Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-08-18
WHY TURN POPULIsT ?

Admitting, to evade argument, that
past legislation has not been such as to
warrant the highest measure of national
prosperity, and that the general welfare
Of the country might be materially ad-
vanced by the enactment of wise laws
having direct influence upon the
causes that have produced the wide
spread depression, of which there is such
loud and universal complaint, would it
not be the part Of wisdom TO study well
the situation, and calmly, deliberately
and inteligently consider the probable
effect of the adoption of the methods
advocated by the populists for the restor-
alton of prosperity. before uniting with
party that has been continually crying
calamity without submitting a consistent
suggestion "a to how it may be averted.
In this connection the st. Paul Pioneer
Press submits The following pertinent
suggestions:
Whv a mau, however disgusted and
disconteDted he may be, should become
populits remains conundrum. We
sought diligently for plausible answer,
and We give it up. We are not now
arguing Tor republican interests. We
are simply trying to discover what pos
slbie good there can be to man in
turning populist, or what he has TO ex
peet ii the populists were to get into
power. The answer does not depend on
uncertainties. For the populists have been
in power, to greater or less extent, in
Kansas, in Colorado, in South Carolina.
What have they done there, for labor or
for anything else? They have filled
these states with domestic Drawing and
the threat Of civil war. They have de-
based the public service until it is
shame TO be connected ia an official way
with the government of the state. They
have ruined domestic interests banished
capital, and almost destroyed property.
H. every one Of those states the people,
who have seen themselves more than
once on the verge OF necessity of taking
up arms to restore order or to stop the
steady move Of popuisn toward despotic
power, are praying only for another
election, TO dispiace the motley crew to
which, in a moment of weakness, they
Welded the control Of their affairs.
Popul.sm, then, as practical scheme OF
government. does not turn out well. IL
has not good reputation. And what
has the workingman to expect from it =?
Will it raise wages? Was there ever
vet any government in the world that
was able TO raise wages in any other
way then by strictly maintaining peace
and order, so that production was in
creased and the employer was enabled
to pay more to his menp Will it limit
the power of capital? But how? Not
one of the ant; ;monopolists who clamor
for votes has ever told the secret of how
he is going to bind the limbs and clip
the claws of the great beast. What law
is there that populists or any others can
pass that will do more to limit the en-
croachments of capital than is being
done now? Will it make the poor
richer? 1t will, we are tod, enormous
| ly increase the volume of money in the
country. But will any laboring man
get one of these dollars, worth much or
| little, without giving for it the same
amount of labor that he has always
given? And when he has made that
exchange, and then finds that his dollar
will purchase only fraction Of what it
formerly would. how much better off
will he be? Will not his anger when
he sees that populism PLAYS directly into
the hands of the rich and crafty. from
the owners of silver mines down, be as
hot as any that he now feels toward the
old parties that have disappointed him?
| 1t Is fashion Of many men when their
party disappoints them to go of and
vote another ticket in sudden disgust.
But before any man does that with the
populists. let him answer sanely and
soberly, not in swelling rhetoric Of the
populist orator, but in the staid phrases
Of fact, exactly what he exrects to get
from the new regime; exactly what ad-
vantages il will have over the old /;
exactly why he should be populist. II
every man will do this, the populist
party win not gain any recruits this
| ynaru