THE PEOGRESSIYE FARMER FEBRUARY 18. 10
4
FRAUK AND FRATERNAL.
From far off Kansas.
Chase, Rice Co., Kansas,
Jan. 20, 1890.
Col. L. L. Polk Dear Sir and
r0- When we separated in bt.
Louis it was agreed that on
reaching home I should write you.
But on reaching home I was compelled
to start for Portland, Oregon, to the
bedside of a very sick son after only
on8 days' rest. This excuse for delay
I'm sure will satisfy you. So I will
come now to the question. You re
member that when we parted you re
ferred to my holding your hand wLile
addressing the audience over which
VOU liau LUC UiatiiJ&UrtStrv- ,va-vJ.
preside ir-Eosition Hall. Please
-pefmirTiie to state tint time was too
precious for me then had I been able
to do so to fully express in words the
pleasure it afforded me to grasp, as it
were, the whole South by the hand in
fraternal union. 1 felt and believed
and still believe from the demonstra
tion of that immense audience, that
every man present had put aside, and
forever, all feeling except that in
favor of our flag, our united country,
our prosperous and happy people.
And as that was in its truest sense a
representative body of men selected
from among the wealth-produciDg
classes both North and South, I feel
that it was certainly a most fitting
time and place for such a feeling to
become master of the situation. So
little has been said in any of our as
semblies, either legislative or other
wise, since the war on questions of
National importance that has not
tended to foster rather than banish
and bury, sectionalism and bitter feel
ing. So iittle discussion in a friendly
way of the real wants and wishes of
all our people as a whole, and tending
to harmonize discordant elements, that
I am unavoidably forced to the con-
- elusion that since the signing of the
Declaration of Independence no body
of men has ever been convened as a
deliberative assembly, who have had
the prosperity and happiness of all
classes of our people so much and so
sincerely at heart as that organization,
the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial
Union of America. Such demonstra
tions of good will are not strange, my
brother, when we remember that these
men who assembled in St. Louis had
met each other before in deadly com
bat on many a bloody battlefield,
where they had. left their fathers,
their brothers and their sons in the
i i nnrvnv to
cold embrace of death. Men who,
though no fault of their own but that
they followed trusted leaders. By
leaders with energies bent to evil and
-their own selfish greed, they had been
thus betrayed. "And for the last
twenty-five years by this same class of
leaders have been led further and
further apart instead of nearer to-1
gether. 1 say, how can demonstra
tions of joy be considered strange
when such men as these throw off the
shackles which have so long kept
them apart, and come together again
in fraternal union ?
I will admit that all our summer
resorts are visited regularly by people
from all section of this great country;
that our interstate commerce is going
on with little seeming interruption
and tkat the North, South, East and
"West send delegates to the National
Congress where they are supposed to
legislate in tne interest of the people,
but in reality endeavor by every pos
sible means to keep the embers of
strife and discontent so stirred that
partisan sectional bitterness and its
attendant evils have permeated, en
feebled and so blinded our people that
we have well nigh lost every vestige
of the liberty for which our fore
fathers fought, and without which no
people can be a unit in deed and in
truth. If a better state of feeling is
not fostered, it can only be a question
of time when serious consequences
must follow. The rising generations
of the two sections will take" up and
enlarge upon the present alleged
wrongs, and this" in time must in
evitably end in disaster. For in
stance, the race question is now at
tracting general attention and must
be disposed of. My opinion is that
the people of the South realize the
fact fully; that it behooves them to
make just as good a man out of the
colored man as they possibly can, and
, I believe interference on the part of
untruthful politicians through the
medium of a subsidized and corrupt
press does now and will continue. to
retard such a result. You people of
the South know too much to act
otherwise than in the light of reason,
humanity and justice toward the col
ored man, and when an occasional
wrong is perpetrated upon them your
better people will ,see to it that the
perpetrator is properly punished.
This, my brother, is the light in which
I have viewed this matter ever since
the, war, and if all lovers of peace,
prosperity and happiness of the Alli
ance North and South will endorse
this view of this and other kindred
questions, we will in a few years be
out of sectional trouble. In short, we
must teach the truth and practice jus
tice and charity, something the greedy
money shark nor the place-hunting
political trickster knows nor cares any.
thing about. Yet these are the scape
graces who are getting away with us
as a nation.;
But, referring to the bloody conflict
through which v.o passed," from 1861
to 1865, in. which the mortality list
has scarcely if ever been equalled
among the nations of the eirth, let me
state that the uncivilized and barbarous
rush to war on the slightest pro oca
tions, while the now civilized and-en-lightened
nations resort to the sword
and rifle only as a last r-sort. The
former with less persistency soon ends
the conflict with little blood she,
while the latter, regarding war as the
final resort, the -las!; arbiter, from
which there is to be no appeal, pro-
i i 1
tract tne straggle more stuoDormy
and with more destructive results.
The intelligence of our nation has
never bem questioned .either before or
since the waft -"'The cause ot tne war
UefT - as riveted upon your people
of the South generations before tne
people who had to dispose of the ques
tion were born. Sins of our fathers
'visited upon the children to the
third and fourth generation " without
the knowled;3 or consent of those
who had to f .spose of this question,
was fastened upon us, and when the
conflict came, so deeply rooted into
the very nature and being of both
North and South, that both sides call
ing upon the same God, feeling in
their very life that they were right
and consequently in every way justifi
able, rushed to the mad conflict with
a bravery, a heroism, yea, with a de
voted patriotism hitherto unknown,
with results more-disastrous and de
structive than are scarcely to be found
in the world's history. The South
defending, to them a constitution
sacred and of divine origin, were as
earnest, persistent and determined as
we of the North were to destroy it.
The honesty, sincerity and bravery of
the South as displayed in that bloody
-struggle and since has seldom if ever
been equalled, and most certainly has
never been excelled, in the whole his
tory of man. That our efforts were
equal to your own you will not hesi
tate to admit, for you know that it re
quired a powerful, a persistent, and a
people not wanting in bravery to cope
with your people of the South, and
with all this in order that we might
be master of the situation, superiority
of numbers had to be added, or we
never could have marched through
the Southern States. The war is
over, slavery is banished and you
would not have it back on Southern
soil under any circumstances. "Why,
then, should we not unite in all
THINGS THAT CONCERNS US AS A NATION?
We should be proud of each other;
we should frown down every effort to
cultivate and perpetuate sectional bit
terness; we should not question each
others honor nor braverv, and when
points of no real difference can be
found to exist, why not love each
other, and why not fly into each
other's arms in such fraternal embrace
as no power on earth .can sever? The
interests of the North are the interests
of the South and vice versa, and if
the masses of o ar people will elevate
themselves entirely above the designs
or the selfish, unscrupulous politicians
of both sections (not the honest ones,
for this class we need) we cannot,
with our great and almost unlimited
resources, iail to be anything snort
of the wealthiest and happiest nation
of people the world has ever known,
and we would become a bright and
shining light to guide the footsteps of
all the world along the paths which
lead mankind individually and collect
ively to intelligence, prosperity and
happiness. But you know, my
brother, we are met at every step in
this direction by our most deadly
enemies or their emissaries, the cor
porations, trusts and enthroned capital.
Their presence was detected at St;
Loui3. The efforts made to keep
Kansas out of the union field, and
now as the subordinate Alliances have
most heartily endorsed our action,
Kansas may be counted as fully united
with the Farmers' Alliance and Indus
trial Union of America.
I have been told that it was feared
that I had used language in the Na-
tional Alliance meeting that might in
jure the cause. If so, I did not intend
it so, and to my Southern brethren I
make this explanation: I have twice
been elected a member of the Kansas
Legislature, and introduced the first
bill in that body for the regulation of
railway transportation. This naturally
drew the fire of railroad corporations
and their sympathizers and hired tools
perhaps their efforts to throttle me,
have tended to make me a little tart
in my criticisms, but when confront
ing what I conceive to be the enemies
of the industrial prosperity and hap-
piness of my people, I wish it distinct
ly understood that no earthly power
will be permitted to intimidate, em
barrass or prevent me from giving
utterance to my true sentiments
touching our country, our people, and
their prosperity ana happiness as a
nation, especially when I am their
representative as I was at St. Louis.
For I cannot lose sight of the fact
that although more than half of our
enormous national debt has been can
celled since the war, yet to pay the
balance now would take more than
twice the amount of agricultural
products that it would have taken at
the close of the war to have paid it
all. This fact is due, not as is claimed
by men who know better, to our pro
duction, but through trusts, combines,
high rates of transportation and high
and ruinous rates of interest, etc. The
monev -lords have taken every con
ceivable advantage of the natural law
of supply and demand. Have lobbied
their pet schemes into legal enact
ments through State and National
legislation until to day, notwithstand
inj? the enormous unpaid .national
debt, many of our best agricultural
States are carrying debts almost equal
to the assessed valuation of all their
property, both real and personal, and
all the States are approaching this
lamentable condition with truly alarm
ing rapidity, and tens of thousands of
our laboring men and women are
being driven to absolute and distress
ing want of the comforts and the
actual necessities of life.
These are facts no man can gainsay,
and in their face does it not behoove
us who have the interest and happi
ness of all at heart to look well and
test thoroughly the men for whom we
vote to represent us in both Stat and
National legislatures? We do not
wish the Alliance to go into politics
as a body or distinct party, but the
Alliance should demand and see to it
that the interests of the producer shall
be redeemed, guaranteed and pro
tected from the encroachment of any
corporation, trust or combine that
may be organized against them. -Fraternally
yours,
G. Bohuer.
MPORTANT CONSTITUTIONAL
AMENDMENTS.
Congressman Enloe, of Tennessee,
is in favor of amending the Constitu
tion so as to empower Congress to
legislate concurrently with the States
for the suppression of trusts and to
prohibit the making of gambling con
tracts in agricultural products and to
provide for the election of United
States Senators by a direct vote of
the people. In a speech on these sub
jects in the House of Representatives
on the 6th inst. Mr. Enloe said :
" The demand for legislation against
trusts is emphasized by the platforms
of both political parties, by public
speakers of all shades of political
opinion, by bills and speeches in Con
gress, and by a large part of the pub
lic press of the country. For Congress
to refuse to take any action in this
matter would be to plead guilty to a
degree of political hypocrisy and
demagogy which would go far to de
stroy the confidence of the people in
the good faith and integrity of their
Representatives. To modify or repeal
the protective duties which enhance
the profits of trusts wonld be to strike
a powerful blow at those combinations,
and at another time I will devote some
attention to that branch of the subject;
but our knowledge of trusts teaches us
that they may exist and do exist inde
pendently of protection duties in some
branches of trade, and this fact dem
onstrates the necessity of applying
other and more heroic remedies if we
would effectually destroy these fungi
of a material prosperity unequaled in
the annals of time. The demand for
relief from the destructive , influence
of gambling contracts in agricultural
products is most emphatic among those
whose interests are most directly
affected by such contracts. It comes
from the farmers and laborers who
stand behind all political parties, and
constitute the very foundation of our
great material prosperity. It comes
from those who contribute most to
support the Government, and receive
the least benefits from its methods of
administration. Organized labor has
spoken on this subject through its
representatives in the great conven
tion recently held at St. Louis, in the
following emphatic language:
Mesolved, That we demand that
Congress shall pass such laws as shall
effectually prevent the dealing in
futures of all agricultural and me
chanical productions, pursuing a strin
gent system of procedure in trials as
shall secure the prompt conviction,
and imposing such penalties as shall
secure the mo3t perfect compliance
witn aw.
This demand contemplates consti
tutional methods of dealing with the
question. While all must admit the
evil and the necessity for applying
some adequate remedy, there is a dif
ference of opinion as to what action
Bhould be taken. Some insist that the
States have the power to destroy both
of these evils, and that the judicial
tribunals of the country will aid in
their overthrow.
I am free to admit that if all the
States would unite in uniform legisla
tion against the evils sought to be
remedied by the amendment they
could effectually destroy them; but it
requires no argument to show that
the States having cities like Chicago
and New York would never pass and
enforce any law to break up a business
which enriches their citizens at the
expense of all the other States.
The right to make a contract de
pends on the law of the State where
it is male. You might prohibit such
contracts in every State but one, and
the citizens of every State in the
Union could, through the use of the
mail or the telegraph, make those
contracts in that one State. The States
opposed to trusts could not discrimin
ate against goods made under the
legal sanction of another State. The
inter-state commerce clause of the
Constitution of the United States
would prevent that. Then assuming
that I am correct in saying that while
the States acting as a unit have the
power to destroy these evils, and that
uniform legislation is not practical in
the very nature of things, let us see
what there is in the objection to the
amendment on the ground that it
tends to the centralization of power.
I think those who urge that objection
have not .carefully considered the form
of. the amendment. It does not take
away the power of the States to legis
late on the subjects embraced in it. It
simply confers concurrent power on
Congress, so that the lack of uniform
ity in State legislation on these subjects
may be supplemented by the action of
Congress.
The dignity, the just rights, and tl
useful powers of the States would not
be invaded or impaired by the adop
tion of t'ais amendment. "While the
powers of Congress, as the representa
tive of the interests of the whole peo
ple, would be broadened so as to sup
plement and aid the States in the pro
tection of producers and consumeis
against the leeches and harpies who
"are preying upon them in defiance of
State power and State authority, yet
the grant of authority, being concur
rent with the States, would be con
ducive to the welfare of the States as
a whole, and would strengthen rather
than impair administration of the do
mestic affairs of their people. Thomas
Jefferson, in the wildest fl'ghts of his
imagination, never dreamed of an In
ter State Commerce Commission regu
lating the transportation of the vast
commerce of sixty millions of people,
carried by steam engines over 150,000
miles of railway, traversing every
section of the Union, and riveting the
States together with rails of steel. It
never entered his mind that electricity
would send a message around the
earth in less time than it would take
him to ride from the White House to
the Capitol.
The man who in those days would
have advanced the idea that he could
sit in Washington and hold a conver
sation with another in Baltimore,
Philadelphia, or New York, would
have been in danger of an inquisition
of lunacy. If a statesman had been
seen in those days talking to the
phonograph or graphophone, he would
have been considered hopelessly mad;
and if a woman had been caught
grinding out speeches and letters and
messages from such an instrument in
some parts of this country she would
have been in danger of burning at the
stake for holding communion with the
devil and practicing the black arts of
witchcraft. The world will not let
the fame of Jefferson die. I yield to
no man in my admiration for his wis
dom, his patriotism, and his states
manship, and in my respect and ven
eration for the Constitution, to which
his mind gave shape, and it is no im
peachment of his wisdom, and no evi
dence of a want of veneration for the
Constitution to suggest that it might
be amended with benefit to the people
who live under it to-day.
It never occurred to Mr. Jefferson
that our cilization would develop to a
point where men in New York and
Chicago would become millionaires by
selling all the crop3 of this country
before the seeds were even so much
as planted in the ground; selling
property which they never owned,
selling the property of other people
without their consent, selling many
millions of dollars' worth more than
the whole country produces annually,
selling the productions of the people
of all the States without the consent
and in defiance of the authority of the
States. It never occurred to Mr. Jef
ferson that favoritism in legislation
would concentrate capital in the
hands of the favored classes until the
transportation, the manufacture, and
the sale ot production would become
the subject of combinations and trusts
whereby competition might be de
stroyed, the sources of supply seized
upon, productions limited, markets
controlled,, the prices of labor and the
prices of products arbitrarily fixed by
the law of human selfishness and hu
man greed.
If Mr. Jefferson could have pro
jected himself into the second century
of constitutional government in the
United Stites he would have lodged
power ovtr these questions in the in
terstate commerce clause or elsewhere
in the Constitution. If I have under
stood his political teaching aright, he
would amend his own work in this
and some other respects if he could
come forth from Mouticello, where he
sleeps "on fame's eternal camping
ground," and again take his place at
the head of the nation. I haye so
much respect for Mr. Jefferson's idea
of government, embodying the idea
of "the greatest good to the greatest
number," that I would not only
amend the Constitution in this regard,
but I would further amend it by pro
viding for the election of the members
of the United S sates Senate by a
direct vote of the people, and I have
introduced at the present session of
Congress a similar resolution to the
one I havo been discussing, proposing
such an amendment to the Constitu
tion of the United States.
It would be beyond my present pur
pose to enter into the reasons which
necessitate such a change. They are
such as I think will commend them
selves to the intelligence of the coun
try, and at some other time I may
have an opportunity to present them
to the House for its consideration. I
may be permitted to say in passing
that I think these two proposed
amendments strike at the very root
of many of the worst evils which
afflict the country and that little can
be done in the way of affording sub
stantial relief to the people on any
line until the Senators are made more
directly responsible to the people and
less responsible to a power which
recognizes no conscience but greed and
no god but gold.
These amendments are before the
Judiciary Committee of the House. I
hope the gentlemen who compose that
committee will not make it a grave
yard of measures demanded by the
people, but that they will bring these
measures out into the open light of
day, and if they must die, let them
die in an open fight before the House
and the country, and not die of stran
gulation in the dark at the hands of
the committee without fixing individ
ual responsibility. Gentlemen who
oppose legislation of this character
would then have an opportunity to go
on the record before the country on a
yea and nay vote. There could be no
question of constitutional scruples, no
quibbling or dodging, and no clearer
presentation of the issue.
Let us have a vote that will either
redeem our party promises to the peo
ple in regard to trusts or stamp them
as falsehoods promulgated to mislead
and deceive the people. 'Let us have
a vote that will meet the views of the
farmers and laboring men of the.
United States on the subject of futures
or one that will unmistakably repudi
ate their demands. The farmers of
this country are between the upper
and the nether millstone. Trusts fix
the prices which they shall pay for
nearly everything they are compelled
to buy. Produce gamblers fix the
prices which they shall receive for
nearly everything they have to sell.
Mr. Jerome Hill, of St. Iouis, a mem
ber of one of the largest cotton com
mission firms in the country, and one
of the recognized authorities on every
thing pertaining to cotton statistics,
estimates that the cotton-growers sus
tain a loss of one entire cotton crop in
every seven on account of the fact
that their product is sold many times
over by men who own no cotton and
have no right to sell a pound of it.
The Western farmers suffer even
greater losses on account of similar
transactions affecting their products.
Men who claim to be statesmen and
leaders of the people answer their
complaints of discrimination, injustice,
and oppression, with word pictures of
the unexampled prosperity of the
nation, and with long arrays of figures
which only emphasize the magnitude
of the robbery which class legislation
has accomplished.
Pictures of the nation's prosperity
painted in the most glowing colors
will not lift the mortgage from the
farm nor feed and clothe the wife
and children. There is no disguising
the fact that millions of American
laborers stand like Tantalus sur
rounded by fruits and flowers of a
nation's prosperity which they can
neither touch nor taste, up to their
necks instreamsof national prosperity
from which they may not drink.
Everything they touch turns to
gold, and many of them, like Midas
of old, are starving in the midst of the
wealth which their magic touch has
created. Long arrays of figures to
prove the prosperity of the nation will
not appease the pangs of hunger nor
shut out the cold blasts of winter. If
you would lighten the burdens of
laborand smooth the wrinkled fur
rows of care from the brow of labor,
if you would nerve the arm of the
toiler which is well-nigh paralyzed by
the oft-repeated disappointment of
false hopes inspired by the false prom
ises of false teachers, if you would re
store the prosperity of the masses,
take the hands of the robbers, created
by class legislation, out of the pockets
of those who toil; make the classes
who are riding the tax -payers, booted
and spurred, get down and walk; stop
piling burdens on industry for the
benefit of those who neither toil nor
spin; blot out from the face of the
earth the trusts and monopolies that
grind the faces of the poor, and force
the dealers fn "wind" to live on the
wind or work for an honest living.
A QUERY.
A friend writes to the editor, stat
ing that he does not " believe in a
Supreme Being," and asking how he
is to get any good out of the Alliance
movement being ineligible to mem
bership. He will have to be content
to be and do, with reference to the
Alliance, as he is and does in his rela
tions with Christianity rstand off and
receive general benefits without doing
any of the work. Two boys had five
cents between them; Jim had the
cents and Jack the cheek. Jack pro
posed a combination; he took the
money and bought a cigar, whicla he
began deliberately to smoke. Jim in
quired how he was to get anything
out of that trade, and was informed
" You can do the spittin' that's some
thin'." Farmers have been furnish
ing cigar money a long time for other
people and have enjoyed but little
more than the 'spittin'" for4 their
part; but they propose to do their own
smoking now, and all our atheist
friend i.eed do is to receive his share
of the general benefits whioh are sure
to flow from the Alliance movement.
K&nsas Farmer.
The Spaniards as late as 1575 used
leather monev.
MODERN JOURNALISM IN ITS
HIGH WALKS.
Even in the higher walks of jour
nalism there are trials that will put the
mettle to the keenest test. The editor
cannot do his duty without sometimes
applying the. knife, without wounding.
He must accept unpleasant responsi
b lities; he must be firm in the face of
protest and resentment; he must be
ready for the return blow. There is
no place of greater obligations, none
of wider opportunities, none of higher
personal responsibility. The lawyer
is directly amenable to client and
court, the preacher to his congrega
tion ana cnurcn triounaJ, the doctor
to his patients and his professional
peers; but while the readers edit the
editor it is an unorganized public
opinion, and he is practically a lav
unto himself. The character of his
influence and the measure of his suc
cess will therefore depend oa his sure
ness of insight and sobrety of judg
ment. The fundamental element of
journalism is an instinctive, unfailing,
unerring grasp of popular wants and
impulses. The editor must intuitively
know what the masses think and how
they feel. He must have the supreme
faculty of interpreting their own
thoughts to themselves, and of mak.
ing them feel that what he says is just
what they would say if they only
could. The importance of the "nose
for news" is proverbial; but the ear
for heartbeats is just as essential.
The editor in his grasp and embodi
ment of human nature, ought to bo
the concentrated popuhce. This i3
far from meaning that he yields to
every caprice or momentary gust cf
popular passion, or that he follows in
stead of leading. On the contrary he
should preserve the best side of the
popular mind against the worst side:
he should advance with the steady
current instead of being whirled by
the temporary eddy; he should bring
the transcient outburst to the touch
stone of the ultimate criterion. Ke
should possess the highest attributes
of the intellect qualities which in a
soldier would not only organize the
forces and plan the strategy, but lead
the attack, and which in a lawyer
would infallibly seize the strong
points ot the case and go si-raisrht
t.r
the judgment of the jury. This an
swers the plea we sometimes hear fo:
impersonalism. The aggressive force
of vital journalism is a strong person
ality. The vigorous editor must make
his personality felt, and every great
journal will have a stamp and impress
of its own which cannot be hidden
under an impersonal cloak.
ITS REWAKDS.
One of the trials of the editor jVaLj
ephemeral nature of his work. Yet
even this has its compensatory offset
in the wider reading and the imme
diate effect. A hundred thousand
readers over ten or twenty years
would be a great crown and reward
in any literature why not a hundred
thousand readers concentrated in a
day? However evanescent it..s char
acter, the triumphs associated with the
modern newspaper are incalculable.
The consciousness of directly address
ing half a million people and of direct
ly speaking to a continent, is inspir
ing, it is true there is no intellectual
exhilaration, no electric thrill, no
ecstacy of soul, like that of the orator
who looks into the eyes of his hearer3
and plays upon their emotions and
feels the quickening reaction upon
himself. But that audience is limited.
while the newspaper audience is un
limited. The editor has the world for
his field and all subjects of thought
for his themes. He speaks before
the orator can get to his feet, and set
tles opinion before the statesman
makes himself heard. He draws the
fang even while he gives it play, and
sends his antidote with the poison.
When Coleridge, reporting: a midnierh:
speech in the house of commons and
dashing on his answer at 2 o clock la
the morning sent it out in the same
sheet, he established the editorial
leader and showed its possibilities. '
Napoleon regarded four newspapers
as more dangerous than an army of a
hundred thousand men; and news ,
-papers i a his day had all the limitations
Kf the hand -press. How much more
powerful with the immeasurable re
sources of to-day. Jefferson said he
would rather have newspapers without .
a government than a government with- i
out newspapers; and the philosophy '
of the observation is clear. The alert
nes3, vigilance, publicity and organ
ized public opinion of newspapers are
the safeguards of the social and po
litical fabric. The editor scourges
wronsr-doers. dethrones political .
usurpers, unhorses official recreants !
unirocKS pretentious charlatans, pries
social humbugs, routs old superstitions,
molds popular opinion, stimulates uni
versal education, quickens individual
aspiration and leads the van of prog
ress. In this broad realm and in
these unlimited possibilities, while the j
daily grind brings its rasping trials,
it is also illuminated by splendid and
inspiring triumphs. Charles Emery
Smith, in New York Independent.
It i3 well known that the discovery
of America was followed by a great
and permanent fall in the price of the
precious metals which reduced them
to one-fourth their previous value.
Albert Gallatin, Work on Montj.
1883.