Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-06-18
FARMERS REvOLTs.


1t is hard to believe that the quiet,
long suffering and conservative farmers
are ever revolutionary in their ideas and
method. They submit to a great deal
of oppression and plundering, but it is
dangerous to crowd them to the wall.
In at least two great modern revolu-
tiOnary movements the farmers took
the lead and came out on top. In Eng
land, in 1881, the farmers and the
masses generally had scarcely any rights
that were respected by the governing
classes. The story is too long to tell in
detail, but something like farmers al
lance was organized with Wat Tyler at
the head.
| The movement spread to the towns
and cities, and the people were soon
banded together to resist unjust taxa
ton and oppressive laws. The country
men with their town allies got together
in a compact body and swept over the
land like prairie fire. From country
to country and from town to town they
pushed their rapid march until they
reached London, where, after losing
( their leader in skirmish, they dis
persed when the king had made them
certain promises. The government sue
ceeded in Furnishing many of the prom
iEent ring leaders, but the solid fruits
of victory rested with the revolution
lists.
| From that time for about q century
English farmers and working men had
the use of as much land as they could
cultivate, and were free to combine to-
gether for self protection. That period
was the golden age of England. Then
there was no poverty. All were well
fed, we'll clothed and we'll paid. After
| that, in the sixteenth century, the mo-
nopolists, OR privileged classes, forcibly
gained control, and the concentration of
| wealth in the hands of the few plunged
the many into poverty.
Another farmers revolution was the
one in France in the latter part of the
eighteenth century. The French coun-
trymen were as much oppressed as their
English brethren were in the fourteenth
century. They organized local societies
with central society, and in the course
of a bloody carnival of several years
duration brought their king and queen
and thousands of their oppressors to the
guillotipe. Generations of suffering
made them unreasonably violent, and
they gave France what is known in his.
tory as the ''Reign of Terror" Yet this
revolution was a great triumph for de-
mocracy. It greatly modified monarch.
ical rule in Europe, and paved the way
for the present French republic, under
which the farmers are the most pros
porous people on the face of the earth
These two revolutions were essential.
ly farmers movements. There is much
in them that will shock the readers of
today but it should be remembered
that in those days the people did not
have the ballot to right their wrongs
and they had to resort to force. In
both England and France these popu-
lar upheavals resulted Ia substantial
victories for the farmers.
The uprising in this. country at the
present time of the agricultural popula
tion recalls the historic events which
we have briefly outlined. Like the
tiIlers of the soil in England and France
our farmers are kept down by unjust
taxes, oppressive laws and monopoliSts
who, i'll their way, are as dangerous as
the feudal barOns of old. But our peo
pie, armed with the ballot, understand
the power of organized action, and they
know the full significance of tie SUI
premacy of numbers. Yet. while this
great struggle for reform is thoroughly
peaceful and in the interests of peace
it bids fair to be as sweeping a revolu-
ton as the others that we have men
toned.
The cause of the united farmers is
the cause of democracy. 1t is an effort
to restore government of the people
for the people and by the people, will
equal rights for all and special privi
leges for none. 1t is cause that viii
win, and its triumph will be all tht
more glorious because it will be a vic
tory of peace, a victory of honest labor
won through ballots instead of through
bayOnets, won at the polls and not OF
battlefelds. This hurried glance a
the past is suggestive. 1t shows wha
organized farmers have done, and fore
shadows what they will dO.-Atlants
Constitution.
THERE is great deal of gossip thai
has ne malignity in it. Good natureC
people talk about their neighbors be
cause, and only because, they have
nothing else 90 talk about. The con
firmed gossip is always either malic
iOus or ignorant. Reading is a safe
guard against gossip. People who car
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