People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-05-12
MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY.
Liberty, in Its Last Analysis. is the Bloc,
af the

100000, living in territory not larger
than the state of Maryland. 1t has
. been governed and misgoverned by a
king and a privileged aristocracy. 4
Legislative assembly exists, but only
$4,000 citizens are qualified to vote.
Under this law. as it has been hereto
fore, no one could exercise the franchise
unless he held property upon which he
paid taxes annually to the extent OF
eight dollars.
The people protested against this
property qualification, this setting up
OF the dollar above the human being,
this autocratic theory that man who
owns one hundred acres of land is fit to
vote, while the man who owns fifty is
not.
In peaceful fashion they put forth
their grievances and petitioned for the
right to vote. They wanted the man
hood suffrage, such as we have in the
United States. Instead of being met
with respect, with due consideration
and with concessions, they were de-
nounced as cranks, fools and fanatics
Their leaders were accused of being
demagogues. incendiaries. stirrerS up
OF strife-hungering only after office.
SO late as last week the legislative
body Of the country, denominated by
the king and aristocracy. rejected the
universal suffrage bill by an overwhel.n-
ing majority.
Then ensued week OF terror such as
Europe has not seen since the French
revolution, in lines traced in blood.
taught the insolent ''royalists" of Eu-
rope how dangerous the despised ''rab-
ble' could be when pressed too far.
Enormous crowds of Infatuated men
and women thronged every street. every
public square, every hall. Labor halted
and stood at bay-deSperate and de-
termined.
No pillow moved in the furrow: no an
vii rung responsive to the hammer; no
pick, away down in the mines, monot-
onously beat the dead march" of those
who eternally wear the Nessus shirt of
unacceptable poverty. No, sir! These
men had reached the fateful line be-
yond which endurance will not go-the
line at which patience disappears and
passion lights her fires.
Of course the police were called on.
Of course the military was ordered
out" Of course these forces, which
are trained to be antagonistic to the
people from whom they Sprang, did the
bloody work to which they were or
dered. Men were shot and slashed and
trampled. Women were brutally
dubbed, and their bosoms crushed into
lifeless pulp by the war horse. Little
children lay dead in the streets, their
sunny curls wet with their life blood.
But what is this, your majesty? What
is this, my lords? Can it be that the
'rabble' grow denser, grow holder,
grow fercer, grow more irresistible
every hour! Even so--by the splendor
of God.
! Call in these policemen Or there will
be civil war.
Call in these troopers who with inhu-
man brutality rode over the PROSTATE
forms of women and of children, or
your crown and your aristocracy will
go tumbling into the dust.
/ For by no sort of arithmetic can you
satisfy $4,000 men that they are
stronger than the other 100000!
Especially when the ''rabble" has on
its side, as it almost always has the
justice of Almighty God.
Backward march the police back
ward march the military!
Onward move the people, Into every
street they come thicker than ever; into
every public square; into the very halls
where sit these craven and dishonest
/ legislators who last week voted down
the peoples demand to have "A voice in
/ the making of their laws.
Take that vote over again. gentle
men! Take it quickly and take it wise
ly-for the rabble is there to see you do
it, and no power on earth can drive
them away until it is done.
Once more the vote is taken. This
time it is more wisely taken. By an
overwhelming majority the demand of
the rabble which last week was secuted
and Scorned, is this week granted.
Why couldn't you do that before,
gentlemen? Why wait till the streets
were red with blood? Why wait till you
dared no longer wait? Why deny the
right until you saw the people meant to
fight? Why teach the world again the
/ terrible lesson that class privilege never
gives way till it hears the rafting of
arms? Till it knows that the masses
mean to fight?
Let these legislators extract what
comfort there is possible from their
contemplate situation. In the eyes of
all good citizens they stand disgraced.
/ The demand which was made upon
them was just. They spurned it. The
people showed fight. The government
tried to crush the instruction by force.
The people were staunch and brave,
and could not be dispersed or intimi-
dated. Then the legislators give way
and pass a law which, if enacted last
week, would have saved the lives of
men, women and children.
Who are responsible for those muir
ders?
The false legislators who denied to
peaceful petitioners a just demand
which was afterward granted, when
those petitioners showed they would
fight for their rights.
1t is ever so. Always and every
where the price of liberty is the natri-