The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1891-03-13
ALLIANCE DEPARTMENT.
THE BANNER AND THE ALL
ANCE.

THE BANNER AND THE ALL.
ANCE.
The Marion County Alliance and In
dustrisl Union, at its late meeting at
Hickory Springs, as has already been
announced, adopted THE BANNER as lis
official organ. This endorsement
came almost as a surprise and is TO be
accounted for solely on the merits of
THE BANNER as a newspaper. 1t is
high compliment and one which we re-
gard with due appreciation.
THE BANNER believesithat the unequal
distribution of wealth is the result Of
some wrong somewhere in the pursu-
ance of false political economy and
the enactment of injurious laws and can
only be corrected by and through legis-
lat'on. It believes that the Farmers
Alliance organization is movement
that will ultimately lead upto the correc-
ton of these abuses, and for that reason
is in sympathy with it.
Agriculture is the basis Of all wealth.
All men must consume the products Of
the farm, so when there comes an APP.
palling shrinkage in farm values, and a
marked depression in agriculture in all
sections Of the country, and this in the
presence of a constant increase of popu-
lation and a vast accumulation of the nom
producing classes, what are we TO at
tribute this universal distress in farming
to? Is it because of shiftlessness is be-
cause of bad management; is it for the
want of skill and intelligence? It can
not be possible that we have whole
nation of shiftless farmers; there can not
be universal bad management, and there
is certainly as much skill ard intelli-
gence devoted to farm operations now as
at any time in our history nay, there is
q general concensus of opinion that
there are more. Then must not this dis
tress lie outside and beyond the domain
of the farm? 1t seems to us that it
does, and until the errors in laws and
economics producing these abuses are
discovered and corrected, and which, in
our opinion, can only be done in the do
main and through the instrumentalities
of politics, the more shift, the more in
telligence, the more skill, the more abun-
dant the harvest, must only add to the
distress Of the farmer. Is this as it
should be? Should mans abundance
be his poverty? Should time and labor
saving inventions add to the distress and
toll of human labor? The operations of
laws must bear unevenly and unequally
Oh the working and producing classes
t. bring about this condition of things
and until they are corrected this depres-
sion of labor and agriculture must contin-
ne? Why should there be tax on tobac.
co? Why should there be tax on any
OF the necessaries of life? Why should
M. esssssssa aanufse-
ture the products of his farm into those
things that would pay him best Why
should he no. be permitted to convert
his molasses into rum if it pays him
more his corn into whiskey +; his
peaches INTO brandy; his oranges into
wine? Why should only the few be
allowed these privileges? Why should
not all barriers be battered down and
the markets of the world opened to the
American farmer? Why should not
mineral and unoccupied lands, held for
the purposes of speculation, bear the
same, or even greater weight of taxa
ton. than the improved lands of the
farmer?
In these directions We believe lie the
cure for the distress of the farmer and
we believe the Farmers Alliance will
gradually move up to these lines and
one after another effect these reforms,
and make the inequalities of opportuni-
tiee, now SO apparent, and which pre-
duce so unequal a distribution of wealth,
impossible.
Until an editor is appointed the ALI
ance Department of the paper will be
edited by the committee, which consists
II Messrs, F. II. Lytle, A. p Baskin and
Il. L. Payne and who alone are response
die for the conduct of the same.
f. L. HARRIS