Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-07-04

deed, If we fall below the demand for
scientific money, or at least incOnvert-
ible paper, in our declaration for finan-
cial reform, then, with land and trans
pOrtation eliminated, our party will
have no excuse for its existence. II we
must take the fag-end of financial re-
form, 1t will be cheaper to do so In the
so-called silver party. If, however,
we are not prepared to sacrifice our
views on the money question, there is
nothing to do but make an honest, COM
prehensive financial declaration, leav-
ing the silver party to take its own
course. But suppose we declare in ia
vor of scientific money, or an incon-
vertible paper currency, as think we
ought to do, what then? Shall we
fuse with the silver party? Would
this not be to abandon our principles?
Can the outcome of such a fusion, II
successful, be anything but the double
standard and convertible paper? If
so, what do we gain by thus saying one
thing and doing another? And will
not such juggling for success, lose us
the respect of all fair minded men?
We cannot afford thus to pattern after
old party methods. But If we should
succeed in winning the fight with the
aid OF the silver party, in favor Of con-
vertible paper based on gold and silver,
what becomes of the party? 1t must
either disBand or reorganize upon
platform embodying other issues, and
when we undertake to reorganize, who
can predict the result? viii we sue
coed in uniting the scattered labor
forces? The elimination Of every is
sue but the financial one will practi-
cally release every populist from his
allegiance to the party, and If the men
who place greatest stress upon the land
and transportation questions find
themselves thus set adrift, who shall
say that they will ever return to the
fold?
The men who stand in populist ranks
now, chiefly because they see in the
movement the only hope for land and
transportation reform, are with us also
on the money question. If you do not
drive them away by abandoning the
issues which they esteem of most i'm
portance, they will aid us in getting a
settlement Of the money question on
right lines. A single plank practically
holding forth the money issue as the
only one Of value will expel them from
our ranks, and when once gone they
will not return.
But a convertible paper will not only
create a debt to be paid in coin, but
1t will put into the hands of the band
ed money monopolists the power to
corner the country's primary money,
and deplete the national reserves at
pleasure. The banking combine will
still continue its baJeful existence, the
taxing power will still remain in the
hands Of railroads and other corpora
lions controlling public functions, and
the speculative land monopolist will
still hold in his secure grasp the power
to dictate the terms upon which starv-
ing labor shall have the right to live.
When the st. Louis conference, last
winter, refused to surrender to the
commands Of the silver men, and prac-
tically give up the fight for labor,
forthwith they were told by certain
western senator's, that the battle for
silver could not be fought within the
peoples party, because the Omaha
platform contained too many "vaga-
ries." The "vagaries" are the land
and transportation planks, and be-
cause the action Of the conference
plainly showed the silver men that
these planks would not be abandoned,
we were contemptuously spurned by
Gen. Warner and his bimetallic league,
who have been unable to think on the
line of reform beyond the free coinage
question. 1t is too plain for argument,
that If we throw ourselves into the arms
of these people, join their movement
and help them to open the minis to
silver, we will find in them our most
deadly enemies when we endeavor once
more to take up the land and transpor-
tation issues.
It might as we'll be understood now,
that the democrats and republicans
who are engineering the silver party
movement, are not populists, and have
no sympathy with the peoples party,
except in so far as it may be made a
cats paw to pull the silver chestnut
out Of the fire. Populists are all free
silver men, but they know that to
dwarf the great reform movement
down to the financial policy advocated
by Gen. Warner and his associates,
would only make it contemplate. The
problem of how to bring about a more
equitable distribution Of the country's
wealth is the one which the peoples
party has undertaken to solve, in the
interest Of labor. Free silver is good
as far as 1t goes, but it will not solve
this problem. It may quicken the pro-
ductive forces, but it will leave undis-
turbed all Of the conditions which give
rise to the undue concentration of
wealth. Until these conditions are re-
moved labor cannot reap that which 1t
produces, and the mission Of the peo-
ple's party will remain unaccom-