The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1881-12-01
ONE IDEA.


There is much talk that 0reenback.
IL but one idea.
Therefore failure.
The suggestion conveyed Is that re-.
form movements must spread, spraw
and straddle.
Reason, logic and experience teach
just the contrary.
We could cite men and parties innu-
merablc rs proofs, but that is unneces-
sary.
Men Of ono idea are the men who mold
civilization.
II the idea be truth it must win.
Occasionally its holders personally
fail. Some die upon the wayside
martyrs. But the force with which they
propelled. their one idea while living
hurts II along with nm irresistible force
long after they have passed away.
John Browns body lies mo.dering in the grave
But his soul gces marching on.
The man may die; tho idea cannot.
il is imperishable.
It is not original with any man; it is
an eternal. Its application to the pres.
cnt merely can the cgotist call his own.
He who utters it is but the medium
through which the conditions speak.
They who recognize its truth share
alike in its rroprictorship with him.
He has merely arrived Mt the idea q
moment before them.
This idea is the rallying point the
center, the leader.
tNl.a ~,,1.. al
times Aatters himself that it is he who
leads.
To prove his insignifcance, let him
set himself up before, behind, or against
the idea and 10! the people will
depart from him as from corpse.
To-day generation passes on day by
day in the even tenor Of their way.
Gradually from the subtle womb oi
thought evolves m idea.
Tomorrow the world recognizes q
truth.
Progress awakes! The world moves
The engine Of civilization has taken in
q new force, q new fire.
The speed increases and steadily
thought annihilating time and space,
evolves man from the brute into God,
A1thlIS AlIl LII Ill COHlIuAllueI
Of the earth and the heavens.
Superior to clay.
An angel.
No man can bctray the idea.
True He who bears it inscribed upon
his banner may depart from it. But,
bah ! What matters that? Men are
plenty.
The steps by which humanity climbs
onward and upward are simply ideas.
Whenever people break d chain Of
wrongs which letters them they strike
upon single riyet.
In Russia they strike at Czarism in
Italy AMI Spain, Infallibility in Ger
many. Kasirism in France, Bourbon.
Ism !; in Ireland, Landlordism in An err
ca, Shylockism.
spot and are hammering away.
No chain can stand it long. It's got
to come.
Therefore concentrate your ideas into
one idea, concentrate your philosophy
into one philosophy, concentrate your
efforts into one effort il you would win.
Let there be single purposeness-
one idea.
He who tells You to scatter the logs
don't know how to keep up the fire.
Yon can straddle never more than one
horse Mt time and straddle well.
When you split wood hit the log in
the same spot every time. Hit it in the
knot.
In America the knot is the financial
question.
Split it and you will have firewood
enough to even warm up the frozen
exiles Of Russia.
Whack away! Drive your ax right
into that one idea.
Let It be Greenbackism, Greenback-
ism, Grecnbackism, until the world cries.
For Heavens sake, what is Green
backism ?"
All You want is for man to just ask
that question, and in five minutes your
answer will drive the ax into his knot,
Remember it is not the first blow nor
the second nor the last which does the
splitting, but the sum total Of all. One
year you may hit it, another miss il. an.
other and another, and finally fetch it.
The Greenback party, they say, is q
party Of one idea.
IL ~ I1A u0
Well, then. If that is 90, it is to be the
coming party Of the future.
Like 4 scientific pugilist, it will keep
on hitting the same spot.
Striking the monster, "robbery. =
square in the eye. aud keep hitting him
in the eye.
His head is finance, his stern is mo-
nopoly. Some say, "Ilet's hit him on
the stern--on his monopoly part. It's
safer and you are further from his horns.
It's easier to make him believe you amt
hitting him."
Don't mind them, but keep up the old
Jacksonian llck-square in the eye.
Blind him.
Get his head, and you have got the
rest Of hlm, horns, hocfs, tail and all.
Get his finance and YOU have cot his
monopoly, for it is by his finance he gcts
his monopoly.
DoL't abuse any one else for hitting
him harmless whack on the tail. DonI
abuse an Anti Monopolist or "Mo-
nopolist Anti or "Fusionist or .
Republican or " Democrat.
Personal abuse effects nothing except
turning a, perhaps, formerly sensible
man into malicious and spiteful Sian.
derer.
Greenbackism and personalism are
two distinct things, Just the same =
heaven and hell.
One is reason, the other passion. One
is gentleness, the other littleness.
Ipity a great mind when it descende
from subject concerning "all men,
down to the petty subject Of tone
man."
It is the province Of reason to deal
with ideas, not men.
Let tho Grcenbacker deal with his
idea His one idea. Let him write it.
talk il. print it, sing il, shout it, hurrai
1t. vote 1t.
For though historical lies may point 10 the skisa
tn. stories Of robbers and Kings
Egotistcal knAses leading ignorant slaves
To rapine aud murder. that their graves
monarch might feast with his Qusena
The hero whoee fight 10 for justice and ngAti
For mankind. for God and
The poor.
Hath . fAme-hath light
Th>tsk ~A~ - - 49, S-hA