The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-10
BRAMBLE BUSH POLITICS.
A New Political Light in Chicago Says
Some Sarcastic Things

CHICAGO, Nov. 10.-At big meeting
last night Of the Sunset club composed
OF men of various political beliefs II. =.
Taylor, late Populist candidate for con-
gress, who IS regarded as remarkably
brilliant speaker. was called for
speech The Republicans wondered
nightly and the Democrats looked puz-
zled when they heard him say:
The Tammany tiger of New York is
grievously wounded and the Chicago
Iammany kitten lies dead in the alley.
The Peoples Party manipulated the but
ton, and the scavenger will do the rest
silence prevailed. The speaker pro-
ceeded to say:
There is no sort of doubt that there
has cen a landslide=one of those queer.
capricIous stampedes of the human herd
usually started by some trivial thing, as
the hutter of a red rag, or the distressed
Dawling Of calf You remember the
OLD nursery rhyme:
There was man in our town,
And he Was WOndrOus wise
He Jumped into bralnDle bush.
And scratched out both his eyes;
And when lie saw what he had done,
With ali his might and main
He jumped into another bush.
And scratched them in again.
Well, in 1892, the portable public
jumped into one BRAN BILE bush and now
the people have jumped back into the
other--with what improvement to the
public eyesight remains to be deter
mined
Neither of the recent landslides was
very intelligent. 1t is true that in 1892
thinking Democrats urged that lower
tariff meant foreign markets and a re-
vival of business, and thinking Republi-
cans said that a higher tariff meant
home market and revival of business,
but the great mass of the floating vote
that determined that election knew but
little of the merits of the discussion on
either side. All that determined the
direction o1 their march and led them
into the Democratic camp was the cry,
'We want change" They got it.
This year the brambIe bush philoso-
pliers have acted with just as little
reason. Il is absurd to claim that the
Democratic tariff policy has been fairly
tried or even inaugurated. It is absurd
to suppose that the people intelligently
voted for lower tariff in 1892, and then,
without any intervening experience,
voted for higher tariff III 1894 The fact
Is that the Democrats have had no chance
to show the outcome of that policy
which was a verv fortunate thing for the
country. The Republicans going into
Office, with Cleveland grasping the veto
and the Populists holding the balance of
power in the senate, viii also have no
chance-and that, too, is hopeful thing
for the country.
He went on to picture a condition of
things according to which there would
continue to be:
government of the people gradu-
ally merging into a government
Of corporations, the dramshop and the
Jail going up and the church and the
school gong down; the man with the
coach enjoying the parks and the man
with the wheelbarrow enduring the al
ley: upper society becoming less Ameri-
can and more British, lower society be-
coming less of either, and more barbar-
ian: the feud between the bondholders
and the breadwinners mounting steadily
from distrust to resentment and from
sentiment to rage; the revolt Of the bread
winners rising like a swelling river; the
resistance of the bondhOlders trying to
heighten the dam to contain the food;
violent strikes increasing on one side.
and on the other the shrin voice of
Gods whIstling messenger Of peace" to
subdue them: on both sides doubling of
the worst of human Passion=anger.
made trebly worse by an intermixture of
fear.
Thus the country will go on. the chasm
between the upper and lower classes
widening, the conflict getting hotter, un-
til on some pregnant occasion the policy
OF militarism and suppression will prove
insufficient, and then-Macauley7 van
dals. We know that the Republicans
cannot bring back Republican prosper
ity for they cannot restore their own
former status The Republican party
was once greenDack party ana Tree
silver party. Corporations we're in their
babyhood, and the country was com
pIetely out of debt. Now the Republi-
can party is pledged 10 gold standard
with all the accompanying evils of fall
ing prices and languishing markets
MonopoIies. like the huge devil fish,
have thrust OUT their suckers into
every corner of production and
are drawing away all profit, while
the total debt of every kind
amounts to two-thirds of the total wealth,
making an annual interest greater than
the earnings Of the people. The Repub-
lican party cannot steer the 5h r. Of state.
To preserve itself at all it must go slow
aud allow the vessel to become 4erelict
and be carried whithersoever the winds
and tides may elect
But what will the bramble bush people
dor If the situation does not improve,
but, on the contrary, gets worse, and ever
worse. they Will continue to jump. The
two last Iandslides at bottom meant
simply unrest, dissatisfaction, sentiments
which we think are bound to increase.
Will the jumpers continue to shuttle be-
tween the two old parties, or will they
some day soon take q lateral jump and
land in the Peoples Party.
rVnT-D FxnNL5