The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-09-08
Something about Politics.
BY BOB. N. ROUND.

By BOB. n. ROUND.
Perhaps these few lines may not
reach those to whom they are directed,
or perhaps may not be needed if they
do, coming from the source they do, but
if anything l say on this subject should
happen to be the truth, the plain un-
vanished truth, those to whom it is adj
dressed should accept it. For it is a
duty man owes to himself to accept
the truth no matter from what source
it comes. This nation is now in the
midst of a great political campaign in
which the dear people on the eighth
day of November next will have to de-
eide by their votes what party shall die
tate the policy of the government for
the next four years. In the next sixty
or seventy days you will hear (if you
are not too indOlent or careless to at
tend the public speakers of all the pO-
litical parties present each his side of
the great questions at issue with all the
skill and eloquence of which these
speakers are capable, and the closer
the contest grows the more uncertain it
appears to be, the more strenuous will
the endeavOrs be by each party to reach
every voter, to see that he hears all
sides of the question. Your mail will
be deluged with campaign literature
from which you will be able to gather
all the statistics needed pro and con
necessary to enable you to go to the
polls and vote, as any freeman should
land without which no man should
vote }, ,intelligently. This information in
Go ~ f,,ry bx,
speakers and reading matter for which
vast sums of money will be expended are
the proper, correct and legitimate uses of
money in political campaign. Educa-
tiOn to the masses means good and whole
some laws under which men can dwell in
peace and happiness. The masses
should each contribute his little might
to aid in this education, for from it
each derives some benefit. But there
is an illegitimate use of money in pol
iticS which travels hand in hand with
the other, cOrrupting in it's powerful
strength faster than education can pJl-
rify the body polite. To-day the cry
is heard from Maine to California that
the government is rotten to it's core,
that trusts and monopOlies are grinding
the poor to the very dust, that starva-
ton and beggary are staring the labor
ing class in the face, that money holds
the power, that this has ceased to be a
government for or by the people, but a
government for and by the plutocrat-
that no one but millionaire could be a
national legislator. But my paper is
not large enough to begin to enumer-
ate all the evils which are said to exist
and hang over this beautiful and once
free country like great shadow, with
out attempting to say whether this
cloud is as dark as it is represented to
be or not. Certain it is that there is a
just cause of complaint and alarm at
the terrible power welded in this gov
ernment by the money kings. Who is
to blame for this usurping of power
from the rightful sOvereigns, the peO-
pie? There must be cause or causes.
Let us see if we cannot locate at least a
part of it, One of the political parties
will tell you that it is that robber tariff
that's making the troubles. The other
will tell you that it's not the tariff, that
it's production and heavy cOmpe-
titiOns that have caused combinations