Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-10-25
THE BALLOT FIRST.
TAUBENECK TALKS AT AN IN
DIANA PICNIC
And Tells the People Some Wholesome
Truths-Why Cleveland Is q Gold
Standard Man-The Brutal Power Of
Wall Street.

why SAcNcIuHu ~
Standard Man-The Brutal Power OF
Wall Street.
Extracts of a speech delivered at an
+. NJ. b. A. picnic in Park county.
Ind, Aug. 81: The next question is,
how are we going to secure these re,
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 depe: ds 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, fl.
teen and twenty years ago.
If we have bad laws and dishonest
officeholders, who is TO blame? Cur
politicians? Partly, yes; but the most
blame must fall upon the voters, be-
cause they are clothed with almost
supreme power to pi otect 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 blame. Before we can have COOL
and just laws we must have good and
honest laIyma karr aud l,oforn ,ro oo..
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 como first, and il
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tion alone can they be repealed in a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
no one has right to think of settling
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 a bad
CT 'izen to violate good one. and it is
thousand-yes. = million times better
to prevent crime than 10 punish one
Just as self-preservation is the first
law of nature, SO the protection of our
interest, our welfare, mt the ballot box
, is the first duty of voter 1t 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 thousand
petitions.
! Why an independent political party
as we have had tor sixteen wears. 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.
Ihey will see their wives and
! children suffer and almost starve
! to resist the cncroachment of
capital, but when it comes to voting
they crInge like towards before ward
bosses and vote against everything
they have been striking for. The
wage Garner has but two things which
capital needs-his labor and his vote.
If the laborer will give them his vote,
capital will so use it that they will
also get his labor for bare existence
/ 30 long as the wage Garner strikes for
higher wages and votes for lower ones
they will continue to receive the treat
ment given them at Homestead, in
East tennessee and by Judge Ricks in
Michigan. Ii they would vote the
way they march on labor day all
strikes would cease.
/ w ;. Morgan once said: Labor
might as we'll try to take the kink mt
OF grape vine by cultivating it than
to better their condition py voting
against their demands"
The knights of Labor and tn. trades
unions have for twenty years peti-
toned congress and state legislatures
10 abolish the convict labor system.
aud what have they sccomplishedo
Nothing but to see their own free
labor reduced nearer down to the con-
Wet system every year. Had they de-
| os:ted 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 10 moral right
TO ask their representatives to support
siicra IN congress or legislatures No
1naa has right to ssk another TO doa
thing which he won't do himself. To