San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-28
FARMERS ALLIANCE.
Will Surely Fall to Pieces as
Third Party,

Third Party.
Writ en- for the LIGHT
The Farmers A Iliance Will soon go
to pieces should it enter the political
field rs third party. That step would
arouse the opposition of the republi-
can and democratic parties, and be
followed by the withdrawal of sin
cere democrats and republicans from
its ranks, in holly contested cam
paign. The election of Gov. Gordon
to the senate from Georgia, demon
strated the truth of this position; the
Alliance possessed a majority In the
legislature and nominated Pat CAL
hOun, but was unable to keep it's
members from voting for Gov. Cor
don. This will be the case in other
states, whenever the test comes; and
as the alliance will be unable to
compel it's members to stand by
their pledges it must soon cease to
be q political factor and fail a prey to
disintegration. 1t will share the fate
of the greenback party and the prchi
bition party-be lnsepsibly absorbed
by the republican party and the
democratic party, as its mem bersh;p
is made up of converts from these
parties, IT was originally organized
upon an erroneous plan-that of in
verting the pyramid, or making the
foundation too small for the super
structure.
any party organized wholly for the
benefit of one class, is bound to be
short-lived. This was the case with
the Knights ofLaber. 1t represented
but one class in the community, and
to make matters worse, it assumed an
aggressive attitude in its very infan-
cy, and sharply antagopized all
other classes it attempted to
materialiZe. The boycott, q
senseless Irish brat, foreign to the
ideas and tastes of Americans; and,
in this way, forfeited the public sym
pathy, as it deserved to do, A farm
er's party cannot dominate all the
other classes and dictate class Iegis-
lation in favor of itself, since the
masses abhor all class legislation, and
will offer a strenuous opposition to
such an innovation on well estab-
lished usage.
The Farmers Alliance demands
class Legislation straight out. COM
pliapce with its demands would not
only transform our government into a
paternalism toward the farmers, but
would seriously injure all other
classes of the people for the sake of a
problematic advantage to the farm
ers. This is precisely the attitude
assumed by the alliance in the rene
dial measures, which it demands
from congress.
The plan proposed by the Alliance
is, that the United States government
shall erect warehouses in which farm
products are to be stored, and 80 soon
as they are stored in them the gov
eminent shall advance money to the
farmers on their crops. 1t is needless
for me to say this scheme would be in
tiagrant violation of the constitution
as well as the dictates of common
sense and the principles of justice
Nor Is that all there ls to 1t. This
scheme would come very near tc
bankrupting the government, and the
farmers would have to bear their full
share OF the disastrous result.
Let US place the farm products
stored i'll these government ware
houses at 100000. 600; the govern
ment would be called an to advanc,
at least 5000, 100000 to the owners
which, in case of one or two
warehouses being destroyed b,
fire, or any marked decline fl
prices would prove total loss to tn,
government. 1t is really Incredible
that some men ever should have de
vised such an impracticable scheme
and then demanded its adoption.
But the farmers have mortgageC
their farms, and cannot pay off tn
mortgages, exclaims the Alliance
They were foolish ever to mortgag
their farms; it would have been ia
better for them to have sold off a pol
tion of their land and to have refrain
ed from plunging in debt. When farm
ers mortgaged their farms they wei
sane and knew what they were doin
and it is now ridiculous for them
ask the government to advanC