The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-10-27
IOWA STATE MEETING.
The Able Address of President ]. M
Joseph Before the State Alliance.

Joseph Before the State Alliance.
The following is the full text of the
annual address of President J. NJ.
Joseph, of the Iowa Farmers Alliance
and Industrial Union:
Brethren of the Farmers Alliance
and Industrial Union: l congratulate
you as representatives of the farming
interests of low for the bOuntiful sea
sol now drawing to q close. The Splen-
did feast now spread throughout this
State-the result of the laborS of an
industrious people, a fruitful soil and
a b~enetcent prOvidence-ShOuld awak-
en- in every breast a lively appreciation
of the many blessings with which we
are surrounded and admOnish us of the
many duties that devOlve upon us as
good citizens.
The duties of the farmer include very
much more than the cultivation of the
land and the production Of crops.
Upon him more than upon any one else
depends the character of public insti-
tutlOnS and the welfare of all classes of
people. With him. mainly rests the
responsibility of good and bad govern
ment.
That there has been a great awaken
ing among farmers during the past few
years III matters pertaining to their
rights and duties everybody knows
The Farmers Alliance is the result of
the dissatisfaction produced by an I'M
Just system of distributing the benefits
and burdens of public institutions.
There is a widespread belief among
farmers that in our hate as a nation
TO be rich and great, in urrapid march
from q very simple to n YER complex
civilization, we have lost sight of that
splendid stone our fathers carved with
infinite labor, and placed in the fOun-
datiOn Of u plan of government,
equal rights to all-speciaI privileges
to none. This is the block of political
granite upon which not only the Farm
erS' Alliance, but republican govern
ment itself must stand.
Let us not forget that we are the
children Of a az who believed in the
divine right of kings. That we have
inherited many of the prejudices and
SuperstitiOuS of an ancestry who never
rose to the comprehension of the splen-
did fact Of the fatherhOOd of God ami
the brOtl erhOOd Of man, and that W
as a people have never vet awakened
tO a full appreciation of the duties and
responsibilities Of a republican govern
ment. The mighty influx Of foreign
people who flock to Our shores as to a
house Of refuge. bringing with them
the customs and traditions Of caste, of
classes, Of privilege, has eXerted a
powerful influence II moulding our in
dustrial institutions.
Statesmen of all parties. while sub
Scrjbing to the fundamental doctrines
Of our government. are found advocat-
ing measures and policies SubVnrSIve
of them. For a score Of years they
have been planting seeds throughout
our industrial and commercial system
utterly at variance with the doctrine
Of equal rights. Today we are cursed
with privileged class S existing by viz
tue of legal enactmentS to as great a
degree as many of the nations of
Europe We have brOadened the fOun-
datiOn of the splendid temple our
fathers began. but we have not raised
its walls, except with a single stone, in
100 years. The emancipation of the
black man is the only achievement in
the interest of humanity worth record
ing in this century.
Monopoly is the arch enemy of in
dustry, the political monster of modern
times. 1t has come to be a constant,
ever present menace to free govern
AllEllts ~ u liz l III CIV u ' llCltA.
it clutches at the throat Of every hon
est toiler. 1t besets the public high
WAYS. 1t nfeStS every market. 1t IS
intrenched in court and congress alike.
The horse leach's daughter Of holy
writ was not more ~rapaciOus. As a
political force, it dominates both the
great parties. Its tendencies are to
ward arbitrary, deSpOtic government.
The home Of this monster Is in the
modern c~Ontrivances we call corpora
tiOnS.
The forces of nature. the natural
products Of the earth, the equal gifts
Of God to all the children Of men are
walled up by the O~mnipresent corpora
ton. The goods, the rights, the bene-
fits made matters Of corporate owner
ship and distributed TO the few while
the many are shut from a fair partici-
patton.
Public nstrumantalities, the rail
road, the telegraph, the financial svs
TENS drift enormous revenues into
private Golfers while they exist under
a nominal condition of public control
This condition is an economic alb
surdity.
No solution of the great problem of
equitable distribution can be found
outside the public ownership of public
Instruments, public ownership Of
natural forces and materials.
Pdrti5ans have raised a ghost and
named it paternal government forget
ting that the people are in theory and
ought to be in fact the government.
forgetting that except for the p~aternal
care of government there would not be
4 corporation OH the face of the earth.
Yet partisansb build no adequate defence
against the combination that clutches
labor by the throat, that gIOwers upon
industry with the eye of polyphemus,
sucking up her substance to the wall
of bare subsistence.
The $50, 900. 600, 600 of wealth in orr
nn,nnAnAr l. thn n.n.1Llt e thn- nrnni,,-. al