The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-23
A PREGNANT QUESTION.
"What In H Is the Use?"
To the Editor

To the Editor
| often think of the above express
sion, to me, from ex-senator Nelson, of
FreebOrn county, who, by the use Of
almost an unlimited amount of cam
paign funds and Doodle money, was
defeated by national bank candi-
date, at the last election. Mr.. Nell
son, honest and true,-without mon
ey, tried to reason with his neighbors
and the farmers Of his county. They
spurned him, 'spit" upon him, and
overwhelmingly defeated him: Who
wouldn't say: What in III is the
use?" Out of 13,000, 600 voters in the
United States, there are about 2O0O,-
600 of US studying the great economic
questions, and anxiously circulating
our books and papers among the 9TH
er II ,OOO. 200, trying to get new sub
scribers, and what in HI is the
use?" After battling and struggling
agains1 the pullJicai corruption and
bribery of the day, and trying to get
the pauperized and debt-paylng
masses to open their eyes and think
little, the railroad magnate Jim Hill,
jumps up and says: ''John Sherman
is the greatest 6nancier living, and il
Congress, irrespective of party, would
let Mr.. Sherman run things the coun-
try would soon be prosperous" And
the L GOO 600 nod their heads and say
"that's So" Our little army of 2,O0V.-
900, says that the people should man
age and run the affairs of this govern
ment, instead Of letting the banks
| and railroads do it. Then Bob. Inger-
soil opens his mouth and says: "Popu-
lism is insanity" and the l,O00,O 900
clap their hands in applause, and
shout for glee.
The popular ex-senator from Dako-
ia county, after years of noble service
to his State, and at the very moment
when his intrepid voice was most
Gen. Weaver, the old warrior Of many
don't win now, there is certainly no
use." Now, | put the question:
What in HI is the use?'
Will our grand old Chieftain, Phil
! osopher and Sage, Ignatius Donnelly,
| answer this question, and make it as
| plain as he has the delusion and in
sanity of Single-tax-ism? Will my
friends L. c. Long, and j. /. Vermilya,
and hundred others answer this
question, and clear away the mists,
or shall we all lie down and give up
the ghost? Z. S. FISK. Z
Fairmont, Mimi. Jan. 13, '95.
We will try to answer the question.
If the Peoples Party movement
meant nothing more than certain in
dividuals getting office in 1894 or 1896,
then we must admit the prospect is
blank enough, and the ambitious
might be justified in ''giving up the
ghost" But this is great world. and
is likely to last long time. Human
beings will probably swarm on this
| America of ours a thousand years, =
yea, a hundred thousand years-after
the next presidential election: and at
a time when the memory of the Peo-
| pies Party will be thinner than the
gossamer texture Of an infants
dream We are like the coral insects,
which, insignificant in themselves.
! live, feed. toll and die, and their
bodies build up islands and contin-
ents. So every man, whether he wills
it or not, must, by his life-wOrk, help
or hurt the development of his race.
Upon every man God places necessary
| burdens, which he cannot shift or
avoid-he works, tolls, struggles,
hopes,-and then the grave. But his
| in fiuence remains behind to incite
others to the same work. If this gen.
Grafton could not see that there is a
| God: and that this world in his work
manship; and that he has purpose:
| and that that purpose embraces the
lifting up of humanity, even as he has
already brought the cannibal out of
his cave, and produced this gracious
and beautiful civilization, l say, if
this generation cannot perceive all
this it might just as we'll go out and
hang itself. In God therefore is our
hope for the salvation of the race.
The world is going all wrong. It is
not overthrown by hostile armies; it is
honey combed with rottenness. The
jso-called Money-power is pulling down