The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-07-28


| wish that it may soon be healed But
the address of the Nashville conference
calls for some comment in conclusion
Anyone who will cast aside prejudice
to read it must admit that it is a we'll
weighed and measured appeal. The
Populist party, it declares, holds that
| wealth belongs to him who creates it,
and that every dollar taken from in
dustry, without an equivalent, is rob-
! berry; that If any man will not work,
neither shall he eat; that the interests
of rural and civic labor are the same,
while their enemies are Identical" "The
right to pursue happiness" continues
the address, lis of no avail If men are
prevented by misgovernment from at
tanning 1t. Liberty is but an idle word
if the human family are to be swept
through poverty and suffering into
bondage"
And our people are now being swept
into this slavery, the heartless slavery
of poverty that knows no pity for
young or old, that exacts the same task
from the weak as the strong, that looks
on unmoved when the slave of toll
| weak from insufficient sustenance and
unsustained by the spirit of hope, sinks
| down at his allotted task. They are
being swept into the poverty of slavery
by laws that tolerate, if they do not
lead up to 1t, an inequitable distribution
OF the products of toll. Thus we have
financial laws aimed to make money
| dear and prices low, that have led up to
doubling in value of the dollar during
the past quarter of a century AS ,e-
suit the money lender gets double the
share of the product of labor to which
he is entitled, and, of course, the share
of the to1ler is smaller. Then we have
our railroad systems operated not for
| the veal of the general public, but the
enrichment of the speculative cliques:
we have them operated so that to wreck
Industries that cross the purposes of the
cliques or that the cliques wish to buy,
and build up industries that the cliques
own. This Is done by determinations In
transportation rates, by giving the
| clique-ridden enterprise a rebate iii
freight rates, and thus an advantage
over their competitors And so we have
| the many ground down to poverty that
the few may be enriched.
I'VE escaped from England in 1776,'
continues the address. I'VE are again
her subjects in 1897. We are not per-
| mitted to pass laws necessary for our
| own welfare without her consent, and
that consent cannot be had since she
thrives by plundering us
| And this cannot be gainsaid We owe
her $5,OO0000, 900, we owe her annually
as interest $2O0,O0000O, and the policy
that has doubled the value of the dollar
has doubled the amount of produce
that we must give in payment of this
debt And our position is only that Of
| other debtor countries. Britain draws
| annually from the outside world in the
neighborhood of $7OOOOO,OOO as interest
on moneys invested abroad and on capt.
| tai invested in British ships which are
hired out to foreigners. And the loub-
| ling of the value of gold has enabled
| Britain to draw double the wealth from
| the outside world that she is entitled to-.
| She is enabled to get for the 500 ,OOO,-
| 600 annually owing to her as much as
she could have gotten for 81, 400, 600, 900
| if the value of gold had not been
! changed. So we see Britain's interest
! in the gold standard The mainten-
ance Of the gold standard and the pres
ent appreciation of gold is practically
worth $700,0O0,OO0 annually to her cred
| itOr classes. OF course her producing
classes suffer, but the creditor classes
rule Great Britain. And so it is that
Britain clings to gold"
Picking up the already quoted address
at another paragraph we read: While
we have nothing but kindly feelings to-
wards the rank and file of our late al
lies, we do not believe that the question
of free silver is, in itself, broad enough
platform for national party. The re-
mOnetiZation of silver would, we be-
lieve. increase the price of labor and
it's productions by increasing the supply
of money, and is therefore a matter of
the utmost consequence to the people Of
the United States; but it must not be
forgotten that the opening of the mints
to silver would not decrease one iota
the robberies of the corporations, the
usurers, the rings, and the trusts And
then adds the address: 1T will avail
nothing to add to the value of labor
and it's productions il the exactions Of
plunderers are permitted to increase in
equal or greater proportion"
This is very true but it should not
be overlooked that falling prices are the
mother of trusts, that rising prices
would pave the way to their natural de-
struction. Falling prices undermine
profits and so it is that when money
is growing dearer and the natural ten
dency of prices is to fall, producers can
only secure an assurance of profits by
combining to repress competition and
SO to artificially maintain prices. The
producer who will not or cannot enter
into such combine suffers loss and is
6riv snfo NO., sx,Io