The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-13
AN INHARMONIOUs VOICE.
WOrkmen Arrayed Against the Farm
ers-PlutOcrncy's Arrangement and
Answer.


Workmen Arrnyed Against the Farm
ers-PlutOcrncy's Arrangement and
Answer.
To the Editor:
Will you permit an old man, of large
experience in the ups and downs of life.
to say just few words in the Peoples
Forum in The Representative?
notice that even Senator Lodge. with
all his keen insight, don't seem to under
stand why the laboring men don't fall into
line with the Peoples party. Well, my
experience, farmer and railroad
man, is, that the Peoples party. although
right in the main, is certainly injurious to
the railroad men and other classes of
laborers, from the fact that the party is
a party that originated in the halls of the
Farmers Alliance Having been member
of that organization, l know something of
it's workings. Its main object, it seemed
to me, was to reduce wages. Now, no
doubt every alliance man in the state will
dispute that, but l want you to know that
l have attended alliance meetings that
were held for no other purpose than to re-
duce the price of labor. How? By order
ing every farmer in the county who was
member of the alliance to pay no more
than $1.25 per day for harvest hands, when
the going wages were $l.75 and 81: to force
down the price of binding Irvine; to force
down the price of farm machinery; to
force down thresher rates, railroad ra ties
and everything but the price of farm
products And you, Mr.. Donnelly, as an
old alliance worker. know the foregoing
statements to be true. The ruling passion,
with the alliance man, is to crush wages
and prices-farm products excepted, of
course; and that is just the reason railroad
men, laborers and mechanics have not
nor never will vote with the farmer. until
the farmer changes his tactics and tries to
raise wages and prices, instead of lower
ing them. Whenever you lower railroad
rates you lower railroad labore-s- wages.
when you lower the price of a wagon or
threshing machine, or anything else, you
lower the wages of the men that make
them This is a war of conflicting inter-
ests. Can you, Mr. Donnelly, with all of
your ability as a writer and thinker I'M
ravel this problem?
L feel sure that | am on the right~track
and that conflicting interests will continue
10 stand in the way of our young and
struggling party. Of course. this is not
the only wrong there is to right The
money question is great one. 1 voted
for j. b. Weaver when Garfield was
elected; have voted the Republican ticket
until the late election when L voted the
Peoples party ticket. I will stand by it
until 1t goes down up, as the case NAV
be; and one way to send it up is to send
wages up. and by doing gain the con-
hdence of voting people. Yours for Justice.
r. r. BRATTON
Minneapolis, March T.
eve feel sure our correspondent is griey-
ously in error. We have attended hundreds
and thousands of meetings of alliances
local. county and state, and we never
nearu the subject of reducing wages
brought up or considered There NAV
nave been instances, although we person
ally Know or none such, where the farm
ers or certain neighborhood meeting as
farmers and not as alliance men. NAV have
net to agree upon the rate of wages they
would pay harvest hands--but with wheat
at 45 cents per bushcl who can blame them
IL they did? But the truth is, that be-
tween elf-binding machinery and the hard
times there are very few harvest hands
now hired. The farmers daughter drives
the reaper and his son or himself set I'D
the bundles, and the neighbors club togeth-
er to help each other in threshing Our
correspondent is away off his base. We
X
press narrow and illiberal view as to the
Work1ngmen On the contrary thew all
recognize the fact that the interests of
iabor, on the farm and in the city, are
Identical The displacement of labor by
machinery is a terrible fact, and it applies
to urban and rural life alike and it is hard
TO say just what the remedy is to be. The
minnesota farmer is competing with the
ryot OF India. whose wages are cents a
DAY, and to live he has to avail himself of
labor saving machinery; and even with il
he is sinking, in too many cases, into bank
ruptcy.
The farmer and the laborer are caught
alike in the grip of the same terrible bow
er. When the farmer is impoverished he
IS obliged to hire less labor; and when labor
Is starving it cannot buy the productions
OF the farmer. And it is no time now for
tnese equally oppressed elements to quar-
rel among themselves. They simplv heln
''iose VINO are crushing them.
our correspondents letter shows tho Kind
OF arguments that are being used 70 divide
the forces of reform and keep plutocracv
Al power Away with all such devices,
W nat we all want is universal prosneritx,
POSSESSING that, even labor sa wing macbin.
cry Will prove blessing. Labor ought to
pe ricn' working five hours a day instead
OF III or Il, for machinery has multinlied
the power of muscle ten-fold. And for
universal prosperity-we must have ssO nor
capita OF capital, and an era of Justice "a
REFORM; and to get those we must ali ,,,orL
toeetner to sustain the Peoples party
ana. thank God! the laborine class oro
beginning to see thiS.-Editor RenA