Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-10-09

he cited the fact that at the least 500
mortgages were being foreclosed daily
in Kansas, and the lands of the people
going into the hands of the eastern
money loaners.
He spoke at length upon the plan of
the peoples party to issue money to
the people on landed security instead of
to banks on bonded security. Then, he
said, the men in the mortgage business
would go into some legitimate business;
farm values would increase with the
volume of currency the price of labor
would increase and the value of all
products of toll would increase.
Speaking of the credit Strengthening
act and other measures of the kind, he
illustrated the fallacy of the system by
suppOsing case. He said suppose
you had three-year-old boy and made
him pair of pants that would fit him
at that age. You put the boy in the
cradle and keep him there for 80 years. |
In the meantime you go to work to pass
laws to cut little off of the boys
pants each year. When the boy was
33 years old he did not think he would
make very respectable appearance in
public in that pair of pants. Thus. he
said. had our legislation cut off ours
credit and our circulation; but now the
alliance boy was determined to hop out
of the cradle, and if the pants did not
fit him he would make a pair that
would.
He quoted from Solomon z. Chase:
my instrumentality in bringing about
the National Banking act was the great
est mistake of my life." He showed
how that act had worked always
against the masses and to the interest
of the few monied men of the east.
On the transportation question he
said that all means of transportation
and communication could be controlled
by the government i'm the interests of
the people as well as the postal system,
the army and navy. etc. There are
$50, 600 per mile Of ficticious value on
Kansas railroads, and a republican
legislature permits the roads to declare
dividends ON such value and charge
freight rates to earn such dividends.
He quoted CLANCY NJ. Depew as say
ing that 1.-THE railroads could carry
wheat from Kansas City to n. Y. for s
cents per bushel" but they charge 2S
cents. 1t is so of all kinds of freight.
and the result is that the western
farmers lay up mortgage instead of a
profit, and the eastern syndicates and
combines own the mortgage by virtue
of the excessive freights charged upon
the products of the mortgaged property.
1t costs one bushel of corn to carry
another to Kansas City from this part
of Kansas, and in 1889 the Santa Fe
made $40. 100, 900. "How long will you
submit to it?''
Continuing on the subject of rail-
roads he said that in. Kansas they con-
troll the state legislature-have the gov
ernment by the nose as it were: even
at the Dodge City convention their
influence was manifested when, upon
the nomination of HallOweli a palace
car was sent to convey the prince to
Wichita. The late Governor John A.
Martin had said that mo one could be
governor of Kansas without the aid of
the Santa Fe.''
Some time was given to the ware
house bill, and the way it was treated
by the republican congress; to the
action of Wall Street in telegraphing
to secretary Window at the time of the
recent threatened crisis, and with
what alacrity the secretary responded
to the call of the money gamblers by
purchasing $50, 100000 of government
bonds at "a per cent. premium and pay
ing six months interest in advance.
"What would Window do should the
farmers of the west telegraph for aid
| to save their homes from sheriff's sale?"
He said they would never get word
of response nor cent of aid; but some
dude politician, with his hair parted in
| the middle with a scratch awl, would
come around and explain how the gov
kernment could not go into partnership
with the "hayseed socialists" He said
the only way for Kansas farmers to get
their corn into government ware
house was to have it made into
whiskey.
Consistency does not dwell with the
republican party" asserted the speaker.
and he was cheered to the echo. Two
| years ago 1t was Harrison and protec-
tion," but you don't hear that cry now:
no, they want to regulate the tariff,
and see the Mckinley bill as a sample of
their regulation; it increases profits for
the manufacturers only. Carnegie
travels in Europe in all the style of a
king, and the tariff makes it possible
for him to do it. Wages are decreas-
ing all the time. and the tariff is the
cause.
4 Touching the pension question the
speaker said: Republican papers are
follCuiuo the advice Of Ingalls, who