Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-03-12

SOUTH DAKOTA, THI
farmers came into control Of these legie-
latures On the promise Of accomplishing
reforms which are exclusively within the
jurisdiction OF state legislatures. The
whole question Of local taxation which,
by the way, takes dollars where national
taxation takes dimes out Of the pockets
Of the citizen is within the power. 81
the state Legislature.
This is one of the main points Of com
plant among the independent farmers.
A dozen other important points Of com
plant as stated in their platforms and
newspaper organs, also come within the
exclusive jurisdiction Of the state legisla-
lures. That is to say, many of their
most important grievances, accordingly,
have been within their own power OF any
party or of the Legislature itself, to
remedy.
The interesting question is, what has
been done?
The first suggestion is that not a
single district feat OF reform in behalf Of
the farmer or in behalf of the communi-
ty at large is notable upon the record Of
any of the state Legislatures which the
independent farmers have controlled or
had large influence in-not one. There
is no such measure of signal Importance
which rises in the public mind when the
query is made. No one can point to
any important remedy which these indie
pendent farmer legislatures have enacted
for independent farmer grievances.
This is not saying that the independ-
emit farmers have betrayed any trust re-
posed in them. 1t is not saying that
they have not enacted some useful laws.
Most of them have not only honest but
| also earnest and jealous men, who have
done fairly we'll. But it is saying that
they have not accomplished anything of
special worth in behalf Of agricultural
interests, nor made record more not
able than any other western legislatures.
| Attention is called to the fact that
none of the western independent legisla-
lures have accomplished anything like Ike as
much in the interest OF the farmers as
more than one republican Legislature in
Iowa has done in recent years. None of
these independent Legislatures has Sc
cured anything like the railroad reform
which the republicans of Iowa enacted
several years ago. As matter of fact
the railroad Legislation enacted by the in
dependent farmers this winter has been,
in the main, a copy of the Iowa railroad
law enacted under republican admins
tration. The Iowa railroad law likewise
is an almost exact copy of Illinois law,
which in turn was based upon the prin,
ciples of the railroad laws of Massa-
chusetts and New York.
| So you may make the whole circuit Of
the Legislation of this winter, and moi
find solitary reform which republican
or democratic legislatures had not pre-.
viously provided, and which the latter
had not often provided much more thor,
oughly than the independent farmers
themselves have done. Usury laws
Why, hardly legislature in any state
meets which does not provide usury laws
Stay laws? Forty years ago the low;
Legislature passed laws staying tax sales
aud executions, tenfold more extreme
than any Legislature this winter has ever
thought of doing.
j 1t is true that the independent farmers
have elected two United States senators
but what the farmers are interested in il
measures, not men. The question is al
, to what they have specially accomplished
in their own interest where they hav
had the power over the subject matter
1t will be well for the Independents ant
, all concerned to make careful and can
! did comparisons, and to inquire, in tn
light of the result, whether many of tn
counts in their indictments against th
republican party are not unfounded.
?
Dave Clark Dead