The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-18
IN THE NAME OF LOYALTY.
Crimes of the Blacklist Character
Are Committed-Eterni Not
Long Enough to Wash
Away the Stain.
APPALLING CONDITIONS WHICH
CONFRONT US TODAY.

l WISH 10 call your attention Tor
short time to a few facts in our American
system Of finance not found in the Metro
politan Press which will be of interest
and of use to you as American wealth
producers as American citizens, as Amer
lean voters. The national debt under
which the wealth producers are strug-
Cling, principal and interest, is not war
debt. Oh, no. Thirty years ago, shortly
after the close of the war, Secretary
Boutwell, in his official report said the
nation was practically out of debt Now,
during these thirty years of profound
peace with all the nations; with prosper
ity, unbroken and unparalleled; with re-
sources, diversified and manifold; with
productions from field, forest and mines;
agricultural and mechanical; where do
we find ourselves? One of the richest and
therefore one of the grandest Of nations
this world has ever produced. This
sounds we'll when spread out on paper
| and gives one a touch Of local pride to bd
| born a citizen of America.
| But let us inquire little further on.
| What we are now after is facts; not ora
| tory, not diversion, not burlesque; just
plain everyday facts. Who are the own
ers of all our fabulous wealth? Foreign
| and home stock jobbers, usurers, bankers,
bondholders and corporations, generally;
| who never added a farthings worth to the
nations wealth. What Of the wealth.
| producers who created all of the wealth?
How fare they? Alas and alack! After
| thirty years of hard labor, with uniform
prosperity, they find themselves worse off
! than at its beginning. They find their
farms, their homes and their products cut
| in two in prices. There are no sales ex-
| cept forced sales. The farms, the homes,
| and possessions are blanketed with debt
and mortgages. The wealth producers of
| America, today, at forced sale is bank
| rupt nation. Their assessed valuation at
| a forced sale would not pay their indebt
| edness The Indebtedness of the American
wealth producers who must pay all as
| well as produce all is according to official
| records at the lowest estimate forty bill
| lions of dollars not millions but billione of
| dollars. No man can compass or estimate
! this vast amount. An annual interest
of six per cent which is low estimate,
| from shore to shore, it is two billions, four
| hundred millions of dollars. Divide this
| yearly interest by twelve and we have as
a monthly stipend to pay to foreign and
home aristocrats two hundred million
dollars Divide again by thirty and we
have the enormous and appalling sum of
six and two-th.rds million dollars per
day interest to pay, to say nothing about
! ever paying the principal; Sundays and
work days alike; the interest keeps tick
ing right along.
Labor has produced all the wealth and
all has gone into the vaults and the safes
| of the idlers. How did it get there?
Easy enough It was legislated from the
homes Of the toilers into the vaults and
the safes of the idlers. 1t couldn't help
going there any more than water can
help going over the precipice at Niagara.
All the forces were in that direction. 1t
couldn't help going, so it went. The
momentum was too great to be overcome.
England's system of class laws which
were grated into our American legisla-
ture between the years of 81 and IA in
elusive, did the deadly work. 1t did just
what it was intended It should do when it
|
for every other nation under the light of
the sun which has engraften England's
system of robbery laws into it's legisla-
ture It was placed there to rob and it
and it robs and it will continue to rob so
long as the laws remain and there is any
thing left to plumber. Better than war
and bloodshed, better than Norman brig
andage, better than the despotic laws Of
the bandit chief It plumbers its victims
and sets hem into the streets so smoothly
and adtoitly that they don't know who
did it nor how it was done.
Is there, then, no hope for the laboring,
wealth-producing populace of this great
nation? Yes, one hope left and only
one. The only hope is that they will
arouse from their lethargy and apathy,
that they will behold their true condi-
ton, that they will break away from the
old parties that have so long held their
brains in bondage, that they will unite
at the ballot box as men, as fathers hus-
bands, sons and brothers, and wipe out
and forever from our statute books of our
nation the last vestige of England's rob-
Der system of laws that have SO nearly
enslaved u.s. This is the one only hope,
the one only remedy. This is our only
salvation as a republic.
The appalling conditions which con-
front us today are the direct and legiti-
mate result of England's class system of
laws enacted into our legislature under
Republican administration. The Repub-
lican party are directly and solely respon-
sible for the great crime (for crime It was
and not blunder), with all its direful re-
suits on the American people. The Dem
ocratic party is only the echo of the Re-
publican party.
At the close of the war the nation was
out of debt For a quarter of century
the Republican party had absolute con-
troll. Under Republican rule between the
years 81 and IA, inclusive, the tools were
forged in congress and were placed direct
-ly into lively and efficient service to work
our ruin as republic. AS long as the
Republican party remained in power they
piled these tools to their Intermediates
, carried out both the spirit and the letter
, of the despotic system of laws they haG
created. They Piled these tools until the
: republic trembed on the verge Of destruc.
ton in debt, ruin and bankruptcy colo
Glory did it all. The people stood it as
long as they could. They knew some.
thing was wrong but where was the
wrong? Surely the grand old party which
saved the Union could not enslave it
There must be change, so the people
went over to the Democrats. 1t was &
bitter dose, but they must go some
where ga drowning man will catch al
a straw" runs the old proverb and ii
proved sthe last straw to break the cam.
~, hoo