Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-26
HIGHLY WROUGHT ExPECTATIoNs-A
CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE AND ITS
OPPOSITE.

with becoming hospitality and every
thing has gone off serenely. That body,
assisted by certain trade organizations,
has organized itself into the People 8
party, has formulated a platform and
gone about its ways. The HERALD
always feels inclined to treat any move
ment that includes large following, il
it's objects are not expressly illegal or
violent, with respect. The theory of
the republic of the United States is
that the people are sovereign, and a
large amount of this sovereignty must
be inherent in any considerable body OF
citizens.
Do we then believe that the Farmers
Alliance or Peoples party viii be sue
cessful? To this we unhesitatingly an
swer that we do not. We do not think
it will succeed in the state OF California,
and we feel confident that it will not in
the nation at large.
Before giving our reasons for this be-
lief we prefer to state the substance of a
conversation we had with Col. Joseph
K. Hickey, of Missouri. This man is a
we'll known Democratic politician, who
has become an Alliance partizan. He is
as we'll known in Washington and New
York cities as in Galloway county, Mo-,
where he resides. The last we had
heard OF him, prior to meeting him the
other day, was in an interview which a
reporter OF the New York World had
with him in that city about six months
ago, in which he was an enthusiastic
Cleveland man, and represented his sec
| tion as enthusiastic for that statesman.
He has now no use for Cleveland or for
any other Democrat. He actually pro-
fesses his belief that the Alliance and
affiliated organizations will win the next
presidential election. He asserts that
the new party has already 3,500,000
votes, and that it is rapidly gaining in
popularity and numbers. He says that
in Missouri the rural Democracy are
going over bodily to the Alliance. He
claims that in his own county Of
Galloway, which ordinarily gives
5000 Democratic majority, the Alli-
ance will make clean sweep.
OF course Col. Polk would be expected
to promulgate such views, as he is a
propagandist from base, but we confess
that we were a little surprised to hear
them from this devoted admirer OF
Cleveland, of the other day, and dyed
in-the-wool Democrat. He was able, as
every one knows, to point to the fact
that the Alliance had carried Kansas
elected two members of the senate of
the United States, displacing such an
influential Republican as Ingalls,, in
Kansas, and such commanding Dem
ocrat as Wade Hampton in South Car
olina, by representative Alliance men.
He added that they had nearly carried
Georgia, coming within an ace of beat
ing John B. Gordon. Col. Hickey
thought that the fact that bale of cot
ton sells for only $50 this year against
$40 last year will have powerful effect
in making the Gulf or cotton states en-
brace the new party. We will add, in
dismissing the colonel, that he thinks
that the Alliance will carry about every
thing west of the Allegheny mountains.
1t is impossible to deny the fact that
there is something very specious about
these arguments, but the HERALD does
not believe that there will be any serious
detection from the Democratic presi-
Dental candidates in the south next
year; nor do we believe that, outside OF
three or four western states that always
vote with the Republicans, any consid-
cradle inroads will be made in that
quarter in the electoral colleges. We
found this opinion upon the extremely
radical character OF the platform of the
Alliance. The country has been too
long educated in democratic ideas-the
cardinal feature OF which, whether ex-
pounded by Jefferson or Jackson, is as
little government as possible-to at once
place itself in the ruts OF paternalism.
If United States bank was regarded
as an evil leading in the direction of
despotism the sweeping plan of loaning
money on land and non-perishable pro-
ducts and taking possession of the tele-
graph and transportation systems of the
country is far more intimidating. In
California, particularly, the possible
strength of the new organization
has been weakened by incor-
porating into the platform OF the Peo-
ple's party about every notion that the
great mass of the voters have been ac-
customed to regard as cranky.
In our judgment, the utmost the ALI
ance can hope to do is to carry enough
states to throw the next presidential
election into the house of representa-
tives, which is overwhelmingly Demo-
cratic. This would give us Democratic
president and Republican vice-presi-
dent. The situation is thus singularly
favorable for the Democracy, and is call
culated to make the adherents of that
organization stand by their colors, which
have always been in the van in any con-
test for popular rights.
The Republican party is less fortu-
nate. The people are undoubtedly res
tive under the aggressions of corpora
tions which have been mainly the crea-
ton of that party. They are indignant
at the unwarranted excesses OF the Nc
Ev;r, low Kin 1zhox, .orl;,-o 4l,o