The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-09-15
A GRADED PROPERTY TAX.

SaS, bill to congress:
The undersigned, native of the
county of Providence, in the state of
Rhode Island, and now a citizen of the
county of Crawford, in the state of
Kansas, would respectfully represent
that, for many long and weary years,
the great mass of our laboring people
have felt that some insidious process
was robbing them of their earnings.
They have seen the ranks of the needy
and destitute increasing at fearful
rate. They have watched the columns
of poverty grow, gathering in many
from their circle of friends and neigh
bors, until it's shackles hold more of
our people than there were of our fore
fathers, who, defying the power of Brit
ain promised an equal right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness to
all their associates. They have watch
ed the rising tide of restitution until
it's advancing wave threatens to engulf
the legions of our wealth producers,
and all these years, so long as they
failed to uncover a cause or locate the
responsibility for their losses, so long
as they accepted the theory of their
oppressors that their misfortunes ~
were the result of natural laws or pro-
vidential dispensations, so long as they
could be lulled into belief that the
plans of Almighty God were against
them, ''they have felt the stings of pow
erty without murmur, and seen the
insolence of wealth without sigh;"
but at last they have set about lOcat-
ing and uncovering the trouble, and,
writhing under the increasing weight
of their burden, their efforts have been
rewarded They have located the re-
sponsibility for their losses and their
condition; and now the great body of
our industrial classes, and especially
the plundered farmers, look on in
wonder at the cunning duplicity, aye,
they stand aghast in amazement at the
corruption and vandalism through
which the great plots whose inevitable
results will be the antipode of Repub-
licanism unless they are thwarted and
overthrow through the wisdom, the
integrity and the patriotism of the peo-
pie they were designed to Cypress, and
the classes they were devised to plum
der have been conSummated.
Now the scene changes. The curtain
is to be rung down to prepare for an
other act Will the next be natural
sequence to those that are finished?
That will depend on whether we have
wisdom, conservatism and patriotism
enough to peaceably and without delay
use the only legal methods we have to
right the wrongs of the past.
And this will be the final test of our
Republican institutions, the first axiom
of which is 1.-The greatest good to the
greatest number" theory which,
with us, is a nullity, a promise that is
now fraud.
The laws of the universe under which
nations are born and grow, pass from
the vigor of high purpose of early life
to their prime, and on to their dotage,
then down to their grave, are as con-
slant and infexible as the laws of
gravity. We can neither amend them
nor set them aside. This nation will
have a successor. How soon depends
somewhat on us of the present. We
are in a transition period.
standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet"
We are proud of the honor and
achievements of the past Too much
so for what we have accomplished; too
much so for the serious questions be-
fore us, questions that are up for dis
cussion and not to be tabled, postpon-
ed or smothered un ,ooCled.
Unless we shall soon find wisdom to re-
we're the precedents, and revive the
laws that in recent years have appar-
entity become obsolete, when these
questions are put and the roll call
completed, our pride in the past viii
be gone.
In the last 20 years a great change
has come over our people. Aggregate
statistics indicate period of wonder
full prosperity, but their items tell
story of unparalleled injustice. These
20 years have seen the prosperity and
content of those days gradually vast
ing away. Our people have watched,
first with a querulous look and then
with frowning face, a gaunt specter
cross the thresholds of tens of thous
a1lds of their cottage homes that were
then filed with the amplest necess-
aries of life, and, elutching with his
grating fingers all within save the
vriest pittance, and writing the names
of.the inmates in his book of classes,
heEstaIIs out undisturbed. He next-is-
seen to enter the dwellings of those
who are surrounded by the abundant
Inquiries Of life, and his whitening
presence has left them but its hand-to-
mouth necessaries. He crawls into the
home OF afiuence. and sneaking out
has left little but its meager comforts.
AT the massive doorway of the palace
only does his fo0tstep faiter and his