The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-12-25
RICE'S RESPONSE.
He Hurls Another Javelin at the
Peoples Party Leaders.
He Continues to '.stir Up the Animals" In
Lively Style-People's Party Managers
Lot of Cranks Who Would
Rule or Ruin.

The peoples party papers and lead
ers having gone into spasms over the
open letter of Gen. John II. Rice, OF
Fort Scott, and denounced him in the
severest terms in SO freely speaking
his mind, the general comes back al
them in the following untlinching style:
My open letter of November 10 to the
officials of the alliance and peoples
party of Kansas is just now beginning
to ''stir up the animals"
1t was intended to be a conciliatory
letter, while at the same time it ar
raigned not the peoples party, but only
the leaders of the peoples party for
their faithlessness to principles and for
their follies and political nonsense.
showed in this letter the departure OF
the party, under the guide of its man.
ayers, from the chart of principles
upon which it was founded and upon
which it won the battle in Kansas
in 1890 l showed how irresponsi-
BILE cranks rushed into the party
as soon as this victory was
achieved, and uniting with cranlSs,
socialists and anarchists already in its
ranks, loaded the party down with
ridiculous schemes such as the sub
treasury, class legislation, silk money
scheme, mercantile monopolies, etc,
and added to this Mrs. Leases repudia-
ton scheme, Clover's reputation heresy,
and other like vagaries which had
brought sure and certain defeat upon
he Il q, %1,e, Coll nd
damaging calamity howl set up by the
eranks, and the outrageous falsehoods
and ISLANDERS of Kansas by DIR. Macune
and the hordes of mercenary mission
aries that Travelled all over the country
moaning over 100000 of mortgaged
homes and the millions of tramps and
the restitution in the cities, declaring
Kansas bankrupt and her people ruined
all for the ducats-had ruined our
credit and dashed our party upon the
breakers forlorn wreck.
My letter was also an honest warn
ingvthat the party must trim its sails,
throw overheard the cranks, repudiate
all other wild and visionary projects
and stand with honor and honesty up
on its original chart, the St Louis plat
form, or else it would be wise to dis
band at once.
cited facts that justified my letter
fully. Did the leaders of the party
learn anything from disaster? No, no.
My letter is met with insults to me.
The leaders would learn nothing, hear
nothing, but seem to be under strange
delusion to believe in any visionary
scheme that they might be politically
damned. They were all like Pope's
character:
Sense passed through him does not remain
the same,
For food digested takes another name"
They rushed to indianapolis a COR
poral's guard of peoples party self-con-
stituted leaders and louder still rang
out the calamity howl" PETER, Simp-
son, Clover, Otis, Utley, Morgan, Chase,
McLallan and Gilruth were there; so
was Macune and his satellites. The st.
Louis platform was wholly lost sight
of, the sub-treasury scheme was rein
dorsed, absolute defeat in Kansas was
heralded to the world as as victory,
many of the cranks honored for their
faithfulness, and all bid to go forth
and renew with redoubled energy the
calamity howl and the demand for
cheap money through schemes which
are wholly impracticable.
For my temerity in daring to write
that letter am now abused on every
side. The president of the Citizens
National Alliance says am a pessimist.
Well, Mr.. Gilruth, you are correct to
some extent; 1 do object to many
things, among them Reputation, social
ism, anarchy, falsehood, SANDER of
Kansas and crankism everywhere. Yes;
l am pessimist. The Chicago News,
getting its inspiration from played
out editor. formerly of Kansas. and a
political dead beat, says that am an
old man and ambitious for Office, and
hence my letter should not have much
weight Yes; / am beginning to get
old, and thank God am now too old to
lie, too old to SANDER and foul my own
nest" too old to make fool of myself.
From Mound City, Kan, comes the hot
epithets traitor. demagogism and
Great Scott! How they
fail me- From the Torch comes flow
of vulgarity. The Fort Scott Lantern
sails into me with its abuse. Diogenes
did not hold his lantern that this editor
might see the truth. or else he would
''see himself as others see him." and
then he would not have evoked an ex-
position of his deai-beating the peoples
party candidates out of hundreds of
ducats to keep him alive until election
day. This abuse of me is total waste
of ink and breath; but If my letter was
not thorn in the sides of the imprac-
ticable leaders, why do they squell so
loud? 1t is only the CALLED jade that
winceS"
If I misrepresensed, point it out
If falsified, point it out.
II / slandered anyone. point it out.
am not alone in my diagnosis of the
peoples party leaders. The Emporia
an alliance organ, says:
'Why have the people of Kansas
given the alliance third party move
ment a setback? Because it had no
sooner won success and power than it
was seized upon by wild Drained and
reckless demagogues and run to suit
their notions and crankisms
The idea that a party coming into ex-
istence for the avowed purpose of
abolishing class legislation could sue
coed by demanding the most palpable
class legislation that could be proposed
was a most egregious blunder. An anti
party demanding monopoly
was too much for common sense to en-
dure.
add to the sub-treasury scheme the
proposition entertained by
the state alliance at Salina, of combin-