Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-03-05

demand. Already. our efforts have
been crowned with a success which has
commanded the attention of the whole
people. When Jay Cooke was unable
to carry his grasping schemes further,
it was said the farmers movement did
it. When q large number of other
banks became alarmed at Jay Cookies
failure and closed their doors, it was
said the farmers movement did it.
When the railroads stopped islf their
business because the money was locked
up in banks, and there was not enough
In circulation to pay railroad freights, 1t
was said the farmers movement did it.
When the workshops closed their doors
and threw their operatives out of en-
ployment, it was said the farmers
movement did it. And, now, let them
go little further, and when pork has
gone up to over six dollars hundred in
the face of the panic, and the resolution
of the Northwestern Conve ntion, let
them acknowledge the farmers move
ment did that and when corn has gone
to over fifty cents, let them say the
farmers movement did that and when
the country has refused to be frightened
at the bankers panic, but has proceeded
forward with its accustomed business,
let them acknowledge the farmers
movement did that and, as one reform
after another follows in our track, let
them say the farmers movement did
it, till the country is filed from one end
to the other with the benefcent fruits
of the farmers movement.
We are sometimes charged with what
is termed communism. 1t seems to be
cast upon us by our opponents, as a
term of reproach. confess l do not
fully understand its practical definition.
But if it means that destructive despera-
ton to which the down-trodden are
sometimes driven by the injustice of
tyrannical rule. / do not hesitate to
say, it is the very condition in this coun-
try, which we are organized to endeavor
to prevent. In about two years we
shall have outlived century OF our ma
tional history. In that space of time
we have brought the wilds of CONT
nent to be the abiding place of civiliza-
ton. Our march has been contested
inch by inch by savages, but we have
treated them in the main with humani-
ty. We have belted continent with
the iron bands which unite two mighty
oceans, and held out the reckoning
hand to the commerce of the Indies.
We have carried on two wars with the
most powerful nations of Europe with
victorious results. We have spanned
the continent and plowed the depths of
the ocean with telegraphs. We have
founded institutions of learning that
compare favorably with the most en-
ightened nations. We have made re-
hgion as free from governmental con-
troll as the air we breathe, and it is
wholly beyond the reach of govern
mental intolerance. We have opened
wide marts of commerce and reared
great cities which command the ad-
miration of mankind. We have made
inter-communicatiOn vastly more easy
by system of railroads, scattered
broadcast over the land. When the
harvests of other lands are scauty, they
look to us for bread. We have crushed
out a mighty rebellion and sundered
forever the chains of African slavery.
These are some of the great fruits of a
century's industry. Still one question
of commanding magnitude remains
unadjusted. It is the question of the
status of labor and its bearing upon the
destinies of the country. Until the
question is settled upon national and
just basis, We cannot well hope for i'm
munity from the disconnected acts of
the oppressed, whether they be acts of
one kind of lawlessness ar another. We
make no war upon the institutions of
society, nor upon the civilization of the
age. But pointing to the evils which
paralyze the industries on which the
world depends for its institutions. its
civilization and its bread, with high
reverence for our laws and a patriotic
hope for the future of our race, we
implore all men to take note of the
cloud which is rising, and by a just
system to dispel it as the genial rays
of the sun dispel the threatening hurri-
cane.