Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-08-16
WHY A popuLIsTp

| A laboring man, evidently one of tn
strikers who was unable to recover hi
position, was heard to remark the othe
day, with much profane emphasis, tina
he was through with both of the oil
parties henceforth. He had voted tn
democratic ticket for the last time
Hereafter he was pepulist And h
claimed that large portion Of tn
working population would be with him
One can spare bit of sympathy for tn
Disguised person who voted for Cleve
land and the rest of the democrati,
ticket two years ago. The repentance
of these people, though late, is sincere
enough. And the reasons why mar
should abjure democracy, should prom
Use solemnly that he will never vote q
democratic ticket again as long as he
lives, are easily appreciate.
But the other question, why should a
man, however Disguised and discon,
tented he may be, become populist
remains conundrum. We have
sought diligently for a plausible ans.
wer, and we give it up. We are not
now arguing for republican interests
We are simply trying to discover what
possible good there car be to man
in turning populist, or what he has to
expect if the populists were to get into
power. 1t is not an abstruse question.
The answer does not depend OH uncer
tainties. For the populists have been
in power, to a greater or less extent, in
Kansas, in Colorado, in South Carolina.
What have they done there, for labor
or for anything else? They have filed
these states with domestic brawling
and the threat of civil war. They have
debased the public service until it is a
shame to be connected in an official way
with the government of the state.
They have ruined domestic interests.
banished capital, and almost DESTROYED
prosperity. In every one of those
states the people, who have seen them
selves more than once on the verge of
the necessity of taking up arms to re-
store order or to stop the steady move
of pOpulism toward despotic power,
are praying only for another election,
to displace the motley crew to which,
i'll moment of weakness, they yielded
the control of their affairs.
Populism, then, as apractical scheme
of government, does not turn out well.
1t has not a good reputation. And
what has the wOrkingman to expect
from it? Will it raise wages? Was
there ever yet any government in the
world that was able to raise wages in
any other way than by strictly main
tanning peace and order, so that pro-
duction was increased and the employ
er was enabled to pay more to his men ?
Will it limit the power of capital ?
But how? Not one of the anti.mon-
opolists who clamor for votes has ever
told the secret of how he is going to
bind the limbs and clip the claws of
the great beast. What law is there
that populists or any others can pass
that will do more to limit the encroach-
ments Of capital than is being done
now? Will it make the poor richer
1t will, we are told, enormously increase
the volume of money in the country.
But will any laboring man get one of
these dollars, worth much or little,
without giving for it the same amount
of labor that he has always given
And when he has made that exchange,
and then finds that his dollar will pur-
chase only fraction of what it former
ly would, how much better off will he
be? Will not his anger when he sees
that populism plays directly into the
hands of the rich and crafty, from the
owners of silver mines down, be as hot
as any that he feels toward the old par.
ties that have disappointed him? II
is fashion of many men when their
party disappoints them to 20 off and
vote another ticket in sudden disgust.
But before any man does that with the
populists, let him answer sanely an
soberly, not in the swelling rhetoric OF
the populist orator, but in the staid
phrases Of fact, exactly what he ex.
poets to get from the new regime; ex.
actly what advantages it will have over
the old; exactly why he should be a
populist. If every man will do this
the populist party will not gain any re.
cruits this year.-St. Paul Pionee,
Press.