Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-12-17

in its policy it is doomed to extinction.
These two Republicans are Gov. Ha-
zen S. Pingree of Michigan and Sen
ator William l.. Chandler Of New
Hampshire.
In an address delivered before the
Nineteenth Century club at New York
Gov. Pingree declared that when he
urged the Michigan legislature to en-
act laws to compel the railroads to
pay their just share of the states
taxation ,he was not only opposed by
the railroad lobby. but the power OF
the national administration was
thrown against the measure through
the promise of federal appointments to
those who would aid in its defeat.
Gov. Pingree concluded his address
as follows:
How long can government last
which increases constantly the bur-
dens of the industrial classes, and
gives to those who prey upon the bone
and sinew of the nation? Here in
New York l fear that my remarks
will not be we'll received but | believe
that self government by the people
and for the people has not reached
that stage which all men who love
liberty hope it will eventually reach.
at is the duty of the government to
protect the weak against the strong,
thn
wealth. l say right here that until
the Republican party comes out as
champion of the average man and his
welfare, and unless it ceases to cater
to syndicates, trusts and monopolies,
lit will be buried in oblivion. We must
begin oy advocating municipal
Ownership of natural monopolies and
take away from them the item of
profit and relieve the wage Garner to
that extent"
! Gov. Pingree thus finds the present
Republican leadership weighed and
found wanting for it's servitude to
syndicates, trusts and monopolies.
Senator Chandler, on the other hand,
indicts the party of which he has been
for a generation a prominent leader
for its apparent intention to totally
desert the cause of bimetallism.
In letter to the Washington Post
Senator Chandler says:
"Since my letters to the Post of
August IL and %, two important
events have happened W the elections
of November and (2) the English re-
fusal to now promise to reopen the
Indian minis to the coinage of silver
as an inducement to international BIZ
metallism.
"As to the elections, they prove
with reasonable clearness that if the
Republican party permanently ac-
quiesces in "the existing gold stand
ard" and gives up the struggle for BIZ
metallism, that party will be defeated
in the congressional elections of 1898
and in the presidential election of 1900
The silver monometallists will then
take possession Of all branches of the
national government, and free coin
for all debts, public and private, do
nestle and foreign, will pass both
houses of congress and be signed by
P Resident Bryan.
tGreater New York city being in
the hands of Tammany Hall, that Or
ganization will unite with the nation
al Democracy in the demand for free
silver coinage, and it is not within the
bounds of possibility that the rural
Republican bimetallsts will give
votes enough upon a single gold
standard platform to place the state
of New York back in the Democratic
column. There may be infatuated in
diyiduals who think in view of the
elections of the I'd instant in Iowa,
Ohio, Kentucky, and Nebraska, that
the western Republican states can be
kept in line if future party platforms
shall completely yield to gold and give
up the effort to remonetize silver, but
the wiser and safer view is to assume
that with the issue so framed the Re-
publican party will meet with over
lwhelming political disaster inflicted
Iby solid South and west almost |
solid. aided by Tammany Hall and the |
free silver Democracy of the Empire
state. This comes very near being a
country of free voters, and our cleo
lions come very near being honest |
and an intelligent people,
with their votes freely cast and hon
estly counted, will never adopt or SUBJ
init to the permanent demonstration
of silver and the fixed ascendency of |
the single gold standard prescribed to
England. So the pathway of safety Is
only in one direction. Mr.. Mckinley |
was elected only because his platform
and his previous utterances promised
efforts to secure bimetallism. We lost
the United States senate because those
promises were not sufficiently in
earnest and were distrusted by many
Republican voters. We did not prom
Use to establish bimetallism if we
could, believing it to be bad thing,
hut because we believed it to be a
good good. If we now faithlessly aban-
don the pursuit of that good thing, we
doom ourselves to political annihila-