The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-23
DE-HORNING THE FARMERS,
The Grange and the Farmers
Tribune.


The Grange and the Farmers
Tribune.
| The "Farmers' Tribune" (Rep.)
quotes what we said the other day
about the Grange being merely Re-
publican club, and adds:
1.-THE above is a fair sample of the
spirit that inspires and actuates lead
ers of the political farmers" who are
seeking to array the men engaged in
one occupation against all other men.
They antagoniZe better methods of
farming, higher education, anything
that tends to make the life of the
farmer more enjoyable. knowledge,
prosperity. content and happiness
finds no place in Populism. The
Grange helps the farmer to think, live
| and act as an American citizen; it
helps to make them independent Of
cliques, com binations and quacks.
Partisan politics did for a time blight
the Grange but with the uprising of
the Alliance the parties transferred
themselves to that organization, since
then the Grange has grown; but the
Alliance has fallen into decay. One
OF the delegates to the recent Alliance
convention admitted to the writer
that partisan politics had killed the
Alliance but insisted that the only
thing needed to make every one pros
porous and happy was to get all the
farmers into one political party. Too
large dose of partisanship, like the
Single Tax, will drive men crazy, and
most of the Populistleaders are suf-
ferlng from an overdose"
The Alliance has never proposed to
array one set Of men, the farmers.
against all other men. It simply de-
sires that the few men-the usurers,
elevator-owners, wheat-rings, ma
chine men, and railroad corporations,
who are already arrayed against the
farmers shall be stopped from doing
further damage to them. Only that
and nothing more. Imagine lawyer,
in court, defending thief, saying:
"May itplease your honor, the prose-
cutting attorney is trying to array one
class Of men-the honest citizens
against all other men-to wit, the
thieves-one of VIII om is my client.
Now, may it please the court, all
such legislation as that under which
my client stands here, is unconstitu
tional;-it is 'class, s,-lcgislation;' it is
directed against cldss-the honorable
thieves; and you know there is Moth
ing against which we Repu licans are
more strictly opposed than class leg
islation.' We believe class can
be robbed into bankruptcy; that's all
right; but to pass laws to defend that
'class" is all wrong. You know. your
Honor, the Supreme Court, in the
celebrated case Of Hoop-pole against
Hoopdedoodledo, 25e the Periwinkle,
| pages 300, held that you could not pass
laws against robbery, because all men
were not being robberd at the same
| time, and therefore those who were
| being robbed were seperate class, ;
and class legislation is unconstitu-
| tional. And, in the language Of the
| Farmers Tribune, it is verv wrong to
seek to array the men who are en-
gayed in one occupation, (to-wit:--
honest work., against those engaged
in another occupation. tO-Wit, steal
| ing); and the people who would do it
are demagogues, anarchists, Popu-
| lists"
| Neither has the Alliance "antagon-
lied better methods Of farming, high
er education or anything that tends
| to make the life of the farmer more
| enjoyable" In fact those are the
very objects We have been working
| for. But what is the use Of raising
more wheat to the acre if the govern
| ment, by contracting the currency,
through the demon etization of silver,
| breaks down the price of that wheat
one-half? And what is the use of
raising better breeds of cattle if the
''Big -Four" of Chicago established a
monopoly, destroy all the freedom Of
market. and reduce the price of meat
one-half: And what if the use of
economizing if ia dozen Rings and
| Trusts are steal two dollars
where the farmers can save one? And
what is the use of high education if
it simply. enables man to see more
clearly the extent of the erobberies from
which he suffers? If he is to be serf
he will be happier with a serf's ignor-
ance. And what shall we say Of a
farmers" paper. and farmers as
sociati0n, like the Grange, which in
/ the presence of such evils tells their
| class rot to consider govern mental af-
/ fairs, or use the mechanism given
| them by their ancestors, (Jhe ballot
box, to right their wrongs or improve
their condition? We can only COM
pare such fellows with the chaps that