People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-04-01
PEOPLES PARTY NEWSPAPERS.

Uur 10OtSU0Ol contemporary dlltClS
to believe that "fOr every republican
paper that has dropped out of the pro
cession within the last few months, at
least half a dozen Peoples party papers
have been laid beneath the sod" We
say he affects to believe it. 1t is purely
affectatiOn, however; he doesn't really
believe any such thing. Two years
ago you could count nearly all the Peo-
pies party papers in the state on your
fingers. Now they number about 100.
Scarcely a county in the state which
has no brave defender of the Peoples
cause. Many Of these are journals
which did years of service for the G. o.
p. 1t is safe to say that there is nearly
that many less republican papers now
in existence. 1t is no strain on the
Monitors conscience to make asSer-
tiOns and we are glad it is so extrava-
giant in its remarks, because it is such
an easy matter for people to properly
weigh other matters which it prOmul-
gates, about which they are less famil-
lar.
We challenge the Monitor tOprOduce
a list of the Peoples party papers
which have suspended. True, there
have been few lukewarm, local pa
pers like the Milan Press, which have
abandoned it, but like the one in point,
they have been generally those which
were run under contract for specified
time and because of their lamb-like
utteranCeS, Succumbed to the inevitable
un der the law of the survival of the
itteSt. Where is the bold, aggressive
champion of the Peoples cause, one
that has stood up and "whacked" the
enemy right and left, and took the
kicks and cuffs of such unscrupulous
ournals as disgrace the republican
party Of Kansas, where have they sus-
pended? Not one of them has left the
field
tits true, however, that our papers
have had a battle to meet expenses.
and there is ample reason for it. Ev-
cry one of them have been started on
the S1.0O per year plan-which is SOC
less than the old party papers get, and
which for county paper is so low that
it absolutely leaves no margin for the
publisher, although it has the effect of
spreading our principles over more ter
ritOry Every one or them were start
ed in a cause that was unpopular in
the towns, where advertising and job
printing patronage Gan essential to the
pros Gritty of newspapers were to be
solicited in competition with old party
papers. Every one of them have been
under the ban of the attorneys and
others who had legal publications to
make and have been deprived almost
wholly of that lucrative partOf anews-
papers income. Every one of them
been have forced to take the county. or
other public printing, if they got it at
all, at less than living rates, by reason
of the wonderful development of the
Glow bidding" propensity on
the part of those papers
which had for years past been fat
tening on this sort of work at full legal
rates. Is is it any wonder, then, that
their pocket books are comparatively
empty, to say nothing of good Peoples
party men who persist in reading the
old party papers to the exclusion of
those who are battling for their rights?
The wonder is that they have got along
so smoothly as they have, The VOICE
has no desire to complain, for we an
ticipated all this when we began. We
see no brighter outlook for Peoples
party papers until the campaign of ed
ucatiOn has done its work. The re-
form press of Kansas is able, fearless
and determined and will win the fight
that means so much to humanity. Let
the people who imagine their editor is
growing rich" ponder over these
thoughts, come bravely to their sup
port and hold up their hands in this
irrepreSSible conflict.