The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-03-20
TO BE OR NOT TO BE.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE.
Shall We Demand What We Don't Want In
Order to Finally Get What We Do Want?
The Massachusetts, state convention
of the peoples party. held February 2e,
in Boston, adopted the following reso-
luton:
The peoples party Of Massachusetts,, declar-
ing for the ultimate destruction of all monopo-
lies that are expressing the people. and recog-
mixing the fact that there is q rapidly growing
sentiment among the followers Of all political
parties In opposition to money monopoly.
snlrm our belief that in this ''irrepressible"
conflict, to improve the financial and Industrial
conditions and restore the republic to its nor
NAL prosperity, We should welcome the coop
GRAFTON of all those opposed to the money pow
er that Is attempting to fix upon the country
the British gold standard: and. to secure its
defeat, we should endeavor to unite all forces
into one solid. aggressive. irresistible phalanx
that will secure free coinage of both silver and
gold at sixteen to one, and the issue Of all
paper by the United States. without the inter-
vention Of private banks Of issue, to be receiv-
able for all dues public and private: the volume
to keep pace at a fixed ratio with the increase
in population and demands Of business We
believe. Also that there should be q plank on
monopoly plank in the national platform
The question was fully debated. A
motion to lay on the table was defeat
ed. A motion to substitute a declara-
ton for the Omaha platform without
the sub-treasury plank was voted down,
and then the resolution above given
was carried by majority Of more
than two to one, amid great enthusi-
asm.
This action of the Massachusetts,
state convention of the peoples party
merits a few words relative to the ''ir-
repressible" conflict and the impend-
ing crisis
The Cincinnati conference of 1891
was the greatest political uprising of
the common people in this country.
All shades of reform were there. It
adopted what was substantially the
Ocala platform, and as every reformer
knows what that is, it is not neces-
sary to outline it. A national COM
mittee, representing this Cincinnati
conference. was instructed to attend
the national labor conference, which
had previously been called to meet at
st. Louis February %, 1892, and if the
st. Louis conference did not call a ma
tional nominating convention the Gin
cinnati committee was to do so. At
ST. Louis the Farmers Alliance, which,
by its representation according to its
roll of membership, was a practical
majority in that conference, demanded
the sub-treasury and the $50 per capita
and government control of railroads,
which was the Cincinnati-Ocala plank.
The Knights of Labor and others de-
manded government ownership and
more radical land plank, but did not
favor the sub-treasury. The compro-
mise-and the history of all great
movements is compromise until the
end desired can be attained-was that
each accepted the extremes of the
other, and that made the st. Louis
platform, which was adopted at Omaha
without change, because it was the
political demands of the Farmers
Alliance and others in the conference.
This is the history of the Omaha plat
form, and has a bearing at this time
because the Farmers Alliance, which
was and is controlling factor in the
peoples party organization in a num-
Der of strong states, has at its February
US96) national session dropped the sub
treasury plank, the $50 per capita, and
placed itself upon the Cincinnati cala
planks of government control of rail-
roads and against alien ownership of
land. 1t is significant, because the
great force that made the platform for
Omaha, as representing its political de-
mands, now changes and rewrites
them Will the peoples party continue
to voice the political demands of this
great organization? We have come
to the point where, instead of looking
backward to the Omaha platform,
we must look forward to St Louis
in July. 1t is a waste of space
to discuss what Mr.. Taubeneck is
saying or is accused of saying, or
to set up the man of straw that the
silver men are to swallow up the peo-
pies party, or to be swallowed by it,
or to be at cross-purposes over that in
definite syllabl ''isms" which nobody
has defined. The real issue of the
hour presents itself in this recent &C.
ton of this great national body of the
Farmers Alliance, and can be concen-
trated in this question-''Will the peo-
ples's party accept what is substanti-
ally the Ocala-Cincinnati platform as a
common ground of union of all forces
for 1906? No principle is sacrificed.
Death to monopoly is our war cry, and
government ownership can be attained
more speedily with government control
in the platform, because it ensures the
victory to the friends of that measure.
The imam of the hour" with his
pitchfork at Washington, has both
feet on the Ocala platform, and he rep
resents many in the old parties, and it
made the very substan tial ground from
which he pitchforked the Wall street
tools that control both the old parties,
and the democratic renegades, the
Judas from Kentucky" and the ''be-
sotted tyrant" who evolves his So
called American policy in the dizzy
maze of duck shoot or in a bankers
yacht floating in q champagne breeze
to Buzzard's bay. The writer has at
tended every conference and conven-
ton, and all the meetings of the ma
tiona1 committee down to and includ-
ing the recent Washington confer
ence. Although but an editor of
roforv, tho dismal