Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-03-01
That is What Col. Plummer Saws the
People Of This Nation Have
to Preserve.
And He Points Out the Pitfalls and
Dangers Which Lie In
the Way.
A Masterful and Eloquent Address
Delivered at the Atheneum
Thursday Night.

duulence Oh LAW VS.. Anarchy IL was
a wholesome address, and it was an elo-
quent presentation Of the social condi-
tions of the time, which demand the at
tention of the masses. 1t was a talk cal
culated to discourage and ward away the
effects of the subtle reasonings and
preachlngs of the agitator and the
d"emagogue and bring about a brighter,
healthier and wiser contemplation of the
duties and obligations of good govern
ment and good citizenship.
Colonel Plummer was introduced, in a
few fitting words, by Lieutenant Gov
ernor Worst. In beginning, the speaker
said he had come to talk of the exist
ence, in the midst Of our splendid civil
izatioa and government Of men and con-
dltions which we're not dreamed of by
the trainers Of our constitution a hun
dred years ago. The nation had been
undergoing a sortof "%sloughing on" pro-
cess, and had gathered unto itself a class
OF citizens, whose presence threatened
the safety of the government and it's
civilization. There had come to exist a
class, who either ignorantly or wilfully
misunderstood and misinterpreted tho
province and purpose of a general gov
ernment. They did not seem to under
stand that the government was an ag-
gregation Of states, each equal to the
other in the composition of the whole.
Too many had come to think the gov
eminent a huge Jersey COW, to be MIXED
On all sides. That it was able to create
values. That it could stamp tin, lead,
leather or anything else, and call it
money. That it should feed, clothe and
provide for everyone. And that it
failed in it's duties. The nation had
come to harbor a class of persons whose
delight was to impress the farmer, the
laborer, and the man who was not
blessed with extraordinary means, with
the idea that the government was an in
stitution to rob and plumber and destroy
society. Persons whose rant is equal
distribution Of property-an equality in
all things which was unnatural and not
OWNED or intended in the creation-a
doctrine of communism and socialism
and anarchism. Men who are subtle at
reasoning, skillful in rhetorical perfec-
ton of argument, and gifted with an
ability to impress the multitudes. Men
whose sole mission is to create disaffec-
ton and disturbance. Men who set
forth that conditions in our own land
are similar to those which preceded the
French revolution of a hundred years
ago. And, showing the fallacies of this
assumption, the speaker pictured the
dangers threatened by this class of agi-
~tators, and asked that the cool, calm in
diligence of the great people might as
sert itself and prevail over the speclous
demagogy of the "reformers," whose
efforts foreboded danger. and even revo.
luton, unless the masses refuse to be
led astray by the siren tones of these
disturbers.
The law and the government, first and
always. AS governor of a state, he would
not have asked a citizen of the state of
Indiana, Debs by name, for permission
to transport a state militia to their
homes. No matter where his sympathies
might have been, he would not have per-
mitted the burning of property by mobs.
The late Coxey craze, too, was another
evidence Of the persuasive abilities of
the agitators and "reformers'' of the day.
He had no sympathy with a Coxey craze
in a region where no man suffered for
lack Of clothing or of hunger. The
Cozey army had shown no respect sfor
law Or order, whenever those qualities
stood IN the way Of their progress. And
he regretted that in many places, the Of
fcers entrusted with the preservation of
law and order, had forgotten their trusts
and aided and abetted the movement.
It was not the soldier of the army IN
his rags and his wretchedness that he
SOA0AOCACu. TX iOOh0O UACh VI Tie
dupes in the ranks and saw the hand
and the voice of the agitator. Whatever
evils had come upon the masses, had
been wrought by themselves, for do they
not, by their votes, control the national
policy? Here, then, must be the fault.
The right of suffrage, bestowed at the
cost OF countless lives, was misused.
This, then, was one trouble. Suffrage
had come to be SO liberal and universal
that the sacredness Of the obligations
which it entails was lightly regarded.
Men were careless of their right of fran
chlse. Too many of them refrained from
voting, and far too many traded their
votes for a paltry consideration. And
with the right Of suffrage already so
liberal as to create this difficulty, it was
proposed to add another element of con.
fusion, in the matter of woman suffrage.
In the early COS, he said, the first terri
torial assembly of Dakota, composed of
men who had escaped the draft, had
started the m suffrage ball to roll.
These men had tossed up a cent TO see