People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1896-09-18
PEOPLES PARTY PAPER ATLANTA GA SEPTEMBER 1896.

system was all wrong and it must be
righted Is it any less wrong now than
1t was in 1889 Are there not the same
complaints now that there were then !?
You talk about our railroad system!
What was our objection to it? Now,
mind you, I am not making any war
upon the men who own them or the
men who control or operate them. l
am making war upon the system. They
are simply doing what you or 1 would
do under the same system, because we
are all made out of the same mud. We
are making war upon the system, and
l say the system is wrong. Why? 1t
erects in the government a power
greater than the government itself and
that ought not to be. 1t works in with
trusts, monopolies and combinations
and that ought not to be. The system
exercises the power of taxation with
out representation and that ought not
to be. That system represents the
autocratic power of money to discrim-
mate against your industry to build up
another one, against your town to
build up another town, against your
state to build up another one. They
can make the grass grow in the streets
of Dallas within year if they paralyze
it with antagonistic freight and passen-
ger rates and you know it. Its con-
trolling power over legislation is Won
derful. 1t buys up congressman and
Legislatures and subsidies newspapers
and those sources from which the pub
lie sentiment obtains its inspiration,
therefore the entire system is against
good government. They say that the
government can't run the roads, and
yet to-day the government is running
large percentage of the roads through
the federal courts aided now and then
by mail bag and the United States
army. (Cheers.) You say that if the
railroads were owned by the govern
ment they would have too much power
and yet to-day there isn't railroad in
America that isn't trying to make its
SAA tAOJ ~ cCiAS ~ W viz cap tcbiA . w LII
dow and tell them whether they are
going to vote for the gold standard or
not. (Cheers.) My God, think of it
If l employ man to hoe my cotton, if
1 pay him for that work and he does
the work l have got no more right to
tell him how to vote in the coming
election than a railroad has got to ask
its engineer how he votes, or its brake
man how he votes. If that engineer
runs that train right and gets his pay
for it that's all the relation there is
between him and the company; if that
brakeman does his work and he gets
his pay the railroad company has got
no more right to dictate to him than he
has to dictate to the railroads. | say
these railroads are in politics to-day
and trying to control the votes of their
employees. They may honestly believe
that they are trying to convert these
votes to right cause, but every man
in America ought to stand to the prin-
ciple that we do not sell our bodies nor
sell our souls when we hire to work,
but that the honest laborer everywhere
is as much king in this country as
the man that employs him. wild
cheering.)
Gentlemen, we want to stop rail
road and corporate domination in the
United States, and we are going to do
it. A democratic senator like Calvin
Brice and a republicans senator like
John NJ. Thurston speak for the rail
roads. In Cleveland's cabinet Richard
Olney and Daniel Lamont speak for the
railroads-that is, whatever Cleveland
himself has left unspoken. cloud
eheering.)
Nov say to you, can we remedy
the situation by the election of McI[in-
ley and Hobart? loud cries of ''No,
no, no.D Why not? Cries of "Be-
cause they are interested. Because
they represent the corporations, be-
cause of their gold standard DONNA
ton, because their leading spokesman
are leading attorneys for these very
railroads, hecause the men who are
managing their campaign own these
railroads and whose chief source of
revenue is from the bonds of the rail-
roads. Therefore it is quite clear that
these men will not abolish this system
upon which they have grown rich. On
the contrary, they are pledged to main
tain it.
"Would you do away with that sys-
tenn by electing Bryan and Sewall {?
Sewall is railroad King. He is con-
nected with almost every monopoly in
New England He is a corporation
man from top to bottom, He is in sym
pathy with the great moneyed trusts
of the east That man can no more
represent you or your principles than
Mckinley and Hobart can. cloud
cheers.) How can you remedy the sit
uation? BY electlng Bryan and Wat
son electors. Great cheering) Bryan
does not own any railroads nor do I.
No railroad owns Bryan, and l am reas-
onably sure that no railroad owns me.
Naughter.) No railroad syndicate has
contributed to our campaign. We stand
boldly for the people in this campaign.
We say the railroads themselves are
fast approaching that stage when they