The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-05-24
ia! HITS THEM II HARD.

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1 WHAT If gcHRlsT CAME 10
cONGRESsg rs.s
Howard DefehEds Himself, Against the
Attacks OF The rlatodratieo press and
Points Out the source Of Unjust and
Corrupt L%egislation.
When a MAJ enters. congress he must
choose n of two things. If he wishes
to be cotrted and feted by Washington
society, If he desires the
praise of the plutocratic press,
II he is looking after fat
places for his relations and friends, if
his heart longs for the smiles of aris-
tocracy and the fawning of ~sycopants,
ne mas only to be the willing tool OF
plutocracy and all these things are
within his grasp. If thus he chooses,
his future pathway is strewE with flow
ers, 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 a~ntagonizes
Shylocks who are %enslaving the honest
yeomenry of the country, he will be
called a crank, an agitator and an n
archist.
He will be scorned by society, ma
ligned, abused and ridiculed by the
plutocratic press and treated discour-
teously and snubbed by those in power,
n given to understand that he has no
influence with the administration.
This condition confronts every man
who is chosen to represent the people
n he must become an ally of the
arlstocracy 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
10 purchase votes, with avenue after
avenue to luxury and ease continually
open to the mental vision, surrounded
by vice and p%rofiigacy, 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 vineyards
n the fields, and who are looking to
their leaders with such intense, fearful
suspense? Here lies the great danger.
rms is the very root of the evil, the
source of all our ills. $500
so long as the trusts and ~monopolies
hold such unlimited power, just so long
VIII our legislation become more cor.
rupt and vicious. The greedy, unscrup-
ulous grasping, trusts have entered the
nails of congress and they nave poll
luted the men whom the people have
trusted, and instead OF a government
by the people, it is a government by a
money oligarchy. The capital city of
our nation is reeking with rotteness:
corruption and bribery stalk hand in
hand with luxury and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The man who sells his vote loses his
homo and becomes the prey Of vicious
habits. Once started on the downward
road there is no stopping and he be-
the easy tool of the money pow
er. Thus it has come to pass that the
congress of the United States is ever
ready to foster the robber trusts while
SAO pCOplC are SIdI Wing. we Ldlk OIL
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 legis-
latiOn 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
the money changers from the temple
and WI must turn out the unfaithful
servants, and with them the corrup-
tionists, the lobbyists, the rogues and
prostitutes who make of the great cap
itol 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 the wealth
of this nation, we must work a reform
alton among those who gave us the
laws.
With al earnest desire to reveal to
the American people this most shock
ing state of affairs and to show them
the ource of the great danger which
menace us, I wrote my book IF Christ
Came to Congress- The pictures
there drawn are no doubt vivid and
startling, but this is because they are