The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-11-20
FLoATERs oRaFARMERs.

FLOATERs oRaFARMERs.
They Have Great Power in Their Hands
for Good or Evil.
In q number Of states where the
parties are nearly equally balanced.
the balance Of power and therefore
tho power itself is in. the hands of .
small minority who have no special
party ties and vote sometimes with
one party and sometimes with the
other. When this minority is made
up of men who have no party ties be-
cause they have no principles. says
the Western Rural partisan or non
partisan, and hence vote for the can
didate or party that makes it profit.
able to them on or about the day of
election. it is called the floating vote.
Despicable as the ''foater'' may be, he
sometimes controls the policy of q
campaign and affects, in marked
way, any interests. financial or social,
that can be affected by legislative. &C
ton. 1t Is humiliating to an Ameri-
can citizen that the vast business in
terests of the country are sometimes
at the mercy of the floating vote and
that the policies of the state and ma
ton are sometimes determined. not by
the correctness or justice of the poll
cies proposed, but by the price which
the different parties are willing to pay
the .'foater."
When this small number is made up
as it is in many of the agricultural
states. of farmers, CT men who have a
stake in the soil and who have
clearly defined principles which they
hold above all party obligations, the
case assumes an entirely different
aspect and the issue is determined by
considerations Of an entirely different
character No vote is so difficult to
purchase as that of the farmer He
two dollars day-but pledges from
the party and candidate to carry out
certain lines of policy Of the correct
ness of which he has become con-
WINGED through discussion in the ALI
ance and kindred organizations. It
does not follow of necessity that the
demands made by the farmer are
always just, or, if not just, practicable
at the present time. Farmers are not
infallible and the wisest man may err.
He may have the balance of power in
his hand and make bad use of it,
Whether he makes a wise or unwise
use of it depends on the thorougbness
with which he has studied the politi-
cal questions that effect his interests
and those of the public.
One of the chief objects of the ALI
ance is to educate farmers so thor
oughly in all that affects the agricul-
tural industry that their demands
shall be not only in the line of their
own best interests, but in the interest
of the general public as we'll When
ever this object is attained and the
interests of agriculture held supreme
over all non-partisan policies. the
balance of power will not be held by
the 'doater." to be bartered away in
the political market but by class of
men who have a stake in the country
and who are vitality interested in its
welfare.
The tendency of political parties is
always toward equilibrium. A small
minority in any state controls the
state policy. Shall this minority be
purchasable minority who have no stake
in the country or shall it be men who
have homes and families and who
must suffer by evil legislation? Edu-
eating voters of both parties in the
direction of wise legislation in mat
tiers affecting the agricultural interest
is a comparatively easy matter for the
Alliance to dominate and control the
policy of the state on large class of
questions and make it impossible for
purchasable 'hoaters'' to determine
public policies. To do so the Alliance
must have wise. considerable, broad
guage leadership. It must look upon
questions not in the line of their ef-
feet on one party Or the other. but on
the public welfare. All parties will
learn to shape their policies and meas
ures to meet the views of class of
farmers educated in the lines of their
own best interests, and in doing 80
will best serve the public.