The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1891-11-20
FABMEGIBsss'l ALLIANCE.
Anpdal Address Of President Joseph
4 Of the lowe Alliance.

Anpdal Address Of President Joseph
~ Of the Iowa Alliance.
"Monopoly il the Arch Enemy of In
dustry and the Political Mon
ster Of Modern Times"
At Des Moiues, lowe, the other day,
President j. M. Joseph delivered his an-
nual address, and said in part:
"The duties cf The farmer include very
much more than the cultivation of the
land and the production Of crops. Upon
him more than upon any one else, de.
pends the character Of public institutions
and the welfare Of all classes of people
With him mainly rests the responsibility
OF good or bad government.
'That there has been great awaken
ing among farmers during the past ,fesx
faad ddsIa 3 AZ " = = %. z I'd I.e Sfs
mefs, A lfiance is thc RESULT of the dissat-
isfaction produced by an unjust system
Of distributing the benefits and burdens
of public institution"
Statesmen of all parties, while sub
scribing to the fundamental doctrines of
our government, are found advocating
measures and policies subveEsive of them.
For score Of years they have been plant
ing seeds throughout our industrial and
commercial system utterly at variance
with the doctrine Of equal rights. To-
day We are cursed with privileged classes
existing by virtue Of legal enactments to
as great degree as many Of the nations
OF Europe. We have broadened the
foundation of the splendid temple our
our fathers began, but we have not raised
its walls. except with single stone, in
100 years. The emancipation OF the black
man is the only achievement in the interest
OF humanity worth recording in this cen.
tutry.
Monopoly is the arch enemy of indus
try, the politicaimonstyfUfmoder times.
1t has come to be c'nstant, ever pres
ent menace to free aoyernment It
rears its head in every field, it clutches
at the throat of every honest toiler. 1t
besets the public highways. 1t Interests
every market. 1t is intrenched in court
and Congress alike. The horse ieach's
daughter of holy writ was not more RAPID
clous. As q political force, it domi-
mates both the great parties It's ten
denotes are toward arbitrary, despotic
government. The home of the monster
is in the modern contrivances we call cor
poratioDs. ~
The forces of nature, the natural pro.
dues of the earth, the equal gifts of God
to all the children of men, are welled up
by the omnipresent corporation. The goods,
the rights, the benefits made, matters OF
corporate ownership and distributed to
the few, while many are shut out from O
fair participation.
Public instrumentalitieA the railroad,
taSrSGds ttaaG rtSslGsSE4sa, Egasaass sAs drift
while they oxist under q M condition
Of public conttol. Thisp Ftion is an
economic absurdity. &M
"No solution of the great ,5roblem of
equitable distribution oNn be found ou:-
side the public ownership of natural
forces and materials.
''Partisans have raised ghost and
named it paternal government, forgetting
that the people are, in theory and ought
to be in fact, the goyernment, forgetting
that except for the paternsl care Of
government there wonld not be corpo-
rati n on the face of the earth. Yet par
sans build no adequate defense against
the combination that clutches labor by
the throat, that glowers industry with
the eye polyphemus, sucking up her tub-
stance to the wall of bare subsistence.
"The $50, 900, 900, 600 of wealth in our
country is the result Of the genius and
industry of all the ages gone. Tt is a
splendid legacy to ls9ye pesterity. That
small minority hnye contributed
nothing toward its Accumulation, should
inherit the whole of it, to the exclusion
of the great majority, is not only q fla
grant injustice upon tho face of the mat.
ter, but it marks the fact that in human
affairs there are yet whole realms in the
matter of equitable distribution unex-
plorcd, matters of vast concern to those
who come after us.
"The Farmers Alliance as an organi-
zation, is the natural result of the neglect
of political parties to consider economic
questions from the standpoint of merit
rather than Of party advantage. The
farmers have become weary with the
long drawn quarrels over minutes and
barren contests of mere place huute s.
"The animositios of q contest fought
TO finish many years ago ought to have
been buried long ago, and would have
been except for the partisan who found
| polite u capital in keeping alive the en-
mites and jealousies Of the sections
| against saoii oihef *
"The Alliance. seeks 10 reunite the
people into one harmonious nation with
equal rights for all. It seeks to limit the
power and curb tile rapacity Of corpora
tions. 1t seeks to reform the Industrial
system to the end that the products of
industry may be fairly distributed It's
task will not be finished till these results
are achieved. It was not born in night
nor viii it perish in day. 1t is a pro-
test against plutoeratic tendencies, against
extragagant pub ic expenditures, against
unequal taxation, against the spoliation
of the working classes against the ex-
ploiter and speculator in the products OF
the field, the mine and the factory
against the whole class who make mo.
nopoly and live by 0sury, against til" pri.
vate ownership Of public instrumental.
ties, against the whole policy of inflated
\ capital and bonded debts
i 1.-THE Alliance dema DIS sufficient
volume Of money to enable industry to
/ exchange her producss on cash basis, to
/ kl,,<... l-x1x..k 90 ~.