The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1891-11-20
FABsfERs' ALLIANCE.
.Anydal Addrsss ofRrssident Joseph
Of the Iowa alliance.

.Anpual address Of MeSldent Joseph
i Of the Iowa Allancs.
monopoly il the Arch Ensuay of In.
dustry and the Political Non
ster Of Modern Times"
At Des Moines, lowe, the other day,
President j. If. Joseph delivered his au.
nual address, and said in part:
THE duties os 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 Glasses of people.
With him mainly rests the responsibility
of good or bad government.
"That there HI been q great awaken
| ing among farmers d@isg the nsst Ter
= "a y,
mers Alliance 81 She fSSult Of the dissat-
isfaction produced BY an unjust system
of distributing the bepc6ts and burdens
of public Institutions"
"Ststesmen OF all parties, while SUBJ
scribing to the fundamental doctrines Of
our government, are found advocating
measures and policies subveBive 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 Glasses
existing by virtue Of legal enactments to
as great a degree as many Of the nations
Of Europe. We have broadened the
foundation of tho splendid temple our
our fathers began, but we have not raised
its walls. except with single Zone, in
100 years. The emancipation oSthe black
man is the only achievement ip4he interest
of humanity worth recording IN this cen.
tury.
try, the epolitieafm0nstef0f modern times.
| 1t has come to be c"nstant, ever pres
ent menace to free government. 1t
rears its head in every field, it clutches
at the throat of every honest toiler. It
besets the public highways. 1t interests
every market 1t is intrenched in court
and Congress alike. Tho horse leach's
daughter of holy writ was not more rapa-
cious AS a political force, it domi-
mates both the great parties. Its tcu-
dencies are toward arbitrary, despotic
government. The home 0f the monster
is in the modern contrivances we call cor
poratious. So
THE forces of nature, the natural pro.
dues of the Garth, the equal gifts Of God
to oil the children of men, arc walled 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
fair participation.
Public instrumentalities, the railroad,
taSrSSSs ttasS rtSsIsEsagh sss to Sssaa drift
while they exist under \ -SS condition
of public control. This ition is an
economic absurdity.
mo solution of the great, problem of
equitable distribution can be found ou.
side the public ownership of natural
forces md materials.
"Partisaus have raised ghost and
named it paterual government, forgetting
that the people are, in theory and ought
to be in fact, the government, forgetting
that except for the, paternsl care of
government there would 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 polyphemas, sucking up her rub
stance to the wall Of bare subsistence.
"The 500, 600, 600, 900 of wealth in our
country is the result Of the genins end
industry vi ali the ages gone. It is q
sp!endid legacy to ls9ye pcsterity. That
a small minority, ss$S6taye contributed
nothing toward its accumulation, should
inherit the whole of it, to the exclusion
of the great majority, is not only fla
grant in njustice 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.
"Thc Farmers Alliance as an organi
zation, is the natural result of the neglect
of political parties to consider economic
questions from the standpoint of meri
rather than Of party advantage. Th'
farmers have become weary with th'
long drawn quarrels over minutes ant
barren contests of mere place huutc s
"The animositics of contest Tough
to a finish many years ago ought to have
been buried long ago, and would hay.
been except for the partisan who found
polite Il capital in keeping alive the en-
mites and jealousies of the sectioni
against each other.
"The Alliance seeks 10 reunite thu
people into one harmonious nation will
equal rights for all. 1t seeks to limit th'
power and curb the rapacity of CORPORA
tions. 1t seeks to reform the industria
system to the end that the products o
industry may be fairly distributed 1t
task y i'll not be finished till these results
are achieved. 1t was not born in nigh
nor will it perish in day. 1t is pro
test against plutocratic tendenci.s, agains
cxtraIagant pub ic expenditures, ag'ins
unequal taxation, against the spoliatioi
of the working classes against the ex
ploiter and speculator in the products o
the field, the mine and the factory
against the whole class who maze mo
nopoly and live by usury, against til" pri
vate ownership Of public instrumental
ties, against the whole po'icy OF inflated
!. capital and bonded debts
"The Alliance dems ds a susicieD
volume of money to enable industry t
exchange her products on cash basis, t
, the end that labor may escape the bui
|, den of interest," that now cats up her sus