The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-25
NOT NEEDED.
The Excessively Rich An Undes1raDle
Class.

Glass.
One of the leading Republicans of the
state said substantially in his speech pe1ore
the state convention Of his party, that the
excessively rich are not an undesirable nor
dangerous class. From the standpoint OF
one of that class this is, doubt, true; but
how stands the case when viewed py one
outside of and who has not derived any
benefits from that class? Are the rich ana
the poor equal before the law? Can they
ever become so while maintaining their
present respective social positions! 10 one
with few years of experience in the world
the questions need no answer; they are
answered by events every day. Go! you
doubtinp Thomas and seek redress against
the rich and powerful What lawyer will
plead your cause? What court VIII
sustain your rights? The lawyer gets MS
best fees from the rich and, while he may
nominally defend you, he has an eye to the
main chance and hopes, some time, 10 nave
the present defendant for client. Inc
court is, as a rule, elected or appointed
through the efforts of your opponent and
his continuance upon the bench depends
upon his subservience to his master Your
case is lost before it is tried or, rather,
you never had a case.
We talk, glibly about the possible effects
of this condition upon the public mind we
declaim about the suspicion, creeping upon
the people, that there is one law FOR the
poor and another for the rich; let US also
make it known that there is a vague ana
underlined suspicion gaining ground that the
Roman empire is fallen; That America mas
been discovered.
bn Cta dc
nishes the sinews of war, the corruption
fund? Who pulls the string when the pol
itician jumps? Is it the poor? Is it the
middle class? No. it is the excessively
rich. Who holds our financial system in
their grasp and create panics, at Will?
Who hold millions of of rich soil,
unused and untaxed? Who have taken
possession of natures gifts of iron, coal,
and lumber? Who, for profit strip the
country of protecting forests and thereby
threaten to destroy our lakes and rivers
and to turn the country into desert?
Who has turned our legislative halls into
political brothels where spring the brood
of rings, trusts and combinations that are
devouring the natural inheritance OF man?
1t is not the poor; it is not the middle
class; they are not able to do such Things.
There is only one class in the world with
enough power to do all this, namely, the
excessively rich That class, but not its
individual members, must be destroyed;
must be wiped off from the face of the
earth. The Republican party stands COM
mitted to the protection of that class and
to the strengthening of it; witness sec
ton 10 of its state platform, promulgated
A. D. 1894 The destruction of property,
whether private. corporate or public, must
may cost the lives of 10. 20, 80 per cent of
the people to do 50; but, this property,
which has wrongfully and in violation of
moral law, been fiched from it's producers,
must even at that fearful cost be assured
to its present possessors. That, briefly, is
the stand taken by the Republican party.
On this question the Populists occupy ex
actly the antipodes; their position is this;
life and liberty must be protected and
justice must be established, if it costs every
dollar of accumulated wealth to do it.
What side will YOU take. you who live by
the sweat of your brow. when you can beg
the chance to work and by charity CD
when your master shuts the gates to ma
lures bounteouS resources? And you who
cling to the crumbling causeway of middle
class responsibility, with the devil of cor
pOrate greed threatening to crush you, or
Of popular fury yawning upon you on the
other, what will you do? When corrup-
ton is rewarded and devotion to duty is
punished, when Quay goes to the senate
and Debs to prison, is it a time to bubble
over hair-splitting techncalties. or to lie
down in despair before unjust precedents?
If it is then when will come the time for
action? When will legal distractions to
justice remove themselves?
Let us look the situation SQuarely in the
face let US know the worst and prepare
for it.
The evils that afflict us are not of a
mushroom growth; they are not to be
eradicated by application of milk and
water; such treatment will only serve to
strengthen them. Look at our laws for
the control of corporations: they specify
certain rules to govern the corpora tons on
the one hand. and establish certain limits
to legal interference on the other. Presto,
change. The courts declare the rules un
constitutional; but the limits to lawful in
reference stand firm This course of
treatment has been followed until the peo-
pie have no rights left that corpora lions
are bound to respect; Capitalistc combina
tons reign supreme,
We have got to make up our minds now
to alter our tactics; we must work for a
change of constitutions state and ma
tonal; we must turn the body polite up
side down and inside OUT renovate it thor
oughly keep the good and discard the
evil, SO far as past experience has taught
which is which. and which is tother.
This country started in to recognize two
kinds of property-public and private; but
here comes the Republican party, with its
little squirtgun and injects a new kind of
property. neither public nor private, but
partaking of the nature of and controlling
both: this poison is labeled corporate
(see quotation above). and throws the en-
tire system into disorder. Nothing but a
good big dose of Popuism will expel this
foreign matter. Let us march to the
polls in November, and administer a po-
ton that will Danish the poison forever.