The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1896-10-29
OUR WHOLE DUTY.
AN ADDRESS TO the PEOPLES Party
VOTERS or THE UNITED STATES
STIRRING CALL TO ACTION.

National Executive commi.t.. of ns
People. Party.
10 The Nembers Of tie Peoples Party Of
HE United States:
Friends and Brethren:
Your Na'ioDai Committee has been
uoihg all In its power to unite our
membership in one grand charge. All
along the line during the closing DAYS
OF the campaign. in behalf OF liberty
nome and country. We have been
measurabiy successful. All that il
needed now Is that the people should
realize the gravity of the situation
which confronts them, and the i'm
nense interests that are AT stake, and
move together as one man
All thoughtful citizens stand appaII-
ed before the tremendous power which
the millioDaires OF the world. few in
number and Individually insignificant
| have put forth in this contest. Acting
through the newspapers which they
own, and the politicians whom they
nave bought, they are covering the
Whole land with network Of infu-
ence Inimical to good government.
| They threaten our defeat unless met
| by concerted action Of the whole peg
| pie.
| They are arraying the voters in hos
tile classes. They tell The workingmen
| OF the cities that our triumph will in
crease the price Of the products of the
farmers labor, ard thereby enhance
| cosr, 10 them of the necessaries of life
And this argument ID scarcely out Of
their mouths before they t.rn to the
farmers and assure them that if we win
they Will get but fifty cent dollars, and
will be ruined by the very cheapness
of their productions. They would have
the iabOring men OF the cities believe
that they can be rich IN the midst Of
falling markets and an impoverished
world; ignoring he fact that the cities
are but the local expression of the
country, and must be prosperous or
bankrupt as the condition of the rest
or the community rises or falls With
millions Of unemployed wOrkmen glar-
ing in at the shops and factory win
dows, ready to Gisplace those now at
work, they ask the t0iler to so vote as
to increase the general misery, and
| with it the number of those ready to
supplant them or beat down their
wages.
They offer n remedy but to increase
the horrors which now Cypress the
world. TO those who have reached al.
most the last point of human endur-
ance they preach an unending cOntin-
uance of existing conditions. If they
hint at a remedy it is to increase the
taxation of those whose burden is al.
ready greater than they can bear.
Among all their leaders there does not
seem to be one broad mind and benev-
client heart. The men who direct them
and who are to reap the profits of their
campaign, are simply nOn-prOducers
who, by cunning arts, have aggran-
died themselves by Selling the humble
accumulation Of others, produced by
labor. They seek continued power
simply to increase their possessions.
The good of mankind has no place in
their purposes. They come to US from
Europe, which they have despOiled, and
made a land of princes and paupers.
where great wealth and great poverty
stand perpetually facing each other.
while hireling armies preserve the
peace and protect the robbers from
their victims. They are rapidly bring
ing this great, free republic to the same
condition.
Our ancestors fed from the old world
} to the new to escape the dreadful doom
which injustice had inflicted upon
them. Whittier will our children fly
when the full flower of THE hideOus
abOmination blossoms forth into per-
lection?
Oppression peopled this new world.
Is oppression to unpeOple it? Or is
our noble civilization to sink in blood
in a blind battle of wretchedness
against power, striking wildly and
wOunding itself?
Think of the victims Of greed which
| DIV cd :
and disappeared into the beyond.
, Think of the thousands who in the
past few years have done themselves tC
death by their own hands, to escape
conditions more terrible to them thar
any the lima ginatiOn could bestOw upon
, the unknown world. Think of then
1 stalking across the stage OF life anG
> entering the dark portals of death
+ hacked and bloody, with distorted
. faces, flying from the sunlight to es
cape their oppressors.
And behind these we see al array o
millions who have died in poverty an'
despair, amid the rufus of wrecke,
y hopes and fortunes, cast down from
, high estate of prosperity and happi
q ness, TO reach the grave, pOssibi
}, through the portals of the prison Q
the mad house.
It And following those we see the mil
:, lions of ispossessed-the unemployed
= the poverty -stricken, the disappointed
l.. the degraded, the hungry-"the lin
. stretches out to the crack Of DOOM
. men made beast-like by want, and VIC
% men shorn of the nobility of their Sc
: and the ma jesty of their nature.
II And for what object has this tremen
II dous slaughter Of the human famil
i and this unparalleled suffering of tn
ii living been inflicted upon mankind
rs That few persons might riot in sense
< less luxury; that they might posses
a more of the property of Others tina
they could use; that they might haV
more food than they could eat an
Is more clothes than they could wear
Or and that they might indulge in an apt
OF like emulation of display and vanit.
De Shallow pated, sordid, unintellectua
they stand there, grabbing and griI
Y ming, while their brethren march pa:
q them to destruction.
n. Thousands of years before the brit
ed of Christ two metals-silver and gol
of because of religious associations, b
came "the sacred metals" of the wOrl
VI From the sacred metals they BEGAN
u "the precious metals,n and were the
OF the chief commodities used in effec
ne ing the exchanges of the people. {
rd them our money system was base
-as and so remained down to a peril
en- little more thah twenuy yea
A. ago. Then the gigantic gre
=: OF the money power Gete
III mined to strike out one of these pr
on historic metals, SO as to make mon
scarcer and dearer, and the prOduc
is of man land, therefore, man to hill
,at self, cheaper. The first attack W
r. made on gold and it was demonetiz
L. nv two nations of Europe, and the RI
TO- were preparing to follow this exa
err pie, when the assault was shifted to
r. white metal, and the terrible conf
Oh began which is now raging and viii
is to be settled by the votes of t