The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1893-10-29
THE BALLOT FIRST.
TAURENECK TALKS AT AN IN
DIANA PICNIC
And Tells the People Some Wholesome
Truths-Why Cleveland Is a Gold
Standard Man-The Bratal Power of
Wall Street.

forms? Quietly sit down and wait un-
til they come? No; that will never
do. These reforms must come through
the ballot box. Don't you know,
friends, that as voters we all have an
obligation to fulfill which we ought
not overlook Our laws depend upon
how we vote, just as the shadow on
the wall depends upon the object
standing before the light Voting is
like farming. We reap exactly what
we SOW, and to-day we are reaping
the follies and mistakes sown ten, fif-
teen and twenty years ago.
If we have bad laws and dishonest
officeholders, who is to blame? Our
politicians? Partly, yes: but the most
blame must fall upon the voters. be-
cause they are clothed with almost
supreme power to pI Iotect their interest
at the ballot box, and If they don't use
this power to their own advantage,
then they have no one but themselves
to blaane. Before we can have good
and just laws we must have good and
honest lawmakers, and before we can
have good and honest lawmakers we
must have wise and patriotic voters.
We will never have change in our
laws until we make a change in our
voting. That must come first, and if
you can't do this, then don't complain
or expect any relief. At the ballot
box you voted this system of class laws
upon US, and there also is the only
place you can vote them off ofus.
by legislation we received the laws
which oppress us, and through legisIa-
tion alone can they be repealed in a
peaceable way, and /. for one, will say,
that so long as we have free ballot
this question in any other way or at
any other place than the ballot box.
Because if good citizen violates a
bad law, it always encourages = bad
citizen to violate good one, and it is
a thonsand-yes. million times better
to prevent crime than to punish one.
Just as self-preservation is the first
law of nature, SO the protection of our
interest our welfare, at the ballot box
is the first duty of voter. It is not
enough if we think right or talk right,
but we must act right and vote right.
One vote will do more good toward
shaping the laws of our country than
hundred resolutions or a thousand
petitions
Why an independent political party
as we have had fo- sixteen years, en-
bodying all the demands of organized
labor, should receive such meager sup
port from wage earners is hard to ex-
plain. 1t is singular fact that labor
ing men will go on strike, with
nine out of ten chances against them,
endure privation. hunger and cold.
They will see their wives and
children suffer and almost starve
to resist the encroachment of
capital, but when it comes to voting
they crlRge like towards before ward
bosses and vote against every thing
they have been striking for The
wage Garner has but two things which
capital needs-his labor and his vote.
IL tnC 10 dOOACL WIZ give tAOAA AAAS VOGra
capital will SO use it that they will
also get his labor for a bare existence.
So long as the wage Garner strikes for
higher wages and vot IS for lower ones
they will continue to receive the treat
mens gwen them at Homestead, in
East Tennessee and by Judge Kicks in
Michigan. If they would vote the
way they march on lator day all
strikes would cease.
w. 8. Morgan once said: Labor
might as well try to take the lzink cut
of grape vine by cultivating it than
to better their condition by voting
against their demands"
The Knights of Labor and the trades
unions have for twenty years petit
toned congress and state Legislatures
to abolish the convict labor system,
and what have they accomplished?
Nothing but to see their own free
labor reduced nearer down to the con-
Wet system every year. Had they de-
posted their petitions in the ballot
box in the form of ballot this system
would have vanished long ago.
So long as voters refuse to support
their interest and principles at the
ballot box. they have no moral right
to ask their representative to support
them in congress or legislatures. No
man has right to ask another to do
thing which he won't do himself To
and out what the people wa-t. a poll
tician always consults the election re-
turns That is his barometer by which