The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-06
MISREPRESENTATION.
Catering to the Money-Power.
We have received the following

we nave received Cne IOllOWlnR
note:
LITCHFIELD, Mimi, Feb. 25, 1895.
HON. IGNATIUS DONNELLY,
DEAR SIR:-Enclosed please find an
editorial from the "Litchfield indie
pendent" edited by one H. 1. Peter
son. Your friends here wished me to
call your attention to it; hoping you
will answer it. This is only one of
many other articles of the same kind
which have appeared in his paper.
We are anxious you should answer
him. Your friends of the
FARMERS ALLIANCE.
The following is the article referred
to:
''For thorough going calamity
bowler we commend our readers to
Ignatius Donnelly and his paper, the
REPRESENTATIVE. Things are bad
enough, undoubtedly, and there is
crying need Of reform in many public
matters, but the country hasn't gone
to the dogs by good deal. Minneso-
ia is still a fertile state capable of
supporting a great population. The
man who is under the thumb-screws
of his creditor is having hard time of
it, no doubt, as the slavery Of debt is
times. But DonneIly, chafed by dis
appointment in his political schemes,
is getting rabid in his utterances. In
his last issue he intimates that the
Cling murderers are likely to escape
punishment through cOnnivance,
fraud and corruption of the officers of
the law, that corporations are pack
ing the courts and cOrrupting the
juries, that money will be contracted
until mems wages will be cents per
day and wheat 20 cents per bushel,
that old party papers which come in
to the homes of the people should be
taken with a pair Of tOngS out into
the barn-yard and deposited in the
manure pile, and much more in the
same strain. Can't you see silver
lining to the cloud, Mr.. Donnelly, or
any ray of hope for the future?"
Now, we have for years felt very
kindly towards Mr.. Peterson, and we
did not expect such injustice from
him as the foregoing article reveals.
He ought to know that we never
charged that "the Cling murderers
are likely to escape punishment
through connivance, fraud and cor
ruption of the officers Of the low." We
quoted an article from the Mime
apolis Tribune, intimating very
broadly that some Of the newspapers of
that city, notably the Evening Jour
nal and Morning Times, had been
bribed by the Hayward family to mis-
represent the facts, and so control
public opinion in favor of the murder
er Of the poor girl. We stated that
we quoted such statements with re-
luctance, but if they were true they
revealed most villainOus state of
corruption. Instead of endorsing
this honest and just sentiment the
Litchfield paper misrepresents us; and
makes us attack the officers of the law
when we were simply .assailing the
newspapers, on the testimony of one
of their own number. Mr.. Peterson
would feel badly if we charged that
he was in pay of the murderers to
counterfeit the effect of our article.
Whether it be true or not that the
corporations are packing courts and
corrupting juries every Intelligent
man must judge for himself. Bill
Erwin, now defending Harry Hay
ward, is reported, by one of the Min
neapolis papers, as saying within a
few days,-that in all his experience
as a criminal lawyer, he had never
known so many offers to give perjured
testimony, for price, as in that case;
and he explained it by adding, "the
witnesses employed by the railroad
corporations are out Of job and are
hungry" Does not Mr.. Peterson know
that the House of Representative,
through it's committee, censured one
judge of the United States court, for
unjust rulings in favor of corpora
tions, and came very near impeaching
two others?
Neither did we ever say that we be-
lieved that mems wages would be six
cents day and wheat twenty cents
bushel. What we said was that the
present system led in that direction
and that Plutocracy would not care if
they brought wheat to 20 cents
bushel, and labor to Chinese condi-
tions. We know very we'll that the
farmers would not raise wheat at
twenty cents bushel, and that a
bloody revolution would break out be-
fore workmen could be reduced to six
cents day.
Yes; we did say that the old party
country papers should be carried out
of the house and deposited on the
manure heap-with apologies to the
manure. And we now add that the
Litchtield Independent would be i'm
proved by similar treatment
God help the honest manure!
Do we see no silver-lining to the
clouds? Yes-in the rapid growth of
the People, Party. The hanging Of a
lot of old-style country edtors-by the
heels-for few hours-wuuld cause
the sun of prosperity to rush up the
horizon with bound.
A paper that will misrepresent the
utterances of another is contemplate
institution; but the paper that will do
this dirty work for the purpose of
strengthenin the forces that are now
crushing the life out Of the people of
this country, is utterly and absolutely
damnable.
Wells Will Have New Mill.
Wells, Mimi, Feb. 27.-The Farm
ers' Cooperative Milling Company, or
xxy;fl itn1 Of