St. Landry democrat., 1890-08-02
The Farmers Alliance.

III fares the land, to hast'nng ills prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay.
It is a false assertion that the farmers
say, ono man shall hold Office except far
mers"-'false as hell I" Demagogues, sly
usurers, who desire to keep up the present
system, all GLARS, who shall have their
portions with hypocrites and unbelievers,
say it-nobody else.
Farmers say, and their true friends say
no man shall hereafter hold office Qf they
can help it, who does not pay more respect
to their rights and the rights of the work.
ing classes than has been paid to them
since the war.
They saw that monopolies, created by
the power of the money class through the
government. has manifestly gotten all OF
their honest toll and other laborers, In the
last Quarter of century. That, while they
ar. not starving, as they are in Europe. yet
they have few comforts and fewer luxur-
les: that while they ought to have sur
plus. their lands are almost universally
mortgaged to bondholding usurers at ruin
Gus rates of interest that while statistics
show the profits of labor do not exceed
three per cent, they pay from eight to
twenty to keep off the officers of the law.
They say-their brother laborers say
''this thing shall have an end ; that death
is preferable 20 the degraded life capital
proposes labor" Labor does not force the
issue, capital forces it. Let it come, and
God grant victory to the right.
The farmers would not ask loans from
the government if the government was
not engaged in the business of lending,
and has been for more than quarter OF
century, without interest Anc to whom
does it lend? To the rich only. Hear,
oh heaven, give ear, oh earth y 10 the
rich ouly. And what for? To lend TO the
working classes at rates of Interest the
devil would blush to own. Money never
bushes 1t wants more. The farmers
want to borrow money to pay their debts
These rich fellows want it to shave with.
Oh, but these rich fellows can secure their
debts by depositlng their bonds with the
government. The working classes have
not got any bonds. True, but what gives
credit to the bonds? Who pays the inter
est on the bonds2 Who pays the bonds
themselves finally? Do not the sons of
toll? Government lends to the rich class
to lend again. Why not lend to the work
ing classes to pay their debts-yes, to save
from the hammer their homesteads, around
which cluster all the noble emotions of
wife and children and home. Are bonds
more secure at nearly whole value than
homesteads at half value2
It is nonsense to talk about the greater
security of the bonds. Why not loan on
real estate, and why not give to its owners
the right to bank also2 No man living
can give q reason except that it would
cheaper the rate of interest and stop the
enormous profits of this oppressive and
detestable monopoly. which has already
pretty well absorbed the wealth of the
whole country.
The government not only lends to the
rich only, but it exempts their property
the bonds) from taxation. Bonds create
no wealth lands are the foundation of all
wealth. Bonds, in their interest quality,
weigh like lead upon the whole people.
If anything ought to be exempt from tax
alton, it is land engaged in productive III
dustry. Give farmers, as class, the same
rights which are given to bondholding
bankers, and, instead of mourning and
want and woe, our beloved land, from
Maine to Louisiana and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, would surpass Eden in
plenty, beauty and glory.
God has given to US beautiful world
and TO the Americans, the loveliest of al
lands, and the freest of all governments
COVetOuSn6SS, contfolIiHg government,
If not arrested, will make it, as it has il
Europe, the charnal house of misery and
the graveyard of labor.
More anon (when the true democracy
gels gut it's candidates) of the question to
whom to lend money and who should
make the whisky, if any is made, and on
boup ties to beet roots, and sugar cane, and
pensions TO second widows of soldiers who
Fought, bled aud died to save the coun-
try."-Augustus r. WRIGHT.