Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-12-04
SCHEMES OF THE ALLIANCE.

! Col. Polk, President of the Farmers
National Alliance, does not please the
/ Free Traders. Though himself Dem.
ocrat and Free Trader, he declares
that the tariff had comparatively little
to do with the campaign, and that 'the
National Alliance has never made de-
mands on Congress in reference to the
tariff. In Kansas and other Western
States the people refuse to go out and
hear the tariff orators. They demand
currency-not tariff or more taxation" "
According to him, the thing first and
chiefly demanded was the free coinage
of silver.
This accords somewhat closely with
other information, though perhaps Col.
Polk does not deem it advisable at this
time to tell the whole story. The
passionate desire for more money at
the West is not by any means limited
now, though it may have been in the
past, to the demand for silver coinage
He who reads any of the official publi-
cations of the Alliance will see that
there is an intense desire, not merely
for more money in general, but for
money to be supplied at time and in
a way to give especial benefit to farmers.
There appear to be two great factions
in this partially organized force. One
thinks most of mortgages, and the other
of marketing crops. The former points
to the number of farm mortgages out
standing and the high rate of interest
paid, and urges that Government ought
to carry the debts of farmers by its
credit and its currency-issuing power
If it would enable the tillers of the soil
to take up the mortgages outstanding g
by means Of new mortgages to Govern
ment at one per cent. year interest,
and would issue currency enough to
make these enormous advances, the in
crease of circulation would not only be
large enough to satisfy the most extrav-
agant expectation, but the additional
circulation would go directly to the
people who consider that they most need
it. In some OF the Western States this
is the predominating idea.
But in most of the Southern States
the Sub Treasury scheme, so-called, has
been found the more attractive. The
farmers of this class consider that they
are necessarily and always wronged, to
an extent far beyond computation, by
inelasticity in the currency-its inability
to expand at time when the movement
Of the crops creates sudden demand
for enormous sums. About the same
time every year, they say, farm products
worth thousand millions or more are
ready for market. All the money in
the country is just then utterly made
quate to meet the demand. Stringency
follows in all the great money markets,
and holders of farm products are forced
to sell, and thus prices are greatly
depressed. This occurs again and again,
the farmers complain, just when millions
of them are forced to sell because they
must have money to pay wages and |
debts and expenses. In consequence a |
great share of the real value of their |
products is regularly taken from the |
farmers every fall, they argue, and |
divided among middlemen and specu-
lators. But if Government would issue !
in the fall thousand millions or more, |
at the rate of 80 per cent. of the market !
value of products deposited in public |
the farmers would not be |
obliged to sacrifice the crop in order to |
raise the money they need, while the
issue of currency to that amount at the |
very time a great expansion is required |
would prevent all pressure, and the
added currency would be gradually re-
tired as products in warehouses were
sold. Such are the reasonings of the
Alliance at the South.
These schemes divide the suffrages of
a great multitude of farmers. They are
no longer satisfied to ask mere expan-
sion of currency in general, but want |
such an expansion. as shall especially fit
their interest. If they are told that
each of these schemes would not only
injure the whole country, but the farmers
more than anybody else, they refuse to
believe, and regard the warning as
prompted by the selfish interest of
and their allies. But |
there are two things to be remembered.
The farmers of the Alliance have not as
yet agreed upon either of these plans.
When it becomes necessary for their
representatives in Congress who propose
4 dafinitn Dopac1ra pnapu ubo NOW favor
one or the other will reject the particular
that may be selected. The
other fact is that, even in the States
where the Farmers Alliance is strongest,
4 great number of intelligent and think
ing farmers already see the unwisdom
and the peril of such plans. There is
40 evidence as yet that the Alliance
has secured the approval or support
even in those States of majority of the
farmers themselves.