The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-03-23
Letter from Benzie County.
THoMPsoNvILLE, March

After chewing the rag until it is
nearly used up, rise to point of order,
thus wise: In the year 1892 there went
abroad host of slick-tongued orators
who said to us "You are standing in
your own light; you are being oppressed
by your corrupt party; you are being
robbed Systematically by the tariff; you
are selling your products too cheaply;
you are working too many hours; you
get too little pay for your laber. Join
with us to ''do up" this giant of corrup-
ton and you will soon enter into the
land of promise. You shall fatten upon
the labor of the foreign laborer; you
shall wear the goods of our neighbors'
make at half the cost of our own manu-
facture; you can ride in your carriage
and take the ease you should and could
were it not for this trust-ridden country.
Alas we did aid and abet this people to
"do up" the Republicans; we did help
them to undo the work of the Republi-
can party and seat upon the executive
throne one Grover Cleveland of New
York, and he called to his aid one
Gresham, disgruntled politician, one
who is called "mugwump; and another
aid was Hoke; and of all his aids not
one had been known for wise use of
natural talent. So, soon as he had his
aids in proper place, he called together
his lesser lights to help to aid us by wise
legislation. First came the silver ques-
ton, and now did they aid us! Then
came the tariff, and how have the helped
us Then comes the Queen Lii affair, and
in what have we been helped? In one
short year we have seen wonderful
change-a change from a land of plenty
and content to land of misery and
Woe One year ago there was plenty of
labor and its reward; now we see the
poorhouses filed to overlooking, the
jails filled, the country overrun with
the poor and needy looking for work
for barely enough to sustain life in
themselves and families. What a
change! Fathers obliged to see their
dependent families in rags crying for
bread; to see children deprived of school
advantages; compelled to cat such food
as never before. All our industries
paralyzed; mills and workshops closed;
mines and factories working only half
time upon starvation wages; farmers
unable to sell their products, even at
the lowest prices ever known in our
country. Verify, we are reaping the
whirlwind, and the end is not yet. Our
able law makers still continue to stun
BILE in their work and undo still farther
the work of years of the party of the
people. Now, to whom do we owe our
undoing? To the party that has at all
times said mo" to any and all work for
the upbuilding of our own industries;
the states rights party; the secession
party, the party that tried to sever the
Union; that caused and expenditure of
millions of money, thousands of lives;
that made hundreds of thousands of
widows and orphans; that made help
less thousands of strong men; the party
that is now trying to finish the work
done in Andersonville, Libby Prison
and Belle Isle; the party that has at its
head one who could in time of war "send
hand;" one who so deeply sympathised
with the party that he could not shoot
at them, but now can stab to death a
Union soldier through his commissioner
of pensions; who can not be seen on
Memorial day; he who pulls down our
national flag; he who tried to seat upon
the throne poor, besotted, half-civiliz-
ed queen; who whips into line his
henchmen with the party lash.
Now, fellow men, how long must we
travel in the wilderness? how long are
we to be blinded to our conditions Are
we to kiss the hand that has smote usp
Shall we still continue to follow blindly
this phantom that is leading into the
mire of serfdoms Let us awake and use
the God-given powers of honesty and
judgment, and so soon as we can, by
our ballot, hurl this mountain OF flesh
and his cuckoos to their proper places!
Let us see that not a Democrat is elect
ed to congress next fall that the con-
gress be so changed that that obese
tuSuS nature can no longer tear and
rend like wild boar. And again the
sun will shine upon a land of plenty;
land where all are free; where there is
no hunger; when a days labor buys
sufficient to eat and wear and some
thing besides; where all shops, mills,
and factories are at work upon cash
orders, full time and full pay. To make
us realize Heaven, place us in hades
short time. Let us work early and late
and sleep not upon our posts.
One of the multitude of laborers.
4. 3. NoRTHRUP.