poor fool! he is only the giant without
bones. Slurred and scorned by the
press, deceived and led by the politicians,
ridiculed in literature, laughed at on the
stage, he remains almost at the bottom
of our social structure, while he might
rule at the top. H§ is even unconscious
that he is a giant.
Too long the farmers have let others
do their thinking and make their laws.
As a class they have passed the perils
and pangs of poverty and gained the
content and comfort of competence and
leisure for their bodies means, increased
activity for their minds. They need to
reflcct upon their overwhelming im
portance to this
country and government.
During all the plenteous years from 1873
to 1885, it was their surplus products
pouriug into hungry Europe that brought
back the receding tide of prosperity and
made this the richest nation on earth.
For all these years over 80 per cent, of
the surplus wealth of this great country
was produced by the farmers. Think of
it, ye horny handed sons of toil! But this
wealth is not yours it belongs to your
masters—capitalists, land barons, rail
road barons, silver barons, blanket bar
ons, all sorts 6f rich and pompous barons
—and you may be grateful if you do not
see your comfort and competence dwin
dle and disappear, and your children be
come a race of tenant farmers.
All over the west rests tho blight of
the terrible mortgage, and wherever
its shadow falls there the American far
mer is do longer lord of the soil, but,
like the feudatory vassal of the Irish
land owner, evicted at a master's will.
He is tenant only of acres where he may
sow, but may never reap. A new and
dreadful calamity awaits our boneless
giant. He begins to see thUt, not con
tent with tribute- from all the produce of
his land, that at last these magnates of
monopoly will take his land. And the
latest statistics on tho amazing number
of western farms held by eastern mort
gage companies fill him with disquiet
and alarm. When he takes a long look
ahead he sees his certain fate under the
forces now at work for his destruction
and knows that as a tenant-farmer in
America, under unrestricted monopolies
and a protective tariff, he will become a
lower, poorer' serf than the servile crea
ture that cringes for tho right to live in
Ireland and Bus3ia. Already alien land
lords in Illinois make their tenants beg
for permission to improve their holdings,
and then promptly raise ,the rent be
cause the tenant's improvement has en
hanced the value of the land. Already
foreign dukes, lords and syndicates
own over 20,747,000 acres of land
in the United States, held in
tracts of from one to four million acres.
Every week steamers bring thousands
of land-hungry laborers from Europe to
compete with the thousands of proletar
iats already here, in selling their bodies
for bread and to help in pushing the
farmer into the position of, hopeless
tenant on the acres of an absent or alien
landlord. It is a curious fact, but in the
two greatest countries on earth, England
and America, relentless social and politi
cal forces are fast pushing the proletariat
and the farmer so close together that
soon they must join hand in the brother
hood of common interests, and wage a
war. that will bring to pass such land re
forms, tariff reforms and social reforms
as the world has never yet seen. Here
is a curious problem in political economy:
England has free trade and her farms
are decreasing in^ value and her farmers
grow poorer every year. America has
protective tariff, her farms are increas
ing in value, and yet her farmers
grow poorer every year. ,The
giant without bones will have to
think long and take a wide view to dis
cover all the factors needed to solve his
problem. He need not study long to see
that .in both countries the farmer's lot Is
not a happy one. But worse off than
the farmers—beneath' them are the great
lhasses of 'daily laborers, the toiling mil
lions who have neither land nor hope
who must devour each day all they
earned the day before, just to keep alive
to work another day. But now they are
thinking, these toiling, moiling millions.
In the year 1890 they are thinking, and
their thought is. the sum of the greatest
thoughts of all the ages gone before.
And for the first tinie in the history of
the world this thought flashes roun4 the
earth a continuous flame—a hidden
flame, white heat, invisible, but terrible
and mighty. Everywhere It burns in the
minds of the workers—In the factory
and the field, in the mine and 'in the
shop, by the furnace and the forge, in
the shipyard and In the ships on the seas
—and everywhere it is the same fierce
and fiery thought. And slowly or sud
denly, but surely as the rising of the
sun, by the light of his thought will rise
the fourth estate, and they will solve the
problem for the giant without bones, and
for themselves and all the world.
A LANDED ARISTOCRACY VS.
MONEY.
There was a time when grave fears,
were entertained of a landed aristocracy
in this country. Capita? flowed into iand
and large and small tracts were absorbed
wherever there was opportunity to in
vest for holding and for private accumu
lations and other purposes. Great pa
troons, it was feared, monopolize the land
and "lord it over God's heritage." The
cry of land reform and national' reform
was raised and this tendency was appar
ently arrested.
To-day the sweep runs in another di
rection and money seems to have the
ground. And so a money aristocracy,
an aristocracy of wealth based upon
railroad stocks and'all sorts of bond in
vestments, with cash itself, looms up
with colossal dimensions and imperial
power to threaten the social and finan
cial equilibrium, which forms the basis
of a republican state. This is known as
"the money power" whose grasp is fixed
on the great staples of the country and
who& controlling influence reaches out
to all tho centers of trade and commerce,
and whose domination is fearful beyond
any ordinary comprehension.
Certainly an aristocracy of money is
greatly so be feaqgkl and dreaded. It
makes possible a vast concentration of
power which in a few hands holds the
destinies of communities and states in its
control, and which may, by its manipula
tions, oppress the masses and produce
depression in all the avenues of trade
and among the laboring classes, which
brings misery and suffering in its track
as well as disorder and ruin to the great
industries upon which we live.
The lord deliver us from the grip of
such an aristocracy and put afar off the
day when we shall be brought completely
under its control. It should be resisted
at all points and by every other class of
our people. Every element of opposi
tion should be enlisted against it and all
the sources of public influence should be
roused to the greatness of the issue and
the necessity for action in the case. If
need be let a reform be inaugurated in
the means to be used and the methods to
be followed. Let org'anization and effort
follow, let agitation recur and press the
battle home to the despots, who would
rob us of our peace and steal our liberties
away.
There is work here for the propogand
ist and the iconoclast. Let them fall
into line and begin the work.—National
View.
TIME TO DO SOMETHING.
Farmers, laborers, why in the name of
liberty and high Heaven don't you de
mand your rights, talk for them and
vote for them? Why do you grumble at
your hard lot, toil on in abject subqris
sion and then kiss the very hands which
degrade you? In the way interest
,*wyagto^^
you bend the knee before the corrupt
and unjust laws that be, while
these same laws make life easy to a
favored few. The bankers h&ve a law on
the statute books which loans them
your money, the people's money, at only
1 per cent., while in each state the law
yers, landlords and shylocks control the
legislature and make you pay from 6 to
12 per cent., while in thousands of trans
actions usury obtains from 10 to 504per
cent'interst. This government is said
to be "Of the people, by the people, for
the people." If the government coins
or makes money, it is the people's money.
But the jack-leg lawyers, professional
politicians and boodle office holders
have made arrangements with the
bankers, brokers and speculators to
loan them this money at the low
rate of 1 per cent, interest, and also
make it non-taxable. Your money, the
people's ipouey, for you made it, is then
loaned back to you at a very high rate,
with a big commission piled on top. No
wonder that Jefferson said that national
banks were more dangerous than stand
ing armies! No wonder the Farmers' al
liance, the Knights of Labor and other
labor organizations oppose the devilish
system and demand its
abolition! No won
der that the thinking, reading, intelligent
farmer and labfter voted against such
an- iniquitous principle ahd against
the political parties which up-.
hold it to-day as in the past.
It is true the republicans patterned the
national banking system after instruc
tions from .the Hazzard circular and
passed it, but upon its being recliartercd
in 1882, both republicans and democrats
supported the robbing measure. Tho
leaders in both parties are friendly to the
national banks the great statesmen of
both parties advocate the loan of mill
ions of dollars of your money to tho
bankers, but these same men cry down,
ridicule and oppose the sub-treasury and
the farmers' land loan bills, thereby op
posing a reasonable amount of money
and a reasonable rate of interest to the
farmer. Can you cling to such parties?
Will you foster such principles? Ought
you to love such men?—Joncsboro (Ark.)
Our Country.
FOR the first time in the history of the
republican party, democratic statements
were accepted as good evidence in the
late campaign. .The democratic machine
of the south, through its organs, was
making maliciously vicious attacks upon
President Polk, and the republican ma
chine of the north quoted these slurs
with relish, for the purpose of injuring
the alliance. Hyenas and jackals al
ways snap together in the wake of the
lion.—Ainsworth. (Neb.) Home Rule.
LABOR organizations, it must be un
derstood, are not formed alone for the
purpose of maintaining wages there are
higher and nobler objects to be observed
grander purposes to be fulfilled and
while they sometimes, by ill-directed
energy, drift away from the point sought,
they nevertheless ultimately conserve
their main purpose and patriotically
pave the way for the institution of re
form and government morality.—Port
land, Ore., Reform Journal.
MRS. OLIVE WASHBURN, of San Fran
cisco, is about to devote the bulk of her
fortune to founding a nationalist colony
in California. Bellamy's "Looking Back
ward" theories are to be followed, and
all people of good moral character will
be admitted, irrespective of religious be
lief. Over 9100,000 will he spent in
buildings aud improvements. De»
Moines Neaw.
THE biggest trust, the richest syndi
cate, the most gigantic combination and
the most dangerous conspiracy in this
country is the National Bankers' associ
ation. It is an illegal "trust" founded
on a violation of the United States con
stitution, but too rich to be controlled by
law. It is the outgrowth of foul treason
at Washington during the war.—SL
Louis Monitor.
WELL, the Knights of Labor have
agreed to enter the political arena. Now
let thoso of them who have been clamor
ing for political' action on the part of
that organization roll up their sleeves,
enter the political battle field and keep
up the fight until the enemy surrenders
unconditionally.—Tacoma,Wash., North
ern Light.
GOB is raising up strong arms and
brave hearts to fight the battles of the
poor. The tears of widows, the cries of.
orphans, the sighs of the homeless and
groans of the oppressed, coupled with
the prayers of a wronged people, are
formidable pleaders in the ears of Je
hovah. "Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord."—National Reformer.
THE struggle for right must never
end. For seven long years our fore
fathers went tnrough storm and flood,
heat and cold, war and famine, because
they would not pay a tea tax to a for
eign country. Yet after a hundred
years we pay a thousand times more tax
to Englan dtban was paid then.—Jones
bro, Ark., Our Country.
THE venerable newspapers generally
known as corporations, have steadily
claimed that farm mortgages are an evi
dence of prosperity, of the most prosper
out kind. In view of recent advices
from several counties in Western Ne
braska, we are prepared to see a heavy
editorial some of these days on how star
vation Is a sure sign of prosperity.—
Oladbrook (la.) Record.
A CALL has been stent to the county
alliances of the state for a convention of
the Minnesota Farmers' Alliance to be
held in St. Paul Dec. 30. The counties
are instructed to select and send dele
gates to the state convention. The ob
ject of the convention, it is understood,
is/to take steps toward the organization
of national alliance policy.
To make a pretty bed covering cut
twenty squares of butcher's linen—six
inches is a good size—and on each work
a floral design in yellow or red wash
silk. Connect these with an insertion of
Bussian lace and finish with a wide frill
of the same. Narrow yellow or red rib
bon may be run through the insertion if
desired.
BARON HIRSCH recently asked an Eng
lish lady of rank to sell one of her
horses, because he had one exactly like
it. The iadv declined rather curtly,
whereupon the Baron sent her his horse
with the message: "Although I am dis-,
appointed, I am still desirlous that they
should go in a pair."
AT Montrose, while Nelson Hawley
was pasturing his cow, she bit off a
mouthful of grass and immediately spit
ting it out began coughing. An exami
nation of the throat developed nothing,
but lifting the tongue he found a needle
had penetrated through and stuck out
half an inch above.
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