The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-20
WHAT THE AGITATION 10 DOING
FOR KANSAS.

its loudest appeal upon the alleged dis
tress of the farming class; and it has been
the chief business of Alliance speakers
and writers to paint q melancholy picture
of decline and decay in the agricultural
interest. 1t has been represented that
farming does not pay and cannot be made
to pay; and it has further been repre-
sented that the farmers Of the United
States are laboring under q load of debt
which threatens to overwhelm them and
to destroy the value of agricultural lands.
Kansas, as the center of this movement.
has especially been held up as frightful
example. She has been pictured as be-
coming barren through ceaseless cropping;
as debt-laden to the verge of universal
bankruptcy; as losing her population: and
for proof of all this, epublic has been in
vited to witness the efforts now being made
by her farmers for the wholesale changes
in the laws.
As natural consequence. capitalists and
investors Of the Eastern states. upon whom
Kansas, like other Western states, depends
for financial cooperation, have become
alarmed. They are refusing absolutely to
make further advances in Kansas and are
endeavoring to get back the moneys here
tofore invested in Kansas sccurities. OF
course, there is in Kansas, due to this
want of confidence and withdrawal of
funds, extremely hard times. The people
are pinched and badly pushed. not because
they are normally worse off than their
neighbors, but because they have made .
scare by parading their difficulties and
putting them in the worst possible light.
The agitation, instead Of helping them,
has, in its practical effects, increased their
dificulties-in short, is bringing about the
very evils which it was designed to ward of.
Under the strain of tho Alliance agita-
ton the situation has become serious, so
serious tlia. the leading business men of
the state ind it necessary to make an effort
to stem the torrent. Ex-Governor Samuel
K. Crawford has publicly expressed him.
self as follows:
The movement, generally speaking, was en-
gineered BY cranks, irresponsible agitators, and
political mountebanks; and had 1t not been for
the previous partial failure of crops, as q polit
cal organization it would have made no head
way In Kansas. There is nothing in it, to it or
about 1t worthy of the intelligent, thoughtful
man. The so-called sub-treasury scheme, and
the proposition TO print and loan money to the
people at nominal rate of interest, for the time
being deceived some good citizens, but upon re-
Election they will recognize the utter folly of
such nonsense. These vagaries, famed into
flames by agitators who do their farming at po-
ltical meetings, picnics, barbecues, and on
street corners, constitute the sum and substance
of the so-called alliance principles. The idea
that the government IL going to build cribs and
bins in which to store all the surplus corn and
wheat, and hold such surplus as collateral Tor q
loan Of 10 per cent of its value, and little ad-
vaEces In price, is too absurd to discuss That
permanent political structure, erected upon
such a foundation, by such builders, cannot
stand, Is apparent to every intelligent man. Nor
can such movement seriously damage the
the credit of any state or people any longer than
may be required for the bubble to prick Itself, or
longer than the thing is pricked by good crop
such as Kansas will undoubtedly produce this
year. Two years ago our aggregate yield of corn
was something over 25o,0oo,o00 bushels. This
year, with favorable season, It will be as large,
while the aggregate yield of wheat viii not fall
short of 65 100000 bushels. This, with other pro-
ducts and the great numbers OF horses and
mules and cattle that will be shipped to market
during the year, will place Kansas in the front
state. And yet, Notwithstanding all this, the
leaders of the Alliance and other blatant croak-
ers will have the country believe that the farm
ers OF Kansas are on the verge of ruin.
This will not suffice, The leaders of the
Alliance are too crazy and too far COM
mitted to listen to reason. They will
continue their mad course till the state is
damaged beyond repair by the present
generation. Confidence will be further
shaken, money will be driven out of the
state, immigration will be discouraged
and in consequence Kansas will suffer
such evils as will make il in fact what it
is now only in the imagination of its
crank political leaders, a warning and
''frightfui example"-not so much of
bad laws as of the effect of crank theoriz-
ing and OF wild political alarms.