Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-03-12
THE ALLIANCE AND PROHIBITION.


1t is every mans duty to comporl
himself, socially, financially and polit
ically, in an honorable and consisten,
manner, SO that all men may see that Z
thorough appreciation of the Colder
Rule, DO unto others as ye would that
they should do unto you," is practical
ly understood and appreciated; so that
no man may point to them and say
'They are hypocrits, preteDders,
schemers or demagogues. But alas
there are too few who do their whole
duty in all things; and the number OF
those who evade duty at the most crit
ical moment is growing alarmingly
numerous of late.
In the campaign of the fall of 1890 a
new party sprung to power in Kansas
through combination of circumstances
never before dreamed of, and gained
strength in numbers with rapidity
never before equaled by new party
and which will probably not again be
duplicated.
What was the secret of the success of
the peoples party in Kansas? 1t was
this:
For many years our beautiful state
had been cursed with the domineering
rule of an arrogant party, managed,
engineered and controlled by an aristo-
cratic ring of professional Office seekers
and office holders; a clique of silk hat
drones who looked only to personal
comforts and emoluments and cared
not a straw for the happiness or pros
perity of the vast number of farmers
and labOrers who had carved a name
for Kansas out of her raw prairies
and dug a glorious record from the
mother earth.
For many years these managers of
the republican party had had things
their own way, in both national and
state affairs, until it was becoming use
less for the common people to try longer
to keep up the reputation of our state
for prosperity and enterprise. Farmers
were going in debt deeper every year;
money was becoming scarcer, interest
higher. property less valuable all the
time; home-seekers of the sturdy class
were speeding quickly through our
state, anxious to find place not
cursed with the c0nsciencelesS rule of
constituencies party. All this set the
farmers to thinking, to studying the
causes of such a deplorable state of
affairs: and it was not hard for them to
understand that, by giving The tariff
barons, the bloody shirt clowns, the
gold standard aristocrats majority of
50 900 votes they were themselves
assisting in their own undOing. Re-
publican farmers. men who had done
the voting while the ''bosses" did the
talking, decided to do little of the
talking themselves.
The alliance, which, at the time it
was first started in Kansas had no pOlit-
ical ambition apparently, was place
where the farmers could get together
weekly and discuss the state of affairs.
We took the position, at that time,
that the organization of the farmers
could but result in good to the farmers;
and we still hold that it has been a
power for good in the way of getting
them to understand the situation as to
our state and national affairs, and as
sert their power as voters and as men
interested in the general welfare as we'll
as their personal success as farming
class.
Alliances were organized; all the
farmers were made members who de-
sired to become such; no questions
We're asked as to political preference or
prejudice, and in a very short time the
majority of the farmers of Kansas were
meeting weekly IN the country school
houses and discussing the situation OF
their class and the way to improve it.
Democrats as we'll as republicans were
in the alliance and all treated each
other as brothers.
As before stated, it was not long
the evil with which they were cursed;
discovered it in the hot-bed of the re-
publican party. While it was hard for
the republicans to acknowledge this, it
was easy for their democratic brothers
to admit it, for, bless you! they had
known it all along, and had been try
ing to dig up the pestiverous thing for
many years.
Having discovered the source of most
of the things that were detriment to
the success of farming in Kansas, the
alliance men. with one accord said:
ssWe will uproot this evil; we will tear
the foul thing out and plant the seeds
of more useful, more equitable tree
called Justice to all. ." They laid