Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1894-11-16
FREEDOM OR SLAVERY OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE.

EDS. AGITAToR: There are no good reason
for discouragement to reformers in the results o
the recent election. 1t is now manifest to al
that it was not REpUBLIcAN VICTORY so mucl
as DEMOCRATIC DEFEAT. The people are be
ing educated. Convinced of the incapacity ant
unwillingness of the Democratic party to re
lieve them, they have again entrusted their leg
slative affairs to the Republican party, and i
is only question of time till they, too, con
lingness to better the condition of the masses
Then the awakening will come butt in thu
meantime
We wait beneath the furnace-blast
The pangs of transformation
Not panlessly doth God recast
And mould anew the nation.
The real conflict is struggle between corpo
rate life and human life. The corporations ant
the liquor curse are crushing the people and
thus it is going on from bad to worse. Under
meath the unrest of the times, the poverty O.
the masses, the political tumult, lies the fact
that the American people are being enslaved tc
debt. Hon. Jos. H. Walker, of Massachusett;
(Republican congressman, tells us that the
debt of the United States is thirty-two billion
dollars, and that, estimating the interest on this
amount at per cent, it would take the entire
wheat crop of 1892, at SO cents per bushel; the
corn and oats crop of the same year, at 40 and
IS cents per bushel, and combining with the
three the entire gold and silver output of the
United States, we would then fall five hundred
and eighty-seven million dollars short of paying
the interest for one year on this Indebtedness.
The demonetization of silver added about five
billion dollars more to the principal and a cor
responding ratio to the interest.
Unable because unwilling to pay the bonded
war debt Of thirty years ago, the administration
now proposes to borrow fifty millions in gold
from the bankers, and fund this loan in bonds
bearing per cent.
How long will the people permit this rob-
berry? More bonds More slavery! More
povery
We have delayed md parried long enough.
Every father and mother, regardless of party,
should unite in protesting against the issuance
of interest-bearing bonds. Not only that, but,
as the bonds have been twice changed in the
interest of the creditor classes, as the contract
of the bond-holders with the government has
twice been violated and repudiated by them let us
now unite to change these bonds to their orig
inal form and insist that the debt shall be paid
in the same money in which it was contracted,
and if this manifest justice is denied the peo-
pie, then REPUTATION of every dollar of in
debtedness fastened upon us by John Sherman
and England will become the rallying cry of the
people.
A study of the truths of the Bible will ma
terially assist us. Usury and land alienation
are the two sins expressly forbidden in that
theocracy whose constitution was direct from
Jehovah, and, like the Children of Israel, we
will learn the wisdom and the necessity of a
year of jubilee, when the lands shall be restored,
debts cancelled, captives released and bondsmen
made free. Let us begin at once the work of
mental and physical emancipation, remembering,
with Mazzini, that "grand results and grand
reforms cannot be attained or achieved by cor
rupt old organizations or methods"
The ethics of Christ must be introduced in
politics of the country, and the best element Of
all parties must unite to inaugurate better
form of society.