The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-31
.ich from his labor revel in luxury and


agricultural products, live stock, silver
and gold are but forms and products Of
labor, crystalized, concentrated and tan
gible.
When. therefore, the tyrant wealth
undertakes to grind under his iron heel the
head of labor it is the unnatural and i'm
pious rebellion of the created thing against
its Creator.
The enlightened conscience Of the times
has come TO look with disapproval upon
the organized systems OF oppression that
have grown up under our free institutions
whereby great aggregatlons of wealth have
combined to rob the masses of the
Politicians, either stupid or corrupt.
have permitted monopolies. trusts. com
bines and gambling Boards OF Trade TO
fasten their clutches upon our vitals; the
great railroad system of the country, now
concentrated, practically, under the con-
troll Of half a dozen potentates, has fixed
itself, like INDUSTRIOUS and Unsuitable
leech, upon US; money, the measure of
values and medium OF exchange, has been
so contracted in volume and manipulated
as to favor the rich and impoverish the
poor.
And while the laborer, the artisan, the
farmer, the professional, and the business
man of moderate means, sweats and tolls
in the hard aud unequal struggle of life
seeking to provide for his family the COM
mon necessities-often unsuccessful and
beggared in the attempt, the gods OF
wealth, in palace cars, ride IN luxury
across the continent, while every tie that
bears the rails over which thunders their
iron horse, represents the PROSTATE forms
of men and women, worn out, discouraged,
fallen by the wayside and crushed under
the remorseless wheels of this modern
juggernaut OF soulleSS and Unsuitable
wealth.
My comrades, am aware that these SEN
timents may not be popular with those
who, like the sheykh of the Sa' Deeeyah at
Cairo, ride on horseback in ecstacy over
the via Dolorosa, paved with the bodies of
living men! but, if any man has right to
the utterance of his honest convictions, 1t
is he who stood by his country's flag when
threatened by those who would destroy it.
The surviving soldiers of the rebellion.
whatever else they may be entitled to, have
at least earned the right TO speak their
sentiments upon the economic questions
of the day Baptized in the fire and smoke
of battle for the nations life, they still
stand true and loyal to the high and sacred
principles of American freedom.
And now after that great conflict is over
is there is nothing more for patriot hands TO
do? Has the nation reached it's highest
destiny? Then indeed is Lord Byron's
gloomy picture of the rise and fall of
nations, to become as true OF US as OF all
those gone before.
Here is the moral OF ali human tales
It's but The same rehearsal or the past.
Wealth. vice. Corruption. bsrbarism at last;
And history with all her volumes vast
Hath but one page"
Are all the mounds we decorate today,
all the sacrifices of that dark night of re-
bellion, but to serve as mementos OF a
worse than worthless cause.-The saving OF
nation doomed to degradation and decay?
Or has the human race. after six thou
sand years of darkness, vainly cropping after
the pearl of truth and enduring freedom,
found in this Anglo-American race at last,
a people wise, pure, just and aggressive
enough to solve the problem of the ages?
Says Emerson: I'VE live in a new and ex-
ceptional age. America is another name
for opportunity. Our whole history APP
pears like last effort of Divine Providence
in behalf of the human race. y
The past is settled and secure. The
future looms before US.
Let us take our places side by side with
the great masses in the ranks of the civil
army and kindling anew the fires of
patriotism, follow the light of liberty's
torch to the grand destiny that awaits us
as a nation. To the United States OF
America has been committed the problem
OF working out and establishing upon an
enduring basis, the ideal government of
the amplitude or its resources and power.
hold the respect of the nations of the earth,
and at the same time give protection, and
render equal the exact justice to all-even
10 the humblest and poorest of its citizens (
This ideal government will never come
until the masses, educated in the hard
school of adversely, learn to think and act
for themselves, until, casting aside the |
blatant political demagOgues who are ever |
forcing themselves to the front. they stand /
united for pure, honest and capable men |
for Office. 1t will come only when the |
people of this Land, the great mass of COM !
moners. the mighty army of bread win
ners, arise in one tumultOus most, whose 1
right wing shall rest upon Plymouth /
Rock, whose left shall reach the Golden |
Gate, and touching elbows, arm TO arm, |
with hearts aglow with patriotism and /
fraternal fire, they march to the correc- |
ton of the abuses that confront US.
The wrongs that exist ID our govern |
ment today cannot he righted by per- |
petrating other wrongs A wise and honest |
statesman can always devise just remedies |
for existing evils. Let vested rights be |
sacred. Let the constitution OF our coun- |
try be supreme.
But at the same time let US enact such /
laws as will make il impossible for the |
strong TO Cypress the weak; for the rich TO /
rob the poor; for corn to be burned as fuel /
in the dug-outs of Kansas, while famine. |
guant and CHASTITY, pinches the pale faces /
OF wretche0 humanity IN the slums OF New /
York.
/ assert it as a principle, incontroverti |
bic IN fairness and reason, that this nation, |
the hope and refuge of the liberty loving
people of the world, will never have per
formed its true mission. nor reached the /
ideal OF a true republican government, /
until every citizen whose foot presses our /
soil, every man able and willing to work,
can, with ordinary industry and economy,
provide himself with comfortable home. !
his family with the necessities OF life, and /
his children with decent education. SO /
long as this is impossible of attainment by
any and every man who breathes the air of /
free America, while at the same time /
Others. by reason Of unjust, discriminat-
ing and oppressive laws, may count their !
hundreds of millions there is work for the
there IS work for the true
statesman: there is work for you and me,
my comrades. and for every lover of his
country and his fellow men.
In that struggle that you and were in
a quarter of a century ago, we learned the
lesson OF fraternity. The strong learned
how 10 bear the burdens of the weak. We
shared together the little tent and blanket,
oft-times the scanty meal, and we drank
from the same canteen And when the
storm of shot and she'll crashed through
our ranks. with brothers hands we bore
our stricken comrades out from the red
and FRY Jaws Of battle 20 a place OF security
and care. And, in that awful conflict,
mothers learned TO give up sons,
and wives TO part with husbands.
and though the tears dropped hot and
fast, the choking voice said Co And
all this sacrifice was made 70 preserve the
of the Union The cause
was worth all IL cost Bat who can
measure the value OF that victory. when
the great cause OF national fraternity
snail have wiped out the last vestge Of
legislative oppression. Of monopoly. AID
csste. and the sun Of righteousnsss and pros