People's voice., 1894-03-23
Rev. BOtkin's Outline for a Cam
paign in 1894.
Lever, Ottawa, Kansas.

Lever, OJldNd' hdnsds'
WELLINGTON, KANs., MAR. ,, '9l.
LEvER;-YOu,aSk me to outline the
campaign of 1894 as | think the pro-
hibitionists should make it. In the
first place, the campaign should be
made on the line of eternal righteous
ness. 1t is wrong to cover up sin, and
right to expose it. There are many
national sins that should be exposed.
This process will make many sinners
writhe; but it will arouse and educate
the masses. The people must be
taught the history Of legislation and
the principles of just political econ
omy. This will enable them to deter
mine who has robbed them in the past
and whom to trust in the future. The
campaign should therefore embrace
more than local and state issues.
The people must be taught that land
grants have been made to the railroad
corporations of this country to the
amount of 2l5, 7l5, 900 acres-a slice of
the public domain equal in area to
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri
and Kansas. The responsibility for
this infamous legislation, this gigantic
steal from the people, must be placed
where it belongs. Sentiment must be
created in favor of the recovery of
this vast domain for the use of the
the people to whomit rightfully be
longs. The infamous financial legiSla-
tiOnthe past quarter of a century must
be exposed, together with the perpetra-
tors of this high crime; and the rela-
tion between this legislation and the
present reign of poverty must be shown
to the end that the people may be let
to arise in their might and smash the
system into smithereenS and relegate
to eternal oblivion the rotten poll
ticians and the political parties that
are responsible for system under
which "the rich are becoming richer
and the poor are becoming poorer" ,"
and under which thirty one thousand
people have come to own more than
One-half the wealth Of this country,
while millions beg for bread.
The people must be taught that the
Mckinley bill is part Of the infa-
nous plan to rob the masses in the in
tereSt Of the few, and that the Wilson
bill is a strip off the same piece of
cloth.
The people must be taught that
they should own and operate the rail-
roados, teltgraphs, ETC., in their own
interest as they do the postal system.
The people must be taught that the
liquor traffic destroys 10000 lives
every year; that it brutalizes and pau
peIizes hundreds Of thousands Of men,
women and children; that it takes d.
rectly from the earnings of the people
for drains every year 81, 900,
amounting to $40 per capita; that the
nation cannot much longer survive
this drain upon its physical, social,
mental, moral and financial life. Every
thoroughly instructed and tremend-
ously earnest refOrmer raises the
black flag against the liquor traffic.
The people must be taught that the
doctrine of equal rights to all and
special privileges to none" means,
among other things, the ballot in the
hands of woman. In short:
l. Equal suffrage.
2. Abolition of the liquor ira ffic.
3. Recovery of the public domain
from corporate and alien ownership for
the use of actual settlers.
4. Government ownership of all
means of transportation and communi-
cation.
5. Free coinage of silver and the
government issue of money direct to
the people, without the medium of ma
tiOnal banks.
In stating these propositions have
not thought of the order of impOr-
tance. Indeed, l am not sure but
what they are very nearly equal in i'm
portance. ]. d. BoTKIN.