Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-10-07
THE PEOPLES PLATFORM.
It's Declarations Tend to Governmental Pa
ternalism and state Socialism.

ternaitsm ana state Socialism.
Prominent in the Peoples Party
platform is the proposition that the
Government establish produce pawn
shops and make loans on farm products
- : per cent interest, that provision be
made by the Government for loans on
farm lands at a similar rate of interest
and that the Government assume con-
ty6l of railroad and telegraph lines.
These propositions embody the princi-
pal features of what is better known as
the Sub-treasury and land loan schemes
and proposed Government ownership
of railroads and telegraph lines put for
ward by the Farmers Alliance at 0cala,
Florida, and more latterly christened
by the Omaha council THE Reform
Trinity of Land, Finance and Transpor.
tation.
An examination of these propositions
show that they involve principles and
procedures antagonistic to the Federal
Constitution, inharmonious with the
American idea of government, in con.
fict with the spirit and constitution Of
the Farmers Alliance, whose funda-
mental maxim is equal rights of all and
special privileges to none, revolutionary
in proposition and tendency, imprac-
ticable in method, subversive of good
government and tending in an alarm
ing degree to governmental paternaism
and State socialism.
The farming class above all others
should never consent to the theory that
it is the province of government, either
directly or indirectly, to provide for the
sustentation of the citizen. Govern
ment is nothing more than society po-
itically organized for special purposes
and is neither omnipotent nor omnific.
The Government must look to the
citizen rather than the citizen to the
Government and when this order of de-
pendence is inverted, government at
once becomes an engine of oppression,
gigantic in the scope of its evil and ma
tional in the range Of Its desolation, un-
Ter which the sovereign citizen is de-
graded to a. condition of abject help
icssness and servility. The progress
and prosperity OF the individual, as
also the fidelity of free institutions
must be left to individual thought, ef-
fort and enterprise. Any other system
must dwarf the system, abnormally
;aagnify the government, thereby be-
coming menace in principle that gov
ernment is Of the people, for the people,
and by the people.
The sub-treasury scheme must by its
own provisions be limited and partial
IN its operation, thus constituting that
species of class legislation against which
She farming class has always waged war
and which has been their bane and
curse. Then il involves complica-
zion and intricacy of business detail
with which the average farmer has no
acquaintance or experience. Then it
requires series and system of charges
upon warehouse deposits of farm pro-
ducts which together with the time and
labor of necessary attention to details
would equal sum of money as great if
not greater than the rate of interest at
which money can be borrowed through
the ordinary financial methods of the
period it would place the market
price of the deposited farm products
beyond the control of the producer and
at the dictum of political inexperts,
shus opening wide the gates of COM
nerce to sharpers and sharks, who
would mercilessly traffic to their own
profit in the hard earnings of the farm
srs 1t would furnish substitute for
money, which must be degraded to a
deprecated and uncertain standard of
value, and subjected to ruinous dis
~ I'll I..c
price to be paid for necessaries in the
currency provided for by the proposed
scheme would be increased by Just so
far as there may be uncertainty as to
the final disposition of the commodity,
upon the deposit of which the proposed
certificates would be issued The
throwing of a great mass of produce
upon the market at one and the same
time would depreciate prices and thus
oring loss to the government, which
must be made good by increased tax
alton of the farmer in common with
,ther tax paying citizens. To those
who see these promised evils the out
sook presents only confusion made
calamitous by bankruptcy and ruin.
Some local history confrInatory of these
objections could be furnished by
he States of Alabama, Missouri and
Mississippi, each of which to its own
sorrow has tried schemes of relief not
dissimilar to the proposed sub-treasury
bill.
The land-loan scheme is even more
Objectionable, if possible. than the snb-
treasury and warehouse proposition
Its only possible commentator to ia
goralle consideration is fhe extremely
ow rate Of interest proposed. Bnt it
Is questionable whether this seeming
advantage could compensate for the
many disadvantages that may result
from the scheme should it become .
law. The expense Of the system pay
nent of Government agents, fees for
applications for loans. examination of
land titles, expenses of collections and
foreclosures of mortgages would. VIXEN
aided to the two per cent interest swell
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