, 1891-10-06
FARMER AND ARTISAN.

congressman impson Talks OF Iheir
Union and the Power They Win Be.
Congressman Jerry Simpson was one
of the speakers at the Labor Day cele-
bration of the Chicago Building Trades
council The meeting was held in Sharp
shooters park, and the attendance was
more than 10000. Following are some
extracts from Mr.. Simpsons address:
1t affords me pleasure to extend to the
laboring men, aye, and to the women,
the right hand of fellowship of the farm
ers of the northwest. l can assure you
that the farmers Of the United States,
although in the past pagans in politics
and slow in economic reforms, are today
ready to grasp hands with the laboring
men to secure our rights. When l say
rights" 1 mean to get part of the great
wealth that we produce. In this respect
the man of the workshop is as much of IL
farmer as he who holds the pillow.
We have been going on for the last
thirty years producing wealthy 1t is n
statistical fact that for every hour re
corded in a day we produce a quarter of a
million dollars in wealth. Now the ques.
ton comes up, who receives this wealth.
The man who produces 1t or b monop-
olist2 The answer is not hard TO find.
jefferson laid down the principle that
every man is born to certain inalienable
rights, and it is to procure these rights
hat farmers and laboring men have
banded together. 1t is evident to me
that we are on the eve of a great politi-
cal revolution. The earth is the great
storehouse of wealth. Labor is the fac
tor which produces this wealth. Conse-
quently labor must have access to that
storehouse.
In this connection Mr.. Simpson spoke
of his present extensive tour through the
country, and showed how the coal in
Pennsylvania and the iron In Michigan
passed rapidly into the possession of the
few, while the farmer in Kansas had to
burn corn for fuel, and while the people
all over the and had to pay heavy tolls
to the railroad corporations.
If every man should leave this country
iron and coal would have no value. Con-
sequently, it is labor that produces
values, and we intend to tax it back to
the people. Transportation should be
one of the functions of the government,
and it should be the governments duty
to deal directly with the people In the
1lhLltT Vi uuOucy llSbcha VI uClCbhbibB
this function to the national banks. The
same holds good in the matter of tele-
graphs.
Now, the question is, how to abolish
the evils that have crept in. You can't
do it alone; the farmers can't do 1t alone.
1t is only by united action that we can
succeed. We farmers have been a long
time on the road, but whatever road we
did travel we have reached you at last,
and today 5000, 900 people are enrolled
under our banner, and l have the faith
that they will never stop until they
reach the goal This goal can finally be
won only through the ballot.
He showed in this connection how the
different systems of robbery"-the feu-
dial barons, the church and legislatures
corrupted by monopolists-had succeeded
in levying tribute upon farmers and
laboring men. In this connection the
press came in for a hard hit.
They say to us, You fellows talk in
favor of class legislation; why don't you
legislate for the brain workers. l say
there are so few of the brain workers
that they can readily move about if it
does not suit them in one place. amin
lister of the gospel can readily turn to be
a street car conductor should he be n
failure as a preacher. If he fails as a
conductor he may be fit to be president
of a college. Or he may become a poll
tician and subsequently United States
senator. Then, if there should be total
unfitness for any Of these avocations, he
may settle in some town and become
editor of q great paper, but in the case
~ tha .n,.1,,1a- x,@~1r ~ ~ l-1N,1. --I 4.
farmer the struggle has become SO fierce
and so general that there is no other
remedy but a political revolution.
1t is for these clients, the muscular
workers, that we have to talk, gentle
men of the brain. My clients are those
that have to go down into the coal fields,
deep below the surface of the earth, and
risk their lives every minute for a mere
p~ittance; my clients are the men and
women in the factories at the spindlss;
the men who exc out a miserable eais-
tence IN farms, working from twelve to
twenty hours a day. They have ap
pealed to us for protection and rel
which we cannot give unless we ban
together.
What Expresses us today Is our igno.
rance; not corporations, not aristocracy.
but ignorance. With the help of God
and the votes of you, good people, we
will bring this government back to the
people. The French revolution changed
the entire existence of things in France
and created a true brotherhood Of men;
but the whole monarchical power Of
Europe fought against and squelched it.
However, hope remained, and l hope to
live to see the day when we can go
down to Washington and inaugurate for
president a man who is a toiler, a man
who helped to create wealth
Certainly a Bad Record.