The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1886-06-17
AN ADDRESS
To the Members of the Subordinate ALI
ances of the State Al lance.

The following is the address to TIE
Farmers Alliance of the State, pre-
pared and adopted at St. Paul by the
executive committee of the State al
lance:
AS the time is approaching when
you will be called upon to exercise
lie right of free citizens in the Sc
'ctien of officers. the undersigned,
the executive committee of the State
Farmers Alliance, beg leave to sub
nit 0 your consideration the follow
ng suggestions: =;
The difference between free men
and slavesis tAst the former, govern.
themselves, and tire latter are
governed by some one. The ballot
bex, intelligently. used, can alone
stve the free men from becoming
slaves. ee.fourti,s of all the Ills
suffered by men arise from misgov-
eminent. 1t follows, as a matter of
course, that whatever class rules this
county will rule it for it's own ad-
vantage. If the people rule, the
people will prosper; is those who
live on the people rule they will as
certainly grow rich at the expense of
the rest of the population.
You should, therefore, devote all
of your leisure time and thought tc
the great question of the govern.
ment; that is to say your own pros
perity. Of what avail Is it to eco
nomize and toll it some cunning
knave who tolls not is to reap the
fruits of your industry? The most |
reliable crop you can raise on the
farm is brains. If brains are not |
inside the fence they will be outsi lie |
of it and wherever they are the crop
Will belong to them. To-day the ma
chine of government is in the hands
of enemies. They have employed
its great power of taxation to fill |
their own pockets under swindling
tariff laws, by railroad overcharges,
by rnineus interest, and by ring rob
berries. they manipulate and con-
troll the newspapers, the mouthpiece
of public opinion. They elect or
corrupt our legislature and congress.
Our highest body, the United States
senate, has become the entrenched
camp of monopoly, home of lords,
Aome of millienairea. a gathering of
railroads presidents and railroad at
and the hirelings Of every
niquity which Expresses the people.
Dur political parties simply carry out
,he orders of the barons of robbery,
while the people are fed on fair
disagreement has gone on in this
and, until experimenting the op-
preston which existed in the old
world through kings, emperors and
missionaries, until great mum bers of
'ur people are reduced to misery,
liscontent and turbulence. To break
Town the price Of labor at home the
nemies Of mankind have filled the
with importations of hordes
of foreign laborers from the most
portions of Europe; and
'hese men, taught all their lives to
'egard any kind of government as
tyranny and all property as robbery,
rave broken out in bloody insurrec-
ions which have shocked and alarm
ID the whole country. For the first
lime in free America a considerable
part of our population is to-day held
n subsection only by rifle and can
ION. The men who, by their insat-
able rapacity have brought about
his state of things, are clamoring
or strong government, that is to
ay, despotisln. The farmer should
lever forget that in all despotisms
he tiller of the soil is serf in fact
f not in name. Our agricultural
lass has. therefore, the highest in
crest in preserving the liberties of
he whole country. Our foreign born
armer cannot desire to soc this land
% back to the condition of Europe,
nd he is indeed Lind who does not