Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-07-16
AS to a Third Party.

laratlon OF principles, you desire quite
a goodly number of our institutions to
be changed and reformed. You want
burdens taken from the shoulders of
farmers and laborers of this country,
which yuu think are unjust. You
want taxation equalized. You want
the power of the monopolist curtailed
You want Free Coinage of Silver.
You want our banking system re
formed, and many of you are in favor
of the "sub treasury scheme" There
are many other things you desire;
some which all fair minded men can
join to help you obtain, others more
open to debate.
Let US stop a moment and reflect
upon what ought to be done. If you
were engaged in pulling weeds out of
your garden, would you not clean each
bed as you went, and do it thoroughly?
You would not take a handful of weeds
from the onions, another from the
beans, and SO on. No! you would say,
"One thing at a time and let that
thing be we'll DONE" If, in the ordi-
nary affairs of your every day life,
you would adopt this maxim, why
should you not adopt it when we come
to the great work of roofing out the ill
weeds that have grown up in our in
situations?
Again, if you were working in your
garden would you not first destroy
every thing admitted to be evil, and
then look after those plants about the
merits of which there might be dis
pute? Why shall we not use the
same practical common sense when we
come to deal with politics? We are
all agreed that our present tariff laws
are Ubiquitous. Weare further agreed
that Free Coinage of Silver is a thing
to be desired, and that the discontin-
uance of its use AS money metal was
coarse stealing from every man in
debt. Is it not good sense as we'll as
good politics to make long pull, and
a strong pull, and pull all together,
and get these two questions settled,
right? and then we can look over your
further demands.
Very many of the evils against
which you complain the Democratic
party resisted with all it's power. 1t
opposed the payment of the bonds in
gold, while you, perhaps, were on
your hind legs bowling until the
woods fairly rang, for the act to
strengthen thepubIic credit. Did you
raise your voice along back in the
"sixties" against national banks?
Did you not go on whooping up the
Grand Old Party, after the demoneti-
zation of silver in 1873, and after that
party had contracted the currency un-
til the money sharks were enabled to
slaughter the innocents at will? Has
not the Democratic party lifted its
voice against each one of these iniqui-
ties, in turn, only to have its voice
drowned by the music of "Rally
Round the Flag, Boys" and "John
Browns Body Lies Wondering in the
Grounds" Who was it that secured
the passage of the Bland act? Could
that act have been passed without the
nearly united support of the Demo-
cratic party? Who furnished the
bone and sinew of the fight for Free
Coinage last winter? And what party
is it that now is bowling against Free
Coinage and denouncing the good old
fashioned silver dollar, that our
grandfathers used, as "the eighty-five
cent dollar" at the bidding of the
money power that you seem to be SO
anxious to fight with a third party?
What party is engaged in upholding
the Mckinley Bill-a bill that even
Mr.. Blaine said would not help you to
sell an additional bushel of your pro-
duce, although it takes good hard dol
lars out of your pocket, and not few
of them at that? And what party is
engaged in fighting that enormity?
You say that both of the old parties
are corrupt and no relief can come to
the people through either of them.
How do you know? Has the Demo
cratic party ever been completely in
power since the war? If the House
has been Democratic the Senate has
been Republican. If the Senate and
House have been Democratic the Pres
ident has been a Republican, and
when we had Democratic President
and a Democratic House we had a Re-
public Senate. Let us be fair. We
have seen the Republican party in
complete control of the Government
several times since the war, and it has
afforded no relief to the people. Let
us place the Democratic party in COM
plete control of the government once,
and then If the reforms we both de-
mand are not forthcoming, it will be
time to talk about third party. But
first let us quit listening to the band
and give the only party that has
shown any disposition to listen to the
voice of the people against the pluto
Gratis, full, free and fair chance.
The third party you have been so
anxious about does not say very much
about the tariff by which you and we
are robbed. You know, if you will
think minute, that when your wheat
goes out from this country, it is not
paid for in money but in goods, and
that the balance of trade usually repre-