Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-02-18

NOMINATING sTREETER.

NOmiNA ING STREE1ER.
A Brave, Manly and Incisive Speech Made
BY an Illinois Farmer Representative.
On behalf of the f. NIB. Association
party, Representative Cockreu. of the
Illinois Legislature, placed in nomina-
ton Hon. A. j. Streeter, of Mercer. for
United States Senator He said:
Mr.. Speaker-The task imposed upon me at
this time approach with feelings of pride.
embarrassment and discouragement: with
PRIDE because it is my privilege to present
the claims of the honest, hard handed
wealth producing. tariff ridden, monopoly.
robbed and sury'enslaved millions for
whose benefit, up to the present time law
making bod es have not convened with en-
barrassment because in an assembly of polI-
ticians can not avoid the conclusion that
organized labor. although petted in words is,
in sentiment, despised with hdiscouragement
because 1 know our objects are not under.
stood.
But. Mir. Speaker, the fight is on the reyo
luton is here, the conflict must and will con-
continue; ignorance of the great un-
derlying causes that are producing
this upheavd will neither correct the
wrongs nor avoid the consequences: the
emerg encies of the times will either produce
a statesmanship capable of leading the toll
ing millions to ace, prosperity, happiness
and contentment, by solving the great Geo.
vcntive genius of man will go on multiplying
forces to compete with labor in the produc-
tion of wealth, while a vicious class system
of distribution will continue gathering it into
fewer and fewer hands until our homes are
lost, our lib critics are lost, and on the ruins
of our grand and glorious Republic, idol of
all liberty loving patriots, the guiding star
and hope of the oppressed of all nations
will be erected plutocracy of wealth and
power such as the sun of heaven never shone
nnOn. unless Gods mi
the contamination of the dastardly and
damnable conspiracy outside the halls of
legislation.
Mr.. Speaker, it is not . question of whether
few more dollars of silver are to be coined,
the hours of labor to be shortened, or
whether the tariff is to be reduced q little.
In the great issues that are now up for settle
ment these may be included, but the manner
OF their settlement, without just solution
OF the problems that go before them, is of
the least consequence. The two great prob
lens that confront us, Mr.. Speaker, the two
that can no longer be ignored or Kissed down,
are the questions of money and transporta-
tion-the question of providing the wealth.
producers of this country with a means of
transportation without robbing them for its
use, the question of providing for the toiling
millions a medium of exchange or money
without squeezing all the profits of honest
industry into the income of law-created
money trust. 1t is not question of
whether we are to have single fiuctuat-
ing standard or double fiuctuating
standard by which to measure values The
demand now is that instead of longer allow
ing King Shylock to pretend to measure val.
ues with gold and silver. which is known
only to be another name for robbery, we
commence repre- senting and exchanging val
ues for money And then when that is done
want to say to my Democratic friends that
L am IN favor of protecting American labor
against the starved labor of the old DEATH
bed, rotten and decaying monarches of the
world, and, to you, my gold standard Repub-
lican friends, want to say that if under the
leadership of a few gold-bug million
aires, you are going to everlastingly
squeeze all values down to a gold standard,
compelling us to look to Liverpool for mar
ket quotations, then we must have absolute
free trade, and have 1t right away. Mr..
Speaker, in view of these facts, and in
order that for one time in the history of our
country labor may be represented in the
the United States Senate, l have the
privilege and the pleasure of placing in nom
ination man, although comparatively un-
known in mutual admiration societies in
this country, whose name is a household
word among the millions i shall not claim
for this man that he is ordained of God to
lead monopoly robbed and usury- enslaved
people out OF bondage. / shall not nominate
him because he has aroused a slumbering
people with oratory, inspired them with
carnage, neither do we claim that he has ever
performed miracles; to our knowledge he
has never brought any of the dead to life
that were starved to death in the process of
manufacturing demo -republicratic million
aires in this country; he has not turned
water into wine. or limestone rocks into
light bread to feed ,5O0.0O0 tramps that were
squeezed out of n job when the wealth of the
country was squeezed into the NAV of few
money changers. and many thngs moro he
huf fuhf haV 10 a Z
pass over to mention few of the things he
has done, and the reasons why he is the
proper man at this time to Represents
the great agricultural state of Illinois
In the United States Senate First, nobody
disputes his honesty; second, he has always
cared more for the welfare of the toilinR
millions than for the success of his party;
third, he is farmer and his every interest
is identified with the agricultural interests
of the State and the Nation; fourth, he has
devoted some time and expended more of
his hard earned cash advocating and de-
Tending the interests of the farmers and la.
borers than any other m an fifth, he knows
the causes that have and aIe yet crushing
the Industries pf the Nation; and sixth.
knowing the remedies demanded by the in.
dustrial classes he will have the honesty and
the courage to apply them. The man to
whom j refer, Mr.. Speaker Is Hon A. j.
Streeter, the farmer statesman, whom nom.
mate as the farmers and laborers' candidate
for United States Senator
Mr.. Cockren was loudly applauded
by both parties. His thrusts at the Re-
publioans pleased the Democrats and
his thrusts at the Democrats rejoiced
the Republicans.-Rig of Labor.