The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-27
Letter From Mr.. Kelley.

A Letter From Mr.. Kelley.
EDIToR REGISTER: In the editoria
columns of your issue of March IL,
read an article headed "Then ant
Nown In which you say that the grea
trouble with us is that We forget on
past troubles too soon.
And this is q fact that I, too, vii
acknowledge TO some extent but no
entirely 80. You say you can well re
member when q top buggy would hav'
been a curiosity OH the streets of lola
And so can /. You also say that mos
every farmer has q buggy or spring
conveyance of some kind, and this also
is true. But if you could go on the
streets of lola some Saturday When
the farmers are all in town with theil
buggies and ascertain the per cent O
those buggies that are paid for and
that stand clear of mortgage you would
be surprised indeed. And besides
buggies are cheap and plentiful now
and are 10 longer luxuries as they
were i'm '73, IA and 10. II they
were as costly now as they were
then we would see but few of them on
our streets to-day. And again in '13,
\ and > we had but few pensioners in
our State and now if the hundreds of
thousands of dollars that are paid to
pensioners in our State were to be ex-
pehued for buggies there would be
enough of them to make q wonderful
display in every town in Kansas. lido
not write this because I am an enemy
to Kansas for am not. Kansas is my
abiding place and has been for the last
twenty-One years, and here I expect to
remain, for ] know her to be the best
State in the Union, all things consid-
cred, in which to reside.
1t was the swarms of chinch bugs
and grasshOppers that caused us to
drive poor, jaded horses in 1875 and
not because Kansas soil would not
produce grain.
What you said about the laid store"
is also true, and if the same thing were
running there to-day it would be pat
ronized just as it was then and by the
same class of people, as there is always
class in every community that would
like to have others feed them,
The high interest that you speak of
as being charged in those days I think
was caused by the lack of confidence
on the part of the capitalists of the
East; the appearance of the future de-
velopment of our State was so scaly
that they feared to loan their money
here.
And when we were scorched by
drOuth and had all the devilish in
sects in the world to prey upon us we
failed to pay our interest and of course
this made money scarce and interest
high. But we are rid of the bugs and
the drouth now, and confidence is re-
stored, money is plenty and interest is
low.
The next thing that you jump OH is
us farmers, or rather the Alliance.
Now Charley don't you think that you
would be just as well off if you would
give the farmers a rest? We want to
love you and why do you continually
dig at Us just because we have little
organization called the Alliance? We
are not making any fight against the
editors for having an editorial associa-
ton because that is in your line of bus
mess and we think it is necessary that
you should have them; and so is every
other industry in the world organized.
And now why should you Kick and
slur us farmers because we put our
heads together and thereby work to
each Others interests. You call us i'll
sane and many other hard names.
w Sli We hlO" Illdl We 1lOG
smart as some other people, but then
we have our row to hoe Just the same,
and Sl.50 is worth as much to you COM
ing out of the pocket of an Allen coun-
ty farmer Notwithstanding he belongs
TO the Alliance, as it is coming from
any other source. Therefore stop this
pinching and degrading process in
your paper by calling us insane, and
copying every little dirty thing into
your columns that you find in other
papers concerning US and our order.
We mean you no harm and we wish
you would read our constitution and
bylaws and see if there is anything
that interferes with any other class of
people. If there were the bottom would
have fallen out of US long since. One
of your excuses for abusing us is that
this Alliance movement is of Southern
origin. l know not where the move
ment started but admitting that it did
start in the South is that any reason
why we should discountenance it. The
South is certainly part of this Amer
lean Union and because she rebelled
once is that any reason why no good
should ever spring from that part of
our country? l am not surprised at
some of the old gray-headed soldiers
retaining a malice toward the South
though ii has now been twenty-five
years since that trouble. But / am
surprised to know that as bright and
as young man as yourself-one that |
was born since the roar of the last can |
non has died away, will continue to re- |
fer TO these buried thingsjust to keep |
up bitter feeling between the two
sections of our country. Now then |
don't do it any more.
L. F. KELLEY.
Is it entirely impossible for man
TO write so that some one will not mis- |
understand him, or will not misinter-
pref what he says? We are inclined
to doubt it since reading the above.
Mr.. Kelley is a friend of the REGIS
TER, we believe, and he is a man of
much more than average intelligence:
and yet his letter shows that he utter
ly misapprehends the position and at
titude of this paper. We have said
again and again as plainly as words
could express it, that we believed the
farmers should organize, and We would
gladly do all We could to help the
Farmers Alliance as a social and bus
mess organization. And yet Mr..
Kelley accuses us of jumping onto
the farmers" kicking the farmers
because they have little Organization
among themselves. Can he not nm ;