The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-09-03
ON THE DOWN GRADE.
western will Not Take an
Epidemic Twice,

"oS'erh FARMERS will Not Take an
Epidemic Twice.
fopullsm appears to some a new out
pleah Oh the neither forces, unmeasured
ana therefore to be feared. But a
slahce at its history removes much I'M
certainty about its strength. 1t is a re-
naSh OF the Greenback party, which
picked up after the panic of 1873 the
Ahti-Monopolists and Farmers, and vari-
GUS odds and ends of old parties which
mao been dropped off during fifteen years.
ana cast in 1876 for Peter Cooper for
PRESIDENT Sl,I37 votes. of which ~. 600
We're in Indiana, Michigan. Illinois. Iowa
ana Kansas. In 1880. with MIR. Weaver
Oh Iowa for candidate. it cast 3OS,J7S
Votes, OF which about half were in the
states Just named and Missouri. Then
II 1aded out. casting only 1880 for
Butler in 1884, and after more or less
fusion with Cleveland men in 1883 and
consolidation with labor men under the
name Union Labor party, polled only
i2',239 votes. Then succccdd the
farmers alliance. polling Il considerable
Vote III a few states, and next the Poo
pies party gathered up the same polit-
lcal driftwOod with Il large number of
dissatisfied farmers. The Omaha con-
vention in July, 1892, nominated Wcav-
er, who had been the Greenback candi-
date IN 1880. and proposed a national
currency OF SJO per capita distributed
directly to the people under IL Sub-treas-
ury or some other plan. Government
control Of railroads and tclegraphs. and
government possession of land now held
by corporations. Through all the changes
Tor twenty years the same idea has pre-
valled-unlimitcd paper imitation. But
IN lSJ2. by means of various bargains
with the Democrats. the vote was raised
to 1,O42,G31, or $40 per cent. of the
total.
This party carried just enough states
TO show what it would do if it could,
and to make itself utterly detested by II
large share of its own supporters. In
Kansas it elected. by the aid of Demo-
Gratis, Lewelling governor with 163.507
votes in 1S92. but could muster only
llS,'j29 votes for him in 1894, and made
no attempt to run Il candidate in 1898.
The disgraccful conduct of Lewelling is
well known. In Colorado it elected
'Bloody Brides Waite governor by
Democratic aid in 1892 with 54OO plural
ity. but was defeated with him as can
didate in 1894 by 1S,60S plurality. In
Illinois Altgeld was elected as Il Demo-
crat by $4,000 plurality in 1892, but the
state gave 1892 Republican plurality
i'll 1881, the Republican vote being $1,000
more than was cast for Harrison in 1892.
so experience in other states has taught
thousands of voters the lesson that loss
of confidence. prostration of business,
disgrace and misrule tending toward IN.
archy. surely follow wherever the Popu-
lists get power. and it would be q mar
vel II Il great proportion of the Repub-
leans, and of the Democrats also. who
once acted with this party had not
turned against it with intense feeling.
The uprising of farmers originated in
blind reliance upon demagogues of their
own. and the WORKOUT and discarded
d%cmagogues of other parties. to cure
evils which were solely felt, but which
no government could cure. and which
were largely caused by the unwisdom of
farmers themselves. 1t came in just
the states where the frantic land sDect-
lation had caused a few years before
the CraZieSt advances in land. so that Il
great proportion of the property changed
hands at prices which made profits in or
binary agriculture impossible. The coun-
try was plastered over with mortgages
given when it was believed Il man could
double his money by buying a farm.
The farmers then proceeded to attack
creditors by most unjust laws and de-
ciSions regarding collections, and to de-
stroy the confidence and assail the credit
of corporations, preventing extension of
railways, and yet they were foolish
enough to imagine that increasing deyel-
opment of their states and larger pros
perity would follow. When inevitable
reaction came it not only Frustrated null
titudcs who had taken too large VEN
lures, but thousands who had been guilty
of no ~imprudcnce, merely because they
lived in a state cursed by Populism.
Senator Cameron, when asked whether
he would support Bryan. curly an
ono III 1,a.
fool" 1t would indict the common sense
of Western farmers to suppose that after
their experience of Populism and free
silver Democracy they would try it
again. That is one of the epidemics
which men never take twice. The cleo
ton results prove that many thousands
who had the disease have recovered com.
pletely, and the wild performances and
utterances of Democratic and Populist
conventions this year have been eminent
ly calculated to cure many more.-New
York Tribune.