Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-08-26
The People's Fight.

The present campaign is the fight O.
the people. Not in years have they
been SO deeply and keenly interested
as now. Not in years have they had
so much at stake. Until recently they
have not seen the tolls that have been
gradually encircling them, and only
very recently have they been awaken
ed to the situation. They have seen
their fellow toilers in the battle of life
rising and endeavoring to free them
selves from the power which was de-
stroying them. But in all these bat
ties the great agricultural classes took
no part, because the injury was not
inflicted on them directly. On two
great occasions have they seen the
employed in such power as to burn
and destroy railway and other property
of their oppressers. But still their eff
fort for freedom and their cry for aid
did not appeal directly to the farmer.
In all these struggles the farmer has
simply looked on an interested but
inactive spectator. and he has seen the
wage Garner defeated in them all. The
giant corporations have combined, and
they have by one means and another
driven these serfs out of their works,
or off their possessions, or by bayonet
and ball, or by starvation, compelled
them to return to work. Having
driven these into submission and
wrung from them their labor and earn
ings, they bethought them to enlarge
their plan of operations until, instead
of expressing only the workers in their
factories. or mines alone, the money
power has closed its grasp upon all the
toilers in the land and of late their
special attention has been turned up
on the farmer, until in the West his
home is no longer his, in the South his
crops are taken at the figures set by
his monied master, and he will soon
be driven like the miner, or factory
hand from his home, to bankruptcy
and starvation. When this state ar
rives as it is fast doing it will be no Chi
cago riot or Homestead strike. 1t will
be no band of iron workers or factory
hands which Pinkerton detectives
shoot at will, who will rise up. 1t will
be rising of the masses throughout
the land, the toiling millions, and
not a few thousand unorganized w6fr K.
men. And when this uprising takes
place, as it will do, unless the present
conditions change, the head of tyrants
will roll before them as a ball, the
sceptre will be stricken from the hand
of wealth, and the power and majesty
of the people will assert itself in it,
strength and grandeur. Petty princes
of Oppression, the foster sons of class leg
islation will be hurled from place an(
power by the strong arm of an indig
nant nation, before which wealth, ant
place, and pride of birth, and station
must bow, and humble it's Taught.
head. They who now think they SCI
that the use of money can accomplish
ally TGSulb, are QtlUucO 1ucy uhS
better submit to a quiet arbitramen
of the questions at the ballot box, thar
drive the people to desperation, by
prolonging a struggle which will event
ually sound their death knell. Their,
is no promise in the gold standard
there is no relief in sight offered b,
the plutocrats. Their control of leg
islation has brought about the presen
conditions, and if they are successful
in the approaching struggle naught il
left for the bread winner but harde
lot. They will, with victory. become
more arrogant than now, and if thu
making of future laws is left to thei
own sweet wills, the Irish Landlord
or the English Noble will be mild types
of the autocrat who will drive the la
borer to his task, or dictate the char
acter and amount of work he shall
perform. The people can prevent thi
slavery, and they should only rush tt
their own rescue, when the time comes
for them to act.