The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-05-20
THE LAWYER CONGRESSMAN
* AND THE ALLIANCE MAN.

* AND THE ALLIANCE MAN.
NONGRESSMAN-L understand
" that the farmers in my District
are speaking of putting out one of
their number against me this year for
Congress. l should greatly regret
this movement for class p~referment.
ALLIANCE MAN Well 1 have al
ways regarded you as a fair minded
man, and l want to discuss this mat
ter with you, not as a lawyer and
farmer but as patriotic American
citizens. | assume that you will agree
with me that among the greatest evils
which sfaicts agriculture to-day, came
from discriminating and unjust ma
tlonal legislation. You know that the
farmers of this country owned 70 per.
of the wealth of the country in 1850,
and they paid IS per. cent of the taxes.
In 1860 they owned one half, and still
they paid over 80 per. of the taxes.
In 1889, they owned less than nj
fourth and yet they paid 80 per. cent of
thetaxes. You have in Congress in
both Houses, All members. Of that
number exactly three hundred of them
are lawyers and thirteen of them are
farmers. In other words, there is one
lawyer in Congress for every two
hundred and sixteen in United States
and there is one farmer in Congress for
five hundred and ninety thousand far
mers in the u. S. Now, l will not
ask you if this is fair-I will not ask
you if it is just, but [ do ask you as a
fair minded patriotic citizen, if you
think 1t IS safe for this government to
be run on this one-sided plan? Do
you believe that a Congress thus con
stituted, is the best for the agricultur-
al interests and will best concern the
great interests of the country2
Congressman-Well to be frank and
candid with you, I do not. | think
that agriculture should be more large
ly and more strongly represented in
Congress, and I think the general in
terests of the country would be better
secured by having each and all Of her
great interests more equally represent
ed. I am a lawyer and am in Congress,
but l say this honestly and candidly.
Alliance Man-This being your ad-
mission and this your conviction, will
you tell me how and where the farm
ers are to begin in order that they
may secure their just proportion of
the Congressman?
Congressman-Well [ do not exact
ly know, but it seems to me If you
would go into the conventions you
might accomplish it.
Alliance Man-Yes, but if we even
talk of that, all you lawyers raise your
hands in horror and cry: "The far
mers are going into politics and run
everything" Suppose for instance,
that the rumor you speak of be true,
that the farmers of your District in
tend to run one of their number
against you this year, what are you
and your friends going to say about
it? Will you not complain that it is
unjust, that the farmers should not
go into politics and report all this silly
clap trap that we hear so much of
latterly? And yet, we farmers repeat
the question-how are we to get our
just share of the Congressman unless
we reduce the number of lawyers by
leaving a lot of you at home? How
and when are we to begin? Can you
tell us2 We believe that a large ma
jority of Congressman should come
from the industrial classes of our
people, that half of them should repre-
sent the wealth producersof the land,
but how are we to do this unless we
begin to turn some of you three
hundred lawyers out? And when is a
better time than now to begin
work? We are in a desperate
applied to\we have condition. Con
gress for relfef;-but in vain. VIZ
know it is in the power of that body
to pass measures in twenty four hours,
that would give the farmers and
the country relief, but we see no hope
for it. Hence, the farmers all over
the land are beginning to look out for
those of their own number to repre-
sent them and they n goingto do it.
EDITORIAI- T