The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1890-11-21
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FARM
ERS' ALLIANCE.

HlQ pOlltlcdl parties 10 lgHoTc thO"' Aho
Farmers Alliance has showed its power
in the recent elections. A body that
elects FIVE governors of States and four
legislatures, that holds the balance of
power in three other legislatures, and
that has forty or fifty representatives in
the Congress of the United States, must
have some principle behind it which ap-
peals to a great many men OF lntelll-
gence and public spirit, and is certainly
worthy of study and of respect.
The underlying principle of the ALI
ance is cooperation among farmers for
purposes of protection and advance
ment. One of their enterprises is the
establishment of cooperative stores,
where their members can buy supplies
at a slight advance on the cost price,
and thus save the profits OF the middle
man.. This is an excellent enterprise,
and has already proved beneficial in it's
results.
The root idea of the Democratic party
wa individnalism. AS a party, 1t has al
ways advocated what is called. by econ
omists the laissez faire doctrlne-the doc
trine Of every man for himself, the doc
trine that that government is best which
governs least. For this reason Demo-
Gratis have always opposed laws in re-
straint of the liquor traffic, whether
they were prohIbltory or only restrict
i've. They have resisted the doctrine of
protection as an attempt by government
to interfere with every mans right to
buy in the cheapest market and sell in
the dearest. They have opposed the
undertaking by the general government
of the care of rivers and harbors and of
the irrigation of arid lands. In short,
they have opposed in every way posi-
BILE the extension of the power of the
general government in whatever direc-
ton.
On the other hand, the Republican
party has advocated and carried through
a system of internal improvements. 1t
has deepened the channels of rivers and
dredged harbors. 1t has issued a cur
rency which supplied the needs of the
people. 1t has given homesteads to
millions on the government lands. 1t
has reclaimed arid lands. 1t has assist
ed great railway enterprises which have
developed the country and brought the
Atlantic and the Pacific coasts closer to-
gether in time and cost of transporta-
ton than Pittsburg and New York were
fifty years ago. Above all. it has framed
the national tariff law, avowedly for the
benefit of American producers, and,
more especially in the last tariff, speci-
fcally for the benefit of American farm
ers.
1t may be admitted that the Demo-
cratic party has never been consistent,
and has pretended at various times and
and for campaign purposes to favor
American industries and American en-
terprises; but always and invariably
when 1t has got into power its inherent
tendency has asserted itself, and it's first
great national measure has been one to
reduce the tariff and put American pro-
ducers on the same economic level with
European producers.
1t Is apparent, therefore, to any m
vino looks behind phenomena to their
causes, that the present propaganda of
the Farmers Alliance, SO far as it con-
tains anything of permanent value, is in
line rather with Republican than with
Democratic theory and practice.
1t Is true that in the recen elections
the Alliance has seemed to work in the
Democratic interest, but the causes of
that are manifest. In the Southeast the
Republican vote is suppressed, and the
only way to gain political power is by
getting control of the regular machinery
of the Democratic party. Accordingly
we find the Alliance men in Georgia,
Tennessee and the Carolinas working
through that party from the inside and
gaming control by obtaining a majority
in Democratic primaries and owen
tons.
In the Northwest, on the other hand,
where the votes of all are freely cast and
fairly counted, a new organizatian can
work most effectually either by uniting
with the opposition, or, where it is
strong enough, by putting up a ticket of
it's own against both the old parties. Ac-
cordingly we find the Alliance in some
Northwestern Congressional districts in,
dorsing Democratic nominees, and in
some states running an independent
ticket of it's own. Thus the very fair
ness of the Republican party has been
used against it.
This use of the Democratic party by
the Alliance, however, is manifestly on
ly a temporary arrangement, resorted to
on grounds of expediency. Sooner or
later, and that before very long, the AL
lance will not need the Democratic par
ty as a stalking horse or an ally. There
is room in n nation for only two great
parties; and the outcome must be one of
two things; either there will be the Alli-
ance on one side and an anti-Alliance on
the other side, or n of the two parties
will be more or lees modified by what is
permanently valuable in Alliance ideas.