Omaha daily bee., 1893-10-22
CHATTER OF THE CAMPAIGN
Judge Raglan and ]. M. Devine Address a
' Populist Mass Meeting.
HolC0MB's SLOGAN IS LOUDLY SOUNDED
Battle Cry OF the Peoples Party Runs Out
In Clear Notes-Csi to Arms IN
the Fight Against the
Corporations.

About 800 populists met at Exposition hall
last evening to listen TO addresses by j.. NJ.
Raglan and John M. Devine.
ID. Glenn Beaver called the meeting TO order
and introduced MIR. Devine, VINO nrst called
the attention of the voters present TO
the Importance OF their position. They
were the sovereigns, and it was their
duty to correct existing abuses and
remove what stood between the people
and liberty. After 100 years of self
government this nation had found within
its limits an industrial despotism. This aud
n republic could not long jointly exist. One
must destroy the other aud the voters of
this country must decide which should be-
the survivor. The present was the time to
consult together, not as partisans, but as
citizens, and to determine on the best course
TO pursue to alleviate the various evils which
menaced the prosperity of the country.
The financial depression furnished an ex-
tensive theme for the speaker. There was
a conspiracy between the president Of the
United States and the money barons Of New
York and their partners IN Europe to so
stampede the legislature and people of this
country as to procure the repeal of the Sher-
man act. 5a
The speaker said that this was n direct
effort to destroy the liberty of the people.
He drew q direful picture OF the national
debt Of the country and Of the burden of
mortgages resting on the homes of the
nation. This was ali the result of mis-
government and it was the mission of the
peoples party to redeem the country from
the acknowledgement of the old parties.
The tariff came in for a share of attention
ana Inadvertently the speaker made a point
for protection. Since the democratic party
came into power and 1t was promised that
the tariff would be lowered, the bal
ance of trade had steadily turned
i'll question as between republicans
and democrats was not what either Of them
believed it to be. Whether the tariff was
high or low would have no effect on the
business interests of the country. The
country had been prosperous to a re-
markable. degree and again encoun-
tered financial storms, but the same tariff
was there all the time and had nothing to
do with the conditions in either case, Thu
money question was the issue upon which
depended the prosperity Of the nation.
Money was not like anything else known to
man aud the comparison of money with
other things to determine a measure Of
value was deceiving.
MIR. Devine said that the creditor classes
of the world were engaged in a great effort
to strike out half of the money by destroying
the value of one of the two metals in which
its value was expressed. If this was al
lowed to be carried out there would be a
gradual falling of of prices for the next
thirty years and In the meantime labor
would be paralyzed; The only result would
be that the boarded wealth would be doubled
in value at the expense of the Iaboring
classes. That this evil would ever be rem
edied by either of the old parties was a vain
hope.
Judge Ragan's Speech.
Judge Raglan was then introduced and oc-
cupied the remainder of the evening. He re-
ferred to the record of the populist party as
a reason why it should nina the suf-
frages of the voters of the state. He said
that the populist legislature had passed the
law which put an end to the plan of bankers
and politicians to make the farmers pay 2
per cent interest on money to pay their
taxes with and then divide the profits and use
1t took a populist legislature to prohibit the
employment of PinkertOn detectives within
the limits of the state and to pass the Aus
tralian ballot law, which was in itself sufi-
Gent to entitle it to recognition.
The Independents had control Of the treas
uries of most of the counties of tho state
and no defalcations had been heard of. This
was not the case under republican admins
%tration, where II a mar stole a sheep he was
sent to prison, but II he stole half a million
he was a hero and boarded at the Paxton
hotel. The populists of the wild and woolly
west had blood in their eyes and they were
going to put an end to such a condition of
creseDces of the dark ages that lowered
about the state capital. The people were
paying $4,000 year to maintain the state
militia, and this was another thing that
they were going to abolish.
Judge Ragan remarked that there was
also a State Board of Transportation which
cost the state $l5, 1000 a year. Its members
laid suplnely on their backs for 800 days Of
the year and spent the other five in running
down to Omaha to ask the railroad manage
ment for orders.
He said that when the populists got into
power this aggregation would be thrown
down the back stairs. The pOpullSt party
was ambitious. 1t was on its way to Wash
ington, and when it got there it would take a
hand at retrenchment. Fewer major gen.
erals would be sitting around the streets of
Washington and drawing a fancy salary for
playing high five. They would not spend
500, 900, 1000 of money a year on an army and
navy in these times of peace.
Continuing, the speaker said that the peo-
pies party was not organized for a campaign
or a day. Its platform was one of the great
moral ethics of the nineteenth century. They
should take lessons from the heroes of the
past. They were not organized for power,
but as a means to the end. They demanded
a political reformation and honest govern.
ment. They demanded That the laws should
be enforced and IN the time to come would
see that it was done.
Praise for Judge Holcomb.
AT this point the speaker took occasion to
pay u compliment to Judge Holcomb. lie
was a clean man and represented the princi
pies of the people.
The want of confidence which had precipi
tated the financial reverses of the present
year was brought about by the
stock gamblers of Wall street. They
were neither Americans or for
eigners, but they represented European
capital and they brought about this condi
ton of affairs in order that congress might
be forced to vote gold bonds for the profit OF
European money lenders. They were afraid
that Benjamin Harrison's backbone would
stand In the way of such a scheme as tina,
and so they had elected Grover Cleve
> land, who was sure to be obedIenl
TO their wishes. The peoples party was op
posed to the repeal of the Sherman law be
} cause it would contract the currency of the
, country at the rate of $50, 00O, 900 a year. I
, was the contraction of the currency from
, 1869 to 1873 that caused the inancia pani
, of 1873, when there were 8, 800, 900 men idle ii
: the country. and the people were not dis
. posed to stand a repetition of these mis-
fortunes.