Birmingham age-herald., 1894-08-16
SAM JONES ON POLITICS.

thing about politics and politicians, and
 here are few quotations from him:
 1 find, in mixing with men, that the
 strikes, the tariff issue, and politics gener-
 ally are engaging the minds and filling the
 months of the people.
 If we could get rid of our politicians and labor agitators (and for the whole business
 1 prescribe rough on rats) then the men of
 this country could go to work, ana work
 and frugality will soon solve the problems
 and settle tke questions. You can not leg isate a country into morals and into pros-
 perity; at last, the individual must be re- formed.
 find in the west, as we'll as in the south,
 that the populists are moving for all there
 is in it, and when l sit down quietly and ask myself: "Whencs this populiSb party? What is it's pedigree?'' I am forced to the
 conviction that the democratic party is it's father and the republican party it's mother.
 It is legitimate hybrid, aud as hybrids do not propagate suppose the child will die without issue.
 Patriotism and party fealty and pledges
 and platforms are abandoned by those who would serve the trusts, ignore the prosper
 ity of our country and perpetuate the de- pression which has we'll nigh crushed the life out of the commercial and industrial
 circles of the land.
 The labor agitator profits by strikes and fri@iiou n the labor world.
 ! .e politician and official can sell their
 votes for the highest prices when the lines
 are most clearly drawn and the official bodies most equally divided.
 am one of those unfortunate people who
 make up the majority, perhaps, Tn this country, and who cannot help viewing with suspicion the character of the official who fights most strongly for trusts and
 monopolies, and assumes the air of injured innocence when question is raised as to | his integrity and fidelity.
 No jackass in barn lot ever kicked and | prayed more vociferously than German did | the other day in the United States senate. He will make few people believe that be is | the peer of Grover Cleveland in the honesty | of his purpose, in the courage of his con- | victions and in the patriotism of his efforts. | There is not much danger in that animal when you are out of reach of his heels and | out of hearing of his voice.
 MT. Hill. with his game, is understood | by many. The income tax, whenever 1t is
 mentioned, gives him hydrophobia, aud | when Cleveland stirred the hornets nest | MT. Hill fell in line with MT. Cleveland in | order to widen the breach and forever make | it impossible for the senate and house to agree upon any deal at all. 1 have thought | all along that MT. Hill wasn't a two- faced man, because thought if he had another | face he would not wear the one he does, | but evidently he has two or more faces, and | it is hard to tell which outfavors the | other.
 Populists, democrats and republicans- | these three, clamoring for popular favor | and American suffrage! Here is one Amer | ican voter that looks on and has fully made | up his mind that if there is a decent man in | either crowd he can vote for and keep | good conscience, for that candidate his | vote shall go. But either party, taken as
 whole and swallowed down.. will produce | protracted vomiting, or, if retained, will kill the conscience and ruin the morals of him who swallows it.
 The right of choice which every free American citizen ought to enjoy plays it's | part in politics and candidates with me. | As never expect to run for office or offer | for place, will say what please, vote for | whom please, pray for whom please and | kick the fur off of all the balance. There is consolation in the fact that if | you please to do right and do it, you keep | in harmony with your conscience and on | good terms with yourself, and really, the | more I see of politicians the worse l get stuck on myself, and the more see of the | present congress the more l am stuck on | Grover Cleveland.
 As MT. Oates says: "What are you going | to do about it?'' There is but one thing to | be done. Let's come back to first princi- | ples. Read and think and resolve upon | right lines and wise courses; then, with | pure ballot box and decent candidates, | snow under the gang and pitch in to rid | our country of the rascals, and put men in | office who are as incorruptible and as un- | purchaseable as Grover Cleveland. Then, l and not until then, will we have wise laws 1 and faithful administration of the laws,
 and peace and prosperity from ocean to | ocean.
 | believe the day has come and now is | when the ministers of our country from every pulpit ought to sound the alsrm | and preach and talk on the line of political | purity, on right and duty, on contentment | and industry, faith and frugality, and the preacher who satisfies his conscience on | any lower plane than this, however much | he may do for the church, is doing very | little to rectify the evils among his fellow | men and to run the devil out of this land.