The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-24
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.

A prominent Republican of Mime
apolis, and one Of our advertisers,
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 it's numerous pat
rons. Will 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 governors 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 it's 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-
GUS causes have been in our midst during
the past IS months. In the wake of these
number of "I-told-you- so" reformers. who
have s y an easy hipgant and demagogqe way
troubles and ali ali our aiiments and who
have no difficulty to suggest and tender
in connec tion with their own pc rsonal ser
economic character as swift and sure re-
lief for al! industrial congestion and stag
n nat is b the di of these refotmers
ion and distrust as possible, and to array
class against class, poor against rich. and
capital against labor. and, above all. to
make our farmers restless with the idea
that they are now suffering chiefly from the
expressions of other classes Of society. es-
pecially from those who have accumuIat ted
more than the ordinary level OF wealth and
are therefore termed capitalists: 1t is
n fnpr OF
ated. that our legislation has all along
been framed SO as to Cypress the farmers
are not engaged in such pursuits. 1t is as
sumed that all other classes have combined
to dispoil and empoverish the farmer:
organized society whom tribute has
been LEVIED without stint or reason: 1t is
have been prosper ng to 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 a
mere serf at the foot of the economic lad
der, It is assumed that this depIorablo
condition thus assigned to the farmer is
wholly the offspring of economic and finan-
| cial legislation hostile to him and calcu-
| capitalists To ubstantiate these ssump-
| ions and insinuations statistics are ap-
pealed to.
This is very we'll stated, but when
you boil it 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 rot true? Has it not crossed the
verge and tumbled into the abyss?
Does not the governor himself admit
this? Why then reproach 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 Populsts 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;
anu GiiC SOfC1uOl Is Hldu dU UIlcu1 DC-
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-sightedness of the governor and
his distinguished friends.
And he says they tender their rene
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
inal? He is not satisfied, like the
modest refOrmers, 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 cleo
tion. While straddling two horses he
objects to Peoples party man riding
one. That isn't fair.
And he says, our aim is to ''array
| class against class, poor against rich,
| capital against labor"
He is mistaken; this antagonism of
class against class, which he admits
cAIsLs, was created long before the
Peoples party was established. Our