Omaha daily bee., 1890-10-11

of states, and while this is called an ''off-
year." the outcome of this election Will, IN
many respects, be just as important as any
presidential election at which our citizens
have participated. I have been a republican,
like the gentleman who preceded me, ever
since 1856, and while could not cast my vote
in Nebraska for Abraham Lincoln in 1861 be-
cause this state was then still q territory, L
voted FOR Ulysses S. Grant in 1865 and for
every republican candidate for president
since this state aas been in the union, and L
have nc regrets TO offer, nor apologies TO
make for the course have pursued.
The republican party has as grand and
glorious a record as any political 0rganHa-
tion that ever managed the affairs of nation.
1t has been in power thirty years, with an
interim Of four, and the intermission has
been Of great benefit to enlighten people as to
its merits as a manager Of national AFFAIRS.
During the four years of democratic admins
tration every effort was made to unearth
fraud, to unearth corruption, to unearth dis
| crepanc cies in the national treasury which had
| been managed twentyfour years. from Abra-
| ham Lincoln down to Chester A. Arthur, by
| the republican party. In that treasury de-
| partmcnt, where during that period billions
and billions of money had been handled,
| every dollar was accounted for, not penny
| was missing: o, yes, they did
discover a discrepancy Of two cents
! and after diligent search they found two PEN
| nies that had rolled out in the vault of the
| treasury and were lying under lSeg of coin.
| With all the billions that had been handed
| by the men who made our grcenbacks, and
| nation al currency, and issued our bonds, with
| all the money that had been coined there,
! with all the vast sums that had been collected
! by the internal revenue, the percentage of
losses was very much smaller than II had
been during any administration the demo-
| Gratis had up to 1860
Ineed not say to you here that the rcpub-
lican party has at all times been the party of
freedom and progress. That is matter of
history The democratic panty has been
simply party OF reaction and obstruc-
| tion. 1t has for more than a quarter OF
century been marching five or ten years be-
hind the republican party. Every reform
Championed by the republican party has been
opposed by the democratic party, but in the
| due course of time when the policy had been
accepted and proved beneficial, the demo-
Gratis fall in and claim to be the originators
| Oft.
Now right here in the state of Nebraska,
| which only thirty-six years ago was carved
out as a territory, during the throes of
great struggle for liberty--the Kansas and
Nebraska contest-the question arises
whether the people of this state will surren-
der the gove ment, which has been held
successfully by republica administrations
for twenty odd years. into the hands of DEM
ocrats or men who are In collision with dem
| ocratS.
cannot review the history of the demo-
cratic party in n Nebrask for IL has no history.
| With one single exception, that of treasurer
of the state, Mr. Sturdeyant it never elected
state officer. And that state officer failed
signally to live up to hi antimOnopoly pledges.
And now we are confronted with two par
ties in the state; the democratic party, with
straight democratic ticket, and the peoples
party, made up chiefly of members of the
farmers alliance, which is being steered
toward the democratic camp
The principles these two parties are now
supporting are in some respects alike; the
main object is to down the repu blican party
at any cost. The democratic party, IN its
tn1 st,t
old platitudos, and some few new things that
accord with popular sentiment at the present
time. Some of them are simply de-
lusions, in my opinion, at least,
| such as the unlimited silver coinage
proposition. I believe the silver bill passed
by the last congress Is ample for all purposes.
1t assures an increase of our currency, backed
| by silver bullion of 81, 900, 900 every month. /
! do not believe that free coinage would be of
any benefit to the farmer, the laborer or the
merchant. do not see why the government
of the United States should pay more to the
silver kings of Colorado and Nevada for their
silver bullion than it is worth on the market
| do not understand why Uncle Sam should
take the bullion of the mining millionaires,
coin IL free of charge into silver dollars and
hand it back to them again as legal tender
The silver bill passed by congress has no.
toriously added millions of dollars to the
wealth of the bullion owners. That was
foreseen by those who understood the law of
| supply and demand. Not only have we paid for
| DukllOn IHiItu III INC OHlUeu OldLpS Dut NlSt
quantities of silver imported from Germany,
| Holland, Mexico and other foreign countries
have been sold for % per cent more than their
value in the markets of the world previous to
the passage Of the silver bill.
Now let me take look at the Independent
peoples party. At the outset it was an
nounced that this was spontaneous move
ment of the people, free from all interferenc CO
on the part of politicians. We were assured
| that all the old methods of trickery that tn o
party workers and machine poll ticans have
used in the old parties were to be discarded,
and new system of very pure government
substituted, What do we fndl We find
four or five men putting their heads together
setting up the pins We find packed caucuses
and conventions, with the same old trckery.
and worse bossism than would be submitted
TO by members of either of the old parties.
This was to be a peoples movement, and
very naturally it was expected that all the
} people in sympathy with it were to have a
fair chance of choosing its candidates. Did
they have such chancei The apportion-
ment made by the bosses, or dictators, as
} of juggery. Douglas county, with popula-
ton of over 100000, and more than $1,000
worl<ingmen, was given twenty-five dele
gates in the state convention, and Frontier
was given twenty-one delegates. Lancaster
county, with population of over
15,000 was given twenty-four delegates
in the peoples convention, and Red
/.
was represented by sixteen delegates. Saline
county, with over 1900 population, had one
delegate less than Hitchcock county, with
her 500 population. The object of this
} gerrymandering was manifest to everybody
} that attended the state convention. The
counties in the burnt district of the Republi-
can Valley were given the preponderance of
votes in order to defeat General Van Wyck's
=. candidacy, who was invincibe with tn c work
ing men of Lincoln and Omaha Van Wyck
has always been an anti-monopolist; he is a
} farmer himself and member OF the alliance.
| He represented this state creditably in
) the national senate, and enjoys a national
; | reputation. He was Shelved by this
| packed convention and a man substituted
who has never been a member of any legis-
| ! lative body, has never been tried in any pu b.
lie office except that of commissioner in a
! | sparsely settled county.
Now, have nothing to say against Mr..
Powers as man, but of his ability to admin
| | ister the offairs of this state we have no evi-
} dence as yet We have no evidence that he
} is capable of managing even a small farm
So far as can be learned he has failed t.
achieve success anywhere and now he ex
| poets US to elect him chief executive of q
state with nearly eleven hundred thous and
} population and $1,000, 0O0,U 100 Of property
| The same NAV be said of other candidates