Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1891-07-16
A Low PLANE OF PARTY MORALITY

by Senator PETER
Ii is no wonder Senator Ingalls, said
that the publication OF politics is au
irldescent dream; and II is no wonder
further, that when no was criticised for
his language, he replied by saying that he
stated fact and described condition,
that he was not giving his own opinion OF
what ought to be. II has come to pass,
that men IN private and In public position
will maintain deception and manufacture
falsehood IN order to deceive the people
and keep them within the traces Of party
harness. II there has been moro than
two Of our public errors discarded by the
parties since the great war, there is no
record OF the fact. When the people pro-
/ tested against the wholesale spolIatlon OF
I the public lands In the interest Of wealthy
corporations both Of the great parties re-
sponded by amending their platforms to
correspond TO the public will; aud again,
when the alien labor-contract law OF 1864
was discovered to have been passed, and
to be In opposition TO public interests,
| public clamor had the effect to change
party opinions upon that subject, and az
act was passed TO prohibit importation OF
/ labor under contract. Those are the only
1 two Instances In which our parties, after
having discovered error, abandoned IL.
There are many other instances where
they have learned that they were leading
I'm wrong directions, but have been so
closely tied to the power OF wealth, which
as Mr.. Henry Clews says, Is moving the
interests Of the whole world, that they
| are unable, and 1t seems unwilling, to
cut loose from the tie that binds them.
Latterly, they discovered errors in several
new directions, one relating to the tariff
on imported goods, another In relation tc
the Indebtedness Of the people; but IN
both these cases they absolutely refuse 10
change their methods or their doctrine to
correspond to the needs and TO the demands
OF the people just now, the party press
Is engaged In heated discussion OF the
debt question. Within the last two weeks
we have received great many copies OF
papers containing marked articles com
menting upon the Cooper Union speech
delivered by the editor OF this paper,
juno %, on the money question. Thes,
papers come from all sections OF the
Union, excepting the South, and 20 pef
cent. Of them are criticisms of the speech
using assertion Instead OF argument,
vituperation instead OF logic Coming
closer home, our old neighbor, the Capital.
is striking harder than any OF them. Ii
always goes hard with us to unfaVorably
criticise anything which the Capital says
editorlaiiy. So long have our relations
with that paper been friendly, and SO
many years were those relations very
close, that II is painful to witness its
tloundering and its determination to write
for its masters without regard for the
truth. Last summer, very regretiully, we
charged that paper with willfully and
deliberately conspirlng with Others to de-
ceive the people upon important matters,
and now, painful as the process Is, we are
compelled, In justice to the people, to
repeat our charge and to again say that
The Capital not only does deliberately and
persstently insist upon decelving the
people, but that with the same knowledge
and the same deliberate intent to deceive,
1t wiliully and knowingly withholds from
the people important truths which they
ought TO know and for which they are
seeking day by day, as they pray for their
daily bread. This sort OF language, as the
readers OF the KANSAS FARMER very well
know, Is not according TO our custom, but
the time has come for blows. II men will
deliberately falsify records and misrepre-
sent conditions, regardless Of the interests
Of the people, and II they insist upon
maintaining party advantages without
regard to public interests, II is time for US
to begin a war that will In the end destroy
the intrenchments behind which these
men are working.
The text to this article may be found IN
editorial matter contained in the Daily
Capital Of this city in its issues during the
last six days, beginning with its article OF
last Thursday under the head OF 1.-TWO
Guesses by Senator PETER" The Intention
Of the Capital is to show that either the
Senator was wrong three years ago IN his
estimate OF the mortgage Indebtedness OF
tho people or that he is wrong now, and
that In Q ther case he must necessarily be
a liar. The Intention OF the Capital, IN
the second place, Is TO show tnat .tfe
Senator Is not only willfully peddlng
falsehood among the people, but that he
is doing It from sinister motives, and that
he Is purpnsely slanderinR his own State
in order that he may gain some personal
or political advantage
Files Of the KANSAS FARMER, Of which
the Senator was then aud is now editor, 4
and hles Of the Capital OF which be a,
that time was as ociate editor, are repro /
duced to show what we're his opinions 1
then concerning the Indebtedness Of the I
people. That IS all very well. and we arc
pleased TO know that in that respect al +
least the Capital Is disposed 70 be truth /
fnl. Now, II the Capital will do as the
KANSAS FARMER has done, manfully 4
acknowledge thar at that timewe we're all 4
ignorantly in error. and that while we all /
believed the mortgage Indebtedness Of our
people was not burdrnsome, more recent
Investigations have shown we were wrong
and that official Investigation by the
Census Bureau gives us the exact truth.
We we're not only In error, but our error
the reader viii refer 70 the KANSAS
FARMER for lsss, he will find in our issue
Of August 10, toward the close OF an
article under the head kansas Farm
Mortgages, after referring to the munich
pal Indebtedness OF the State and esti-
mating Sc to be about s20,0O0.oO0 we placed
the aggr gate indebt dness upon farms at
about SO 900 900. The same statement
vas made afterwards in the Capital, the
same person having written both. That
was IN August. lsss and the matter was
written the first time that our attention
bad been called to this subject. So
startling were the figures presented By
the St Louis Republican, whose state
ments we were combating, that an estl-
mate was made, based upon what We at
the time presumed to be reasonable, with
out pretending TO know anything about
the subject IN exactness. we gave our
reasoning At the time. Those articles IN
the FARMER and IN the Capital called
down upon Us inuumerable criticisms