The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-04-10

horrible thing for trained lawyer, a
graduate of the Philadelphia bar, to
char &c $3.50 for two arguments to set
tie the title to millions of acres of
land, and millions of dollars worth of
property.
Shame! Shame! Thou beast!
TOM REPUDIATES FREE SILVER.
And Free Silver Long Since Re-
pudiated Tom.
Our old friend. Tom Lucas, seems
to have ''gone off the handle," if the
reporter of the Minneapolis Times is
to be believed. While still claiming
to be Peoples Party follower he de-
nounces free silver, and expresses the
belief that higher wages would be no
benefit to the laboring man. We
quote an extract or two-from a re-
cent remarkable speech in this city:
'He came out flat-footed against free
silver and told the people that it
would be their ruinatiOn if they did
not look out. Money, he said, was not
the most important thing and until
people recognized that fact they must
suffer for it. No man. he declared,
could ever get rich with money. The
laboring people had been misied to be-
lieve that money would make them
rich and comfortable, but it was
wrong. AS soon as the laboring man
understood what money was he could
not be longer fooled by party trick
sters. Today, said he, there are lot
of knaves in the Populist Party, who
are trying to fool the people on free
silver However, he declared, it
would never help them. If they had
it tomorrow they would be as bad. if
not worse than ever. The real
remedy is for the laboring classes to
gain control of the tools of produc-
tion. "By the eternal God," he cried,
II will never be fooled by free silver
l have studied it and know that it
will never help you cents worth"
The real wrong that lay at the bot
tom of the social condition today, he
said, was that the land was owned by
few corporations. He declared that
it was a crime against Almighty
God for man to own so much land
that thousand OF his brethren could
not plant a little potatoe patch.
- He said that another great mis- take
the laboring people made was in sup
posing that a raise in their wages
would better their condition. Wages,
he declared, had nothing to do with
their comfort or condition. Wages
will never settle the problem. There
was no such thing as labor and capt.
tai, he declared. 1t was labor against
capital and always would be. The
thing for the poor people to do was to
learn to manage their own business.
He roasted George A. Brackett as
sample of the men that had grown
rich off the poor man and said that he
did not roast Mr.. Brackett or any
of his class because the laboring men
were such big fools that they allowed
these men to beat them. The one
thing for the laboring man to face
was the fact that he was big fool as
long as he did not manage his own
business. People live in the condition
they demand and it is their own fault
if their condition is deplorable. He
pictured the horrible condition of
things and pointed out the Peoples
Party as the only salvation for the
poor.
"YOu must manipulate the money
of the world, but it must not be gold
money or silver money which capital
lists can name the value of, but it
must be good honest greenbacks rep
resenting the labor of the people,
Every nerve is now being strained to
make this country military despot-
ism to crush the poor man into the
ground. The wage-workers must
fight this fight and grasp from the
rights inherited from free and indie
dendent forefathers!"
Now, there are some grains of truth
in this, mixed up with a deal of
cookie; but it would require a tanning
mill to get them out, and "the game
wouldn't be worth the candle"
mo man." says Tom. "can ever get
rich with money" Well. some of us
have tried it without money, and we
would like now to try it with money.
Give us Astor's pile and let us expert
ment for a while. Even Tom with
$4,000 year would be SO transmogri-
fed that his best friends wouldn't
know him. He would talk philosophy
through his hat and it would be silk
tile too.
And If Tom is right, and a raise in
wages would not better the condition
of the laboring men then, per-
haps they could be enriched by put
ting down their wages? And all the
''strikes" may have been unjust re-
bellions against public benefactors,
who were trying to enrich their en-
ployes by giving them less to buy food
and clothes with.
Really such arguments make a
mans head swim:-riches are poverty
and poverty is riches; and the cats
head is where its tail should be; and
black is white, and green is beauti-
full shade Of vermillion; and the man
in the moon has swallowed the shark.
smokers ee and ALL
eff the red slayer thinks he slays:
Or if the slain thinks he is slain;
They re both mi Staken either ways,-
Lieut. and turn and come again."
And, as we try to understand these
matters, a breath blows out of the
gates of St. Peters and all things
fade into an comprehensive tumble
of incoherent incompatibilities.
Tom is equal to the task of explain
ing all these subtleties, but who will
ever explain Tom?
s'The river Rhine, tits known,
Doth wash the city of Cologne
But oh. we gods. what power divine
khal ha ncn 9TH : "a r VA 1 1, i,,n