The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-06
RUN BY LAWYERS.
Frank McGrath Says the Peoples Party
is Completely Under Control Of
Sharpers.

In an interview published in the Kan
sas City Journal yesterday. Frank Nc
Grath of Beioit. ex-president of the Kal-
sas Alliance, gives the following reasons
for withdrawing from the Peoples
party:
Il came out because the movement
has ceased to be what it started out TO
be, farmers movement. Ny idea of a
farmers movement is that it ought TO
originate and remain under the direction
and control of farmers, and not drift in
10 the bal ds of jack-leg lawyers. Now,
suppose | came to this state from ST.
Louis on mission of Importance 10 the
Peoples party, where would go and to
whom would go to consult the party
You would go to the Independent
headquarters at Topeka. There you
would find no farmer. no artisan. no
mechanic, no laboring man, but lot of
lawyers, who sit around all day and
smoke cigars and plot and plan how
they can best keep the wool pulled over
the farmers eyes and make him think
that 1t is his movement, and that he Is
really lin it." You would find there
running the farmers movement DIR. Nc
Lallin, who is scheming night and day
to become state printer. You would
find Noah Alien, lawyer, who, in con-
nectiou with Mrs. Lease, organized So
called Farmers Protective association,
the object of which was to defeat, by
hook or crook, the enfercement of legal
contracts. You would fiud John Breid-
enthal, a lawyer and all round sharp
practitioner. You would find Lawyer
Doster. communist, who advocates re-
pudiation, and that all land should be
held IN common. You would find Mich
olson, another lawyer, and Sam King,
another lawyer, who began twenty
years ago as one of the young and ris-
ing" sort, but who has never yet risen to
plead case in any court higher than
that of a justice of the peace.
81 eli'you that the clientiess lawyer is
driving the farm wagon in his state, and
that Is why got off. If I've got TO have
my politics dlshed up to me by lawyers,
prefer to have lawyers who have some
standing in their profession, and who are
able TO make an honest living out of their
profession, instead of whining around
the farmers. advocating what they don't
believe for the sake of political job.
About four-fifths of the Peoples par
ty are honest and conscientious, and they
are in the movement for what good there
is in it. About one man in every five is
scheIning for an office on personal benefit
of some kind, and he don't care a straw
what wild schemes are proposed, only so
it catches voters l tried hard to keep
these crazy schemers cut of the party
but it was no USE"
"What do you mean by crazy schem-
ers:"
well, the sub-treasury schemers, for
instance. That was the most unreasona-
bic and impractical, as we'll as the most
catching doctrine they ever invented. 1t
set the people wild with enthusiasm. l
denounced it in the councils of the party
from the very start, but the restless
agitators who were beating the bushes
for recruits said j. was no matter
the scheme was practical or
not, 1T catches votes like wildfire. We
need it to arose the people. Why. [ tell
you it caught like wildfire. | received
hundreds of letters from farmers all over
the state asking when we thoughtit
would become a law and when they
would be likely to get relief by it. as
they needed it to relieve their present
embarrassment and to pay off matured
loans.
''The worst trouble in the whole move
ment is that the lobbyists of the party,
those whose whole business was to lash
the party into fury and arouse class
prejudice, have carried the people off
their feet and turned their heads COM
pletely into condition of hate and jeal-
crazy restiessness, until man
almost doubts the wisdom of popular
government. If the farmers were let
alone they are not unreasonable, and
they will do no harm; but the trouble
is that the farmer don't run it. The agi-
tatorS runs The movement, and the rank
aud file recklessness applaud and fol-
low, and the fellow with the widest
scheme gets the loudest cheer. / am
sorry for the course things have taken.
| believe id farmer organization, but |
don't believe in farmers movement
and managed by reckless
agitators and shyster lawyers"