Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-01-19
A NEW PROPHET.
The Common People" Find an Advocate
in Benjamin &. Davenport
Aristocraey Denounced.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. ia new
prophet has arisen ia our midst, and
has sprung at once into popularity.
Mr.. Benjamin Rush Davenp port, the
well-known journalist and magazine
writer, has just completed a new book,
entitled The Crime of Caste in our
Country" which has set everybody to
talking, filed the newspapers with
reviews and criticisms, and caused the
dudes, ''chappies," and sham aristos
Gratis. and also the politicians, to do
considerable hard thinking.
Mr.. Davenport is a broad man, a
deep thinker, and forcible writer. He
handles his subject without gloves. No
wonder the sham aristocrats, the would
be LORDS and barons," are squirming
under his withering sarcasm and the
unwelcome truths he hurls at their pre-
tensions of superiority over the "com-
mon people," The heart of every
patriotic American will glow with salts
faction when he reads the pages of this
most remarkable, bold. and entertain
ing book, and realizes that the com
mon people" have at last a champion
fearless enough to assail the vices and
immoralities of the so-called upper
classes, to attack the fortresses Of
wealth and monopolizing trusts" and
to warn the naughty rich in trumpet
tones, that the down-trodden poor-the
workman at his bench, the farmer in
his field constitute the majority, and
can, if they will, make and unmake
laws so that taxes may be eQualized and
vast accumulations of wealth pre-
vented.
Mr.. Davenport characteriZes the
election of November s, 1892, as a
political revolution" similar to that
of 1860, when the ''mudsill," Abraham
Lincoln, was placed in the Presidential
chair by the power of the common
people" against the oligarehy of the
South. In 1892 the victory was that of
the common people" over new-made
sham aristocracy. and he shows some
good reasons for the change. 1.-The
Crime of Caste" is, in a broad sense, d
political book; but neither democrats
or republicans can claim it as their OWN.
1t is written to plead the cause of the
common people," to teach them their
power; and shrewd- politicians predict
that it will have no small effect upon
the result of the presidential election
of 1896.
The author demands an equalization
of taxation, and shows how the com
mon people" may enforce such equali
zation. He shows the futility of strikes
and the Importance of labor organi-
cations, and furnishes plan whereby
the working classes can right their
wrongs without bloodshed, and cause
the would-be ''barons" of protected
monopoly to tremble in their shoes. He
also shrewdly points out to leaders of
the two great parties the fact tn at the
peoples party, or populists, made bet
ter showing in 1892 than did the repub-
iicans in 1855. And yet, in 1860 came
the deluge!
That The Crime of Caste" has struck
a popular chord is evidenced by the fact
that the entire first edition of "a 900
copies was sold from prospectus alone,
before a book was finished, and the
second edition of $4,000 copies is soon
to be followed by third and larger
edition. The book is sold by subscrip-
ton. and the publishers, Keystone Pub
fishing Company, of Philadelphia, are
contemplating the establishment of
branch Offices in the various western
cities to facilitate its distrib ution.