Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-09-29

people. I have no sympathy with that
school of political economists which
teaches that there is an irreconcilable con-
fiict 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 l
cannot forbear to affirm that political
system which under such despotic power
can be wrested from the people and vested
in the few is 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 lit
tie more than 10000 people, while 1,000,-
600 American citizens, able and willing to
toll, are homeless tramps, starving for
bread, requires adjustment. A SOCIAL SYS-
TEN WHICH OFFERS TO TENDER, vIRTU0US
AND INDEPENDENT WOMEN THE ALTERNA-
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 l
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 profitless 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 unexpected
by the leaders of both parties, and which
surprised alike the victors and the van
pushed. 1t was spontaneous, unpre-
meditated protest of the people against
existing conditions. 1t was 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 Repub-
lican defeat. 1t was not Democratic
victory. 1t was great upheaval and up
rising, independent of and superior to
both. 1t was a crisis that may become a
catastrophe, filled with terrible admoni-
ton, but not without encouragement TO
those who understand and are ready to
! cooperate with it.
PEACEFUL REVOLUTIONS.
1t was peaceful revolution, an attempt
to resume rights that seemed to have been
infringed. It is many years, Mr.. Presi-
dent, since / predicted this inevitable re-
suit In speech delivered in this chamber
on the 18th of February, 1873, 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
one side or the other of portenlous contest On
one side is capital formidably entrenched in privi-
lege, arrogant from continued triumph, conserva-
tive, tenacious of old theories demanding new
concessions, enriched by domestic levy and foreign
commerce, and struggling TO adjust all values TO its
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 sullen,
resoluiely determined to overthrow system under
which the rich are growing richer and the poor are
growing poorer; system which gives to Wander
bIlt The possession of wealth beyond the dreams Of
avarce, and condemns the poor TO poverty which
has refuge from starvation hut the prison or the
grave. Our demands for relief, for justice, have
been met with Indifference or disdain. The labor
Of the country asking for employment are treated
Mr.. President, it may be cause, it may
be coincidence it may be effect, it may be
post hoe or it may be propter 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, coincided in point Of time toith the
diminution of the circulating medium of the
country. The public debt was declared
payable in coin, and the power of silver
was destroyed. The udlue of property di-
unfinished in proportion, toages teit, and the
udtue Of everything tods deprecated ercept
debts aud 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, t0hile the creditor obtains the
security for his debt for fraction Of whdt
IL iUos actually toorth tohen the debt tods con-
irdcted.
There is, Mr.. President, deep-seated
conviction among the people, wlich / 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
procured, but it is impossible to avoid the
sL..A f..f. a.