The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-04-16
IF CHRIST CAME TO CONGRESS-

The Hon. M w. Howard, Congressman
From Alabama, Defends Himself Agaist
the Attacks of the Plutocratic Press
and Points Out the Great Source Of
Unjust and Corrupt Legislation.
Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer.
NEW YORK, April g. 1895.
When man enters Congress he must
choose one of two things. If he wishes
to be courted and feted by Washing
ton society, if he desires the praise of
the plutocratic press, if he is looking
after fat places for his relations and
friends, if his heart longs for the smiles
of aristocracy and the fawning of syc CO.
plants, he has only to be the willing
tool of plutocracy and all these things
are within his easy grasp. If thus
he chooses. his future pathway is
strewn with fowers, and for him there
is the purple and fine linen of Dives.
On the other hand, if he champions
the cause of the people, and stands up
for the Nations toilers and antagonizes
shyIocks who are enslaving the honest
yeomanry of the country, he will be
called a crank, an agitator and an
| Anarchist.
He will be scorned by society, ma
| ligned, abused and ridiculed by the
plutocratic press and treated discour-
teously and snubbed by those III power,
and given to understand that he has no
influence with the administration.
This condition confronts every man
who is che sen to represent the people,
and he must become an ally Of the
aristocracy of wealth, and desert the
people, or stand up for the rights of
the people and be hated by the money
power. Surrounded by lobbyists and
corruptionists, with unlimited money
to purchase votes, with avenue Haser
avenue to luxury and ease continually
open to the mental vision, surrounded
by vice and profigacy, is it to be won
dered at that so many of our public
men fall victims to the temptation,
and forget the poor toilers who labor
in the mines and factories, the vine
yards and the fields, and who are look
ing to their leaders in such intense,
fearful suspense2 Here lies the great
danger. This is the very root of the
evil, the source of all our ills
So long as the trusts and monopolies
hold such unlimited power, just so long
will our legislation become more cor,
rupt and vicious. The greedy, unscru
pulous, grasping trusts have entered
the halls of Congress and they have
polluted the men whom the people have
trusted, and instead of a government
by the people, it is a government by G
money oligarchy. The capital city oi
our nation is reeking with rottenness
corruption and bribery stalk hand in
hand with luxury and RIGHTEOUSNESS
The~man who sells his vote loses his
honor and becomes the prey of vicious
habits. Once started ohthe downward
road there is no stopping, and he be
comes the easy tool of the money
power. Thus it has come to pass that
the Congress of the United States is
ever ready to foster the robber trusts
while the people are starving. We
talk of reform along certain lines, we
hold monster meetings and petition
Congress for the passage Of certain
laws in the interest of the people, and
we wait and fondly hope for good
wholesome legislation, when the very
men who are to pass the laws have
sold themselves to the money changers.
We must break the hold which the
money power has upon this nation ere
we can hope for reform. We must
scourge the shylocks from the capital
even as Christ scourged the money
changers from the temple, and we
must turn out the unfaithful servants,
and with them the corruptioniste, the
lobbyists, the rogues and prostitutes
who make of the great capitol building
at Washington a veritable den of
thieves. If we would have the stream
pure we must purify the head waters,
so if we would have just laws passed in
the interest of the men and women who
have produced tie wealth of this ma
ton, we must work a reformation
among those who give US the laws.
With an earnest desire to reveal to
the American people this mcst shock
| ing state of affairs and to show them
the source of the great danger which
menances us. wrote my book IF
Christ Came to Congress" The pic
lures there drawn are no doubt vivid
and startling, but this is because they