Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-11-17
AaRICULTURE'S RErRoGREssIoN.

Extract from the Address of President
Polk, of the Farmers Alliance.
The following is taken from an adj
dress delivered by Col. L. L. Polk, presi-
dent of the National Farmers Alliance,
at Columbus, O.:
AT no period in our history have we
witnessed such progress and develop
ment in all departments of industrial eff
fort as that which has marked the past
quarter of century. Railroad and
manufaC turing enterprises in all their de-
partments, towns, cities and villages all
over the land flourish and prosper as
never before. The din of workshops,
the hum of mills and factories, and the
grand running of trains, the ringing
clatter Of hammer and trowel. the rush
ing tramp of our busy millions-all go
to swell the grand chorus of the worlds
happy song of industrial progress. In
all of this the tillers of the soil and all
patriots must heartily rejoice. but in
our rapidly advancing civilization forces
have evolved socially, morally, indus
trially and financially, which are dam
gerous alike to the rights of citizens and
the life of the republic. That equilibrium
between the great industrial interests of
the country which is absolutely essential
to the preservation of our free institu-
tons and to our prosperity and happi-
ness as people has been destroyed.
RetrogressiOn in American agricul-
ture means national decline and utter
and inevitable ruin. The greatness and
glory of the American republic cannot
survive the degradation Of the American
farmer. Why this unrest and mighty
upheaval among the industrial classes
of the country? Why, instead of the
cheering notes of plenty and content
ment, do we hear the universal wall of
hard times? Why should bankruptcy
stare the farmer in the face and the
giant form of poverty haunt his once
happy home? Why in this period of I'M
paralleled development should agricul-
ture languish, droop and die? Why in
this God favored land, the richest in
ing all the staple crops demanded by
commerce, with transportation facilities
equal to the productive power of the
country, with the teeming millions of
earth as his customers, why should the
American farmer, sowing in hope, toll
ing in faith, be forced to reap in disap-
pointment if not in despair? Is it his
fault? No class of men work so hard, live
so hard, and receive so little reward for
their labor as the average American
farmer. Is it Gods fault? With the early
and later rains he has given us the richest
legacy bequeathed to man.
Where, then, is the fault? 1t is in the
wicked financial system of the Ameri-
can government A system that has i'm
and intolerable proportion of the bur-
dens Of taxation, and has made it the
helpless victim of the rapacious greed
and tyrannical power of gold; the sys-
tenn which taxes tle sweat, blood and
muscle and brain of honest labor to
further arrogant monopoly; system
which robs the many to enrich the few;
a system which strikes down the great
middle classes and is filling the land
with paupers and millionaires: system
whose unjust exactions have reduced
the Independent American farmer to a
dependent tenant; system which makes
the rich richer and the poor poorer; a
system which is sapping the pluck and
energy and spirit of American manhood;
system that is paralyzing our industrial
energies and threatens to ingulf us in
financial ruin.
Look around you. You see centralized
capital allied to irresponsible corporate
mower. overriding industrial rights. in