The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 28, 1891 Page: 3 of 16
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Kay 28. 91.
SOUTHERN MERCURY.
has control of the money knows that
they can fix it and rob the producer
of the profit and get it themselves, on
account of the limited circulating me-
dium, which is absolutely in their con-
trol. The wheat and corn crops are
also priced. It is fixed at robber fig-
ures, for robber's profit, and nothing
for the producer. Yet these same pro-
ducers must pay 80 per cent of this tax.
How? By getting deeper in "debt, and
nearer irretrievable serfdom. If you
want the votes of producers, Political
Doctor, offer a remedy that has ^ome
pith, marrow and substance to it. A
remedy that will help. A remedy that
will benefit. A remedy that will cure*
Away with your quack nostrums that
you know would have about as much
effect as treating a man sick of fever by
rubbing his big toe with anti-fat.
**•
Sheffield (Ala.) Manufacturer: There
are twenty-six monarchies and twenty-
five republic in the civilized world.
Monarchies are based on centralization
and arbitrary power, while republics
are formed by the will and harmonious
action of those composing the body pol-
itic. There is a wide difference in the
management of the business affairs of
a monarchy from that of a republic,
the one being managed by crystalized
law and bayonets, the other by reci-
procity and brotherly love. Whenever
a republic centralizes its business so as
to oppress the majority of its people
for the benefit of a few, it ceases to be a
republic and should meet condemnation
from every liberty-loving man and wo-
man inside its confines. America, to-
day, is a cdss between a monarchy and
a republic, and if something is not done
to shut off the present tendency to cen-
tralization, the work of Washington
and our forefathers will cease and the
predictions of Abraham Lincoln veri-
fied.
Missouri World: While the real es-
tate mortgages foot up $190,000,000 in
Iowa, they aggregate only $39,000,000
in Alabama, and these mostly due to
mining and manufacturing investments.
In Iowa the capitalist owns the mort-
gage and receives rent by way of inter-
est. In Alabama the title is in the cap-
italist, who receives rent direct. In
Alabama the tiller of the soil wants the
sub-treasury law, so that he may get
relief from the landlord by obtaining
money on bis cotton. In Iowa he
wants government loans on land so that
he can escape from the clutches of the
mortgage holder. Government loans
on land is a measure that will bring
general relief in the north, west and
east, while such loans in the south
would only give the rich plantation
owners greater advantage. The fact
that the masses in the southern states
are tenants and that the land is owned
in large bodies by a few is why the
sub-treasury bill is in great demánd
there.
V
Reform Press: The Farmers Alliance
is not a political party; but if God lets
our organization live, it will reform and
purify the political parties that do ex-
ist. Alliancemen are non-partisan.
They are banded together to secure
"equal rights to all, and special privi-
leges to none." It is a union of the
tillers of the soil and laboring people in
America for relief from great wrongs
and oppressions. They will not be con-
trolled by sentiment, passion or preju.
dice. Alliance men know no north, no
south, no east, no west. They have
set forth, in plain and unmistakable
language, thefr demands, which $n
fair and just. They have builded a
platform on which every loyal and fair-
minded American citizen can stand.
The right hand of friendship is extended
to every man who opposes the robbery
of the many for the enrichment of the
few.
The Alliance does not desire to force
a new party on the country. It will be
less expensive and annoying if the
democratic party will step forward and
grant the necessary relief demanded by
the farmeis. There is no compromise
in our political warfare—for you can't
compromise principle. Rest assured
that Alliancemen are thoroughly and
terribly in earnest, and neither nation-
al or local prejudices will divide or de-
tract them. If the leaders of either or
both parties desire to retain their pow-
er, they had better consult the people.
*•*
Toiler: No one who has kept up with
the rise and progress of syndicates,
trusts and monopolies will hesitate
for a moment in comidg to the conclu-
sion that unless the laboring and pro-
ducing classes unite as a band of broth-
ers and swear by the power and majesty
of American freedom and patriotism to
throttle these conspiracies to rob them
of the fruits of their labor and industry
they will soon be reduced to the condi-
tion of the ancient Egyptians, when all
the wealth and property of that once
proud and prosperous people, by means
such as are now being practiced in
America, passed into the hands of less
than two hundred persons under the
power of Persian gold. If M'e turn to
the history of Medo-Persia and gaze
upon the panorama as it passes before
us we Mill see in vivid colors the scenes
which are now being enacted in Amer-
ica, and at the end of that panorama
we find two thousand people owning all
the property, real and personal, of that
populous nation, and the vast multi-
tude in a condition, as intolerable as
that of the Greeks under the Turks or
the peons of Mexico to-day.
* *
*
Col. J. W. Tolbert, state lecturer of
the South Carolina Farmers Alliance,
spoke the views of Alliance men gener-
ally when he said:
"My idea of the principles of the Alli-
ance is that they are the principles of
democracy; that there is nothing incon-
sistent in being both an Alliance man
and a democrat. Our order is political,
but not partisan, and in its ranks men
of both parties are fighting for reforms
without, however, renouncing their
party allegiance. We propose to in-
dorse for congress, or for the senate, or
for president, only these men who will
advocate the reforms we demand, but
we will make our fight in the primaries
or conventions, as the case may be, and
will abide the voice of the majority of
the party, whether it is for or against
the Alliance candidate. Now, as to a
third party, I want to say this: I am
opposed to it, unless we find that the
reforms we advocate cannot be brought
in any other way. If they cannot, then
there will be time enough to decide on
a course of action. It might be that a
third party would be found to be best,
or it might not. I have never crossed
a bridge before I got to it, rode a horse
faster than it could go, or paid a debt
before I got the money, and therefore I
can't say what would be done if it
should be found that the Alliance could
not achieve its ends through either of
the old parties.
Wk*ñ tuiiweríng adrertisem§nts
|nn mwrthi Sovtinrn M$roury,
President Polk on the Situation.
The talk of President Polk, of the
National Farmer's Alliance, printed in
another column is full of suggestion.
According to the distinguished speak-
er, the discontent which has led the
farmers into organization, arises neither
from the cultivation of special products
nor from local conditions in certain
sections. This discontent is just as
deep in the farming country around
New York city, where diversified crops
and easy markets work out their best
results, as in Georgia, where cotton is
king, or in Kansas, where corn has to
be used for fuel, This discontent,
which knows neither section nor class,
pervades the agricultural community of
every state in the Union. Crops are
bounteous, lands are fertilo, the people
work with an industry never before
known, and yet the husbandman is in
straits.
When Mr. Polk finds the cause of this
universal depression in the financial
legislation of the country, which is in
favor of the gold standard, he really ar-
raigns the republican party, for every
evil of which he speaks owes its origin
and development to that party. On the
contrary, the democracy has ever been
the party of the people, representing
their wishes from time to time, as
against the centralism which would
make them the grist for a huge federal
financial system. The party is pledged
to the free coinage of silver, and to such
measures as will give the greatest elas-
ticity to the currency; and if reform
comes at all, it must come from demo-
cratic triumph.
In view of the record of the demo-
cratic party as the organ of the people,
shown by its passage of the silver bill,
which was strangled by the interven-
tion of the republican president, there
ir neither room nor occasion for a third
party. The people acting through the
democratic party can effect their own
reforms untrammeled by the bossism
which makes the republican party but
the tools of a few brokers on Wall
street.
The Alliance is doing good iu arous-
ing the people to the pressing issues
whicii are npon them, and awakening
them to the necessity of looking out for
themselves. There is true democracy
in every such movement, and when the
people are thus aroused democracy
scores its greatest triumph.—Atlanta
Constitution.
Will They Answer?
The state papers seem to talk with
an air of confidence about what the peo-
ple will do with the sub-treasury plan
when they get educated. If any of these
papers desire to do missionary work
among the benighted farmers they will,
of course, be grateful to us for pointing
out some questions on which the farm-
ers would be more than glad to have
some light, Of the six demands five go
uncriticised by the party journals.
They object to the first, which is as
follows:
1. We demand the abolition of na-
tional banks; we demand that the gov-
ernment shall establish sub-treasuries
or depositories in the several states
which shall loan money direct to the
people at a low rate of interest, not to
exceed 2 per cent per annum, on non-
perishable farm products, and also upon
real estate, with proper limitations upon
the quantity of land and amount of
money; we demand that the amount of
the circulating medium be speedily in-
creased to not less than $50 per capita.
Remember that the above demand is
all that is formally presented by the
Alliance. Thexe is no particular bill at
this time. The details of the proposi-
tion are mere matters for amendment.
It is on this proposigon that the farm-
ers have rested their case. The points
on which they would be glad to have
light are:
1. Is it constitutional? If not, why
not?
2. Do we need an increase of circu-
lating medium? If not, why?
3. Will an increase of the circulating
medium help all the people? If not,
why? #
4. Will the proposition embraced in
tfre above demand increase the circula-
ting medium? If not, why?
5. Is it class legislation? If so, why?
6. Is it right to insure the farmers
protection from money sharks who
speculate in farm products? If not,
why?
7. Will the sub-treasury plan insure
stable prices for farm products? If not,
why?
These questions are not propounded
in any "bluff" sense, but are given as
the fundamental aims of the sub-treas-
ury plan. If you wish to shake the
people's confidence in this Alliance idea,
just trot out your arguments and facts.
By your ridicule you only waste your
breath on the desert air.—Toiler.
Value of Legal Tender Money, Either
Gold, Sliver or Paper.
Some people do not seem to be able
to comprehend that the law gives to
money its measure of value power; that
full legal tender silver or paper dollars
will pay as many debts, taxes orduties,
buy as many gold dollars as full legal
tender gold dollars; or that the intrinsic
value is not the measure of value of a
legal tender measure of value.
Full legal tender coined silver money
reduces correspondingly the demand
for gold bank money, of which money
changers and money monopolits com-
plain, of course.
The statement that the coinage of
silver would drive money out of the
country is absurd, as United States sil-
ver money, certificates of deposit made
a full legal tender, command the same
money value as gold, for the reason
they will buy as much property, pay as
much taxes as gold money.
Legal tender money, paper or coin,
gold pr silver, redeems itself, for the
rvaton that a full legal tender silver or
paper dollar will buy a gold legal tender
dollar, for the reason that it is pos-
sessed of the same legal measure of
value.—Pacific Union Alliance.
Advocate: It is becoming more and
more apparent day by day that the re-
publican party is nothing more than a
democratic side show. If there hak
been any doubt on this subject hereto,
fore the action of the fifty-one demo-
cratic clubs of South Carolina in send-
ing delegates to the republican league
at Cincinnati on April 21 must remove
that doubt. Republicanism in Kansas
is merely a scheme of the rebels and
democrats of the south to break up the
Alliance.
Do Your Own Dyeing.
"Successful Home Dyeing'' Is a book of piala
and practical directions for dyeing one hundred
colors, with tbo famous Diamond Dyes. Wells,
Richard bob & Co., Burlington, Vt, wilt send
free one of these books and a card with forty
cloth samples, showing tho boavtlfnl colors of
Diamond Dyes, to any reader. "Home Art' Is
another valuable book on the ose of the Dyes,
whtoh is seat for a stamp. The other Is free.
One can make old dresses look like new,
clothe the children handsomely from faded gar-
ments and give the husband's suit a new lease
of Ufe, with but little trouble or expense, by
using Diamond Dyes. The few whedo net
know hew easily they caa be used and what a
great saring they make la clothing bills, ought
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 28, 1891, newspaper, May 28, 1891; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185415/m1/3/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .