The Forrest City times., 1892-07-01
The Missing Plank.

| RThHuAs I'tfnptfat-
 It is said Editor Suttler, of the Ar kansas Farmer, drafted the platform of the Peoples party. In that plat form occurs this remarkable deliver ance:
 I've condemn the democratic ad- ministration in Arkansas for its high crimes against justice and law. Its disregard of justice and law in the | furtherance of party ends has engen- dered a spirit of mob law, which is un- 1 derminiEg the courts of justice, dis gracing our state and endangering life and liberty"
 The Democrat modestlv calls the att tention of Brother Suttler to the fact that he omitted several "pints" that would have made his platform stronger. For instance he could gone on with the arraignment thus:
 70. We condemn and execrate the democratic administration of Arkan- sas because of the low price of cotton | it has brought about; it's reckless dis regard of the public interests as shown by it's responsibility for the great floods that have overwhelmed the land and destroyed the crops of our farmers the present year. We also arraign this corrupt and tyrannical democratic ad- ministration as the direct cause of the cold and unreasonable weather of the present year; the failure of fruit, the presence of buffalo gnats, the ravages of the cutwOrm and all other plaques and pests that affiict the tOiling masses"
 There seems to be no good reason for the omission of the section we have added, and we can account for it only on the hypothesis that it was Brother Suttler's sick day when he wrote the platform or that he die not call to his assistance Brother Homer Prince of the Economist, or Brother Brant Farmer of the Faulkner County Wheel. These brethren would no doubt have supplied this missing link in the plat form. There is no sense in arraigning a party unless you do 1t with some de- gree of vigor, and with at least show of vehemence. If you pretend to be q should have some style about you. Let us treat the subject seriously, if indeed such shameless demagvgy as this plank is worthy of serious cOnsid- eration. Is there sane man of Ordi. nary intelligence who believes that mob law in Arkansas or any other state is due to the party in power irl that statep Would there be more or less of mob law in Arkansas if the Peoples party controlled the statei The Alliance and Peoples party have been in power in Kansas for two years and in that time Kansas has had q large number of mobs and many lynch ings. Does anybody hold the F. r responsible for them? Gov. Buchanan of Tennessee is an Alliance man and at heart is a Third party man but mobs have flourished in Ten. nessee of late years. So they have in republican Colorado, WyO ming and Washington. So they have in democratic Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Is there more mob law in staid old democratic New Jersey than there is in republican Maine? Is there more mobocracy in republican Yer. mont than there is in democratic Con pecticut? The truth is that the politi cal complexion of the administration cuts no figure in the case. There are ten cases of lynching in proportion tC population in the Dakotas, where tht Peoples party is very strong, to one ir Massachusetts. There is much more of the mob spirit in republican Ameri ca than in monarchical England. Int age of a country. character of govern ment, the settled or unsettled condition of society, climatic influences, race con ditions and local surroundings are DO tent factors in this question. The lynchings that have occurred in Arkan sas within the last twelve months have occurred in Kansas under tht same conditions.
 No journal has condemned mob law more consistently or more vigorously than the Democrat. Not a paper il the state has pleaded more earnestl! for the supremacy of the law under al circumstances than the Democrat
 Bnt it is the continuation of base dema gOgy to assert, as the F. F. platform. as serts, that the political complexion o the administration is responsible fo lit