Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-04

I people, WHY DOU the IIOuSaHUS fellow
zens who are not farmers be compelled to
pay eXorbitant and unchristian prices for
the necessaries of lifel And would YOU
make your great government the jailor OF
the necessaries of life and the soulless in
! strument of eStortion. Gigantic
SCHEMES OF SPECULATION
would be inaugurated, and that. too, under
the most favorable conditions FOR merci-
less extortion. This measure or scheme is
class legislation pure and simple. If this
government has any right to tax the people
TO raise money with which TO construct
warehouses, pay officers and cover losses
that must follow, and provide fund
loan to those who may possess cotton.
wheat, corn or tobacco, or who. if You
please. may chance to own lands, the Strug-
gle OF the Democratic party for more than
a hundred years 10 shield The people against
the evil effects of class legislation have
been worse than cheats. The power to tax
is confided to this government for public
purposes only, and not the benefit or gain
of any Individual or class of individuals
hewever worthy, and the courts say that
wherever the government takes by taxa
ton the money
| OUT OF TIE POCKETS OF THE PEOPLE
for the purpose of bestowing it upon any III
diyidual or class of individuals to enable
them to better their condition in life. is
none the less robbery because the transfer
is made under the forms Of law. We all
deny the right of the government to tax US
to enable manufacturer to increase its
profits. We all deny the right of the govern
| ment TO contract the volume of currency III
order to enrich the money power. We all
deny the right of the government to allow
corporations to issue money and control the
volume of circulation. How is it that the
people may be taxed to construct ware
| houses and furnish money to enable the
owners of certain products
no E IT'D
| in life2 1t does not follow that because the
constitution may have been violated once,
| twice or thrice over the protest of the
Democratic party, that it becomes proper to
violate it again. This measure was never
| designed to benefit the farmers. especially
the poor farmers. There are thousands of
corporations in the United States, organ
| lied syndicates. raising immense quantities
| of grain on the great prairies, and immense
| cotton crops. They might be benefited by
| having the people taxed to build ware
houses for them in order that they might
| compel the government to hold their grain
until the bread necessities of the people
| would enable them to eXtOrt unreasonable
| prices for their grain. There would hardly
be one county in twenty-five in Texas that
| would secure warehouse.
THIS SCHEME
| violates the platform of the Farmers Alliance
| as shown in the fifth clause Of that inStru-
| plank referred to in the platform, announces
Il pure democratic principle This bill or
| scheme is based solely on the principle of re
| publicanism. 1t is constructed on the very
! same principle as high protective tariff;
| upon the same principle that you are now
! taxed to maintain civil pension list; upon
| the same principle that you are taxed to
| support appropriations necessary to provide
money to levy silver bullion not for coinage
Where did it come from! Let the very
| ablest representative of. the Farmers
| Alliance in the United States, Mr.. W. S.
! Hall president of the Alliance of the state
of Missouri, say this scheme was
| NEVER PRESENTED
| to, considered or reported by the committee
| on demands. AS l was secretary of that
| committee and was present at all its meet
| ings and kept aud now have complete min
| utes of that committees work. | know am
| right The committee on demands was
| composed of one delegate from each state
| to draw up demands on the national gov
| eminent, thus giving all parts of the coun-
| try voice in our demands, and this scheme
| not being in our demands al all in our last
meeting at st. Louis, | regard it as espe-
| cially unfortunate that our national officers
| should have placed so much stress upon it.
! The way this scheme ever come before the
! body was by report made by a committee
of five. the -
oRIGINAToRs OF THE BILL
being CHAIRMAN on the ana the
| other four members being not members of
all the different political parties as was the
committee on demands, but all five of these
members (as / AIN informedl of one politi-
cal party. And that report was most bit
terly fought in the convention and only
adopted after some states. notably Mis-
souri,. demanded that her entire vote be
registered against the scheme under all cir
cumstances.'' Thus, my fellow-citizens,
YOU will see that this sub-treasury scheme
was concOcted by self-constituted commit
tee of five Republicans, and sprung upon
the Alliance convention at St. Louis, after
that convention had formulated its demands
ON congress, and adopted amid the bitter
denunciations of such Democrat delegates
as that of Missouri. 1t was
TROJAN WAR HORSE
led into our ranks and filed with the enc
mics of the Democratic party Our farmers
and laboring people all over the land had
become aroused to the wrongs and injustice
of class legislation. The time had come
when monopoly protected industries and
the money power beheld the end of
their tyranical reign. The ranks of the
Democracy were filing up; unless our ranks
could be broken their doom was sealed.
This device in the shape of bounty. boon
never to be realized was concOcted in Re
publican camp of five is now regarded by
Republicans, by Greenbackers and by all
the enemies of the Democracy as the enter
ing wedge with which the party must be
disintegrated and destroyed. / do not be-
ieve it. l recognize the patience. the forti- |
tude, the heroic manlineSs with which the |
Democratic farmers of the South have borne |
the injustice of class legislation
YEAR AFTER YEAR.
For more than quarter of a century |
they have hoped for and worked for relief, |
but the Democratic party has never had |
the power in congress to secure it for |
them. True, the magnificent department |
of Texas and the beneficent condition of |
her laws, attest the wonderful devotion |
of the Democratic party to the interests |
of the people. Here Democratic admins |
tration has imperial sway, and within the |
sphere of its jurisdiction it deals out |
even handed justice to all alike; but, be- |
cause of the war, and the prejudices en-
gendered by it the Democratic party has |
never been able to acquire the control of |
the law-making power of the general gov
ernment Happily for the people of the
United States the time has come when we
may hope that the great
ECONOMIC QUESTIONS
upon which the prosperity of all the people
SO much depends may be settled in the in
terest of justice and equality without refer
ence to questions growing out of the war.
If the farmers of the country will stand by
the Democratic party and its principles,
class legislation will soon be wiped from
the face of your laws and the financial
despotism which enslaves YOU will be