The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1884-10-09
AN APPEAL AND ADDRESS
To the Merchants, Farmers, Arti-
suns, Mechanics and Laboring
Men OF the Fourth Congress
siOnal District Of Iowa.

siOnal District Of Iowa.
We ask your cooperation In the
present political contest, which is IN
effort TO obtain such remedial legis-
lntiop as will secure just relations
between labor and capital, place pro-
ductiye and commercial industry on
Il sound and enduring basis and
make our governmental theory OF
legal equality an established reality.
THE SITUATION.
Every joint in our industrial body
ia dislocatcd. Millions are upon the
verge OF starvation, yet the food
producers OF the West are ruined by
the very abundance OF crops unsal-
able at the cost Of production. Mil
lions are almost naked, yet the store
houses OF the East are bursting with
goods.
With q country possessed OF every
essential condition OF production;-
with natural resources OF which we
have scarcely scratched the surface;
with manufacturing machinery and
capital so abundant that the en-
ployment on short time Of but a por-
ton Of it creates glut OF products
with transporting facilities in excess
Of every demand hundreds OF thous-
ands Of laborers are unemployed,
under fed and half clothed.
Railroads are defaulting their in
terest, -languishing-yet vast stores
OF freight are at their termini await
Ing transportation and profitable
exchange. Mines, mills and factories
are continually shutting down, sus-
pending and locking out, while stall
wart labor stands helplessly by
demanding labor, food, clothing and
shelter.
And as II to augment the evil,
cheap servile labor, under contract
at wages inadequate to supply even
the meanest necessities Of human
existence is imported from the old
world by the protected capitalists and
manufacturers, and placed in conflict
with the free labor Of the country.
Banks are full Of money but legiti-
mate industry cannot obtain loans
except at rates destructive to every
business enterprise.
Strikes by laborers, lockouts by
employers, failures Of merchants and
manufacturers, bankruptcy OF rail-
roads, defalcations of bankers and
trustees, suicides OF despairing men
and women are the current topics OF
the daily press and the incidents oil
disjointed Industry.
Thus with men, money. machinery
mines, railroads-every natural and
every artificial condition requisite to
great and uninterrupted prosperity
We have industrial paralysis and
commercial lethargy, the direct re.
suit OF unjust and unwise legislation
and without hope OF future better.
Dent.
THE REMEDY.
Believing that the disordered in
dustry and business here described
and the unjust and unequal distri
button Of the products of labor, al,
due to the existence of corporal,
monopolies created and maintained
by Legislation enacted by the part,
having had administrative contro
Of the government during the pas
two decades we therefore deman,
and ask change in behalf Of tn
labor and producing interests OF tn
nation. Without pretending T.
know all that is needed to bring re
lief to labor, and to eradicate on
national evils, we believe that grea
good will be apparent when the pub
lie lands are wrested from speeula
ors; from alien syndicates and rail
road jobbers and given to actual Sc,
tiers in moderate quantities; whe
railroads are under control OF Law
! compelling honest construction an
management; impartiality betwee
persons and places; moderate div
den d protection to employees an
uniform, permane mt and reasonabl
rates OF transportation for perso
and property; when the currency {
the country, instead of being undo
the control of, and regulated in vo
ume by men chosen by the bankin
, corporations, is taken from thel
and restored to the people ,hroug
: their representatives in congress, 8
; contemplated by the constitution
and in conformity with the decision
i. of our supreme court, thus maxim
D it uniform in volume, value and deb
paying power; when taxes are equi
. ably assessed and honestly collecte,
when public moneys collected fro
: the people are only applied to pull
lie purposes; when the enormo,
sums in the public treasury are ca
: into productive channels, and whe
the administration Of justice Civ,
the poor an equal chance with Il
rich in our courts.
REPUBLICAN RESPONSIBILITY.
These evils have grown up duriI
the past twenty-five years. Maj
! were directly produced by Ia,
others by natural forces i'm the a
g sence OF legal restraint.
We charge the republican par
tai &,