The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-05-29
FARMERS REVOLUTIONS.

fAftMehS' heVOIO tIONO.
History Shows That the Tillers Of tho Soil
Are Irresistible When They Move.
It is hard to believe that the quiet,
long suffering and conservative farmers
are ever revolutionary in their ideas and
methods.
They submit to good deal of oppres-
sion 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 England, 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
Alliance 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 I'M
just taxation and oppressive laws. The
countrymen with their town allies got
together in a compact body and swept
over the land like prairie fire. From
county to county and from town to
town they pushed their rapid march
until they reached London, where. after
losing their leader in a skirmish, they
dispersed when the king had made them
certain promises.
The government succeeded in punish
lag many Of the ringleaders, but the
solid fruits of victory rested with the
revolutionists. From that time for
about century English farmers and
workingmen had the use of as much land
as they could cultivate, and were free to
combine together for self protection.
That period was the golden age of Eng
land. Then there was no poverty. All
were well fed, we'll clothed and we'll
paid. After that, in the Sixteenth cent
ury, the monopolists or privileged classes
forcibly gained control, and the concen-
tration 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 du-
ration brought their king and queen and
thousands of their oppressors to the gull
lotine. Generations of suffering made
them unreasonably violent, and they
gave France what is known in history as
the "Reign Of Terror" Yet this revo-
luton was a great triumph for democ-
racy. It greatly modified monarchical
rule in Europe, and paved the way for
the present French republic, under
which the farmers are the most prosper
Gus people on the face of the earth.
These two revolutions were essentially
farmers movements. There is much in
them that will shock the readers Of to-
day, 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 popular up
heavals resulted in substantial victories
for the farmers
The uprising in this country at the
present time of the agricultural popula-
ton recalls the historic events which we
have briefly outlined. Like the tillers
of the soil in England and France, our
farmers are kept down by unjust taxes,
oppressive laws and monopolists, who,
in their way, are as dangerous as the
feudal barons of old; but our people,
armed with the ballot, understand the
power of organized action, and they
know the full significance of the su-
premacy Of numbers. Yet, while this
great struggle for reform is thoroughly
peaceful and in the interest of peace, it
bids fair to be as sweeping revolution
as the others that we have mentioned.
The cause of the united farmers is the
cause Of democracy. It is an effort to
restore government of the people, for
the people and by the people, with equal
rights for all and special privileges for
none. 1t is cause that will win, and
its triumph will be all the more glorious
because it will be victory of peace, a
victory of honest labor, won through
ballots instead of through bayonets, won
at the polls and not on battlefelds.
This hurried glance at the past is sug-
gestive. 1t shows what organized farm
ers have done, and foreshadows what
they will do.-Atlanta Constitution,