The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-16
LIVINGSTON ON HIS BILL.
he SAYS THE FARMERS MUST BE
GIVEN RELIEF.

Ank CJ6I6Lu 10 ADOAlbuGQ - lnonOG0
So as to Allow Loans on Land.
WASHINGTON. May 15.-The hearing of
the farmers alliance representatives was
continued before the ways and means COM
mittee this evening, Col. Livingston, the
national lecturer of the organization, taking
up the argument. He said that he had
found much misapprehension in Washing
ton respecting the objects of the alliance.
They had not beset Congress, but, as MIR.
Flower had suggested, they had been at
tending strictly to their own business. A
wrong impression, one without word of
truth. was that the alliance was olandes-
timely seeking to displace the ruling polit-
ical parties. The farmers had been told
that proper adjustment of the tariff and of
the silver question was all that was neces-
sary for the farmers relief
THE sUB-TREAsURY BILL.
The tariff had nothing to do with the
measure recommended by the alliance. The
tariff fixed the price of farmers purchases.
The sub-tre9sury bill fixed the price at
which he sold his goods. The alliance rep-
resentatives had not been insolent, at least
there was no intention of being insolent.
AhOy hu0 ettiASd PAuAiAJs dlkhb Al iOlAA WIG
shoulder They asked, demanded-he was
not sure about the tsrms-that congress do
what it could to pass the sub-treasury bill.
Fifty-eight homes of farmers had been
sold at auction in Connecticut in
one day this week. The farmers
wanted relief. They knew how to get it.
They had about made up their minds to let
partisan politics alone, for while at least
Representative Clements Of Georgia had
NgNA fa.,. knlv
curity In national banks. Somehow con-
gress had refused to do it. The national
bank system must be broken up.
EXCESSIVE RATES OF INTEREST.
The farmers had to secure loans at ex-
cessive rates Of interest. There was no jus
tiflcation for that under Gods broad
heavens
Mr.. Flower asked If the manufacturer did
not have to pay the same interest.
Mr.. Livingston replied that he did not.
There was a difference between watered
stock concerns and the farmers real estate.
yet the latter was made the worst security
III the country. Continuing, he quoted
President Lincoln's prophecy that corpora
tlons would be enthroned, that the property
OF the country would be concentrated, and
that the republic itself would be over
thrown. Thank God. the last prediction
had not been fulfilled; but the others had
been. One-twentieth of the people of this
country owned three-fifths of the property.
He also quoted Garfield, Jefferson and Cal
houn. and said that what they had recon-
mended was just what the alliance asked.
REMOVAL OF BANK RESTRICTIONS.
If congress refused to approve the sub
treasury plan, then let it remove the re-
strictions hedging in the national banking
system. The farmers would care nothing
about trusts and combinations and the
concentration of money if they could hold
their crops in sub-treasuries, and were not
compelled, as at pre- ent, to sell them at
stated times-in Octoter in the south.
He could thus escape the speculator.
1t would be godsend to this country to
pass the sub-treasury bill for the reason Qf
for no other that there would not be "a
bucket shop left in the United States. The
day of speculation in crops would be done
away with, and the producer aud consumer
would be brought together.
NO DANGER OF A TRUST.
1t had been charged that the farmers
would form trust. 1t was against the
farmers nature, he had TO rush his crop to
market. If cotton went up one-eighth,
every farmer would be seen hitching up his
team the next morning. He would be
afraid that the one-eighth would get away
from him. Then the farmers would have
but years privilege. while the banks had
twenty years. This plan was not held out
as a perfect measure. All legisla-
tion was the result of compro-
mise The gentleman from New
York (Mr. Flower had predicted that
children would be put to work in the ware
houses and women in the fields. The infer
ence was that men under a paternal gov
ernment would be too lazy to work.
Mr. Elayar-I ,ook "a (tarnnaOv today
Col. Livingston denied that such a result
would follow. Could there be government
more paternal than oursl Paternal to the
banks, he meant. IL the highways were
opened to enterprise and energy the farmers
would be satisfied.
WON'T WAIT ANY LONGER.
But the farmer had stood around waiting
long enough. He had to have relief it was
ground hog case. Sixteen million dollars
would build all the warehouses the alliance
wanted. What good were river and harbor
improvements to the debt ridden op-
pressed farmer? Never more than a third
of the cotton crop would be warehoused.
When the certificates issued on that crop
came in they would meet the needs of the
wheat crop, and then the tobacco crop and
so on. There would not be excessive changes
in the volume Of the currency.
Mr. Flower asked why warehouses were
to he used only for oats, wheat corn, to-
bacco and cottons Why not put in the pot
wool aud rice, and cheese and pork, etc.,
Col. Livingston replied that these other
staples were protected by the high tariff
20 per cent. for wool alone.
FLUCTUATIONS IN CROPS.
Mr.. Flower read table to show that
staple crops had fluctuated more than 80
per cent, within thirty years, and asked
if that did not demonstrate the instability
of the proposed currency. May heaven
have mercy upon this country when a
thousand millions of currency was suddenly
called in, as it might be, under such fuctn-
ations.
Col. Livingston replied that the fuctu-
ations had been caused by the fact that the
farmers had been comp slled to sell their
crops at adverse times, something the bill
had proposed to remedy. Ia conclusion he
said that if the committee thought that the
landed basis was best, if they could not
accept the crop basis. let them put it in.
Do something to relieve the farmer. Re
port bill to the House in some shape, so
that the bill will be acted upon. Don't
make it a question of tariff or of politics,
but let the bill stand on its merits.
CONFERENCES HELD.
Last night and again Tonight Col. Liv-
ingston, President Polk, DIR. McCune and
the other officers OF the farmers alliance
row here had q formal conference with
about a score OF the more badly scared
members OF the House at the request Of the
latter. who desired to point out to the
farmers privately the utter impracticabillty