The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-22

who, as a stranger, has ever been de-
voured by the wide, open-eyed gaze of a
room full of school children. or stood
abashed by the intent and expectant
stare Of stranger assemblage may i'm
agine something of the alert, perlustra-
ton and visual contemplation which is
accorded the individual, who, for the
! first time, seats himself in front Of that
confratGnity that elevated PETER, the
unknown pedagogue, whiskers and all,
10 seat in the most dignifed leg
! islative body in the world. We
went expecting TO find the counterpart
of a state grange or rural congressional
convention, but found instead con-
/ ference of Non-conformists with eclesi-
astical solemnity dissenting to all claims
save and except their own. Venerated
usages, traditional obligations and
vested rights have become senile, passe
and absolutely obsolete with him who
deigning not to rise, cries out from his
seat ''Mr. Spt aker, l move that all rules
he suspended and that my bill be read a
third time and passed now"
And did we learn anything else? Yes.
We discovered in every one of them
newly arisen John the Baptist crying
aloud, and caring fol neither Pharisee or
Saducee, for neither Republican or Demo
crat, steadfast alone in a faith that
would remove old Popocatapetl, that
they are short on their canel's hair and
the market has gone to pieces on their
locusts and wild honey.
And more.
They appreciate that they are recog-
nized in some sense as standing protest
against any farther acquiescence in the
existing arrangements of industry, and
the distribution of wealth, coupled with
their vehement expression OF the desire
10 improve the condition of the great
toiling and enduring strata, of mankind
with which they have allied themselves,
that substrata which renders philantropic
schemes for the amelioration of condi
tions necessary, and yet who are just as
good as the Nanderbilts, the Goulds or
the Prince of Wales. They know, or
think they know, that the depressions
and discouragements which overshadow
the great majority of the children of this
world can removed, that the evils which
men accepted in the past as Heaven or
dained, or at best inevitable, can and
must be wiped out.
And more.
They have come to comprehend, in
vague way maybe that there is COM
munity of interes Is binding closely the
material prosperity of all the Mississippi
valley states from Ohio to Colorado and
from Dakota to Alabama, against which
interests are arrayed the power of this
nation as directed through the financial
channels and the manufacturing centers
of the east. aud found crystalized in the
Mckinley bill-which oue-sided enact
ment Blaine still protests is an outrage
against the Nyest-and is found potent in
all the financial legislation Of congress
since the close of the war. They see
that the gold bugs have committed
Cleveland to paper, and Harrison also in
! his messages, so that whather the Repub-
/ licans or the Democrats triumph all the
/ interests concerned and sustained
by the non-producing Wall street
Will be safe, and that the pro-
ducing people of the great Central
west viii still be left PROSTATE to be
heeced and robbed at pleasure. They
have learned from dire ard distressing
experience that the great central area,
out of which is produced the wealth of
the country, can get nothing except as
il is doled out through the tollng gates
of the Atlantic seaboard: that money
( comes 10 them only in such volumes as
the theorist aud Spectator of the com.
mercial centers OF the east NAV deem
sufficient. and that nothing Of all that
the farmer produces is adequately pro
tected. while all that he buys even Of
the common necessities, are made extor-
tionate by a high tariff
There is, in short. no more emphatic
object lesson that these are times Of dis
content than the lower house Of the
Kansas legislature. It's not dependency.
much less despair, out disquiet. dissatis-
faction with the inequalities Of the
chances and opportunities which hedge
men about. Where men formerly asked
but for enough 10 eat and TO wear. with
plenty Of work or labor, now enlarged free
dom and more abundant inmunities are
dreamed or, through cooperation; are
dreamed Of so WILDLY that they become
dsy-thoUghts conned over hourly. They
argue. what Is free government and n2-
tionai Independence with all their multi
phclty Of modern labor saving devices
worth, il the individual is not lifted to a
/ higher type OF civilization: They are
| IT,. f~.- u,