Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-01-02
THE COMING DANGER.
REV. J. D. BOTKIN LIFTS A
WARNING VOICE.
How Did You Vote? How VIII You
Vote In the Future? Can You Not
Induce some Neighbor to Vote with
the People?" Spread the Light.

universal history and experience that
calamities overtake nations and men.
Another fact of equal notoriety is that
very few see the impending evil till it
strikes. 1t is strangely true, also, that
the few who have seen the coming
danger, and have lifted their voices in
warning, have been dcrided and prose
cuted by the many. 1t was so in
Noah's time and during all the pro-
phetic periods. Fifty years ago the
men who advocated the abolition of
slavery were prosecuted as distuPbers
OF the peace. Ministers who preached
against slavery and warned the peo-
people of the coming storm were de-
nounced as political preachers and
driven from their pulpits. But the
3 .\rm came. 1t has come in all ages.
1v'will come again.
According TO the census reports, made
by republican officials, there were
million tenement farmers in this
country in 1850, and u million and "a
half in 1890. In New York city only
four men in 100 own their homes free
of encumbrance In cities of Kansas
of 5000 population and upward only
twenty-four in 100 own their homes
free Of encumbrancc. OF Kansas
farmers only thirty -one in 100 own their
farms free of encumbrance. Do not
these census facts show that we are
rapidly approaching IA period when we
shall be n nation of landlords and
tenants? is not the money of this
country also rapidly concentrating in
IA few hands?
In great speech delivered in the
United States senate on Jan. II, 1891,
John j. Ingalls,, criticising the fnan-
cial policy of this government, said:
"a financial system, under which more
than one half of the enormous wealth
of the country, derived from the bounty
of nature and the labor of all, is
owned by n little more than 10000
people, while 100000 American citi-
zens, able and willing to toll, are
homeless tramps, starving for bread,
requires adjustment. A social system
which offers to tender, virtuous and
dependent women the alternative be-
tween prostitution and suicide as an
escape from beggary is organized crime
for which some day unrelenting JUS
ticc will demand atonement and ex-
piation."
Since that speech was delivered
many thousands OF homes, in country
and city, have passed from the posses
of their owners into the hands of capi-
talists under mortgage foreclosure;
many millions of dollars, earned by
the masses, have passed into the hands
of few money lenders, and more than
1000, 900 of men and women have been
thrown out of employment to become
tramps, beggars and criminals. Can
the reader see no danger to this repub-
lie when 10000 of its 65, O)O, 900 of peo-
pie own more than one half of its
enormous wealth, and the residue of
financial policy, rushing like a flood
tide into the hands Of the few?. Can
you see any danger to this republic
when 1000, 900 or 1000, 900 of our citi-
zcns are unemployed, and the number
rapidly increasing? Can republic
long endure under such conditions?
He is blind who can not see storm
gathering.
Who, in the light of history and
present conditions, is more near ~ cor
rect, the man who says, There is no
danger; n plague upon You calamity
howlcrs; you are the disturbers of the
peace of society; you are socialists and
anarchists, unworthy of the respect of
decent people?" or that other man who
points ont these facts, warns the peo-
pie of impending peril and declares
that unless the old order of things,
under which the few have legally and
systematically robbed the masses, can
be speedily and radically changed the
republic is doomed?
Which vote in the late election was
cast in the interest of the perpetuity of
this re public? that which helped to
advance the republican party, party
pledged to the old policy under which
corporate power has been enthroncd,
and under which the wealth of the
country has been SO rapidly concen-
trating in few hands for quarter OF
century? or that other vote which
was cast to advance new party that
seeks TO enthrone n new policy
whose best recommendation is
that il is cordially hated and bitterly
opposed by all corporations and by the
entire money power of America and
Europe? How did you vote2 How
will you vote in the future? Can YOU
not induce some neighbor who has
hitherto voted with the corporations
and the money power to vote hereaf-
ter with the people? A good way to
do this is to ply him with our best lit
erature. There is no better educator
than the Populist papers. If each one
of the readers would send some good
Populist paper to the unconverted,
susceptible neighbor for the next three
months, that alone would well nigh
insure victory at the next election.
Neodcsha, Kan. ]. ID. BoTKIN.
Facts and Figures: Day by day the
Populists claim that railroads should
be run by the government is being ac-
centuated by actual tests. The North