FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1091 
the farmers of this country, once an independent and a happy class, 
are year by year becoming impoverished, year by year encumbering 
their little farms by mortgages, year by year unable to meet their lia- 
bilities, and it will not be long, under the existing condition of things, 
‘till their homes will be swept from under them and they will become 
beggars or tramps. ' 
- Mr. Buarr. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question 4 
Mr. Reagan. I will. 
Mr. Buarr. Does the Senator, in this description of the farmers, 
mean to be understood as stating that it is the condition of the farm- 
ing population of Texas? 
Mr. Reaaan. I mean to say that that is the condition of the farm- 
ing population throughout the United States. 
_ Mr. Buarr. Of course, then, in Texas. 
Mr. Reagan. I mean to say that by class legislation and by the 
transfer of the wealth of this country by law from the many to the 
few farming has become a degraded occupation, and that the young 
men of this country will no longer pursue the occupation of farming 
if they can get into the humblest employment in towns that does not 
involve agricultural labor. That is what I mean to say; and if the 
Senator will go among the people in the farming States he can every 
day of his life verify the truth of what Iam saying. It is that class, 
and it is a class once happy, once loving and respecting their Govern- 
ment, but who are now discontented and murmuring and making organ- 
izations such as Grangers’ alliances, Union Labor parties, Knights of 
Labor, making up organizations to protect themselves against the 
aggressions of the money power and those who are pressing class leg- 
islation. That is the kind of people to whom I am referring. 
The policy of Congress ought not to be to add to the discontent of 
the people, but it ought to pursue a course which shall make them feel 
that they have the protection of the Government in common with all 
others, and that no others are being given advantages by law of which 
they are deprived. They ought to be allowed to learn that this Gov- 
ernment is not to be run in the interest of millionaires, in the interest 
of aggregated capital, either individual or corporate, in the interest of 
those who are piling up their hundreds of millions while discontent 
pervades the whole working masses of this country, while want and 
wretchedness are spreading their dark wings over the toiling people of 
this country. We may hide it from ourselves, but we can not hide it 
from them. We may think men are ignorant and that they do not 
know what we are doing, but if we think so we are mistaken. They 
know what Congress is doing; they know the acts of extravagance we 
are guilty of; they know whether we act so as to promote the general 
welfare or whether we act so as to promote the interests of particular 
individuals at the expense of the great mass of the people. 
