The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-27
A LETTER.
Lyman m PlatfOrm-NatiOnal
Banks-Wha Our Platform Should

A POWERFUL LETTER.
Lyman PlatfOrm-NatiOnal
Banks-What Our Platform should
he.
To the Editor.
Every Peoples party man should read
the declaration of principles set forth by
Judge Lyman Trumbull in the Representa-
tive of March 6 and compare them with
the utterances of the one-idea plank silver
men. Lyman Trumbull was the friend Of
Lincoln. He is a sage philosopher, states
man and patriot, who, seeing the rotten
ness of the present political dynasty, and
approaching the woes of mankind, while
he stands on the brink of the other world,
in the twilight of the Nineteenth century,
with the dawn of a new century and a
new civilization appearing over the noun
tain tops of time, calls on the true, the
brave, the honest patriots of the land to
rise in their might and hurl from power
the Herods and Pilates of wrong and injus-
tice, and help to usher in the millennium
which was prophesied nineteen centuries
ago, when the stars sang together and the
infant Savior was Graded in the manager at
Bethlehem.
It is to such men we should listen, men
who have studied the political problem, ex-
perienced the throes of government during
two generations, saw the martyr Lincoln
slain by the tools of plutocracy because he
championed the cause of human freedom,
and warned the people of shylock schemes
to enslave them to the money power of
the world.
In the history of nations there has been
a time when they could have taken a step
higher in civilization and the humanitiza-
ton of the race, but when that point was
reached they nave invariably gone back
ward, all because they would not listen to
the Lincolns, Trumbulls, Donnellys and
Weavers of their time, who tried to lead
them to a higher plane of existence, but
followed the superstitious mouthings of
pagan oracles and the hell-hounds of
tyrants who thought only of their own
self-gloriication, avarice and unholy ambi-
ton. While most Peoples party men be-
lieve the free coinage of silver would bet
ter the condition of the country, they con-
slider it would only be one little atom taken
from the mountain of wrong which has
been heaped upon the children of toll.
Through all the ages of which we have
any authentic history, silver money has
been in vogue, and yet republics and en-
pires which were the glory of the world
have crumbled to decay, and the ashes of
their once proud critics trOdden under the
foot of the vandal. Silver did not save
them, neither did the want of it ruin them.
There was something deeper which caused
their degradation and downfall.
The loss of liberty, the collapse of ma
tons, can, in every instance, be traced to
the one cause, which was the guaranteed
right of the few to rob the many of the
fruits Of their toll. In the civilized 60
world today this is accomplished by the
one mighty instrument of oppression, in
terest. The national bank is the great in
QUESTION, rack, thumbscrews and all, which
is fast making the people of this nation
slaves and paupers. Abolish the national
banks and give the people United States
~greenbacks. This is plank No. l Of the
Omaha platform. History also teaches us
that governments have always been found
ed on democratic principles, which is a gov
eminent Of the people. but eventually drifts
into an aristocracy and then into a mon
archy.
In the beginning of nations there is
liberty and equal rights to a home On
the earth; but as nations grow older by
unjust and vicious laws made in the inter-
est of the ruling class, a few monopolize
the world which the architect Of the uni
verse created for all his children and the
consequence is the many become slaves to
the few. Almost all the ancient philoso-
tAiCiS SoCS that iAlS Z Il OOlh
among the Romans and Athenians this was
believed; the same doctrine is believed and
taught by the aristocracy and plutocratGc
element in all modern nations at the pres
ent time. 1 heard a member of congress,
in a speech in Adrian, say that lin all
ages a few had been at the top and a
majority at the bottom. and that it was
right it should be So" He is a fit disciple
CT Aristotle and Pluto. Eighteen thous-
and voters said you are right Jimmy
and you shall ride on top.
The few ride in chariots, wear gaudy
apparel and own the earth, while the mil
lions of honest toilers, and the hordes of
tramps and criminals, made so by unjust
conditions, gnaW a crust and are satisfied.
For hundreds of years in the older coun-
tries, and now in this once free Republic,
interest and land monopoly. which is legil-
lied robbery has been upheld on the ore
hand, by tyrannical kings, backed by
armies, fawning courtiers, and pretenders
to ak nowledSe of supernatural things,
and on the other hand by the superstition
and ignorance of a cowardly populace.
Allow no man more land than he needs
for a home, this is plank No. 2 of the
Omaha PLATFORM. The means of transpor-
tation is a public necessity and should be
owned by the public. AS now owned and
controlled it is a giant oppression only
equaled by the national bank. This is
plank No. 8, and they are all in line with
the principles promulgated by Hon. Lyman
Trumbull. These are the three principles
to which 1 think we should adhere without
a WAIVER.
| notice that some correspondents of the
Representative seem to think that the
planks in our state platform in relation
to the liquor traffi and woman suffrage.
were the cause of our defeat in the last
election.
AS l was a member of the
on platform and favored these two blanks.
l wish to say a word in relation thereto.
My original proposition, and for which 7
cOntended, was to have one plank ONLY.
the initiative and referendum.
[ believed, and still maintain, that with
this one plank we could carry the state,
and under its provisions every question
could be speedily settled. In all my trav-
els. talking with men of all parties.
have failed to find a man who did not
favor the initiative and referendum, ex-
cept a few Doodle politicians.
I favored the Matchmaking of the LIQUOR
trifflc because | found that when I took a
vote on the question in my meetings there
were no dissenting votes except by men
who were interested in the liquor business.
l had experimental in this way in neigh
bOrhoOdS where nearly every one drank:
also in temperance communities, and they
all universally admitted that it would be
preferable to the present license system.
and one step toward ultimate prohibition.
But our papers and speakers seemed to be
afaid to say anything in the way of eXpla-
nation of the system, and the old parties
flooded the state three days before election
with a lying circular claiming that we were
in favor of free saloons, regulated by the