The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-10-18
SENATOR PLuMR ON rHp ALL1ANos.
An Extract From His Great Speech De-
hvered in Wichita Oct 8, 'o1.

An Extract From His Great Speech De-
hvered in Wichita Oct. 8, 'o1.
And now, fellow citizens, we might, ]
think, with safety rest here upon the wis
dom and the justice Of the legislation en-.
acted by the Republican party when it
had the power. But it will be said that
under conditions which have recently
been established there is no necessity now
of belonging either to the Democratic oil
Republican party; that new party has
come up which denies the business OF
either of the old parties and maintains
itself upon the theory that they are both
corrupt. Now, there may be some incan-
tation, some mysterious process by which
you can take man who has heretofore
been engaged IN the corrupt practices Of
either OF the old parties and by simply
transferring him to another party make
him white as snowi Let US consider what
this new party presents: In the first place,
| claim IL is not party; but we will not
deny it that name if it seeks it, for names
are OF little consequence. 1t is one of the
peculiarlties Of all the alleged third par
ties that have arisen since the war that
every one OF them has bad for its chief and
only object the destruction of the Repub-
lican party. The Greenback party, the
Prohibition party, the Union Labor party,
the Peoples party, they have all aimed
their missiles at the Republican party.
1t eau be said of this new party, in the
first place. that they have never nominated
or voted for single member of the legis-
| lature, single member of congress, a sin
gle state officer, in any Democratic state.
All its operations have been limited to To-
calities where Republicans were in the
supremacy, and thus ii has manifested In
| the most conspicuous possible way the
| fact | have stated: that its chief object is
the destruction of the Republican party.
do not object to that The Republican
party has been the subject OF
attacks of this kind before and it
has survived them all. / don't
even challenge the motives of those
! party. although | do question, somewhat,
the good judgment of man who should
seriously propose to destroy the Republi-
can party and let the Democratic party
| live In my judgment that would not
represent the survival of the flttest
We have presented to Us as a platform
of that party something which deserves
consideration, not only because 1t is pre-
sented by men who claim 1t in earnest,
but because it represents a cartain phase
of public discussion which makes itself
apparent about every so many years. Good
men. all men, in observing the inequalities
of financial condition among men naturally
ponder and consider measures whereby
those inequalities can be remedied. Gen
orally speaking they desire to do this by
the Intervention of the state. have never
observed those people who are most con.
cerned about this unequal condition ever
taxing themselves to overcome it. They
want to invoke the aid of the state; aud
the step once taken in that direction will
almost invariably result in what we may
briefly call socialism; that is to say, a con-
dition OF things in which the state owns
all the properly, EMPLOYS everybody, pays
every body, supports every body.
There is book written by man nameu
BellamV who in great detail has worked
out a scheme for the enlightenment of his
fellow citizens; a scheme under which
lad was expected to go to school until
Is or 20 years of age and then work for the
state or community until 45, at the expira-
tion of which time he would be given
meal ticket good for his board whenever
presented at any subtreasury town in the
uuionl
1t does not avail to say that our friends,
the enemy, OF the Peoples party, don't go
thus far, because they open wide the door
and commit the government to functions
which it cannot exercise unless it is pre-
pared to take the other step necessary to
realize this communistic and socialistic
idea
| observed with some concern that the
Kansas Peoples party Was little less
radical than their brethren in Ohio. The
Kansas Peoples party declares for loans
by the government upon land, upon wheat
and grain and the products of the farm,
while their Ohio brethren declare not only
for these things, but declare still further
that the government should buy up all
the whisky and sell it to the people at
costl They are both in the same direction.
But confess when l read that Ohio plat
form it had a certain captivation after all.
Think of buying gin fizZ, or whisky sour,
or whisky straight, from the government,
peddied out to you by man in uniform,
blue coat and brass buttons, certified to,
not only as to its purity but that you get
it at actual cost, aud 1t has its attractions
after all!
And yet, what shall say of party that
proposes that the government shall buy
and sell all the whisky and leave US to
dicker as best we can for groceries and
clothes? Yet it is but a step taken in ad-
vance by the Peoples party of Ohio.
These people proceed upon the theory,
first, that the great necessity of all the
people is to borrow mOney-not all the
people, but the people who own land; the
really of much account. The people who
own land, the people who raise grain, are
entitled to borrow money under this
scheme, but not the people who produce
any other article into which labor enters !
Of course it is understood, although not
so stated, that this money is to be printed |
by the government and issued to the peo-
pie at low rate of interest, upon the the
ory that the government can do this !
without cost to itself except the cost of |
ink, paper and labor In other |
words, the government of the |
United States can make indefinite sums |
of money; can create this medium of ex- |
change, this one thing we labor for, this |
thing which measures and establishes |
value; and, of course, if it can do all this, |
it may with propriety loan il at low rate |
of interest.
According to the last census there is |
So, ,000, QUO 900 worth of real estate in the |
United States. On this we are to borrow |
money. In these days when the assessor |
comes around in the spring we feel pretty !
poor and sometimes fail, perhaps, to count /
the number of steers correctly. We make |
serious contention with him If he puts /
down our land at more than one-third /
what We think it would be worth. But /
now, under this new order CT things, how i
different our relations to this important |
official Land instead of being worth |
little is worth great deal; we are going /
to borrow money on it. And l think it is |
safe to say that we will not only borrow /
81, 900 0OO, 900 on it, but viii add little 1
and make it an even $50, 900, COO 600. Would !
there be any land in Sedgwick county |
worth less than 500 an acre under this
new dispensation. We are to borrow /
money on land according TO Its appraised /
value, aud it is TO be appraised, OF course, \
at any time, and by people who wish this
money, which money Is something the 4
government can create without cost TO II