Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-09-08

man Republican State Central Com
mittee-My Dear Sir:-Your letter of
the 9th inst. requesting my services
in the state campaign for the Repub-
lican party, duly received I will
state the reasons why cannot accept
your invitation, and hope the same
may be received by you as sufficient;
they are not intended to be personal,
and hope you will receive them ia
the same kind spirit In which they |
are penned. They are reasons why I
oppose a system winch IN my judg
ment is not truly American. never |
have been what might be termed q
partisan. for the reason 1 could never |
see anything sacred in political doc.
trines when they did not impress the |
consciences of men as being right. I
have always been opposed to the pro-
lection of one class of men at the ex-
pense of the great wealth producing
masses, and never supposed any party
would be short sighted enough to at
tempt thing of that kind. ind
have been mistaken, like thousands
of other men who have been voting
with the Republican party, and We
see our brethren of the producing
and laboring classes surrounded by
conditions which are absolutely ac-
palling, and the great question now
IS to save them before it is too late.
am an American by birth, train
ing and education, and as such am
unalterably opposed to any political
movement of men that tends to set
aside the simple faith and loyalty of
the fathers and create conditions I'M
natural and un-American, whereby
capital becomes a heartless oblig-
archy, and labor drops down to
level of homeless and helpless peon-
age.
Partisan prejudice cannot close the
food gates through which rush the
clear and living waters of truth;
neither can its blind dogmas draw
unto themselves respect, veneration
or reverence, when hungry thousands
clamor for bread and labor's voice Is
heard at every gathering demanding
protection, and it Is answered by
Pinkerton bullets. ts
The motto, 'Stand up for Kansas"
on your letter head, in view of the
condition to which the toiling masses
have been reduced; in view of the
fact that your political system has
contracted the peoples money, so that
obligations cannot be paid; in view of
the fact that homes are being sold IN
der mortgages and passing into the
hands of syndicates; in view of the
fact that the people have been robbed
by railroad corporations and trans
portation lines; in view of the fact
that trusts and combines control the
peoples market and get what is left;
in view of the fact that you passed an
Ubiquitous law extending municipal
aid to railroads, and now a great
number of the counties III Kansas are
resting in the sleep of death under
bonds voted by hired voters of the
combines through the operation OF
such law; in view of the fact that
such a system of municipal aid has
been maintained, even when its re-
peal was urged by your patriotic gov
ernor, John A. Martin; IN view of the
fact that our immense wheat crop o.
this year Is being already absorbed
= by the railroads and wheat combines
IN view of the fact that the most in
h dustrious can scarcely maintain them
selves and families, the motto, ''StanC
up for Kansas" is unnatural. inhu
I name and gnoulish, and sounds ik,
I the hollow mockery of the wind
blowing over graves.
You say you want speakers "capa
S BILE of expounding party doctrine an,
especially the magnificent service
which the present administration ha
E rendered the farmers and laborin
: men of the country"
As you know, four years ago as on
p of the presidential electors of Kansa
cast my vote direct for Benjami
Harrison; hoped then a change @
- administration would benefit th
70 country and Tighten some of the bu
dens resting upon the people.
- In the campaign of that year I az
vised the barefooted men whom m'
on at political meetings in western KsI
les sas to vote for Republican supremac
I shall never forget the pathos
on some Of those gatherings, when