The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-07-23
.PopuIism Against Socialism.
BY A. Il. Simons.

great army of pioneers that had con
quered the wilderness of Ohio, indiana
and Michigan, and pressed on across
the prairies of Illinois, leaving behind
item cities, towns and manufactures
which their hands had helped to Gre
ate, and In which neither they mol
their children had share-when this
mighty army reached its final camp
ing ground at the base Of the Rockies
l. found itself part of social or
ganization such as had never existed
before In the history Of the world.
The farmer has always been looked
upon as Independent, isolated, free, a
producer for use and not for sale and
secure In the possession of his prod
uct. The farmer Of the great plain
found himself from the beginning q
specialist. raiser Of one crop, and
this the crop Of all others which had
been most thoroughly made a COM
modify. The price of his product was
fixed In Liverpool and every channel
between him and the final user was
controlled by those whose every In
terest was antagonistic tc his own.
Mortgages, elevator trusts, railroad
combines, manufacturers Of agricult-
ural machinery, barbed wire. and
binding Irvine trusts closed IL upon
him from every direction until he
found himself stripped far closer than
the average wage-worker of the in
dustrial city. So 1t was that he struck
back and struck back fiercely and
b,indly.
1t would have been a miracle If he
had been able to see all the complex
forces that operated to produce his
The exploitation of the wage
worker Is infinitely more simple, more
evident, yet how few Of them have yet
begun to move intelligently. The far.
mer Of the west had been throughout
his lifetime and h. inherited through
generations the ideh that
the only road to economic indepen-
dence for the farmer, at least, lay
through the title deeds of little
patch Of land. Hence it was that he
sought to destroy the forces that were
taking his title deed away from him
and cried out for the busting" of the
trust. the Stacking of the railroad,
and above all else, for an increase in
the circulating medium which would
or able him to gay all his debts the
easier.
His title deed was yalueless to Sc
cure him independence for the whole
substance of ownership had been TAX
en- away from him long ago, and the
sbsdO1 which was left behind was not
worth fighting for else it, too, would
have been taken. Money seemed to
him like some active, independent.
principle instead of simply the means
by which capitalism keeps its looks.
Hence 1t was that the first revolt not
Icing in accord with social progress.
not being based On knowledge Of the
laws Of economi; evolution, was fore
doomed to failuBe; that it died while
lost in the morass of capitalist poll
tics was but an incident Its death
was foreordained from the beginning.
All that was worth while in the
pOpulist movement was the spirit of
revolt and the sense of solidarity. So
cialism embraces these and adGs just
those things which it lacked to make
It vital force. Socialism recognizes
The fact that no movement today
which is really to profoundly affect
social forces can isolate itself from
the wage workers.
The populist party and The philos-
ophy of pOpulism afferd nothing of
interest to the wage-workers, and all
Efforts to attract them to its standard
were unavailing. AT no time did it
have any real strength ins-the cities
save where 1t managed to make an al
lance with semi-socialist oryaniza-
tons But today any movement which
is to become dominating force in
political life must in some way ally
itself with the wage workers of the
great cities. In lie same way any
which is to effect any great
political change must not close it's
eyes ID the fact that there are nearly
six million farmers in America today.
Neither of these great wings CT the
producing class can win without the
ether.
But there is a deeper reason than
mere political expediency for un-
lon of these forces. If their inter-
ssts were diverse any political union
would be useless.
Socialism is founded upon the doc
trine that there exists in our present