The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-09-18

G6uSrdl Den Z. DuIl6T speak. LII IT.
quired the services of half a dozen
policemen To make a passage way for
The general TO reach tie stand. lie
was loudly cheered. The crowd was
composed largely of laboring men.
DIR. Ferdinand Seeger Called the meet
ing to order, and introduced Mr.
Z. Post as chairman, who, In brief
address, introduced General Butler.
The cheers that greeted the general
as he came to the front continued sew
eral minutes. When quiet was gain
ed Butler said, in part:
Friends and fellow citizens, thank
ing you for your kind greetings, as
sumo that your deep interest m the
affairs OF the country and the political
measures which should be taken to re-
Iieve them has brought so vast an
audience together. This is indeed d
ratification, by the great city of New
York, of the Inauguration of the
peoples party-the true democracy.
Unlike the labored, tedious and in
Volved platforms of other political
parties, that of the peoples party is
short, incisive and mprehensiye
of every principle for the conduct
of the government of the republic, and
can be easily carried in the memory
of each. 1t is this: Equality of right;
equality of burden; equality OF pow
ers, and equality OF privileges to all
men under the law. None can deny
that these were the fundamental doc
trineS of the fathers OF the republic,
adopted by Jefferson, elaborated by
Madison, and executed by jackson.
They were the doctrines OF the dem
ocracy when that party was indeed a
party of the people, uncontrolled by
corruptionists and monopoists. L
need not argue to you that in these
latter days inequality OF rights, pow
ers, burdens and privileges has been
imposed by governmental action
upon the people. Corporations
upon which public functions
are imposed and to whom public fran
chises are granted, should be the SER
wants of the people only. But how
contrary'i is the practice of railroads.
AS soon as incorporated by ingenius
and the most fraudulent continuance,
they erect themselves into terrific and
outrageous monopolies, by means of
which the people are robbed of their
earnings, their business hindered and
crushed and the money impoverished
for the sole benefit of the few. The
people have endeavored to protect
themselves by granting charters to
competing roads, the lines of which
promised to procure them lower prices
for fare and freight, but 1t is
an aromatic fact that all rail-
road competition ends in
railroad combination, and that COM
bination is most frequently directed
to the destruction of other modes of
transportation which they cannot
control. The capacity of the Erie
canal should have been enlarged years
ago-and is there d man who hears
me that does not know it would have
been done had it not been for the
persistent, united and selfish opposi-
ton of the railroads? Let it not be
said this is state question. 1t rises
to much broader and higher proper
lions; it is a national one. The
burden of goods brought upon the
Erie canal to the city of New York
exceeds ocean traffic from that city
and here is done more than tWo-thirds
of the commercial business of the
country. This is now the great ma
tional free water way. If any internal
improvements of rivers and harbors,
of water ways by the general govern
ment, can be justified, why is not the
enlargement of the canal, by appro-
priation, the most worthy object OF
them all, excepting, perhaps, the i'm
provement of the Great Father of
Waters the Mississippi. With an al
| formation of democratic and republi
can congressman from the state of
New York, which has been
powerful enough to control the
nominations and election OF presidents
of the United States, why has not
some one representative moved this
in congress? The answer goes back
again to the railroads, which would
be opposed to it. They do not oppose
the improvement of the Mississippi
river, which is therefore made. Cheap
| transportation means cheap food fol-
the men of the east, and cheap food
means higher wages and more com
forts. Cheap transportation means
the opening for the manufacturers
Workmen and artisans of the east tC
supply the men and women of the west
who, if they can obtain fair prices fol
their provisions can buy those pro
auctions, ought there not to be laws
passed by congress under their great
constitutional power to regulate inter
state commerce by which the food OF
| the west and the comforts of the east
should be interchanged at the cheDp
est rates. All special privileges and
special burdens for the benefit of thu
| few, should be taken for the lives an(
| ,1OmfOrt of tho MANY