Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-11-22
SWORDS CROSSED.
A Most Distressing Mossbaek Has His
Say About All Of Us.
SALEM, Nov. 20.

Oreguniau. From tine to time II
has been his good pleasure regard
less of the facts to mix me up in
these articles, well knowing that
said paper has so far, failed to pub
lish any reply that may offer. His
last hyperbole is found in his adj
dress before the Lane county insti-
tute and runs as follows: The
most distressing mossbacs, l ever
knew, spent several months in
different parts of this state telling
the people how the railroads are
pauperizing them, and was then
called to Nebraska to tell them the
same story. Though poor man,
he pauperzed himself by going on
the Oregon Short Line though OK
teams are plenty as of old
This slush is like all the rest of II
aud must have been written just
before the Hon. heard how The
mosshacks of Nebraska and other
states had expressed themselves on
the railroad aud other questions.
Every year siuce | came to Ore
gon, I have been called Fast to con-
duet teachers institutes aud nor
mails for which l get good pay.
Last year, engaged to return again
this year and l kept the engage
ment. was also delegate To the
ST. Louis national convention and
locked horns with 'he whiskey bull
on the prohibition plank which WI
got without a dissenting vote. !
was also engaged to work for mon
partisan" and lectured III der the
alliance.
In this state, my hobby was class
legislation with special reference to
banks, Indirect taxation and the
high license saloon, as they stand
related to labor, prices and civiliza
ton.
The only reference I made to
railroads WAS a statement of fact,
that when corn was l3 cents per
bushel in Nebraska IL was 81 GEMS
in New York. Perhaps our Hon.
can account for the other A cents
and so reconcile the people tn the
L. p. r. r. built by the people and
upon which | ''pauperizeA" myself
by paying twenty times as much
as l would have paid il the peopl,
built and run their own railroad a'
( they do in Hungary when the rat,
| Is such that SO cents would take /;
man from New York tn Washington
D. c. The Hon would make th'
world believe we don't know a gouC
thing when we see it,. that we ar
mad because there are railroads
If ne would read our platforms h
would discover that we like rail
roads so well thai we propose to nn
|
would try and STE ihi. point.
No man ever heard me find faul
with the railroad magnaie; tn
banker who, by law, turned $40, 90
into $3.50, ,0C0, making 100 per cen
interest, and nearly free from taxa
tion; with the protected infant en
joying the palernalism of Cncl
Sam; or with the saloonist payini
us high license for special priv
leges; or with any other trust o
monopoly.
The question before the American
people to-day, the one which ou
Hon. seems so unable to grasp, i
simply this: Shall we continue
system that has already given one
half of our wealth into the hands G
5000 persons; that last year sen
from a single office, the Beac N 81
in Bslun, $500 persons 'over tn
hill To the poor house." and, in tn
same city, daily served 5000 meal
to paupers in one charge, at = 8
cents per meal, and that compelle
San Francisco To call for the surplu
JohnstUwn flood money to keep ht
labOrers from starvation.
Yet, our honorable gravely tel
US mossbarks mot to try to fin
fault or to seek remedy, until it
proved th& we are worse Off tina
our fathers were" FieOn this stru
ting mossback of mossbac.s, thi
product of swiftly passing civiliz,
ton, this remnant of vox regis, vo
; Del: He tells the public l am poo
1t il not true. No man is poor VIII
receives the attention of such
writer. "Most stIessing mos
back !! Oh, how kind Had b
added "fool," "crank," "fanatic,"
should have perished. Surely, h
tempered the wind to the lamb, ,bu
he is not greatly to be praised fc
talking as hu does, for lie draws hi
mental pabulum from the Oregon
ian and could not well say less.
In due time, however, our H,r
will learn that something is astil
Bad a. it is. he will learn that tn
: Mckinley bill nor the democrat
had much to do with the late polit
cal catnclysm. North or soutf
wherever the new civilization wa
sufficiently organized, it tooK goo
care Of itself. In other places
simply expressed it, protest ugain-
fha nnxyara that Ia In rho mn.