The advocate., 1894-03-21

the exposition of ideas which were en-
tirely new to her as put by the speaker,
but alsobeCause the thoughts themselves
were instinct with life, and were the
half pathetic, half indignant, appeal of
crushed and bleeding genius to the
world which had doomed to darkness
and to drudgery one meant to be
heavens messenger to a suffering race,
because these thoughts were the pal
pitating utterances of a remarkably
handsome man, whose face, now ami
mated and enobled by the feelings
which struggled within him for ex-
preston, beamed with an almost super
natural-with a god-like beauty. And
let me warn any reader who may not
be disposed to serious reflection on any
occasion whatever, but reads only for
amusement, that / shall, throughout,
so put this story together that those
who skips what is "dry' will be GER
tain to miss the thread Of the story and
will be obliged to go back and read the
"dry stuff at last. 1t will be better
to read right on and save trouble, for
something is liable to happen at any
moment in this story, and something
interesting may come about in the very
midst of what the reader is disposed at
that very moment to skip. Besides,
how would you like to have readers
cOntemptuously pass over two or three
pages at a stretch of what you had
written with honest purpose? Come,
now, be fair, my dear madam, and
read on. If for no other reasOn-pray
reflect that John COtterell was perhaps
the handsomest man you are ever
likely to see. Let us return to the
meeting Of the Daughters of Joanna
and hear John out.
"Well, then," he continued, "when
we say that the government ought to
either strictly control transportation or
else own and run the railroads, aren't
we saying that whenever a few men
have all there is of something the peO-
pie must have or suffer, the govern
ment ought to say how much they're
to charge for it and make them fur
nish all of it that the people need? For
we make railroad owners furnish all
the rolling stock required, otherwise
they would starve out Kansas people
by not furnishing cars to bring goods
in or carry grain out.
"NOW, a coal trust owns or controls
about all the coal mines in the country.
and if they see fit to can freeze every
body to death. The people have got to
have coal for fires, and mills and fac
tories can't run without it, and this
trust has all the coal there is to get,
Every man don't own his own coal
mine, any more than he owns his own
railroad and GOALS just as necessary as
transportation, / guess! Well, then, it
you're going to be consistent haven't
you got to demand that the govern
ment shall say how much coal is to sell
for, and make the mine owners furnish
all that's needed or else that the gov
eminent shall own and operate the coal
mines for the benefit of the people ?"
81 think your logic is invulnerable,
so far, Mr.. Cotterell,' - said the presi-
dent, "but l am unable to see how it
applies to the farmers. Unless you can
show that agriculture, also, should on
the same principle be regulated or con-
trolled by the government, do you sue
ceed in proving the new party entirely
socialistic ?"
"I was just coming to that. We've
already got bonanza farms, where farm
ing is carried on on big scale cheaper
than small farmers can carry it on,
and the railroads give these bonanza
farm owners secret drawbacks which
give 'em special rates. Some day big
agricultural trust might own all the
farms and then starve us all to death,
if it saw fit, just like the coal trust can
freeze us all to death. Then of course
we must demand government control.
But we don't have to wait for that.
There are substantially no independent