The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-10
NOT NEEDED.
The Excessively Rloh An Undesirable
MaAa
mankind.

The Nxcessively Rloh An Undesirable
Glass.
One 81 the leading Republicans q the
state said substantially in his speech before
the state convention OF his party, that the
excessively rioh are not an undesirable nor
dangerous class. From the standpoint Of
one Of that class this is, no doubt, true; but
how stands the case when viewed by one
outside of and who has not derived any
benefits from that class? Are the rich and
the poor equal before the law? Can they
ever become so while maintaining their
present respective social positions? To one
with a few years of experience in the world
the questions need no answer; they are
doubling Thomas and seek redress against
the rich and powerful. What lawyer will
plead your cause? What court will
sustain your rights? The lawyer gets his
best fees from the rich and, while he may
nominally defend you, he has an eye to the
main chance and hopes, some time, to have
the present defendant for a client The
court u.s. as a rule, elected or appointed
through the efforts Of your opponent and
Ills continuance upon the Dencu QepSIl0S5
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 vague and
Underlined suspicion gaining ground that the
Roman empire is fallen; that America has
been discovered.
Who stands behind the politician and fur
fund? Who pulls the string when the pol
itcian jumps? Is it the poor? Is it the
middle class7 No! it is the excessively
rich. Who holds our financial system in
their grasp and create panics, at will?
Who hold millions of acres of rioh 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 a 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 I?
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
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 it's state platform, promulgated
A. D. 1884: THE destruction of property
whether private, corporate or public, must
be prevented at all hazards" It
may cost the lives Of 10, 20, so per cent Of
the people to do so; but, this property,
which has wrengfully and in violation Of
moral law, been filched from its 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 (O
when your master shuts the gates to nA-
lures bounteous resources? And you who
cling to the crumbling causeway Of middle
class respectability. with the devil Of Ger
porate greed threatening to crush you, or
of popular fury yawning upon you on the
other, what will you do? When oorrup-
ton 10 rewarded and devotion to duty Is
punished. when Quay goes to the senate
and Debs to prison. is it a time to bubble
WV AoA -SDAlllAS teSllnlCa1ltl0S, OF 10 lie
down In despair before unjust prsoedents7
If 1t 10, then when will come the time for
action? When will legal distractions to
justice remove themselves?
Let u look the situation sQuarely in tho
face; lot u know the worst and prepare
for it.
The evils that affiiot us are not q =
mushroom growth; they are not t. ~
eradicatsd by an application Of milk ~
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 corporations On
the one hand, and establish certain limits
to legal interference on the other. Presto,
change! The courts declare the rules IN
but the limits to lawful In
terference stand firm. This oourps of
treatment has been followed until the -
pie have no rights lset that corporati>ns
are bound to respect; oapitalistic oonAlna-
tons reign supreme.
We have got to make I'D our minds nev
to alter our tactics; we must work ~ q
change Of constitutions, state and ma
tional; we must turn the body polite ~
side down and inside out; renovate It ther-
oughly, keep the good and discard he
evil, SO far as past experience has taught
US which Is which. and which 10 t'Ot1er.
This country started in to recognise TIVE
kinds Of property-public and privlee: hut
here comes the Republican party, WA its
little squirtgun. and injects 4 new kid Of
neither public nor private but
partaking Of the nature Of and controlling
both; this poison is labeled 'cerysrats'
(see quotation above), and throws the e.
tire system into disorder. Nothing ~ q
good big dose of Populism VIII Sxnol M
foreign matter. Let US march % ~
polls n November, and administer q -.
tiso 49, w baaish tAe DQiaeD 1ononA