The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-08

Continued from First Page1
eAlsts, was created long before the
Peoples party was established. Our
party was organized at Cincinnati. in
1891; while the wheat ring Of Mime
sofa dates back twenty-five years; wa
tered railroad stock has existed for
half century; and the oppression Of
the poor by the rich has been an es-
tabliShed fact in this world ages be-
fore Christ hurled his awful anathe-
mas at the rich men,-as whited
sepulchers, Outwardly fair but within
full of dead mems bones and all un-
cleanness. We challenge the governor
| to point to an instance in history
where the poor, as long as they had
enough to eat, made war on the rich;
or to an age when the rich did not op-
press the poor. The poor have never
resisted until. (as in the Great French
Revolution and now in this
country they fell below the
regions Of mere poverty into the
abyss Of starvation;-until they had
either to fight or die. To say that
wealth will take advantage of its pow
er to press down the wretched is SIM
ply to restate the universal selfishness
of mankind; which, unrestrained by
law or religion, is more cruel and
ferocious than the hunger of sharks
and tigers.
No, governor, the Peoples party did
not produce the conflict of the classes,
but the conflict of the classes pro-
duced the Peoples party 1t arose out
of the earth, full armed, in response
to the shrieks and entations of an
afflicted nation. Give the American
people universal prosperity tomorrow,
and the Populists would disappear like
an exhalation of the morning.
But the governor says that we have
done wrong in leading the agricultural
class to believe that all other classes
have been depressing them. Wells
it not true?
Does not the money-lender exact
from the farmer from ten to one hun
dred and twenty per cent per year on
money loaned, while the merchant of
the cities can borrow all he wants, of
the banks, at eight per cent; the
Spectator of Wall street at four per
cent: and the government at two and
a half per cent?
Does not the burden of the watered
stock of railroads fall principally on
the farmers, by decreasing the price
of all they produce: and compelling
them to pay three or four times what
they should pay, for all they buy?
Do not the various rings and trusts
deprive the farmers of a free market
for all they raise and all they buy?
When an elevator ring makes Al per
cent interest on it's capital IN one gear,
will the governor dare to stand up and
say that the producers are not plum
dered.
Has not the tariff been devised to
encouragement the farmerS.-but the
manufacturers by giving them high
er prices, out of the pockets of the
farmers, for the manufactured goods
the farmers are obliged to purchase?
When has congress ever passed law
to take money out of the pockets of
the capitalists or manufacturers and
divide it among the farmers? They
have put tariff on wheat and hay
and straw and potatoes, arhich are not
imported into this country; and given
bounty to few thousand sugar rails
erS, in Louisiana, for the benefit of
the Sugar Trust; but where has any,
thing ever been done to really and
substantially help the farmers? Vast
donations of land have been given to
the railroad companies; millions of
dollars of United State bonds to the
Pacific transcontinental lines: huge
subsidies to steamship lines; hun
dreds and thousands of millions to the
''infant manufacturers" immense
tariff protection to mine-owners, and
millions of dollars to the makers of
whisky; but what have the farmers
got, except few packages of garden
seeds and an agricultural report now
and then? Has the farmer not been.
as the governor says, the neglected
Step-son of the nation?" His industry
enriches all; he is plundered by all: in
suited by all; covered with debt and
mortgages, and poor in the midst of
the very abundance which he creates.
l. D.