People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-10-07


the CarnegieS, with their PinkertOns;
to the McLeOdS, with their coal trusts;
the ArmOurs, with their beef COM
Dimes, and the GOulds, with their
railroad systems, and in fact, all of
the many agencies formed for the
purpose of controlling the output of
the mines, the shops, the fields and
the farms.
L fear your party has departed from
the teachings of Lincoln. Stanton,
Seward and Chase. l fear that spoils-
men dominate your councils, and lob
6yiStS corrupt your law-making body.
l fear that you follow leaders who by
slow, but sure, transitions lead you to
do the bidding of the most cruel and
heartleSS power this country has ever
knOwn-the money power. Yourra
and file are honest. but deceiv-
ed by SOphistry and false logic. Your
leaders stir up prejudices and set men
against their neighbOrS. They light
the fires of sectional hatred, and
arouse partisan bigOtry. They have
placed your party practically on the
side of capital, which is nothing but
property chattel, and against labor,
which is humanity in action. HUI
manity is above all the chattel prop
erty of earth. 1t holds within its
mighty pOtentialities, human hearts
and immortal souls which cannot be
made to long submit to useless cere-
monials, empty formulas and Ques-
tionable doctrines.
Senator Palmer, in the United
States senate, in speaking of the
Homestead trouble, sprung some of
these problems, and he was denounced
by the Republican press as a socialist
because he said labor had a property
interest in what it created. II this
belief is socialism as understood by
the old and existing order, then | am
proud of being enrolled in the new
school of political thought, and |
here enter my protest against a system
which enslaveS and degradeS labor by
denying it equal protection with cap
ital-a property interest in that
which it creates, and an equal distrib-
utl0n in the proceeds of its earnings.
Your tariff theories are surface
questions and very incomplete, be-
cause you do not take into account
the social questions and Inequalities
OF adjustments that lie back of the
theory of protection. Hence you need
not be surprised to hear of lOckouts
and strikes. They are but the vol
canic OutburStS of the cOnyulsive fires
within, which if properly adjusted
are harmless, otherwise destructive.
1t is the duty of the government to
so adjust these relations that peace
and prosperity may belong to all
classes and become the common birth
right of every citizen. Your silver
plank was framed in the interest of
the money power, hence it is not en-
Titled to any respect from the prOduc-
ing and labOring classes, or in fact
from any class of citizens who have a
patriotic regard for their country.
Your force bill was intended to be
the safeguard Of the same dominant
power and compel enslaved labor TO
vote under the touch of federal bayo-
nets. Your idea of government is
1orcee, which is mOnarchial and is per
Sc destructive of the liberties of
the citizen in a free repub-
lie. Your idea of money be-
longs to the paganism of the past
imperialism, CaSarism, absolutism.
Your idea of wealth distribution is
centered in corporations, trusts, COM
DlneS and transportation lines. Your
Idea of land is not use, which is the
primary test, but ownership in large
bodies by a landlord class. Your idea
OF transportation is private owner
ship, when the very results demon
strate the danger of such a system
FINALLY, your ideas of individual lib
erty are so strongly repressive that
men tremble when they face the flu
ture, knowing that long course of
repreSsiye legislation creating une-
quail conditions must wipe out the
now powerful middle class, which is
the balance wheel Of our civilization
and drive the two extremes of society
the milliOnaires and the anarchists
Into two hostile camps, between
which no white flags can pass and no
heralds proclaim peace. To prevent
such a condition of things, it is the
condition of every citizen to labor un-
ceasingly and untiringly to bring
about an equality Of conditions and a
wise and humane administration of
law, law which extends "eoual
rights to all and special privileges to
none"
1t must follow from what | have
stated, and believing in the PRINCIPLES
which | have mentioned, that nv
place is in the ranks of the new polit-
lcal movement. 1t embraces within
1t, not only the humanities. but the
real essence of American citizenship.
Its foundation corner is not sectional
hatred, but American equality. 1t is
dlsti1ctively American in every fiber
and gives to the man, native or for
elgn-born, the proud assurance of cit
lzenship and all the rights that flow
from the same. 1t is the party of law
and order, and carries within it the
very soul life of patriotism. Its prin.
cipleS, as they evolve from year to
year, under the old name or new ones
that may follow, will give no quarter
and ask none of plutOcracy that has
raised the pirate flag of the skull and
croSsbones. These principles will
fight the battles of American equality
until the tOiling millions of our coun.
try win back the heritage of our faith
ers. They will carry the American
flag to the highest mountain of polit-
ical and Industrial liberty. and no
power on earth can stay the upward
trend of this mighty movement of
thought.