"IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE" IN OREGON - Southern Oregon Digital ...

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combination" prominent among them.
In mid-September 1891, a
large number of Alliance members "from different portions of
southern Oregon" met at Jackson County's Central Point
fairgrounds for a "Grand Rally."
The Alliance rally began
with a parade and ended with an "old-fashioned basket
picnic" with musical accompaniment.
It featured state
lecturer Martin V. York speaking on "social, economical, and
commercial questions...from an Alliance standpoint." 2 2
In January 1892, County Alliance secretary William
Breese presented a list of "Alliance Demands" to the local
press.
These included a call for a far more aggressive
railroad commission, one composed of "fearless, honest and
capable men."
The document also called for state relief
from mortgage foreclosure, particularly from the "heartless
Shylocks" who dispossessed "wives and children of the
unfortunate... [from] the sacred spot which they called
'home," and it proposed a ten-month stay on all such debt
executions.
At the local level, the Alliance demanded tax
reduction, an "economy" program by the profligate county
government, and an end to corrupt rule by "wire-pullers and
22 "Alliance Lecture at Ashland," AT, 11 Sept. 1891, 3;
"Some Alliance Argument," AT, 10 July 1891, 2; "Grand
Alliance Rally," DT, 4 Sept. 1891, 3; "County Alliance
Meeting," DT, 11 Sept. 1891. One of the most active
chapters was Talent's "Progress Alliance." Meeting every
fourth Saturday of the month at the United Men of Liberty
Hall (a venerable community gathering place erected by local
freethinkers), the Progress Alliance claimed about seventy
active members during its first year. See: "Talent Items,"
AT, 1 July 1892, 3.