The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1890-09-26
THE RATIFICATION.
Hon. Ig. DOnnelly Addresses a
Observation-Disclosures Meeting.

Dem0cratlc-Alllance Meeting.
An Interesting Discourse, Replete
| with Sophistry and Pessimism.
| The Democratic-Alliance ratification
meeting at the opera house Saturday
evening, with Ignatius Donnelly as the
attraction, went off as advertised. The
Sage of NIninger did not prove to be a
very good drawing card, as the house
was only about half filled. His remarks
we're considerably different from those
given Friday at Garden City, being
more particularly adapted to an audi
ence of. laboring men. He was enter
his cratic mind is drifting toward the
dangerous shoals of unreasoning So
cialism.
At precisely o'clock MIR. Donnelly
was introduced by Lysander Cook. He
opened by saving that he was not can
didate for Office and never expected to
be. He referred to the beauties and
advantages of the city, and said that he
did not think our people enjoy the ben
efits to which our advantages entitle us.
! What holds us from that prosperity?
Are there not people who enjoy ten
times the luxury that we do, from the
profits of our unrequited toll? What
keeps back some cities and causes their
population to fall off? 1t is these things
which | propose to discuss. | have
nothing unkind to say in regard to the
old parties, though | may speak of their
leadership. After referring to the orr
gin and purposes of the old parties, as
at Garden City, he said that we are not
| facing emotional but industrial questions
to-day. A gigantic evil meets US. No
country has ever produced so much
wealth as the United states, but lately
! it Is centralized IN few hands In this
state the farmer has retained but eight
cen per cent. of that which he has pro-
duced from his land. The working for
ces in the great cities are stirred up, in
order that they may retain some share
in the profits of their labors. The many
| inventions of late have increased the
producing power of the laboring man
| fifty times, but he is even receiving less
remuneration than before. 1t is these
things that are causing the great strife be-
tween capital and labor-the efforts of
the labOrer to obtain some share in the
| comforts of mankind, which the few are
monopolizing. Take out the intelligence
from the freemen of our republic, and
you have seething mass of turbulent
people, ready to breathe in the
wHIsPERINGs OF ANARCHY,
wretched in their ignorance. Above
them must be a standing army to hold
them in subsection and king above it.
Think of bringing the fair face of our
country tc such coedition. But we
are q tree aston and .a3s great4gAriihs
people, the most warlike of any that eV-
er trod the face of the earth, Will rise
up in their might in a terrific conflict to
preserve their liberty, their homes,
their hopes, and to prevent themselves
from becoming vassals and serfs. The
land will be flooded with blood, and the
Wisest man cannot tell what the result
will be. Civilization itself may perish
Now, is this likely to happen? / think
1t is, from the farmers. In q few years
this land, which the world seeking Gen
oese gave to US, Will be possessed by
few persons, while 100,000,000 Will be
serfs. The speaker repeated the New
York statistics given at Garden City. In
Illinois last year mortgage foreclosures
amounted to 81, 100000. If Olmsted
county was put up at auction it would
not bring enough to pay the debts
Men in this county have told me that
the farmers of the county are mortgag-
ed for 80 per cent. of their value. In
Dakota in a few years 500 farms have
been foreclosed upon.
The speaker told of a miner in Penn
sylvania who had but two cold boiled
potatoes to eat for dinner in the dark
bottom of pit, working away his life
for heartless taskmaster. If twenty
five or thirty years has produced such
state of affairs where will these things
stop? Even now foreign contract labor
has been excluded, that more misery
and Indebtedness may not be brought
in.
You send men to congress, men who
disregard your wishes. Look at the last
legislature-that horrible spectacle, that
mass or corruption that boosted of its
own villainy. Did they prosecute w.
d. Washburn for his villanies? No, they
lifted him up, reeking with his recent
felonies, and sent him to the United
States Senate. They refused to allow
any investigation. ask you to help in
this crusade against gigantic corpora
tlons. Look at the last Democratic state
convention. Why, the railrord corpo-
rations dominated it as the sun does the
system of heaven. No one can be elect
ed except by railroad assistance. You
have in your city magnificent citizen
DANIEL BUCK.
A few years ago he was unfortunate
enough to make a speech on behalf of
the people. He is to-day politically
dead, and the moss on his gravestone is
green You sent to st. Paul to wrestle
with the railroads for your rights anoth-
er splendid citizen Gen. Pope. He is
now lying in the same graveyard. This
state is more bound by railroad corpo-
tons than any other. The president of
one of the roads in the east aspires to
the presidency of the country, man
who says that honest labor shall not
have the right of every American citi-
zen to meet together or to join organi-
cations. 1t is dangerous to speak for
the people. I have no hopes of being
elected to anything above poundmaster,
on this planet. Even the State Alliance
is dominated by corporations, who, hid
ing under its panoply and cloak, are
heaping abuse upon me.
If you believe that we are descending
into the pit of Egyptian darkness, vote
for the illustrious Owen, man OF whom
nothing but good can be said. No one
party possesses monopoly upon the