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


tiict between labor and capital, and which
demands indiscriminate, hostile and re-
pressive legislation against men because
they are rich and corporations because
they are strong.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Labor and capital should not be antago-
nists, but allies rather. They should not
be opponents and enemies, but colleagues
and auxiliaries, whose cooperating rivalry
is essential to national prosperity. But /
cannot forbear to affirm that a political
system which under such despotic power
can be wrested from the people and vested
In the few is a democracy only in name.
A financial system under which more than
one-half of the enormous wealth of the
country, derived from the bounty of nature
and the labor of all, is owned by a lit
tie more than 10000 people, while 1,0OO,-
600 American citizens, able and willing to
toll, are homeless tramps, starving for
bread, requires adjustment. A SOCIAL SYS.
TEN WHICH OFFERS TO TENDER, VlRTUOUS
AND INDEPENDENT WOMEN tHE ALIERNA.
TIVE BETWEEN PROSTITUTION AND SUICIDE
AS AN ESCAPE FROM BEGGARY IS ORGAN.
lied CRIME, for which some day unrelent-
ing justice will demand atonement and
explanation. Mr.. President, the man who
loves his country and who studies her his
tory will search in vain for any national
cause for this appalling condition. The
earth has not forgotten to yield her
increase. There has been no general
failure of harvests. We have had be-
nignant skies and the early and the late
rain. Neither famine nor pestilence has
decimated our population nor wasted its
energies. immigration is flowing in from
every land, and we are in the lusty prime
of national youth and strength, with I'M
exampled resources and every stimulus to
their development; but, sir, the great body
of the American people are engaged to-
day in studying these problems that
have suggested in this morning hour.
They are disheartened with misfortune.
They are tired of the exactions of the
spectators. They desire peace and rest.
They are turning their attention to the
great industrial questions which under
lie their material prosperity. They are
Indifferent to party. They care moth
ing for Republicanism nor for Democ-
racy as such. They are ready to say, "a
plague on both your. houses" and they
are ready, also, Mr.. President, to hail and
to welcome any organization, any meas
ure, any leader that promises them relief
from the proftless strife of politicians and
this turbulent and distracting agitation
which has already eliminated in violence
and may end in blood.
Such, sir, is the verdict which I read
in the elections from which we have Just
emerged; a verdict that was unex pected
by the leaders of both parties, and which
surprised alike the victors and the van.
pushed. 1t was a spontaneous, unpre.
meditated protest of the people against
existing conditions. II was a revolt OF
the national conscience against injustice,
movement that is full of pathos and
also full of danger, because such move.
ments sometimes make victims of those
who are guiltless. 1t was not a Repub.
lican defeat. 1t was not Democratic
victory. 1t was great upheayal and up.
rising, independent Of and superior to
both. 1t was a crisis that may become q
catastrophe, filled with terrible admoni.
ton, but not without encouragement to
those who understand and are ready Ia
cooperate with it.
PEACEFUL REVOLUTIONS.
Itwas peaceful revolution, an attempt
to resume rights that seemed to have been
infringed. 1t is many years, Mr.. Presi-
dent, since l predicted this inevitable re-
suit. In aspeech delivered in this chamber
on the 18th of February, 1878, from the
seat that is now adorned by my honorable
friend from Texas, who sits before me
Mr.. REAGAN said:
We cannot disguise the truth that we are on the
verge OF an impending revolution. The old issues
are dead. The people are arraying themselves upon
NH0 oluO VI INC OtutT VI poItenlOuS contest. IN
one side Is capital fOrmdably entrenched in priyi-
| lege, arrogant from continued triumph, conserya-
tive, tenacious Of old theories, demanding new
concessions, enriched by domestic levy and foreign
commerce, and struggling to adjust all values TO It's
own standard. On the other is labor, asking for
employment, striving to develop domestic indus
tries, battling with the forces OF nature and sub
DUNG the wilderness; labor, starving and suen.
resolutely determined TO overthrow a system under
L II la rtT a.. 81
growing poorer; system which gives to a Wander
bit the possession Of wealth beyond the dreams Of
aVarlee, and condemns the poor TO poverty which
has no refuge from starvation but the prison or the
grave Our demands for relief for justice, have
been met with indifference or dsdan The labor
ers OF the country asking for employment are treated
like impudent mendicants begging for bread.
Mr.. President, it may be cause, it may
be coincidence, it may be effect, it may be
post hoe or it may be proctor hoe, but it is
historically true that this great blight that
has fallen upon our industries, this par
alysis that has overtaken our financial
system, conceded in point of time tCith the
dimtnution Of The circulating medium Of the
country. The public debt was declared
payable in coin, and the power of silver
was destroyed. The rdlue Of property d.
unfinished in proportion, iodges fell, and the
rdlue Of everything pdS deprecated ercept
debts and gold. The mortgage, the bond,
the coupon and the tax have retained i'm
mortal youth and vigor. They have not
deprecated. The debt remains, but the
capacity to pay has been destroyed. The
accumulation of years disappears under
the hammer of the sheriff, and the debtor
is homeless, iChile the creditor obtains The
security for his debt for fraction Of what
IL Cds actually t0orth phen the debt Was con-
trdcted.
There is, Mr.. President, a deep-seated
conviction among the people, iOhich fully
share, that the demonstration of silver in
1873 was one element of great conspiracy
to deliver the fiscal system of this country
over to those by whom it has, in my opin-
ion, finally been captured. l see no proof
of the assertion that the demonstration
act of 1873 was fraudulently or corruptly