The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-03-15
into Office when no earthly principle is
involved, serve the same end.

to Improve inc eouultlou vi the ihi mel
must take into consideration the nee.
essary isolation cf his life and the stamp
which it places on his character. 1t
must counteract the effects Of this iso.
lation, must remove rrejudices against
his brother, must develop farm leader
ship, must bring him to realize that he
must depend for advancement on his
own efforts. No profession can trust
its affairs to the guidance of another.
Farmers have endured the present con-
dtion Of affairs until it has become in
tolerable. While Western farmers
have been fighting the battles of the
black men in the South and of the op-
eratiyes in the factory in the Atlantic
States and voting taxes on themselves
for railroads, Eastern manufacturers
have waged incessant warfare against
these infant industries.
Great corporations have grown up
that control by intimidation and bribery
whole legislatures, and by deliberate
system of extortion and discrimination
drive manufacturing enterprises to dis
tant States trusts and combinations
are formed which practically neutralize
the benefits of improved machinery and
enable the manufacturer to exempt his
business from the law of competition.
1t has passed into an axiom that
farmers will not stand by each other
and hence are fair game. The safest
man to kick, all the world ovor, is the
farmer.
The amazing thing Of all is that, out
numbering in the West all other pro-
fessions combined, they tolerate and
endure all this and patiently bear the
yoke, contracting their expenses to
their contracted incomes, renewing
loans in the hope Of better times in the
future. 1t is we'll for the moral char
acter of the farmers and also for the
race that they cannot combine to limit
production and give the world taste
of starvation. IF the price of wheat
could be fixed as can the price Of -four,
by combination, and fixed high enough
to allow the wheat fields to lie idle half
the time, if the crop of corn and cattle
could be fixed so as to have even prices
and as high s.the consumer could
possibly pay, the eastern sky would be
!urid with the execrations denounc-
ed against the selfshness and cruelty
of the farmer. The farmer cannot
limit production nor determine the
measure of the harvest. The Lord of
the harvest alone determines that. His
isolation, his numbers, his inexorable
necessities forbid his combination even
if the future harvest was an open book
His only hope lies in his ability to COM
pei other classes to submit to the same
law of free competition to which he is
subjected. This he can do by the use
of his ballot, by giving the agricultural
interests their voice in government,
and this he will never do, and never
can do until he learns to think and
plan and vote for his farm as we'll as
work and sweat on it. 1t is just at this
point that the Alliance comes iu as
means of deliverance. 1t recognizes
the fact of his isolation, the lack of
leadership that follows, and the de-
pendence on outward leadership, and
undertakes, by bringing farmers to-
gether, to discuss their own peculiar
interests, to develop farm spirit and
a farm leadership. 1t brings up for
discussion only those questions which
concern farms and farmers, but it ex-
cludes none of these. 1t tolerates the
utmost freedom of discussion and the
widest latitude of opinion. 1t aims to
bring farmers together, united by
common interest and for a common
purpose. 1t aims to form public
opinion that will be bulwark against
attempted oppression. 1t aims to de-
velop great middle class, combining
in each individual the capitalist and
the laborer, that will act as umpire by
its political influence between the
mere capitalist and the mere laborer,
and by its numbers and power compel
obedience to its DEGREES. 1t teaches
the dependence of all classes on each
other, the value of the manufacturer
and the miner to the farmer, and the