Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-12-05
THE FARMERS ALLIANCE.

"a
If the Farmers alliance goes on
adding to its numbers and learns a
working measure of discipline the
politicians who were perplexed and
alarmed by the Knights of Labor will
be paralyzed before this latest organiza-
tion. Tangible statistics about the
numbers now enrolled in the alliance
have not been collected, but the leaders
estimate the present membership at
from ,5OO,OOO to 100000, with a
probability of 5000, 900 in short time.
Texas, where the organization origin
ated, has 25O,00O, Georgia 100000,
Tennessee $50, 900, Missouri 81 900 and
Arkansas $4,000.
Assuming the convention of the
alliance, which meets at st. Louis next
week, satisfactorily completes the
national organization, and that the
rate of progress in the western and
northern states equals that of the past
in the southern states there will be in
a more solid mass the greatest body of
voters ever formed outside the two
political parties.
We are not yet at the end. Proposals
have been advanced and favorbly con-
sidered for combination of the
alliance with the Knights OF Labor and
the Federation of Labor. Mr.. Powderly
suggests that the engineers brother
hood and other labor organizations may
join in the friendly arrangement. 1t
is possible that an army Of voters
numbering nearly or quite 5000, 900
may be bound together by ties suffi-
GENTLY strong to make it irresistible.
The aims of the alliance as set forth.
in its declaration are the education of
the agricultural classes in the science
of economical government in a strictly
nonpartisan spirit; equal rights for all
and special favors for none; to create
. better understanding for sustaining
civil officers in maintaining law and
order; to develop a better state men
tally, morally, socially and financially.
given to any of these propositions.
Whatever place the tariff now has in
the deliberations Of the alliance on the
''science of economical government it
is certain that very early in its career
that question will be most prominent.
If Mr.. Powderly is right in saying that
the Farmers alliance and the Knights
of Labor are harmonious in beliefs, and
if Mr.. Powderly is a representative of
the Knights view of the tariff, the
Kelley and Mckinley doctrine of
tariff made by the protected manu-
faeturers TO suit themselves will be
smashed. Mr.. Powderly, who used to
lean to the Kelley and Mckinley idea,
said recently:
Pm not talking tariff this year, but
it seems to me that the policy of pro-
lection is a wrong on labor. The labor
classes are not prOtected-Only the
manufacturers. The rich receive the
protection. The American manu-
facturer adds the duty to what should
be the natural and fair price for his
product, the burden of the tariff rests
its crushing weight upon the poor. The
tariff needs reforming. 1t is the poor,
the great mass of the people, who need
protection, and they will never get it
under the so-called policy of protection.
The meeting of the convention at st.
Louis will be the turning point in the
history of the alliance. The decisions
made then will either mobilize the
heretofore rather irregular and scat
tered state organizations or leave them
independent existance. The Times
believes that the democratic party is
the political organization to which all
farmers should belong. But an
organization of farmers for instruction
in public questions and for union on
matters of peculiar interest to them
can not be harmful unless they allow
themselves to be led into extremes by
selfish and adroit adventures. Ger
tainly if any body of American citizens
has a. right to union for any purpose
that may seem good to them the farm
ers have, and if any body needs union
for self-protection it is the farmers.
The democratic party welcomes every
movement which presages a deeper
Estudy of public questions, for, founded
itself upon confidence in popular intelli-
gence, it feels that the deeper the study
the stronger will be the support of
democratic principles.-K. @. Times.
Why He Was Democrat.
President Elliot, of Harvard College,
a lifelong republican, has lately in a
public speech declared that he had