The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-08
NELSON'S GREAT SPEECH.
HE OPENS THE CAMPAIGN AT
ARGYLE.
He Gives His Reasons Why the Re-
publican Party Should Be
Kept in Power.
His Arguments Considered and An.
Swered.

writes us:
II wish you would publish Gov. Mel
sons speech which was in Mondays
Tribune. 1t surely will do your paper
good, as we'll as all its numerous pat
rons. viii you do it?''
Our friend evidently thinks that we
dare not let our subscribers read the
governors arguments, for to him
they seem conclusive. Well. that is
not our style. We want the truth to
be made manifest, no matter who it
hurts.
The speech is good one. It is a
careful, laborious, plausible address,
we'll put together. The governor is an
eminent lawyer. His profession trains
him to ''make the worse appear the
better cause" 1t is fair to presume
that he has said, and we'll said, all
that can be said in behalf of his party
His own future success in life depends
upon its triumph in Minnesota this
year:-he has therefore strained every
nerve to produce what he considers an
unanswerable document. And we are
gratified to observe that he does not
indulge in abuse or ridicule of his op-
ponents. except to the slightest de-
gree.
We shall comply with the request of
our correspondents; we shall publish
the governors speech in full every
word of it,-in regular ORDER and we
shall answer it as we go along. 1t
may take us several weeks to do this,
as the speech would make nearly two
pages Of this paper, in this kind of
type. We shall try to treat the COVER
nor courteously and fairly: we have no
quarrel with him as an individual.
We begin at the beginning. The
governor opens thus:
Hard times and industrial and economic
depression in various forms and from vari-
the past 16 months. In the wake of these
times and as an incident thereto are u
number OF "l,told-you So reformers. who
have an easy. hippant and demagogue way
of diagnosing and accounting for all our
troubles and all all our ailments and who
have no difficulty to suggest and tender
in connection with their own pc sonal SER
vices variety of reforms of social and
lief for all Industrial congestion and stag
nation. 1t is the aim of these reformers.
first ofall. to breed as much alarm, suspic-
class against class, poor against rich. and
capital aga inst labor. and, above ALL to
that they are now suffering chiefly from he
expressions or other classes of society. es-
peeiaiify from m those who have accumulated
are therefore termed capitalists. 1t is
openly charged, or in some form insinu-
ated. that our legislation has all along
been framed so as to Oppress the farmers
ana to enrich at their expense those who
n q q sos hi ,,.,1
TO dispoil and empoverish the farmer
That he has been the neglected step-son Of
been levied without stint or reason 1t is
assumed that while most other classes
have been prospecting to a greater or less
degree the farmer has not prOspered at all.
but. on the contrary, has become more and
more Impoverished and that he is today
mere serf at the foot of the economic lad
der. 1t is assumed that this deplo1 bile
CONDITION thus assigned to the farmer is
wholly the offspring Of economic and finan
lated specially TO enrich the so-called
capitalists To substantiate these a ssump-
tons and lnsinuatiOnS statistics are ap-
pealed to.
This is very well stated, but when
you boil 1t down what does it signify?
Simply this,-that the times are hard:
and the Populists claim that they
foretold them. Well, did they not fore
tell them? Did they not state in the
Omaha platform, in 1892, that this
country 'was on the verge of moral,
political and material ruin?" Was
that not true? Has it not crossed the
verge and tumbled into the abyss?
Does not the governor himself admit
this? Why then repfoach the Popu-
lists for being true prophets? And be-
ing true prophets have they not right
to claim that they told the truth.
while the other fellows, the two old
parties, were either knaves or fools?
Who is to be trusted as wise guide,
the man who warns you of the pit,
or the fellow who leads you into it,?
Who can you best trust for the fu-
ture?
The Populists has been denounced
as lunatics, cranks, men with wheels
in their heads" internal boobies, and
simpletons. And now it turns out
that they were men of profound wis
dom and foresight and good sense;
and the governor is mad at them be-
cause they are not fools; and he thinks
it is in very bad taste for them to call
attention to the outrageous folly and
short-sghtedness Of the governor and
his distinguished friends.
And he says they tender their reme-
dies in connection with "their own
personal services" That is to say, the
refOrmers think that if the govern
ment is to be reformed it should be
done by those in favor Of reform, and
not by the lunatics or rascals who
have tumbled it over the verge of
ruin. Is that unreasonable? And if
it be crime for Populist to seek an
Office what is it in The case of the gov
ernor? Is he not double-dyed GRIM
1nal? He is not satisfied, like the
modest refofmefs, to run for one Of
flee at time, he wants to be elected
governor and the United States sena-
tor by the vote cast at the same elcc-
tion. While straddling two horses he
objects to Peoples party man riding
one. That isn't fair
And he says. our aim is to "arTay
class against class, poor against rich,
capital against labor"
He is mistaken; this antagonism Of
class against class. which he admits
Continued ON Second Poge.)