Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-08-15
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES,
Adopted by the Whitman County
Farmers Alliance, at its Colfax
Meeting, on Friday, juno 20, 1890.

Farmers Alliance, at its Colfaz
Meeting, on Friday, juno 20, 1890
Mr. PRESIDENT: We, your commit
tee, appointed to draft a declaration OF
principles, beg leave to make the fol
lowing report:
WHEREAS, The general condition OF
our country imperatively demands
unity of action on the part of the la
boring classes, reformation in econ
omy, and the dissemination of princi-
pies best calculated to foster and en-
courage agricultural and mechanical
pursuits, encouraging the toiling
masses, leading them in the road to
prosperity and providing just and
fair remuneration for labor, just ex-
change for our commodities, and the
best means of securing to the laboring
classes the greatest amount OF good,
we, the Farmers Alliance, of Whit
man county, Washington, do ordain
and establish the following declara-
ton of principles:
1st. To labor for the education of
the agricultural classes in the science
of economical government, and to
bring about their morv perfect union.
ID. That we demand equal rights
to all, and special favors to none.
Sd. TO develop better state, men,
tally, morally, socially and financially.
Resolred, That all officials OF our
Government should be elected by a
direct vote of the people, and that Of
fetal salaries should be so adjusted rs
to more nearly harmonic with the
price of honest labor.
Resolved, That we favor the repeal
of the national banking laws.
Resolced. That we favor unlimited
coinage of silver which should be
made legal tender for all debts, both
public and private, and believe that
the government should issue sufficient
legal tender notes, taken together
with the gold and silver in the ooun-
try, to make the amount OF money in
circulation equal to fifty dollars per
capita of the population thereof, and
to retain the same on that basis.
Resoired, That we favor the STAN
ford bill, which provides for the loan
ing of money by the government di-
rect to the people on real estate secu-
rity at q nominal rate of interest.
Resolred, That we favor reserving
the public G.,main to actual settlers,
and are strcnuously opposed to the
granting of any more land by the
government to corporations; and also
favor the taking OF legal steps to de-
clare forfeited all land grants not
earned by strict compliance by the
grantees with every condition on
which the grants were made.
Resolred, That all property be as
sessed at its full value and that mort
cages on real estate be deducted from
the value of the same, and assessed to
the owners OF said mortgages.
Resolred, That we favor the enact
ment of laws that shall prohibit the
formation of trusts and the dealing in
" futures" which invariably results in
depressing the prices of food products
while the same is in the hands of the
producer.
Resolred, That we favor the creation,
by law, of railrord commission, to
be elected by the people, clothed with
ample and sufficient power to fix
freight and passenger rates, and to
prevent discrimination against ship
pers and shipping points.
Resolced, That we favor a tariff so
adjusted that the necessaries Of life
shall be made as cheap as possible and
that the revenue necessary for an eco
nomical administration of the govern
ment be raised as far rs possible from
the luxuries, so that W calth shall bear
its just proportion of the burdens of
government, and whatever is necessary
to promote the agricultural interests,
and place it on an equal basis with
other pursuits, shall be admitted free.
Resolred, That we are in favor of
such legislation as will submit the
question of prohibition to vote OF
the people at any general election,
whenever the same is demanded.
Resolced, That as the ballot box is
the means provided under our system
of government for the expression of
the popular will, and as our public
measures and established conditions
must sooner or later harmonize with
the popular will, We are opposed to
any attempt on the part of any class
to right real or fancicd wrongs through
force and violence.
Resolred, That we sympathize with
the just demands for labor of every
class and recognize that many OF the
evils from which the farming COM
munity suffer oppress universal labor
and that, therefore, producers should
unite in common demand for the re-
form OF unjust systems, and the repeal
OF laws that bear uneqally upon diff
ferent classes.
Resolred, That farmers together
with all other producers, should exert
the political influence of their great
numerical strength to thwart the in
creasing danger to the individual and
the public interests which comes from
the unrestrained greed of the influen.
tial anarchist who defes law, and
tramples upon the principles of justice
in his methods of acquiring the wealth
that others create, and the less influ
ential, less successful, but more dem
onstrative anarchist, who, through
speech and dynamite, boldly pro
claims his contempt for law, order