Omaha daily bee., 1890-10-11

that the railroads have been able to run the
state. Had the farmers gone to work both
then md this year and attended the respective
primaries or their parties everywhere they
would have carried the republican conven.
tions overwhelmingly and would have die.
tated any ticket they saw fit, and they can
not make any more favorable platform than
the platform of the republican party.
II not only pledges tho party to reduce
railroad rates to the lcvCcd rates of ad Join.
ing states but pledges it to see that the farm
ers nave tue right to erect elevators and haul
corn TO and from the elevators on the same
conditions that the elevator owners have
now; II provides that railroads shall be held
amenable in every way for damages TO tho
people, and IL Is in every way as radical rs
any platform that has ever been framed.
But what assurance have we that our candi-
dates, If elected, will carry it Outi Show
these men that there is puUic sentiment
behind the platform and they will be Obliged
to carry II out, willingly or uuwilliugly.
myself haven't any faith i'm their railroad
commissioner system, l believe the people
should regulate the rates ON railroads by
law, but there is the difficulty. The present
railway commission law was passed by the
votes of farmers as well as railroad cappers,
and these farmers claimed to know what they
were about. The new party leaders talk very
wildly about usury sharks and all that sort
of thing, but we have not heard a single
measure proposed by which they are going 10
do away with these shylocks.
know an d realize it is very difficult for
farmers to get together and agree upon any
one thing, but certainly with the new Moseses
TO lead them out of the wilderness, with these
men who ad vOcate a financial revolution, we
ought TO know what relief we may expect.
Ihey know how TO run the whole govern
ment; why are they not capable of running
the Nebraska legislature suili cent TO get to-
Cethcr and say, "Eicre is what we want the
legislature to doi' And if they had acertain
bill-railroad bill or any other-that was
specific, and the men we're pledged TO vote
for the measure, if they had that, all the rail-
road governors in the state couldt stop III
from becoming law, But have such meas
ures been proposed! Not at all. They are
running just like herd of sheep.
think, considering the enormous amount
OF laborl have done on behalf of the produc-
ers and working people in this state, and the
night L have made for years against railway
mOnopoies and other monopolicS, it might
not have been injudiciOus for the leaders of
the alliance movement to confer with me
and at least ascertain how far THE BEE was
disposed to go with them in the movement
that they had inaugurated No Creatcaptain
has ever venturcd into awar without first
securing all the allies that he can possibly
enlist Ill his cause, and without first procur-
ing the necessary munitions of war. In
politics no prudent leader would venture
without frs enllsting the leading papers, or
at least endeayoring to have the mOlders of
public opinion in active sympathy with any
movement they may desire to undertake.
But MIR Burrows wants to build up new
paper of his own; he wants not only
to be grand dictator of the new party, but he
wants to have the only paper that the farmers
will be allowed to read. [ expect to see
law passed by the next legislature that no
farmer be allowed to read any other paper
but MIR Burrows paper, and that every
farmer be sent to Jail for six months every
time he looks at copy OF some other paper.
Laughter.
When the farmers have friends they
ought to try to retain their frien dship and
rot cast off the old friends for new ones.
They want tho workingmen to join them, but
their convention repelled them. This was
shown in the peoples convention. The work
ing men were playing with loaded dice. Van
WyclS was counted out OF the convention so
as to have the president of the alliance made
candidate for governor They wanted the
working man to join them in the crusade
for cheaper money and cheapenlng the dollar
with which he buys his food and clothing
and IN proof of what they thought of the
workiugman, they nominated a state ticket
there with not a single workingman on it.
The candidate man is a lawyer and he is a
sort of walking delegate. How do they ex-
pect to get twenty or twenty-five thousand
laboring men to join with them to elect men
who have no use for the laboring men. Do
they realize that repeal of the tariff laws of
the United States would set adrift hundreds
ofthousands of working men and place them
abroad rs tmmps just as they were right
after The war.
Fellow citizens, I have covered great deal
of territory, but in this movement there has
been so much fallacy and so much msrepre-
Sentation thatit is impossible to answer one
tenth of it. For instance, we are told that
in the state of Illinois there have been more
convictions than in the whole of ireland, +,
when in fact Illinois is the most prosperous
state in America. We are told that Nebraska
farms are rapidly passing through the sher-
IFS hands by foreclosure owing to the uni
versal destitution of our farmers.
| have Just received official statements from
fifty-five out of the eighty eight counties
showing the number of farm foreclosures in
Nebraska during the year ending with June
last. This report shows that the total mum
ber of improved farms offered for sale under
mortgage foreclosure in the various counties,
including those in the United States court in
the 30 counties is 99I partly improved farms
H. unimproved farms 2lS, making total o I
1882 farms offered for sale under the ham
mer. Out of IS, 100000 acres of land, which
would represent at least $50, 600 farms of 32O
acres each, out of that vast number
1892 foreclosures. Granting that the balance
of the counties would be pro rata-and, for
instance, Douglas county is not represented
here, aud know our county has very few
foreclosures because the land in Douglas
county is too valuable say the total farms
fOreclosed would not exceed 1909, or prob
nun Der notice that Holt county has the
largest number, up in the sand nils, and
there are l43 farms offered. | know the
reason why. | can't go into details and ex-
plain it here, but it is known that "a great
many worthless pieces of land are mortgaged,
and mortgaged for all they are worth, and
the owners simply walk away and forget to
pay the interest. A greatmany of these farms
represent the same sort of thing. Men have
gone TO work, for instance, and made very
small payment, and failel TO come to time
on future payments and have given up their
farms, but his letter does not show that the
farmers of Nebraska are going to leave the
country, or become tenants; there is no proof
| of it whatever.
SO it is with great many of their mis-
| statements that we can not possibly rebut.
| Like my friend Calamity Weller of Iowa,
| these parties attribute their failures and MS
| haps whether they are due to the
want of personal thrift, drouth,
| hailstorms, or any other cause; TO
| the mismauagement of our national finances.
! They propose to revolutionze ovcrything,and
are going to give everybody wealth, pros
| perity, happiness and-children, / suppose
| Laughter and everything else to make
| people contented / don't know what they
| all ,.t,r to.