Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-13
ORGANIZATION NECESSARY.
The Importance Of Unity Among Pro
dUCGTS TO Resist M%OnOpOliGS:
Address Before the State Farmers
Alliance at Lincoln, January
2Sth, 1888, Ly w. "A.
poJ ntCr.

liere are DeJWeen seven ana elgnJ mlllOW
Of us in the United States. We are nearly
forty.seven per cent Of the whole working
force of this great country. Every dollar OF
wealth, every cent of value is the product Of
some ones toll and sweat. OF the millions Of
money that circulates Throughout the length
and breadth of this country, not one penny Is
produced without labor. The fat as old "a
Eden lost that In the sweat of mans face he
should eat bread, holds as good to-day as when
1t first came from the Omnipotent. However
az laws not of divine origin are evaded, SO
this, while it holds good and absolute in the
creation OF wealth it il set at naught by those
who live by their wits, and who toll not nor
spin. by them the law Is interpreted to mean
another mans sweat. We are pre-eminently
an agricultural people. The great volume OF
exports which shows our stanuiug as a COM
mercial nation is not the product of our mills
and factories, but of our agricultural indus.
tries. The experiment of twenty.eight years
Of endeavor to make US o manufacturing
nation by building about us n high wall oi
tariff protection for the maintenance Of which
the farmers of the west have been put under
contribution with the plea that We should
uphold and protect home manufactures and
home labor has not secured the desired end;
but it has succeeded in sinking our mercantile
fleets and driving our flag from the high seas.
While we have been steldily increasing the
volume mi value of our exports and paying
our home manufacturers vast sums for the
privilege of buying our machinery and cloth
ing OF them. we also by the fostering of thi:
system are compelled to hire the product Of
our own labor carried beyond seas to a market
unrenumerative by reason of q surrounding
wall of retaliatory protection.
The majority OF the labor of this nation, bott
in numbers and value of production is made
not only to support the minority, but to suf
Ter loss as well, in the sale OF its surplus pro
ducts. Our increase in wealth as a nation
must come from the people with whom we
trade. The amount Of profit depends upon
the expense incurred in the exchange. This
question of tariff we are onst!ntly told is a
very 6eep one one which it is i'm
possible the farmer thould under.
stand. When we wish to look at it
in a common sense way as farmers are In the
habit of neutrality-suspicious. we are polits-
ly told from the platform a1d through the
press that we would better content ourselves
with the raising of potatoes and pumpkins,
and not meddle with these abtruse questions
of political economy, 50 far beyond our depth.
Only the manufacturers, and perchance the
politicians, can understand things so deep.
And fairness. of all men, should never bother
themselves nor disturb their brains (f indeed
they have any with politics. And we have
heard this 80 long and listened to it 80 much
that we have almost come to believe it our
selves; and it is only very recently since we
find ourselves within the grasp OF giant cor
porations and mighty monopolies, the natural
outgrowth of this idea that one class of indus
try should give to the support and upbulIding
of another, and find that the chains are year
by year bsirg riveted the tighter, that we be.
81, - ,x,,,,a ,,,rsn1,,a, aud conclude that AVIAN
the farmer has some interest in politics, We
have been tcld, and have accepted it as true,
the lawyers, the doctors, the bankers,
and men of the learned professions, and
even these with no profession, know
more of cur wants ana nesds than ourselves.
And so we have sent them to congress-, and
the senate year after year to represent us,
while we have sat at home and growled be.
cause the laws were made in the interest of
everybody but us. ! am not saying we have
no reason to growl. This yesr of all others do
we feel the burden of unequal laws. Whena all
we have to sell it at the lowest ebb, when our
bills are coming due, andwe indthat although
have a crop bountiful hey ond anything we
even expect, we are unable to meet
them. When prices boom and we have plenty
of money in our pockets, we submit to all
manner of extortion, and good naturally raiee
no objection. But under the present circum.
stances with empty pockets, with two years
taxes piled up into one, as we sit by our corn
fire while the good wife mends our last years
We feel justified in asking why? Az such
a time we call to mind that we have some
heard that there were ~soulless corpora
tious which were growing rich from our necss.
And as we take from our pocket the
note which we to-day have been compelled to
renew at three per cent per month in order TO
meet current liabilities and place it upon the
fire, the material Of which ought to bring the
money to liquidate the claim, we
awake to q realization that something is ter
fibly, awfully wrong. And then for the once
never before do we wish we had paid more
to politics and our own interests
and less to our party ell our lives. At such o
we feel induced to ask why eleven mil
lions of workers in this country should be
taxed 40 per cent upon almost everything
they consume and wear In order to pay high
wages to three millions. At such a time we
can't help asking why our tax law should have
been go changed that we should be compelled
to pay two years taxes in one at a season
all our bills are coming due and nothing
We have to sell worth anything. And thee
we awake to the fact that those slick fellows
whom we have sent to represent us and who
to know our needs So well have leg
Is ated twice for themselves and none for us.
While we have been minding our business,
growing our crops and stock, not bOtheripg
our heads with government or politics, a
power has grown up which now lays its iron
hand on every farm and leyys contribution
from every industry throughout the entire
land. The great dangers which threaten our
free institutions to-day, and which of conse-
quence threaten us as the leading body If
workers and producers in this country, ale
the great monOpolie,. Under our ex-
isiing laws the public is utterly POW
erless to protest itself. They have
grown up and fed upon the lands which
belonged to the people and which should have
been the heritage of our children. They have
fed upon the money which towns and count
les have voted aud bonded themselves to
build railroads. They have fed upon the
money which honest men have ruined them
selves in building. Fed upon watered stocks.
Fed upon the farmers hard labor. These
are what have made them great, powerful and
impudent. Before such a pow + are the
Nebraska farmers to-day bowling and asking
tbs great boon of one more years toll and
that they shall not be utterly crushed. What
can be done with such a power! What hope
have we as farmers of getting orr rights
rights that no living man of Intelligence snd
fairness will deny are rights as between man
and man, unlts this steadily growing powc
is brought to a halt by the strong arm Of the
law? We are compelled to abide by laws for
bidding Injustice to our fellows. If we get
our foot upon our neighbors' reck we AT
forced by law to take 1t off, Law will pro
tect every man and every brute even from
injustice at our hands, And yet it expose
fifty millions of people to the cruelty and rob
berry of less than FIVE thousand mercilesl
sharks who VITA mouths wide open gull
| down everything that comes in their way
| We pay fer q gov: rnmeut to protect us and OuI