The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-10-02
a TERRIBLE PARTY.
A Mechanics View OF she sIG-
unEEOn.
no ZEE EnIroR or IKE NEws:

Az ihE EDITOR Oh j HE NEWS.
DEAR SIR Ever since the so
called Farmers, Mechanics and
WOrkingmen's" party came before
the people of this county asking
their support, have been waiting
for some one of our many intelli-
gent and thinking mechanics to "shy
his castor Into the ring" and ask
these statesmen TO show cause why
they should take him and his fellow
workers and mix them up in po-
litical pot-pie and array them
against those who are not farmers,
mechanics, or working men,"
l do not presume to become the
spokesman of a multitude of better
men, better minds, better mechanics,
but surely q party with such a name |
and with the aims and objects
which such a name implies, should
not go unrebuked.
There is a great deal in the name
of party, especially when that
name is chosen by the party leaders
themselves.
When a party calls itself Demo-
cratic, or Republican, or Anti-Mo-
nopoly, or American, or even ere
FORM" we may have some idea of
the principles which are supposed
to actuate it; and when a party de-
liberately puts an inscription on Its
banners which in our own and otn-l
er countries has more than once led
men on to riot and bloodshed, then
sane men and good citizens should
at least avoid such party.
am q mechanic, .but l am also
citizen and am unwilling that my
welfare as a citizen OF the Republic
should be entrusted to a body of
men who start out with the danger
Gus and riotous idea that because l
am q mechanic, therefore and of ne
cessity am at swords point with
every professional and business man.
1 am working man." hut l am
to some degree independent in
thought and opinion, and am I'M
willing to have party bit thrust in
to my mouth, and a party whip
cracked over me that l may help
drag my drivers into Office.
There should no more be work
ing mans party than there should
be q "white mans party there
should no more be farmers, me-
chanics' and workingmen's" party
than there should be communism,
mutiny and mob law. 1t is class
Legislation that has done all the mis-
chief to the society and the business
of the country. Instead of being
more legislation for FARMERS, me-
chanics and workingmen" there
should be less for railroads, bond
holders and bankers. So when /
want a man to legislate for me as
against those of another Legitimate
avocation, i will let him know
and so will thousands of other
workinemen. ] have seen too much
already of this party trickery which
is the same in Lyon county as it is
all over the Union. 1t is the old is
: sue of the ms and the Outs. The
Outs want to come in aud they will
call on "mechanics," or black legs,
ali the same, to help them in.
l have seen ofiice-seeking adven.
turers fight battles in the air and
win rhetorical victories for the no.
BILE "farmer, mechanic and working
man." and when he was done the
masses went to the slaughter and
the politicians to the gathering OF
, the spOils. But the people have
learned that whenever labor has
been ridden as a hobby, laboring
men have been swlndled and sold
out, and that when a man or a par
: ty proposes to become the especial
champion of the working classes
then labor is degraded and insulted
A labor party may drum up votes
among voting cattle of the old
world, and may get crumb OF
comfort from few discontents in
the eastern part of our own coun.
try, but true western, popular SOW.
ereignty" will choose to stand up
and confront it squarely, and with
all good citizens, cast its vote fol-
such men and such measures al
shall build up and beautify our com.
mon government.
The principle is just the same
in Lyon county as in the great cen.
tres of population, and it will be
unmaLly in us to let this contempt.
BILE piece of shystering succeed
when literally nothing is at stake
either on the part of farmers, me.
chanics or working men.
| have nothing to say at present
for or against the great-god-al-
mighty party which is asking the
suffrage of the people Oft the State,
because it is pledged to a legiti-
mate and probably well-meaning
work. Although the "grand old
Republican party" the party of Lin
coin and the war, witE all its faults,
is still good enough for me, and in
my opinion the best and safest in
the country. But what 1 want is TO
let these Lyon county slate makers
know that they are champions of a
bad cause, and / wish 10 say TO
farmers, mechanics and working
men, however we may vote on
State or national issues, let us COM
bine against this Lyon county out
fit. 1t is such a palpable and bare
faced trick to get votes that il
should receive the treatment which
all party tricks deserve. Its object
is so clannish, selfish and un patri-
otto that all men who do their own
thinking will refuse to be led by it
and / sincerely hope that we shall
most efectually ignore it on the
farm, denounce it in the shop, and
scoop it al the polls.
GEO. ID. GRAVES.
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