People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-09-30

doubtful whether there has been for half
a century a presidential election in this
country that expressed the deliberate and
intelligent judgment of the whole body of
the American people.
FRAUD WORSE THAN VIOLENCE.
The election bill that was under consid-
Grafton few days ago was intended to
deal with one part of the great evil to
which have alluded, but it was an imper-
feet, partial and an incomplete remedy.
Violence is bad, but fraud is no better, and
it is more dangerous, because it is more
insidious. Burke said, in one of those i'm
mortal oratiOns that emptied the House of
Commons, but which will be read with ad-
uiratiOn so long as the English tongue
i1all endure, that when the laws of Great
Sritain we're not strong enough to protect
the humblest HindOO upon the shores of
the Ganges, the nObleman was not safe in
his castle upon the banks of the Thames.
Sir, that lofty sentence is pregnant with
admOnitiOn for US. There can be no re-
pose, there can be no stable and perma-
nent peace in this country and under this
Government, until it is just as safe for a
black Republican to vote in Mississippi as
if he were white Democrat in Kansas.
THE TYRANNY OF COMBINED CAPITAL.
The evil, Mr.. President, the second to
which l adverted as threatening the safety,
if it does not endanger the existence of
the Republic, is the tyranny of combined,
concentrated, centralized and Incorporated
capital And the people are considering
this great problem now. The conscience
of the nation is shocked at the injustice of
modern society. The moral sentiment of
mankind has been aroused at the unequal
distribution Of ,CeaIth, at the unequal DIFF
fusion Of burdens, the benefits and the
privileges of society. At the beginning of
our second century the American people
have become profoundly conscious that
the ballot is not the panacea for all the
evils that at1ict humanity; that it has not
abolished poverty, nor prevented injustice.
They have discovered that political equal
ity does not result in social fraternity;
that under democracy the concentration
of greater political power in fewer hands,
the accumulation and aggregation of
greater amounts of wealth in individuals,
is more possible than under monarchy,
and that there is tyranny which is more
fatal than the tyranny of kings.
General Washington, the first President
of the republic, at the close of his life, in
1899. had the largest private fortune in the
Ned States of America, Much of this
came by inheritance, but the Father of his
Country, in addition to his other virtues,
shining and illustriOus, was very prudent,
sagaclous, thrifty and forehanded man.
lie knew a good thing when he saw it, a
great way off. He had keen eye for the
main chance. As a surveyor, in his youth,
he obtained knowledge that enabled him to
know exceedingly well the value put upon
the public domain. The establishment of
the national capital in the immediate
vicinity of his patrimOnial possessions
did not diminish their value. He was a
Just debtor, but he was an exact, if not
e1acting, creditor. And so it came to
pass that when he died he was, to use the
expressive phraseOlOgy of the day, the
richest man in the country.
GREAT CONTRAST.
At this time, 80 years afterward, it is
not without interest to know that the en-
tire aggregate and sum of his earthly pos
sessions his estate, personal and mixed,
Mount Vernon and his lands along the
Kanawha and the Ohio, slaves, securities,
all of his belongings reached the sum
total of between 100000 or 100000.
This was less than century ago, and it is
within bounds to say that at this time
there are many scores of men, of estates
and of corporations in this country whose
annual income erceedS, and there has been
one man whose monthly rerenue since that
period exceeded the entire Accommodations of
the wealthiest citizen of the United States
at the end of the last century. At that
period the social condition of the United
States was one of practical equality. The
statistics of the census of 1900 are incom-
plete and partial, but the population of
the Union was about 100000, and the
estimated wealth of the country was be-
tween $3,000,000,000 and S4,0O0,OOO.OOO.
There was not millionaire, and there was
not tramp or a pauper, so far as we
know, in the country, except those who
had been made so by infrmity or disease,
or inevitable calamity. A multitude of
small farmers cOntentedly titled the soil.
Upon the coast race of fishermen and
sailors, owning the crafts that they sailed,
wrestled their subsistence from the stormy
sea. Labor was the rule and luxury the
exception. The great mass of the people
lived upon the products of the farms that
they cultivated. They spun, wove and
manufactured their clothing from fax and
WOOL Commerce and handicrafts afforded
honorable competence. The prayer of
Agur was apparently realized. There was
neither poverty nor riches Wealth was
uniformly diffused, and none we're con.
'demned to hopeless penury and depend
'ence. Less than 4 per cent. of the en-.
tire population lived in towns, and there
we're but four cities whose population ex-
'ceeded 10000 persons. Westward to the
Pacific lay the fertile solitude of an unex-
plored continent, its resources undeyel-
'oped and unsupported. The dreams of
Utopia seemed to be about fulfilled: the
wide, the universal diffusion of civil, DO
litical and personal rights among the great
body of the people, accompanied By efici-
'cient and vigorous guaranty for the safety
of life, the protection of property and the
preservation of liberty. Since that time,
Mr.. President, the growth in wealth and
numbers in the country has no precedent
in the building of nations. The genius of
the people, stimulated to prodigious &C.
tiVity by freedom, by individualism, by
education universal, has subjugated the
desert and abolished the frontier. The
laboring capacity of every inhabitant of
this Dlanet has haan dnnI;ootad - 49,.