The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], November 23, 1892, Image 1

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
AND TOPEKA TRIBUNE. U
VOI IV. NO. 14.1
f 1.00 A YKAK. j
TOPEKA, KANSAS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBEE 23, 1892.
J OFFICIAL PAPER OT TTKS
I PEOPLE'S PASTY 03 KANSAS,
THE HATHfflAL COOTOH.
The Last Annual Meeting at Memphis,
Tennessee.
The supreme council of the Farmers'
Alliance and Industrial Union met at
Memphis, Tennessee, on Tuesday, Ne
vember 15. The business transacted
was simply the regular routine business
of the annual session. There were a few
things, of course, not down on the pro
gram, to which reference ifl made else
where. We had made arrangements
with Mrs. Diggs to furnish a complete
report of the proceedings, but up to the
hour of going to press the report had not
arrived. The new officers elected for the
ensuing year are as follows:
President, H. L. Loucks, of South
Dakota; Vice President, : Marion Butler,
of North Carolina; Secretary-Treasurer,
L. K. Taylor of Tennessee. The following
were elected on 'he executive board: - I.
Leonard, Missouri; Mann Page, Virginia
I. E. Dean, New York; a. C. Demming,
of Pennsylvania.
The committee on demands submitted
its report, which it will be observed is
a reiteration of the demands adopted by
the Omaha convention. The report of
the committee was adopted and is as fol
lows:
Finance We demand a national cur
rency, safe, sound and flexible, issued by
the general government only, a full legal
tender for all debts, publioand private;
and that without the use of banking cor
porations a just, equitable and efficient
means of distribution direct to the people
at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent, be pro
vided as set forth in the sub-treasury
plan of the Farmers1 Alliance or some
better system; also by payments in dia
charge of its obligations for public, im
provements.
(a We demand the free and. unlim
ited coinage of silver and gold at the
legal rates of 10 to 1.
(&) We demand that the amount of
circulating medium be increased to at
least $50 per capita, exclusive of legal
reserves.
(c) We demand a graduated income
tax.
(dV-That our national legislation
shall be so framed in the future as not
to build up one industry at the expense
or another.
( We believe that the money of the
country should be kept as much as pos
sible in the hands of the people, and
hence we demand all national and state
revenue shall be limited to the necessary
expenses of the government, economic
ally and honestly administered.
GO We demand that postal savines
banks be established by the government
for the safe deposit of the earnings of the
people and to facilitate exchange.
Land The land, including all the
natural resources of wealth, is the herit
age of all the people, and should not be
monopolized for speculative purposes,
and alien ownership of land should be
prohibited. All land now held by rail
roads and other corporations in excess of
their actual needs and all lands now
owned by aliens should be reclaimed by
the government and held for actual set
tlers only.
Transportation Transportation being
a means of exchange and a publio neces
sity, the government should own and
operate the railroads in the interest of
the people.
(a) The telegraph and telephone, like
the postoffice system, being a necessity,
for the transmission of intelligence,
should be owned and operated by the
government in the interest of the people.
C. H. Eixinoton,
C. B. Matthews,
J. R. Maxwell,
Marian Bctleb,
W. S. Hanna,
R. A. SotJTHWORTH.
President Louck's Message.
Since assembling one year ago our or
ganization has met with an irreparable
loss. Our beloved president has gone to
receive his reward of well done, good and
faithful servant. We will miss Ma warm
fraternal greetingjhis encouraging wcr&J,
his earnest God.blesa you" hia .wise,.
conservative counsel, and at no time n
our; hLiorf' did we -naedMT more thiar
now. The death of Brother L; L. Polk
at a critical time in our history was not
only a great loss to our order and the'
hosts of organized labor of the nation; it
was a national loss. His work will live
long and bear fruit as it is doing daily.
We will best comply with his wishes by
pressing forward to victory the cause he
loved better than life, and for which he
was willing to sacrifice the comforts of
home, the prospect of wealth, aye, even
life itself in his devotion to our demands.
We cannot doubt that his spirit will be
with us during this session. May each
and every one present be imbued with
his zeal, devotion and self-sacrificing
spirit and all will be well. As a national
organization we have been passing
through a crucial test, a winnowing pro
cess, a separation of the wheat from the
chaff and foul seeds that grew up with
the order. The result will be a reduction
in numbers, but a great improvement in
quality.
In its incipiency in the various organ
izations now united in the National
Farmers1 Alliance and Industrial Union
we realized that there was something
wrong. We began our work by groping
in the dark, as it were, our attention be
ing directed chiefly to relief through co
operative efforts in buying and selling,
with the social, educational and political
features as secondary considerations.
Combined capital and experience against
us has made it difficult to make much
progress in that direction. Many were
induced to join for selfish financial bene
fits, who would not have joined for other
reasons, and thus they became interested
in the great educational work which has
caused the present upheaval in the na
tion. We have learned, and the census
reports of 1800 affirm theproposition,that
the trouble is not with the production of
wealth, but with its unjust distribution
through special privileges conferred on
favored industries and private corpora
tions. Our sailing was comparatively
smooth until we were confronted with
this political problem.
THE POLITICAL FBOBLKV.
The earnest worker's attention was di
rected to its solution. The result was the
formulation and adoption of our de
mands, each one of which required a
change of laws; in fact a reversal of
political action. To that extent we be
came a politioal organization, and our
minds were trained to look for relief
through political action at the ballot box
rather than through commercial co-operation.
We should be proud of the fact that
through it all we have been so broad and
patriotic sj to ask for no special privi
lesa for us us nolaesv We have stood by
the grand tfe-ctiis of " equal rights to all
relief mnt come through political action
to repeal the special privileges conferred
on the favored classes, we were con
fronted with two enemies the one, those
who were to be deprived of their special
privileges, and who, controlling unlimited
wealth, through which they controlled
the industries of the nation, the press
and the political machinery of both politi
cal parties, were loth to lose their so-
called vested rights. They resorted to
abuse, ridicule, misrepresentation and
oppression to destroy organized labor
they wield a tremendous power.
On the other hand many joined our
ranks from selfish reasons, hoping to use
the political upheavel to their own per
sonal advantage. The enemy from
within will prove more dangerous than
those from without. Some were soared
off by the former; many were side
tracked by the latter in'their efforts to
use the organization for their own per
sonal political advantage, or prostitute it
to political parties with which they were
affiliated, These have proven our worst
enemies. It is fortunate that there has
been an early opportunity for thoroughly
testing our devotion to principle. All
honor to those who have stood the test
and remained faithful.
If any have proven unfaithful, they are
no longer worthy of confidence, and
should be removed from our council.
The result in the end will be beneficial
to the order and the cause. It is well for
us that those placed in representative
positions are watched with a jealous eye
by the masses. At times they may suffer
from unjust suspicion, but the true man
need have no fear of the final result
Our organization will stand by those
proven true to their trust as surely as
they will repudiate the unfaithful. In
all cases it will be better to give the order
the benefit of the' doubt where doubt ex
ists, and purge our ranks of the tricksters
and traitors wherever they may be found.
THE ALLIANCE DEMANDS. , ,
Our demands having been adopted and
affirmed so unanimously, and been so
thoroughly diseussad before the public,
I do not deem it necessary at this time
to enter into any discussion on their
merits. The only change I would srs
gest would be the slight ones necessary
to make them conform to the demandj
adopted by the great industrial confer
ence, held at St Louis last February, in
which your representati ves took an activi
official part, and to the support of which
we, as a body, were pledged.
How toseoure their enactment Into
law seems to be a question on which
there fa a difference of opinion, and an
official declaration by this body might be
ttxaldV'-lIy own judgment is very em.
listla on, the following points : '
I. W '!?.l:'rr& Trcfc to jrecure iv.'r
them.
2. Our demands will not be respected
until political parties are convinced that
we are in earnest.
3. Political parties will judje our
earnestness by our votes rather than our
words. If we can be side-tracked on
minor issues, they will smile at our re
quests; if we can be induced to postpone
action by appealing to sectional hatred,
they will but despise us. If we con
tinue as citizens to support political
parties that not only ignore our de
mands, but openly fight them, they will
treat our demands and ourselves with
the contempt we deserve. The time hai
arrived when. we must decide between
our principles and our partisanship. Our
great educational work will count for '
naught if, after we have learned the
truth, we fail to practice it, and in noway
can we so utterly fail ia living and acting
the truth as in knowing it and failing to
record it at the ballot box.
Truth is the epitome of all that the
great Creator of the universe demands of
man. You may sum up your responsi
bility to your fellow man and your duty
to God in the simple word " truth." B
true to yourself, true to yoar family, true
to this order, true to your country, and
true to your God. Speak the truth,
lire thetruth, and vote the truth. I have
no sympathy whatever with the idea of
pushing our educational work up to the
point of conviction, laboring for years to
teach our fellow citizens certain true
economic principles, and then the last
week of the campaign deserting our prin
ciples and jumping for the band wagon.
That may be termed "practical politica,'
but it can have no permanent abiding
place in a great reform movement, baaed
on the eternal rock of truth as a founda
tion. The idea is thoroughly abhorrent
to every true Alliance man. The ballot