Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-11-21
Alliance MEETING.

8 AllllIIUE MLnllIlU,
WHAT OTHERS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED B1
! ORGANIZATION AND WHY NOT TIL
I FARMERS ?-HOW THE FARMERS IN
, TEND TO USE THEIR POLITICAL PowEI
q WITHOUT FORMING A POLITICAL PAR
TY-A SENSIBLE ADDRESS FROM A MA
TIONAL LECTURER OF THE ALLIANCE
, &C., &C., &C.
7 On Saturday last, there was a larg
l gathering of farmers of the county at til,
Court House to hear all address from Hon
Benz. Terrill of Texas, National Lecturer
, of the National Farmers Alliance and In
: dustrial Union. 1t was presided over by
: Hon. A. B. Lightner of the County Ali
ance. The speaker was one of the most
| finished orators we have listened to, fail
in his statements and earnest in putting
them. He is man of about fifty years OF
age, and was a Confederate soldier at sew.
enteen years of age.
Mr.. Terrill spoke Of the way the U. S.
bondholders got their bonds made payable
in gold, though they had only paid green
backs for them. 1t was an act OF congress
done directly against the interests of the
farmers of the country, and they were able
to do it because the farmers had been
standing fighting each other, while the
money interest, better organized, threw
their weight with the party that would
give them what they asked. Is it surpris-
ing, in view of this sort Of thing, that the
farmers should be joined together at last ?
Is it not more surprising that they did not
do so before?
HOW THE FARMERS ENDS ARE TO RE
GAINED WITHOUT FORMING A PoLIT-
| ICAL PARTY.
Now the farmers of this country having
found out their power intend to exert it.
Not by forming any third political party.
There is no politics in the Alliance. 1t in
terferes with no man S politics or religion.
1t only asks this of the members of the AL
lance over the country-that at
each sub-Alliance you shall select your best
and truest man regardless of his politics OF
religion. Pick out a good. honest man at
each school precinct-an upright, intelli-
gent Christian gentleman. Take that man
and send him to the State Alliance Then
let your State Alliance pick its best men to
send to the National Alliance. No man to
be appointed by any Governor OIL pushed
forward by some corporation, but a man
chosen by your State Alliance on his own
merits. And then the n ational A lliance will
formulate what the farmers of the land
really want and let the Administration at
Washington know it.
Why should not this be done by farmers?
1t is done by other professions. The
bankers Of the land met at Topeka, Kansas,
not long ago and discussed the silver uues-
ton. They met, not as Democrats, not as
Republicans, but as bankers. They differ
ed widely on the policy to be adopted, and
finally left it to their executive committee
to devise one. This committee did devise
one. 1t went to Secretary Window Of the
Treasury at Washington and fixed I'D the
silver bill. That bill makes gold the stand
ard OF value, against the will of the people.
Now you see how set of men can get
control OF the money. And when men get
control Of that, they get control of fixing
the prices of your produce. And when
man controls the price of the produce of
labor he controls the price of the labor and
he is your master. Why cannot the Farm
efs do what the Bankers were able to do?
THE RAILROADS AND THE LANDS.
Thus you see what can be done with
money When a set of men combine to do it.
1t is said the farmers are against the rail
roads. That is not so. The farmer is for
railroad, for he needs it's service more
than any one else. What he is against in
railroads. is that one shall be built at $l2, 900
mile and afterwards the stock watered
up to $50, 000 a mile, and he be made to pay
the freight tariff it is required to pay divi-
dend on that $4,000 of watered stock,
$3o, 600 OF which represents nothing. That
is what the farmer complains of. He
knows that he supports the railroads with
his produce shipping, but he doesn't OBJ
ject to that; men ought to pay for what
they get, but he objects to paying dividends
on Investments that were never made-real
money dividends on imaginary stock to 60
into the pockets Of others.
The farmer wants the land system at
tended to too. 1t is fact that one half of
the lands in Kansas are owned by foreign
ers-not people of foreign birth but people
who owe money allegiance to foreign
governments and send the money made in
Kansas, across the water. The railways of
the country own 175 million acres Of land.
Look at the case at Coosa, Ga, where a
big corporation bought out big tract Of
land, turned every white man off it land put
10000 freedmen to work there. These
freedmen must vote as the corporation die
tates OF be turned off, and this vote offsets
the votes Of as many white men in Georgia
These corporations never die and the land
they acquire is entailed forever, which is
against the policy of the country. What
the Alliance intends to do is to first ask
candidates for Congress whether they will
vote to continue this sort Of thing.
THE SUB-TREAsURY.
/ The National Alliance sent a bill to Con-
gress to provide that the government might
take certain produce and store it in ware
houses and loan the farmer so per cent. of
its value. This was in order to keep the
farmer from being forced into market.
They didn't even discuss the bill Now
the Alliance cared nothing about that par
ticular bill, any bill accomplishing the OBJ
Ject would have suited it. Nor did it care
about the amount being fixed at so per
cent, any other amount which would give