The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-12-11
THE FARMERS ALLIANCE.

of the Farmers Alliance,
which has been in session at Ocala,
Fla, this week, is undoubtedly des-
tined to exercise an important lntiu-
ence upon the political future Of the
country, and all the more from the
fact that it has maintained its indie
pendence and has refused to permit it =,
self to be considered in the smallest
degree the annex Of either party.
This determination to bury sectional
ism is in itself a platform wide and
patriotic enough TO afford common
meeting place for men of every section
and shade Of political opinion and II
it can succeed in filling up the bloody
chasm OF the past it will have done IN
that alone work that will entltle 1t
to national gratitude.
The Farmers Alliance is great or
ganization numerically and morally
already, and j. IS likely to be still
greater, if it can avoid the pitfalls that
lie in its path or that may be placed
there by the crafty and designing. In
the main it is composed OF the best ell
ements in the country, and its leaders
like the vast majority of its members,
are men of honesty and sincerity
But great danger in the case of an
organization like this 10 be found in
the comparative ease with which am
bilious and selfish schemes make their
way into its counsels and pervert
its original objects to their own
advantage. A careful scrutiny of the
names of some of those who figured at
Ocala this week shows that some no.
torious political "back numbers have
Contrived even at this early stage to OBJ
tain admission to the ranks of the far
mers, like wolves in Sleeps clothing
and if not discovered in time may
do irreparable damage. Fortunately
SO far they have been held in check
and it to be hoped that the vigilance
of the true friends of the Alliance will
SO guard its interest in the future as to
prevent these disguised enemies from
doing the harm they mediate.
There is another danger before the
Alliance and one even more insidious
and deadly. 1t is that of a failure to
comprehend the real character of the
evils from which farmers in common
with the rest of the country are suffer
ing, and fatal misconception of the
remedies necessary. Nearly any phys
ician can properly prescribe for pa
tient when he has discovered the pre-
else character of the disease, but it fire.
quently requires one of experience to
correctly diagnose case. The farm
ers have suffered so much from parties
and politicians, srom hostile business
interests and corporate and financial
aggressions and expressions of every
kind that it is not strange that they
should have been worked up into sort
Of frenzy by the bitterness of their ex-
perienCe. In such state of mind it
is not unnatural that they should be
tempted think of themselves and their
own intererts rather than of the
whole country, and to take up blindly
wild schemes and visionary projects,
which can not benefit them perma-
nentiy, but must inevitably in the end
lead to disaster and loss to people of
all classes and vacations.
The reported utterances of President
Polk with regard to the causes of the
recent Republican defeat, while in the
main just and true, indicate certain
cloudiness of thought and logical con-
fusion that are surprising in man
of his intelligence. When asked what
in his opinion produced the result, he
is reported to have said:
81 am morally certain of the reasons
for it. We shall have to look beyond
the Mckinley tariff bill. 1t was not
that. We must look beyond the
Lodge bill. 1t was not that. We
must look farther than any and all of
the political questions which have been
obscuring the real issue for 20 years.
1t was the oppression of the financial
system of this country upon the masses
of the people. They have just found
out what the matter is. They are
thinkers today, if they never were be
fore, and they have scratched away
all the rubbish of the negro question,
of the bloody shirt, of the tariff and of
Federal control of elections, and they
have at last got down to hard pan. 1t
is the dollar that is keeping the people
down today. 1t is the money pover-
the rule IF plnt0cracy-and the people
will have no more of it. The national
banking system must go. The farmer
and laborer must be given chance to
get what money they need upon the
security of their real property-a privi-
lege which is denied them today. The
issue from now on is to be square one
between the manhood of America on
one side, and the great American dol
lar on the other. And tell you right
now that unless the leaders of the great
political battles come to recognize the
real issue and make it, there are going
to be terrible times in this country.
The people will not suffer the real
issue to be obscured any longer. The
only men who can secure popular sup
port are those who understand the great
economic questions of the day and
who are in full sympathy with the peo-
pie in the battle for their rights against
the OPPRESSION of the money king"
The great issue before the people to
day undoubtedly is "the rule of plu-
tocracy, the reign of the money power,
but how does it happen that there is
any such thing in this country as the
rule OF plutocracy, or "money kings"
or that free American citizens should
have to "battle for their rights
against such oppression? Is it not be-