what great economy such a system is. In this day and time, no one will for a moment deny that all the conditions for purchase and sale will attach to the government certificates showing amount, quality, and running charges that attach to the product. The arguments sustaining this system will present themselves to your minds as you ponder over the subject. The one fact stands out in bold relief, prominent, grand, and worthy the best effort of our hearts and hands, and that is, "This system will emancipate productive labor from the power of money to oppress," with speed and certainty. Could any object be more worthy? Surely not; and none could be devised that would more enlist your sympathies. Our forefathers fought in the Revolutionary War, making sacrifices that will forever perpetuate their names in history, to emancipate productive labor from the power of a monarch to oppress. Their battle-cry was, "Liberty." Our monarch is a false, unjust, and statutory power given to money, which calls for a conflict on our part to emancipate productive labor from the power of money to oppress. Let the watchword again be, "Liberty!" Delegation from, Farmers' Alliance of the State of Dakota were admitted, and the following communication was received and unanimously adopted : ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, December 7, 1889. To the Farmers and Laborers' Union of America : In pursuance of the joint action of the National Farmers' Alliance and the Farmers and Laborers' Union, providing for an organic union between the two bodies, the conditions being that when the new constitution should be jointly proposed, approved, and ratified by said Fariners and Laborers' Union, and by two-thirds of the State Alliances composing the National Farmers' Alliance, then by proclamation of the presidents of the two bodies the union should be declared completed, we the delegates from the State Alliance of South Dakota, by authority reposed in us, do hereby accept and ratify said constitution, as amended and agreed upon by the National Farmers' Alliance and the Farmers and Laborers' Union, to take effect upon acceptance and ratification of said constitution by two-thirds of the State Alliances composing the National Farmers' Alliance. Attest: C. V. GARDNER, Chairman of Delegation, A. WARDALL, Secretary of Delegation. Resolved, That C. V. Gardner, F. F. B. Coffin, A. N. Van Dorn, E. B. Cummings, Alonzo Wardall, and Mrs. Elizabeth Wardall be received and seated as delegates from South Dakota, and that a charter for the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union of South Dakota be issued to said persons and their associates. That Walter Muir be received and seated as a fraternal delegate from the State of North Dakota. Adopted unanimously. On motion, the city of Jacksonville, Florida, was selected as the place of holding the next regular session. : Committee on Land made the following report, which was adopted :Your committee on land submit the following report: — The total number of farms in the United States is about 5,000,000; 1,280,000 are rented. Since 1880 there has been an increase in farm renting to the extent of twenty-five per cent. It is evident to the most ordinary observer that the farms are passing out of the hands of those who cultivate them. It cannot be urged that this is the result of incompetency or idleness on the part of the tillers of the soil, for statistics show that the wealth of the country has, during the past twenty-five years, increased more than one hundred per cent. No other nation has ever shown such an enormous increase of wealth in the same length of time. All this increase of wealth is the result of the active energies of the producers. It is a peculiar condition, that the producers of all this wealth have gradually grown poorer; but still the cold, hard fact stares them in the face that they are not only not living as well as they should, but their farms are gradually slipping from their grasp. The natural and inevitable result of this accumulation of wealth into the hands of the capitalists, and at the expense of the producers, is the establishment of a land aristocracy on the one hand, and tenant farmers on the other; such a system as has obtained in many of the European countries. Your committee have had neither the time nor the facilities to prepare as extensive a report as the importance of the subject demands. From the best and most reliable authority we can obtain, the amount of mortgaged indebtedness resting upon the farms and homes of the people is not less than $16,000,000,000. The interest on this vast sum, at eight per cent per annum, is $1,280,000,000. This is the annual tribute which the farmers of this country are paying to Shylocks. The immensity of this vast sum can the more readily be realized when we consider that it exceeds the value of the entire wheat, corn, and cotton crops of the United States for one year. Nor is this all. Other forms of indebtedness, both public and private, swell the above sum to more than $30,000,000,000. When we consider the fact that the annual increase of all agricultural interests is less than three per cent, it does not take more than an ordinary observer to realize that it is only a matter of time when the eight per cent annual tribute will absorb all the land in the country, as it has certainly done in other parts of the world. Statistics show that more than 200,000,000 acres of land have been granted to various railroad companies. Foreign syndicates own more than 20,000,000 acres. In addition to this, the comparative statistics show that there is a tendency to increase the number of large farms in the United States, and that the number of small farms is growing less each year. We recommend to this body that they take immediate action to furnish some relief to the many thousands of farmers whose only hope in being able to lift the mortgages from their homes and farms is through the early action of Congress, to devise some method to protect their interests and give to them the fruits of their labor. J. F. TILLMAN, Chairman, S. B. ERWIN, W. H. BARTON, B. J. KENDRICK. The following resolutions were read and adopted: Whereas, The National Economist, our adopted official national organ, has so boldly and fearlessly advocated our cause and defended our principles; therefore be it Resolved by this national body, That we heartily approve of the course it has pursued, and recommend that every member of the order should subscribe and read the paper, as one of the best means of education in the way of industrial freedom. The Committee on Secret Work reported and exemplified the secret work. The meeting adjourned at 6 P.M., to meet the first Tuesday in December, 1890, at Jacksonville, Florida. |