The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-06-25
rHR MEMPHIS coNvENr1oN.
Hon. w. H. Kitchin Declares It Was a
Failure-DemOcratic Cheek and
Folly.


SCOTLAND NECK, N. G.
Ionce had some hope that some good
would result from the silver onven
ton, but all hope in that direction has
vanished. The convention was domi,
mated by politicians and demagogues,
who each had an axe to grind. One
faction wanted to commit all silver
men to Mr.. Sibley as the silver ,candi
date for the Presidency. Another fac
ton wanted to swing all the forces to q
Western man, and another faction
wanted to swing to a nan between
Sibley and the Missouri river, while a
large faction of the shrewd manipula.
tors wanted to hold the convention In
the hollows of their hands, so that they
could swing the silver forces where it
would do the most good for their fac.
ton and section; while another faction
wanted to pacify, modify and tame
down the silver leaders, so as to be
able to land them safely on Goldbug
island at the opportune time to secure
the election of a goldbug candidate as
President, either from one OF the other
Of the old parties. The whole fight
seemed to be to convince the Populists
that they were not in it.
If ones common sense and experience
would permit it, he would be forced to
the conclusion that the SO called Dem
ocratic party, or rather one segment
of it, OF rather the tail end of the party,
was fully able to settle the silver ques-
ton without the help of any other peo-
pie. Such folly, nonsense and down
right ignorance is ~intolerable, ever in
a crossroads meeting, much less in a
convention of the assembled wisdom,
craftsmanship, patriotism, experience
and honesty of the silver advocates of
the whole country.
They are dealing with this matter as
though they were children tearing up
baby toys, as though the obstacles to
to be surmounted were only mole hills,
as though there was nothing at stake
except as to which of the old parties
0AOAAN NA0POASO lax pau OA40SO II
plumber the people; as though the
money power was simply a mushroom
or soap bubble, to die at the coming of
the sun. or at the resistance OF the air;
as though the combined factions of the
two old parties, the one led by the
treacherous, reasonable Cleveland,
aided by the traitor Carlisle, backed by
the whole patronage of the Govern,
ment; the other led by the arch traitor
John Sherman, backed by more than
seven tenths of the Republican party,
was nothing more than a rope of sand
or a cobweb, to be walked upon or spit
upon or brushed away by the morning
air, blended with the rays Of the sun.
To undo the wrongs of the money
power, to give labor an equal chance
with capital, to place all men on an
equality before the law, to make the
property, wealth and money of the
country pay their just and equitable
proportion of the expenses Of the Fed.
eral Government, is a most stupendous
and most gigantic undertaking, and
demands the highest possible order of
intellect, patriotism, craftsmanship,
guided by wisdom, discussion, honesty,
morality and brotherly love, permeated
with the spirit of Christianity, inspired
and directed by the spirit of God.
And yet we see men who claim to be
statesmen, playing "hide and seek"
with so grave a problem, n that may,
before it is finally settled, drench this
land of ours in brothers blood.
The question of slavery or no slavery
in ante bellum days, which marshalled
in battle array more than $4,000, 900
men on either side, and killed and
wounded in battle and caused to die in
hospitals more than that number, if we
are to judge from the reports of the
death list and pension rolls, sinks into
insignificance when compared with the
issue now pending before the American
people, or the universal world. l say
before the world, because, as we de-
eide, 70 will the world decide.
The question, then, from a Northern
fanatical, unpatriotic standpoint, was,
whether four millions of black men,
women and children should be slaves
to their white masters and come in
competition with the white labor of the
North, or whether all men should be
free and equal before the law as the
eternal decree of the High Heaven.
The question now pending before the
highest tribunal On earth, the Ameri
can people, is whether these four mil
lions of black slaves and their descend