The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-26
A THUNDER-CRY!
GRASP THE LAW MAKING
POWER.
Concede Everything For Chance
to Reform Abuses.
Seize This Opportunity Or 1t May
Be Lost Forever.

Remember friends, that the great
stake in the pending battle is the
United States senatorship. That
holds for six years; the Senate is about
tie; a Populist Senator from Mime
sofa may decide the whole action of
Congress and affect the whole destiny
Of the human race on this planet for
centuries to come. We are on the eve
of great and mOmentOuS events. No
man can tell what revolutions lie
waiting for US in the near future. A
crisis is at hand.
We are opposed to "fusion," which
means sacrifice of principles for
spoil; the coming together of discord
ant elements for purposes of plunder.
But it is no fusion to say to the place
hunters, I'VE care nothing for who
is sheriff, or county treasurer, or
county auditor;-any intelligent men
put into those places will probably do
their duty; but we are after bigger
game. You want the large salaries;
we want the law-making power, state
and national; you are spoilsmen, we
are patriots; we won't yield a particle
Of our principle, for profit; on the 9TH
er hand we want chance to put those
principles into law. We are reformers
We cannot reform unless we succeed.
If we fail now we must wait for two
years longer. We may have to wait
forever. Take the big salaries and
the plunder, and give us the law-mak-
ing power; take the county offices and
give us our state ticket, Congress and
the legislature"
There is no fusion in this. If two
parties met and said:-"here is the
county authorship worth $1,000 you
take that; and here is the county
treasureship, worth 81, 500 we will take
that" and so on, that would be fu-
sion, because it would be waiver of
principles for division of plunder.
But for a party of reformers to say
1--WE yield up all claims on the fat
salaries; and are contented to take the
lean places which pay almost nothing;
because we feel the abuses should be
reformed in the halls of legislation;"
that is dragging progress out of the
teeth Of opposition. What ditferenc
does it make to us if all the county Of
fees in Minnesota were yielded up to
the Democrats and Republicans, if we
can achieve the reforms demanded by
our platform? There are, of course,
honest men who will think that we
ought not to concede a poundmas-
ter's place to win a United Senator
ship. And there are knaves who will
be hired by our enemies to howl
against anything that will make re-
form possible. And these rascals will,
on the 7th of November next, clink
their ill-gotten gains, and grin. while
honest reformers will sit, covered
with sack-cloth and ash es, and shame
and humiliation, because once more
opportunity has yielded only disap-
pOintment, and wrong is more firmly
entrenched than ever, and goodness is
discouraged and disheartened and
ready to lie down and die.
Brethren, boldly say to the seekers
after the flesh-pots:-''Give us the
Populist State ticket, the Congress-
men, the legislative ticket and take
all the rest"
If this be trading it is divine trad
ing, which seeks to achieve the good
of mankind by yielding little to hui
man Selfishness. We turn our backs
on sordidness and plunder. We go out
into the wilderness of poverty with
John the Baptists. The legislative
places pay S. per day,-for ninety
days,-the same as the doorkeepers
and half as much as the chief clerks.
Surely our efforts to win these cannot
be charged up to greed.
Always keep your eyes fixed on No.
vember 7th,-the day after election.
How will you feel then if you know
that Washburn has won, and goes
back to work for six years more in the
interest of the Plutocrats, and to
make your condition worse than it is?
How will you feel if Minnesota sends
seven members of Congress to Wash
inatOn, to labor for two years more, in
the interest of the money-power and
against our impoverished and we'll
nigh ruined people?
Oh. bretheren, rise to the height of
UnlS argument. / gu are hcIOrmorS.
The people must haze reform or perish.
REFORM is IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE
POSSESSION OF THE LAW-MAKING
POWER, STATE AND NATIONAL. Bend
all your energies to that great object.
Yield rything-cOncede everything
to gain that end. You must gain it.
This is the battle of the century:-yes
Of thousand centuries. If liberty
dies, in this generation, on this con-
tinent, mankind, hundred and hun
dreds, perhaps thousands of years from
now, will curse you in your forgotten
graves, for permitting the grandest
heritage that ever fell to mortal man
to perish off the face of the earth.
Don't yield hair of the head of any
man on our state tickct,-for that
would be treason;-but let the fools
take the spoil and trash and plumber
OF the county seats, if they will give
you an opportunity to reform the
state. the nation and the world.
The Avalanche.
The Chicago Tribune finds confirma-
T.. o. = A.. l.