Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-02-21
STAT Els EVIDENCE.
Ex-OOv. GIBBS OF TEXAS LAM
BASIS THE OLD PARTIES.
He Says Thoy Are Selling Bonds and De-
vising New Systems of Taxation Iu-
stead OF Laboring to Tighten the Bur-
dens Already Upon tho People.


Governor Gibbs Of Texas. He gives
the following reasons for the change.
| He says:
| 1T used to be that democratic plat
form was no longer than the ten COM
mandments, and as easy of comprehen-
sion. Now it takes Roger @. Mills and
Horace Chiffon two hours each to tell
a crowd what it is, and when they get
through talking the oldest democrats
are as badly mixed as If they had been
alternating between beer and red IL
quor. Mills says that gold with just
little silver mixed in makes democracy.
| Chiffon says that Mills is wrong; that
democracy consists of an allopathic IN
stead of homeopathic dose of silver.
Which is the right prescription Tor
democrats? They differ on the size
of the dose. Which will kill or cure?
When it comes to the tariff, Cleveland
and Mills think that it is democratic
for the men, women and children VINO
herd sheep and roundup cattle to 90
| this in the teeth of the northern ana
the competition of the world, but that IL
Is also democratic for corporations who
manufacture wooden goods and shoes
in big brick buildings to have 90 per
cent protection.
"Old Bill Morrison of the old-1ne
democrats was retired to soft JOB on
the interstate commerce commission
because he thought the tariff ought to
be on a strictly revenue basis, ana
while 1t was getting there that all
should have the same amount OF protec-
ton. He did not believe that the sheep
and cattle industries of the south and
west, pursued by individuals for live
| lihood should be laid out to hold the
campaign fund and votes Of eastern cor
porations. They killed old Morrison
| and the fact that he was choked to
death on soft official butter doesn't fool
man at the forks of the creek.
1--WE know that republication stands
Tor protective tariff and extravaganza
appropriations every day in the week
and Sunday, too. We know that 1t
stands for big pensions to the rich.
when Texas, looking to the condition OF
those who had to pay pensions to its
grand veterans, provided that where
one of these heroes was worth more
than 81 900 that he should draw no pen
sion, and those grand veterans left out
from reasons of justice and equity
never complained. When the demo-
Gratis had congress they never had the
nerve to pass such an amendment to
the pension law of the United States,
but left the country to pay more than
| one-half of the immense pension list
| to men and women of wealth. Under
the tariff system the poor people pay
| the most of this pension money. The
| democrats did not tackle this and other
manifest abuses of government because
they wanted to win with eastern votes
| and get appointments to foreign mis-
sions and other fat offices. In their
anxiety to get and hold Office they have
made platforms and congressional rec
ords that look as bad and contradictory
as some old woman's crazy quilt made
| of rags Just as they come to hand.
Free perfumery and taxed wool hats Is
more ludicrous political sight and
smells worse to an educated political
nose than the oft-ridiculed populist
pumpkin in the government subtreas-
ury. A man wanting Office may sWal-
low ad nauseam all this hybrid tariff
and financial policy just as a child will
take sheep saffron tea when he has the
bellyache. The democracy now dished
out by the leaders has as many ingred-
tents as Rio Grande hash, but the smell
of official garlic is the only distinctive
duality. whether it is Hogg or Clark
hash or Cleveland and Mills hash. The
recipe for making this hash is so COM
| plicated that even our governor
understands it one way the day
before and another way the day
after. The uncertainty Of what
| constitutes Simon pure demo-
cratic hash has turned the political
stomachs of even Kentucky and Texas
democrats.
"The result of all this democratic
and republican strife for office is that
we have had class legislation and spe-
cial indulgeneies until the people are
eaten up by the offioe-holding, protected
and pensioned classes. They are issu-
ing bonds and devising new systems of
tax levy and collection and trying to
create money out of everything, instead
of trying to reduce taxation and ex-
penses and the too tempting official sal
aries. The national, state and county
governments are on too high horse, but
their dignity won't permit them to ride
smaller one. When the people kick
they give them war commission or an
agricultural commissioner to spend
more money and inquire of somebody
else living on government money what
is the trouble with the mudsill fellows
who are not on government horse, but
are walking. The mudsill people have
got afraid to complain for fear they
will have some more expensive commits
sions or special committees to use up
the contingent funds, which have to be
filled up again by taxation. 1t takes
| q mule to pull q CODY of the United