The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-07-03
THE CRISIS rs HERE.

Win tn. Populate .Kepudt... All Their
eiI ver:"
The result of the populist conference
At st. Louis was made public on June
20 It is circular particularly TO the
populists and generally to the voters
signed by &c leading popuiists from
Six western and southern states. It
reads:
Expressly disclaiming any pur-ose or right
TO bind any party or person by the views here
Set forth. we but yield to oveFpowering
sense OF duty in saying what We do to menu
bers OF the people party and TO all other good
citizens. who, experimenting the approach OF .
momentous crisis in our countrys life. are
willing 20 avert it by acts OF exalted patriotism
We came to st. Louis as citizen members of
the peoples party to be present at the meet
ingS of the national republican convention
that might determine more definitely for
ourselves the true aim OF that organization in
the present struggle.
Here. We have seen the boss in politisc
more securely enthroned, more servilely obeyed
and more dictatorial as TO candidates and
policy than has ever before been witnessed in
the field of national politics. One man, the
perfection of his type, representing the mil
Eonares the banks. the corporations, the
trusts, and every other remOrSeleSs and plu-
tocratic element in our countryS life, through
the power of money. dictated the nomination
of Mr.. Mckinley and shaped the platform OF
his party.
We have witnessed a convention magnificent
In numbers pretending to represent free
American constituencies. moving for three
days if hand OF terror was above them,
whose might they dare not tempt, and whose
imperious pontings it was impossible to disco
hey.
This convention, slayiShly responding to the
will OF the money power, has forced issue
which must be met. It Is q challenge TO the
yoemen OF the land II it is declined or, II it
shall succeed the letters Of tyranny, more
grinding than that of ears enlperors, will
be riven upon the plain people of the country,
letters which must be Indefinitely worn with
the contemplate spirit inseparable from will
ing serfs. or in the end be broken with the ir-
resistible power Of q mighty revolution
That issue is formulated in the demands,
that. the existing gold standard must be pre-
served and for the enactment of ALI meas
uFes designed to maintain iuviolably the obi.
cations Of the United States and all our money
either coin or paper-at the present standard. "
This means that silver shall be permanently
degraded into mere money OF change, ana that
1t be deprived Of its legal tender quality, ex-
cept for some paltry sum
That the greenback and all other forms OF
government paper money shall he redeemed
and destroyed.
That the national banks shall be swollen into
power Of triple their present ability To con-
tract the volume Of money, to absorb the
earnings Of industry, and to grip the throat OF
all industrial and commercial life, while from
time to time il terrorizeS the voters into choice
OF its tools for all legislative, judicial and adj
miniStrative positions.
It will require that all OF our present national
bonded debt be refunded and new bonds be is
sued running for half century and made ex-
pfessly payable in the present standard of
money-gold
All other forms Of debt-private, corporate
state and municipal-will ultimately be made
payable in the same yellow money, or its
equivalent.
With these measures enacoed-the gold plu.
tocracy triumphant-the condition OF the peo-
pie will be no better than was that OF the
Gently manumitted black slaves Their right
will be to go to the end of the chain that binds
them-a freedom of irremova BILE debt, of grind
ing poverty, of black and cheerless future.
The money power has forced this issue now,
because in its judgment. those whom its policy
would enslave, are divided into hostile politI-
cal families which cannot be united in time to
resist its onset 1t regards as impossible, that
harmonious action can be secured between the
different organizations that favor monetary
reform and resistance to their insatiate greed.
With populists, silver democrats and inde-
pendent bimetallsts supporting different
nominees for president and the national con-
GresS. it feels assured Of victory, and it has de-
termined to press now and without abatement
the advantage which this apparently lament
able condition raises up before it.
In this, the most threatening crisis that has
menaced the country since the civil. war,
though simply citizen members of the peo-
pies party, we venture to make momentous
suggestions to you, our brethren. In doing
this, we have neither desire nor thought to i'm
pair in the least degree the efficiency Of our
noble organization. charged as it is with the
liberties Of present and future generations, and
whose integrity and growth is essential to the
perpetuation of, our free institutions. Our con-
slant aim will be to defend it from foes within
and without and to preserve 1t as power con-
secrated forever to the defense of humanity
dearest rights upon the American continent
In view of the shameless submission by the
republican convention to the most extreme de-
mandS ever made upon Americans by the
money power, every thought and effort OF man
hood should. from this hour tend towards
creating and cementing union between those
who would resist the conspiracy of wholesale
robbery and grinding oppression. A coinci-
dence Of fear. of hope. of conviction. already
exists among intelligent and observant
people. Political division alone Gre
ates an obstacle TO unity of pur-
pose and harmony Of action between them
The duty of every patriot is to remove this OBJ
stacle ofar it can be, by honorable conceS.
sions and reasonable sacrifices. These do not
contemplate even the thought of merging our
party into any other. or the slightest impair
ment of it's efficiency: but, alone, for the sake
of humanity and to avert. il poss ihle. the dis
asters which the supremacy of the money
power: now SO menacing forbodeS, to secure
the union of good citizens who think alike upon
the important issues Of financial reform. in be-
half Of the election Of a president who. in
spirit is antagonistic to none of the funda-
mental principles of our party. has openly en-
gagged in the most sturdy advocacy Of our
chiefest measures.
measures must be gained or defeated through
men After all, the chief problem2in this crisis
is to find man upon whom patriots can unite.
whose life IS witness that if entrusted with
authority over national legfslatfo and its en-
forcement, he will defy ~ sallurenaent Of
wealth and every menace OF power, standing
upffnchingly by the cause of the people in the
fierce struggle inseparably connected with
the enactment Of our proposed financial re-
forms.
. We see in the private and" official life of
Henry NJ Teller a beacon. burning brightly,
warning the people OF the threatening shores
of dissension He has but nov publicly aban-
doned the republican party with which he has
been associated since its first organization, en-
..r;,r !, ,ed bv conscience to strive for the