Dakota farmers' advocate. (Canton, S.D.) 18??-1890, 1890-08-01
4 LAWYERS POINTED TESTIMONY,
W. W. ES.vin,s Great Conrention Spench IN
Behalf Of the Farmers and Laborers
of Minnesota.
$500, 600 Per Week Stolen From the Farm
-sibers and Corruption Nom
gers in the Deal.
A GREAT SPEECH.

A GREAT SPEECH.
The speech of w. w. Erwin, the great
criminal lawyer of St. Paul, before the
of farmers and laborers recent
ly held in that city, has created such
widespread attention, that the editor of
this paper has been induced to publish
the principle parts of il below. Although
by many Of our readers and
stock holders of the paper to publish the
speech in full. it is impossible to do SO
owing to the great lack of space. The
most interesting parts are here given.
Mr.. Erwin opened with a liberal quota
tion from the Historian, Bancroft, con-
the exigencics of the Ameri-
can Revolution and continued as follows:
''Prating ever of its rights at the hands Of
freemcn, false capital has robbed the
citizen. controlled the state, nodded aud
bought legislation. seized the administers
ton of political parties, prostituting these
sentincls of liberty to become the body
guards of wrong and injustice. It has
erected a system of laws and customs
over and through all industries, by which
pcrnicious laws and customs it takes from
all labor the just reward of it's exertion,
and with the abandoned effrontery of an
armed robber it defles the injured from all
redress. 1t claims the protection Of the
law which it creates for its purposes; for
the uncnding continuation of it's fraud, it
pleads us excuse the fraud Of it's creation.
1t has whclped itself into ten times its
natural size, and bloated with the profits
of the ccaseless industry of a nation of
65. 600, 900 slaves to it's systems. encroach-
ments and power, it holds in it's deadly
clutch the liberties. the happiness, the re-
wards and the peace Of the people. 1t
has learned all the arts Of the tyrant. It
is moral in the austercness OF its respccta-
bility. It appropriates the public acts. in
the caucus, in the convention, in the legis-,
lature, in the executive chair. II per-
plexes and defeats the purposes of courts
by its purchased legislation. 1t brilHs
official trusts; and 1t is erect and savage
today, the tyrant master over all masses
of this republic, the old tyrant of all time;
robed in morality. sustained by law, re-
spected as u savior by its slaves. Its
clutch is on your home. 1t has enslavel
the miner in Pennsylvania and along all
the mountains of the land. ltchains the
father and his children before the looms
and spindlcs of New England. 1t mem
aces the planter of the South. There is
no longer free home in the valley Of the
Mississippi, or on the Ohio, or along the
Sllsulellanma. There is beneath the very
flag of the republic no free artisan or toll
or who can claim his own. All forms of
labor are bound to this modern car Of
Juggcrnaut. Your starry banner Of the
free drOOps in shame over your capitOls
and school houses. Your traditions are
tortured The free labor of the republic.
that heart and soul of liberty itself, is
ever struggling in almost the agonies of
death, within the laccrating claws of this
demon, hydra-headcd, golden dragon.
FRAUDS. VILE AND NUMEROUS.
The power to control or to prohibit. re-
siding in the power to lcgislate. was en-
gagged in war. When finally the atten-
tion Of supinc legislatures was called to
warning by few patriotic men, by the
anti monopoly press, and the grangers
and industrial unions, the corporations
openly resorted to the bribing of legisla-
tors and executive Officers-to the buying
of votes, the betrayal of trusts and all
that infamy could catalogue. This damn
able daring continues until today.
1t is said that the corporations inter-
csted in legislation, and in the election OF
their man Friday to the United States
senate. under the present governor, paid
out in this state. us Judas money, to the
representatives that the supervised caucus
of the prostituted political parties had
duped the masses to appoint. to betray
liberty and the demands of toil-a sum
equal to $4OO. 600. a vast sum. truly. to
the honest and poorly paid son of toll,
but it was u mere bagatelle to these
business circles" for 1t is q proradle
fart that the clcrator* stole .trom the farm
crs IF this state, IN q single vee& u sam
greater than S.3OO, 900.
Since this unnatural system of over
capitalization began. railroad corporations
alone have issued and sold in the market,
under the permission of business" and
in utter violation of the pursuit Of happi-
ness. which is the spirit Of the constitu-
ton. a sum equal to four thousand mil
lions of dollars.
Groaning under the interest of a ma
tional debt Of over two billions, the labor
and production Of the entire people is by
this unparalleled clllcanc compelled to pay
the carrying interests Of the country alone