Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-06-26

1
| Should Adhere to tho Omaha Plat
| form.
| The proposition that the Peoples
Party attempt to make the coming ma
tional campaign upon the single issue
of free coinage involves the very eX-
| istence of our organization. Populism
was born of the dire necessities OF the
great common people. 1t voices the
protest of millions against long
series of expressions and usurpatlons,
that, if continued, will compass the
disruption of the republic, the down.
fall Of self-government, and the de-
struction of constitutional liberty.
| Like all great reforms, it sprang
from the so-called sub-stre tum OF our
social fabric, those who from long SUI
| fering have developed a marvellous
power to feel rather than to reasofe-
to see ratter than to grope blindly.
The so-called higher classes-the rich
and educated, with here and there
| rare eXception-are conservative. Fa-
vorites of fortune and the recipients OF
countless unearned blessings, they de-
sire no change They are above the
| terrible grasp of extreme necessity or
the appalling sense of utter destitu-
ton that burns like a consuming fire
into the very vitals of the suffering
poor. They realize little, and many
care less, of the burdens that gall and
bow and crush our common people till
the pathos of their heart cries becomes
the fountain OF a peaceful but lar
reaching and utterly resistless tide OF
reform, or the bitterness of their indig-
nant protests crystallizes into curses
that form the battle cry of bloody rev.
olution.
The Omaha platform was evolved
from such conditions. Its preamble
voises the dire extremity Of millions
! who have suffered till they feel and
| know. Its demands embody the high
est wisdom born of the terrible eXpe-
rien ces of adversely and intuitively and
unerringly grasp the solution of prob
! lens that have baffled the most pro-
found philosophy. 1t is not mis-
take. 1t is not an accident. 1t is the
| VoX populi that will be written as the
voice of God in American history. It
| must be needed in it's entirety and
| without one jot or little of diminution.
| To ignore it is to turn back for half a
century the hand of political progress
upon the dial of reform. To cast away
all but one of its sacred principles, and
| hot 1,,,, hn net inn nj n m
one, is q surrender that will be stig-
matized as cowardice or treason by an
indignant and outraged people. vic
tory at such a cost would be but dis
astrous defeat-a degrading and de-
| spicable scramble for spoils. 1t would
result in the utter disruption of our
| party and its absorption by the old
| parties, that would then, as now, be
under the complete domination of the
enemies of actual reform.
What has the Democratic party ever
| done that we should consent to be
swallowed up by it, or any part of it..
and become the mere tool of tricksters
and spoilsmen who would sell the peo-
| pies birthright for political pottage?
| Why should the silver kite, with its
ponderous tail Of old party prejudices
| temporarily concealed by free-coin-
| age attachment expect the Populists
| to furnish string with which to fly it
to victorious attitudes, merely for the
sake of routing an enemy that is no
more wicked and not as despicable as
| We would be after discarding all our
principles but one, at the dictation Of
political leaders who have always de-
nounced us as either fools or fanatics?
| The single plank advocates tell us
| Napoleon always whipped his enemies
| in detail. True; but was he ever guilty
of the supreme folly of surrendering
| every strong, strategic position to the
foe on the eve of a great battle? Free
| coinage Is important as an index that
an obstruction has been thrown across
| the destructive current of contraction,
! but the people demand more than this.
| They demand justice, and justice re-
| quires not only that contraction cease,
but that expansion begins. The dis
ease that has Frustrated the nation re-
| auires stronger and more active rem
| edies than free coinage-certainly more
immediae in its effects.
| When q cord is drawn so tightly
! around human throat that death is
imminent It is not enough that it be
drawr no tighter; it must be loosened,
and that quickly.