People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-07-15
ECHOES FROM OMAHA.
Two Notable Speeches at the Peoples
Party Convention.

Party Convention.
On Monday, July 4th, the closing
day of the Omaha Convention. after
the adoption of the platform, in re-
spouse to calls from the convention,
Hon. j. IL. DAVIS, of Texas, spoke
as follows:
While | appreciate the compliment
you have extended while | appreci.
ate the great honor you have done
me to-day, have sought since have
been at this convention to perform my
service as a service of work and not
of speech-making. But the people
here have right to command me and
l am at your command to-day, and
what | may say if it will be of service
l gladly dedicate my efforts to the
cause OF reform, to the cause of lost
and desolate homes of this land
(cheers), to the cause of the down
trodden millions of my country and
to the posterity that is to follow this
generation. (Cheers.)
But, gentlemen and fellow-citizens,
don't feel disappointed if | fall short
OF your expections you cannot expect
too much of one reared in the I'M
bounded wilds of the far West, the
music OF whose civilization was the
boot of the owls and the bowls of the
wolf, whose cradle song was the low
ing OF the herds. While the birds of
the air sang me to sleep at night and
the canopy of heaven was my cover,
learned to love freedom.
| looked at the wild descantino
plans, | looked over the beautiful un-
dulating surface of my country. l
looked back over the annals of history
and found that man started from
the garden of Eden about six thou
sand years ago with the injunction to
eat his bread under the sweat of his
brow. Man started west. The first
form OF government was tribes and
chiefs; the next form of government
was kings and kingdoms, the next
emperors and empires, and it was left
to the grandest and most glorious
form OF government to be established
IN this beautiful land of ours, the
greatest CIVILIZATION arising in the light
OF governmental freedom. It was
lett for this government to be estab-
llshed and dedicated to the cause of
freedom. For six thousand years
mankind has travelled west, west has
been the star of empire. Until to-day,
my countrymen, the humble and OPP
pressed of foreign nations fleeing
from their monarchs, have come west
to better their condition, leaving
millions behind, but to-day we can
flee no further. What then shall we
do? The downtrodden of every
country always would flee from the
oppression and move west, but to- day
no further west can you go, you have
got to turn back, purify and correct
and set up anew the declaration of
independence.
To-day, my countrymen, [ see in
my minds eye sad and humiliating
spectacle. see the stars and stripes
that were dedicated to freedom, no
longer the emblem of liberty. I see
millions of landless people in a home
less land. The tOiling millions are
wrestling from the earth wealth un-
told, but it is not theirs. And [ see
their widows and orphans IN poverty
and want.
Gentlemen, and fellow citizens, this
is sad and miserable spectacle.
How did it come about Did it come
by any efforts in the cause of free
dom? No. 1t came through the
Vaccinations and the political in
tr1gues OF INSCRIPTIONS men. To
day we have sixty-three millions of
people IN the United States and the
three great problems for civil gov
eminent are before us to solve, name
ly: land, transportation and money.
Let me tell you today, that out of
those 100000 we have nearly 3d.
100000 of people without land. On
the other hand we have land enough
IN our broad descanting realm to
make comfortable homes for three
htths Of the people of the earth,
ana not to be more densely populated
than Holland or Germany. On the
other hand we find 4,575,OOO mort
cages on the homes Of this land. NV
countrymen, it is a sad reflection to
those who love homes, a sad refec-
ton those who love freedom. We
find that the corporations, the indi-
vlduals that were never created by
God Almighty, but created upon the
statute books, these men in law, with
no inalienable rights rights vested in
them nor designated in our constltu-
ton, owa land enough to make the
twenty-six lesser states in the Amer
lean Union. How did they get it ?