The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-12-27
Honest Government.

Honest COE6I 1IAAOAO'
The tariff question, while Of vital i'm
portance. should not subordinate every
other interest. An honest government
should be demanded, and the people
should see to it that the monopolles,
corporations and land syndicates, whose
murderous hands are clutching the
throat of the country, are driven from
their usurped strOngholdS.
The condition of Kansas, so far as
the above powers are concerned, is not
worse than other parts of the country.
The country has suffered, not in one
state but in many states, at the hands
of a party which processes to be the
'sfriend of the people and the Savior OF
the nation.'' The public domain has
been shamefully and illegally given to
the railroads; the rights of the settler
have been ignored, and to all cries OF
distress. to all appeals for justice deaf
ear has been turned. Granting that
the republican party has the disposition
to right the wrongs which 1t has IN
flicted upon the people, it is yet seen to
be powerless. 1t is so completely III
the power of the railroad and money
powers that it can do nothing. The
people can not look to it for relief, any
more than Labor can look to Capital
for justice. Some other factor besides
the republican party must right the
abuses and wrongs and tendencies of
the present governmental system.
The democratic executive of Kansas
has pointed to way Of escape from this
relentless, killing power. His labOrs in
behalf of the common people Is an earn
est of what may be expected from the
party when it is accorded power III
higher places. Gov. CLICKS electri-
flying message to the Legislature, where
in he pointed to the imperative necessi-
ty of railroad reform; his consistent
attitude since; his invaluable assistance
to state agent CRAWFORD in the lat
ter's successful attempt to restore a
million acres of Illegally certified land
to settlement, and his continued efforts
in the same direction, all point to new
and brighter era.
"And now,'' says the Kansas City
Times, las a last blow, crushing the
Pickering hopes of the Responding re-
publican politicians, come the develop
ments in the Allen county land case,
showing that republican executive Of
former years, one Honorable THOMAS
OSBORN, known in his day as the boon
companion Of all fast liverS at Topeka,
was primarily responsible for that, per-
haps, most glaring case of outrage on
the rights of the Kansas settlers, hay
ing at the bidding Of the corporations
illegally certified to them the lands in
question, thus driving to the verge of
desperation and ruin hundreds of set
tiers, who even yet do not know wheth-
er the courts will ever confirm to them
the title for their homes. which have
been rendered valuable by years of labor.
For the pretentiOus party Of mOrali-
ty, the once dominant republican party
of Kansas, what a scathing rebuke is
afforded by the picture thus thrust be-
fore their attention. Let it go to the
cabin home of every settler of Kansas
that one difference between democratic
and republican rule is, that while a re-
publican governor at the bidding of
powerful corporations, steals lands
from defenselesS settlers, in defiance of
law; a democratic executive can be de-
pended upon to strain every nerve, and
beard the corporations, to restore to
these same settlers their hardly earned
homes"
This is question which should be
removed from the prejudice of partisan
politics; it is question which should
be studied calmly and carefully, and
the offenders should be brought before
the bar of public opinion for judgment
and punishment. The facts are unde-
niable, and as citizens, not as pOliti-
clans, the voters of this state should
demand a cleansing of so monstrous a
system as the one which now inflictS
and Expresses them.