POLITICAL REBELLION IN KANSAS. 281 



to desperation, and have resolved to take the political management of 

 the State into their own hands. Out of the necessity to adjust these 

 questions grew up the Alliance movement in Kansas. 



They began to inquire how it is that in this new State, with its bound- 

 less resources, improved machinery, skilled labor, and its improved 

 means of transportation, the farmers are getting deeper in debt each 

 year ; that this new State, that twenty-five years ago was without debt, 

 is now so hopelessly encumbered that it would not sell for enough to 

 pay its debts. This certainly is not caused by the failure of crops, for 

 the crop of Kansas will average with that of any other State in the 

 Union ; and Kansas has each year a surplus of wheat, corn, hogs, and 

 cattle. 



Some of our public men have said that it was over-production, that 

 we have been raising too much wheat, corn, hogs, and cattle for the 

 world's use. Others have said that it is because the farmers are too 

 extravagant. Others that they are idle and spend their time in talking 

 politics. Others that the farmers do not employ the best methods of 

 farming, and do not understand how to make the soil produce the most 

 with the smallest amount of land and labor. All of which is contra- 

 dictory and unsatisfactory, and we must look further for the true cause. 

 They made the discovery after they had lighted the lights in school- 

 houses and began to study and discuss these economic questions. 

 They learned that what a farmer wants when he raises a crop of corn 

 and wheat and other products of the farm, is to trade his surplus of such 

 products for the things which he needs ; that he must produce on his 

 farm what he must exchange for the products of the manufacturer, and 

 turn them into money value, which represents the value of all articles. 

 He found that, under the present system of trade, he was prevented 

 from making this exchange with the men who would give him the best 

 bargain ; that he would be fined, in fact, from forty-seven to fifty-two per 

 cent for his trade, and compelled to trade in the market where there is 

 no competition, where competition has been destroyed by laws passed 

 in the interest of the manufacturer ; and through these laws he is forced 

 to bargain with the men who will give him the least of the things he 

 wants for the greatest amount of the things which he does not want, 

 and so he grows poorer and poorer from year to year and consumes 

 less. As this goes on, the manufacturer making the articles the fanner 

 should consume soon learns that his custom is falling off, and that he 

 must reduce trie number of his employees and the wages of those retained. 

 The laborers thus thrown out of employment must also reduce their 

 expenses, and are forced to use less of the products of the farm and 



