Blue-grass blade., 1892-02-20
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Elsewhere in this issue ia an ac
count ofthe meeting of all the re-
form parties at Chicago on Janu-
airy 20.
1t is the grandest move forward
that has ever been given to Pro
hibition and Woman Suffrage
not even excepting the decision
of the Supreme Court in favor Of
Prohibition. If these resolutions
are adopted by the St. Louis Con.
vention on the 22nd of February
there is fighting chance for q
Prohibition president in 1892, and
almost a foregone conclusion that
we will have one in 1896.
If they are not adopted at St
Louis, it is almost certain that the
Peoples party will split and the
Prohibition element in it will join
the Prohibitionist, and there is q
strong probability that the Prohi-
bition element in all of the Others
will split off and come to Prohi-
bition.
I heartily endorse the resolutions
that the Chicago Conference
recommended, with a little expla-
nation that 1 will make about the
woman suffrage plank in proprio
loco.
The first resolution is against
the present system of National
Banks.
The system is wrong because it
is extortionate, and the people
allow the extortion because they
do not understand it or can not
help themselves.
A national banker or a corpo-
ration buys government bonds
with his or their money.
The government pays four per
cent on those bonds. Then the
banker uses these bonds as collat
eral upon which to borrow money
from the government, and he
lends the money thus borrowed
! for. saX-eight per cent.
The individual who borrows
money from that bank has to pay
the banker eight per cent for his
money, and also has to pay the
government, in taxes, his pro rata
of four per cent for that money,
making in all twelve per cent that
the bank gets. But. whether or
not he ever borrows q dollar from
any bank, he is compelled, by
taxes, always to pay to the gov
ernment his pro rata of the four
per cent, that the national banks
get on their investment in bonds.
The country is full of national
banks, and they are almost inva-
riably doing well. 1t is simply
because the people are taxed to
support them.
The second resolution says "the
saloon is the greatest enemy of
REFORM" and demands it's sup
preston; and while not so full as
the planks of the Prohibition
National platform on that point is
simply q concise expression of the
same idea.
The third resolution favors the
government control of railroads,
and the ownership of them if that
proves to be desirable. 1t is good
and / am in favor of it.
The fourth resolution is opposed
to alien ownership of land, and
wants a reasonable limitation
upon the amount of land that may
be owned by a corporation or in
dividual. This is indefinite,
though / am satisfied there is no
harm in it. 1t may be difficult Of
application. There is nothing in
it that antagonizes the National
Prohibition platform, and l am,
under those circumstances, in
favor of adopting it, as a matter
OF expediency.
The fifth, and last, of the reso-
lutions is "that we favor municipal
suffrage for women, with an edu-
cational qualification"
/ am in favor of just as broad 9
suffrage for women as for mel, oil
little broader for the women il
possible; but municipal suffrage il
that part of it which is specially
against the saloon, and therefore
the kind most needed; and, as the
resolution does not limit the suf
frage to municipal, / am in favol
of its being endorsed by the Pro
hibitionists in the convention O.
all the reform parties at St. Louis
on February 22nd.
Mrs. Helen M. Cougar bitterly
opposed the resolution because i
is only for municipal suffrage, bu
I believe she is mistaken in tina
view of it, and l am satisfied tina
we can trust Miss Frances e. Will
lard not to compromise Woman
suffrage.
/ believe that it would be al
advance of the woman suffrag
idea to have the Prohibition part,
make plank at its national con
vention in St. Louis, June 2ls
adopting unquali6edly "munici