Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-12-11
WHAT WILL WE DO?
TOM WATSON SOLILOOUizES
OVER THE SITUATION.
eAs Legatees of the Patriots Of the
Past, and Trustees for the Pres
ent and Future, Let Us Stand
Firm"

| ISopic party pdpOi. oit hSiS W
warm hearth, surrounded by the COM
forts of home-a citizen secure in
many inestimable rights.
How did l get them? Scholars con-
ceived them, poets sang them, orators
spoke them, warriors fought for them,
martyrs died for them-and at length
the statesman wrote them into laws.
| l can worship God as / choose-not
as some other man chooses-and there
is no wheel to break me in, as there
used to be, if my conscience varies
from the kings.
l can vote as l please, and claim a
voice in the making of laws and the
choosing of rulers, and there is no
block to behead me on-as there used
to be for those who could see no "di'
vine right" in the one-man power.
can put forth the strength Of my
hand in any field of industry, and
whatsoever l earn is mine, mine-and
is not carted up to an embattled castle
to feed some lazy lout of robber who
calls himself my feudal chief.
can think anything that comes in
to my head, and, having thought it,
can speak it-nay, speak it vociferous-
ly to any assemblage of human breth-
rem who choose to hear; and l can at
tack the government and everybody
connected with it for sins of omission
and commission, without the slightest
fear of being hanged for treason, or of
having the dragons dispense the meet
ing, or of being shut up in prison as a
riotous and seditious PERSONAL Of
which happenings would have occurred
to me a few generations ago, unless
perchance, I had turned my tongue T.
the chant of the priest and the flatter-
les Of the king.
| 1t has not been long since it was
a crime to talk Of the rights of the
common people! crime to assemble
and discuss grievances; a crime to
say that the governed should have
voice in the government; a crime to
claim liberty of speech and of con-
science.
When l think Of the awful pun
ishments wreaked upon those who
dared to denounce wrongs in the
olden days, when nearly everything
was wrong, seek in vain for words
to express my profound admiratior
for the courage Of those who gave
their lives to the Cause of the Right!
No such heroism has ever been
shown on fields of battle as has been
shown by the martyrs of civil liberty.
The frown of kings could not silence
them, nor the curses of Popes turn
them. Prisons could not quench
their fires, nor could the rack break
aught but their bones. AS they
marched to the block, they stepped
lightly-as pioneers leading the free
of great future. AS they mounted
the schffold, they rose, step by step,
proudly, like conquerors leading men
upward and onward.
Their names are lost-nearly all
of them-but here in my quiet home
l sit, the legatee Of their heroic work.
l lay my hand on the code of my
country, and every great leading law
in it has cost some brave man his life.
I am guarded round about with guar
antees and safe-guards-all consecrat-
ed with the blood of human sacrifice.
And do owe nothing to anybody for
all this?
Am I to nurse the slippered foot,
by my own fireside, in selfish ease, and
never stir forth to inquire how fares
it with my brother?
Am l to be deaf to the cry of HUI.
man suffering, blind to the havoc
wrought by bad laws, cold-hearted to
the plea of the helpless weak against
the tyranny of the oppressive strong?
Am I to bask in the blessings
brought me by the heroes of the past.
and care nought for the miseres that
may come upon the children who fol-
low us?
God forbid!
No man holds his life for himself
alone, but holds it's splendid gifts as
trustee-a trustee who must come to
an account, some day, with the Most
High.
Shall be cast down because our
efforts seem to result in so little?
Shall I nope and fret because the
world decides against us at the bal
lot box?
Not unless history shows me that
majorities are always right, and bal
lot boxes infallible.
The man who strives merely to run
with the biggest crowd is at best sor-
ry creature. The man who strives to
be right, and to do right, is after all
the only citizen who can rest under the
infinite comfort of an approving corr
science.
AS legatees of the patriots of tn
past and trustees for the present and
future, let us stand firm in defense
of the right. Let us preach its gospel
TO whatsoever will hear. And, as a
mere matter of honesty and patriotic
duty, let us speak as we believe, vote
as we speak, and hold aloft, always,
the higher and better ideals to which
the human race must ever strive If it
would move onward and upward.