The Portland daily press., 1891-06-18
The Declining Alliance.

There are plenty of signs that the Farmers
Alliance movement is on the decline, In
Kansas several subordinate Alliances have
repudiated the portion of the PEOPLES
Party that calls for the loan of government
money to the farmers at per cent, and in
Nebraska growing Indifference to the
movement is reported among the farmers.
OF course the movement is by no means dead
yet 1t undoubtedly can still show much
strength in the West, especially in Kansas
and Nebraska, but 1t is quite exident that
the decline has begun which will eventually
end in dissolution.
That the Alliance would not last long has
been obvious enough to anybody who knew
the causes that brought it into being. and thu
ends which 1t sought to accomplish. The
causes were but various ramifcations of one
single cause which may be summed up In
the two words "hard times" The Western
farmer had borrowed large sums of money of
the Eastern capitalists, and to secure the
ncnt thereof had mortgaged his farm to
.le creditor. Undoubtedly much of the
money borrowed was imprudently borrowed.
That is to say, there was no reasonable pros
pect that the development sought through
the borrowed capital would be sufficient to
pay for its cost. With long continu-
ance Of favorable seasons it possibly
might have been, but favorable sea-
sons did not continue. and the farmer
found his crops cut off. a hard sale
and a low price for what he did raise,
while the interest on the mortgage went
right on piltng up heavy burden upon him,
and jeoparding the possession of his
farm and home. Thousands and tens of
thousands of farmers in the West found
themselves in this predicament few years
ago. 1t was desperate strait to great
many OF them, and it is no wonder they
eagerly seized upon any scheme which was
promised to give relief. The Alliance move
ment was one Of these schemes. Reduced to
its lowest terms, it was plan to relieve the
suffering farmers by legislation. Men who
are sick physically or financially are not in
possession of that sedate mind that is needed
to estimate at their true value remedies pre-
scribed for their diseases. In those times
they take great many things on trust. The
label on the bottle or the title of the measure
is their chief dependence. If the label says
the contents will cure the ply steal ailment
that is frequently enough to secure it trial.
Ii the title of the bill says it will bring re-
lief to financial distress that is enough to
secure it the support of the suffering The
propensity of men when they are sick to take
almost anything that comes highly recon-
mended explains the phenomenal rapidly
with which the Alliance grew.
1t seems likely to happen, fortunately for
the Alliance as we'll as for the country, that
the Alliance will not have to be convinced
by actual experience that its remedies are
not eficacious or salutary. 1t would
be exceedingly unfortunate IL it
should become necessary TO demon.
strate by actual trial that unlimited
silver coinage will not neutralize the evils of
recklessly running into debt, and that loan
of government money is not remedy for
bad crops and low prices Returning health
due to better seasons and better prices is
clearing the vision of great many of the
Western farmers and enabling them to see
that the remedies Of the Alliance are quack
remedies calculated to do more harm than
coed. This is the reason why the strength
of the movement is beginning to decline.
Its unsoundness is being found out