The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-20

Col. Patrick HI. Winston Joins the
POpulist Party.

Col. Patrlck II. WINSTON, eX-C Hiteu
States district attorney under President
Harrison, and leading figure on the Re-
publican stump for the past five years, has
come over to the Populist party. His dec
laration is a follows:
To the People of Washington: 1t Is APP
parent that there is no essential difference
between the Republican and Democratic
parties. The financial, social and Industrial
policies Of both are the same. Both are OPP,
posed to free and unlimited silver, to an in
come and inheritance tax, and to govern
ment ownership Of railroads and the tele
graph. Neither favors the right of the
government to issue legal tender paper
money. and both favor the continuance of
the present national bank system, whereby
the exclusive right to issue paper money
and to increase and decrease the supply at
class. Neither favors the establishment
of postal savings banks, whereby a safe
place Of deposit for the earnings of the
people may be provided. Both favor
tariff that protects the labor and capital
employed in manufactures, the Republican
party favoring a tariff for protection and
revenue and the Democratic party favor
ing tariff for revenue with incidental pro-
| lection. The difference between the two
parties on the tariff is one of degree only,
| and since all the issues arising out of the
| war were settled this shadow is all that has
| divided or that now divides Republicans
| from Democrats. Finally, the governing
forces Of both parties are composed of
| plutocrats and corporation monopolists.
The unhappy condition of our country is
| plain to the simplest mind 1t is the direct
and logical result Of the forces that have
controlled society for the past 80 years
| For some of that time the Republican party
| was in place and for some of that time the
| Democratic party was in place, but pluto
cracy and corporation mOnopollstS were IN
power all the time.
| OUR HIGHWAYS OF COMMERCE.
The prosperity and progress of a free
| people depend upon production and its dis
tribution. We have solved the problem OF
| production in this country. In no other
| land and at no other time, has there been
| produced such abundance of everything
| necessary to the content and comfort of
| mankind. In the sweat of the face of labor
| this abundance was produced. Why are
| more than 1900 900 of our countrymen with
out sufficient food, raiment and shelter?
What has paralyzed the industry and de-
moralized the patriotism of the country?
| Why are we no longer able to exchange
| with each other the products of our labor
| at fair profit? The power to tax produc-
ton along the lines of 5000 miles of trans
| continental railroads is possessed by less
| than 20 men as completely as if the tax
were laid by legislative sanction. This tax
| is a fixed charge on the labor OF those lv-
| ing along the lines of these roads by means
| of which everything it produces from year
| to year is bogus or swollen Indebtedness,
| which exceeds the bonded Indebtedness of
| the United States government. 1t was
never in the contemplation of the patriots
| who framed our government that within a
| century all our great highways and COM
| merce would be owned and controlled by
| private corpora tons. / am in favor of gov
| eminent ownership of railroads. conducted
| under the rules of the civil service, of put
| ting an end to this oppression forever. Such
| ownership will take these roads and the
| magnateS who now control them out OF poll
| tics. 1t will prevent all forms of discrimi-
| nation and in the language of Justice
! Brown, of the supreme court of the United
| States
Put stop to those terrible conflicts be-
| tween capital and labor which have re-
| suited in little besides loss to the corpora
| lions, inconvenience to the public and dis
| aSter to employees"
| For years many of the principal railways
| in Germany. France, Austria, Sweden, Nor
| way, Hungary, Japan and other countries
| have been successfully operated by the
| government Such ownership can be OBJ
| tanned in this country it has been in
others, by construction or by purchase.
| The opportunities to purchase would be
| abundant if the receivers of insolvent
| roads were, they ought to be- compelled
| to sell the roads, collect their means and
| pay their debts. James Miller, of the SUI
preme court of the United States, in the
| case of Barton VS.. Barbour, says:
| 'Of the many thousand miles of railway
| in my judicial circuit, and of the so or
| more corporations who own or have owned
| them, think / speak within limits in saw
| ing that hardly half a dozen have ESCAPED
| the hands of a receiver. If these receivers
| had been appointed to sell the road collect
| its means and pay its debts, it might have
| been well enough. When this is done with
| dispatch and the dead body buried out of
| sight as soon as possible, no objection can
| be made the procedure. But this is never
| done now. The receiver takes the road out
| of the hands of its owners and operates it
In its own way, he and all his acts being
exempted from the operation of the com
| mon law with an occasional suggestion
from the court. which he recognizes as a
sort Of partner in the business.
| THE TELEGRAPH
| The same interest that demands the oov
eminent ownership of railways requires
that the telegraph shall be utilized as a
part Of the postal system of the country.
1t is the plain duty of the government TO
furnish US with the quickest mail facilities.
| cannot
transmitted by lightning as well as by
| steam.
MONEY.
| Produce is exchanged with money. At
| the formation of our government and for
| thfea genera tons thereafter the people nos
| seSsed the right to carry their gold and sill
| yer bullion to the public mints and have if
| coined INTO money which was a legal tender
| Tor the payment of ali debts. public and pri-
| Vate The right was free and without
limit They also possessed during
TINS long period Of time the right
| III every state to issue paDer
| money under laws prescribing basis Of
| circuiatlon OF these sources of money sup
ply out one remains free to free people
| Inc right to issue paper money has been
taken from the people and conferred unon
the owners of government bonds and the
| flght to coin silver into money is denied
| altogether Since principal source of
| money supply was cut off by the demoDeti-
| Zatlon or silver our money has no longer
| continued to bear the same relation to the
| food we eat, the clothes we wear the prom
| erty we own, the labor we perform and the
| debts we owe that it had borne for centuries
| we all know the fatal effects of that one
| act Of financial legislation by which pIu-
| tocracy more than doubled its power and
! possessions in the United States and bv
| winch the property of every man in debt
was practically conflscated, and by which
| the value of labor was substantially de-
| stroyed.
| / am in favor of the free and unlimited
coinage or silver at the rate of IS to l. and
| the expansion of the circulating medium of
| the country by the issue by the general
government of legal tender paper money in
sufflcient volume to restore prices to ba-