Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-05-20
POLK'S GREAT SPEECH.
The President of the Alliance Announces
the Principles to be Fought For.

The President of the Alliance Announces
the Principles to be Fought For.
One of the largest Alliance meetings
ever held in Washington was the one at
Concordia hall, at which President Polk.
of the National Alliance, made an address.
Mr.. Polk said he desired to discuss prin-
came from God, while men were of the
dust of the earth. He said mighty forces
were being marshaled to test the virtue,
manhood, patriotism and love of self gov
eminent. The march of human progress
was strewn with the wrecks of empires,
kingdoms, systems and governments and
we stand in the midst of the great revolu-
tion-the mightiest social, industrial and
economic revolution the world has ever
witnessed. Justice, equity and truth was
the watchword, and from all parts came
the demand. ''Equal rights to all, and
social rights to none."
Mr.. Polk spoke of the rapidly advancing
civilization, and said we should profit by
the lessons of the past, and yet agriculture
was languishing. There was now no such
thing as contentment and peace among the
American farmers, but universal and
dismal wall of hard times all over the land.
>He then gave facts and figures to show
that from 1850 the farmer and laboring
man lad gradually grown poorer, and that
the cost of production had grown larger
each year. The system of mortgaging
farms was dwelt upon at great length, and
it's operations were given by States, show
ing that very soon the tillers of The soil
would be required to step down and out
Colonel Polk said:
s'All over the face of this broad land, the
,not In oiu
may be read the same sad, sad story and
if you would read the fearful record of the
frightful ravages of money power on the
industrial energies of our people, go to
your census bureau in this city and you
will find piled up the abstracts of SO, 900, 600
of mortgages on their homes--a mortgage
for every seven of our population, or aver
aging about one mortgage to every family
in the whole Union.
But this law of supply ard demand is in
exorable and unchanging in its effects and
operations as applied to money. Scarcity
of money means high priced money;
plentiful supply of money means cheap
money. The high priced dollar lessons the
price of labor products. Look at our pub
lie debt. In 1886 it was $2,773, 000,0 900.
We have paid in principal, interest and
premiums on that debt the vast sum Of
$4,19S, 931, 1861, and yet it would take more
of labor products to day to pay the remain
der than it would have taken at the prices
in 1886 to have paid the original debt"
He then pointed to the abandoned farms
of Massachusetts,, New Hampshire, Kansas
New Jersey and other States to show that
his assertions were true, and said that the
cry of 'over production" was an entirely
false one. There could be no over produc-
t;ox, on 1opov n ho oru for hraad from q
single child was heard. 1t was unGer con-
sumption and not over production. It was
not the fault Of the farmer, but of the
financial system of our government. The
former in every instance had the burden to
bear. In referring to the Alliance Colonel
Polk said:
"They have formulated and announced to
the world platform Of principles which
they believe will bring the greatest good to
the greatest number, and will conserve the
highest and best interests of all the people
of this great country. Alliance men, Dem
ocrats and Republicans alike, believe that
these principles embody the very quintes-
sence of neutrality-suspicious. andJ eff
fersonian-Democracy. But we are told
by presumptuous and arrogant partisans
and self constituted leaders that farmers
and other laboring classes should not 60
into politics. that We Will ruin parties and
ruin the country Who constitute parties
in this country? To whom do political
parties belopg-to the people or to the few
who arrogantly assume to control them
Who has better right to 60 into politics
than the farmers of this country? Do they
not clothe and feed the world? Of the
81, 900, 000,0 900 expended by the last con-
gress did not $500, 900 of it come from
their pockets?
Without the farmers all our mighty net
work of railways would grow up in grass
and weeds in ninety days; without them
all progress would be paralyzed and all
civilization would perish.
The organization of the National Far
mers Alliance and Industrial Union is not,
nor can it be, partisan in its character it
does not and cannot interfere or ebridge in
any manner the most perfect freedom of it's
members as to their political action. 1t
seeks to inculcate proper conception of
the great and important responsibilities of
citizenship, and those essential principles
of free government which are founded in
equity ard justice and leaves the member
To follow the dictates of his conscience and