Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-08-18
leaders, seem to be gifted, but 1 can

applied in politics than when applied to
the art OF mixing drinks. If the Peo-
pies party is to be used only as politi-
cal tumbler to put water into between
campaigns so as to be able to throw il
out when mixing time comes, it seems
to me we had as well spare ourselves
needless trouble by dispensing with it
altogether. l am firmly of the opinion
that, if the Populist and the demo
cratic parties are going to live together
in the same house and raise a Joint
family of candidates, they had better
marry, and stop the neighborhood talk.
Still, L am not practical politician,
If have Numbered into preaching some
pretty good political sense once in a
while, and what l have said may not.
after all, be worth consideration. If it
should happen to have any sense in 1t,
the state committee might do well to
give 1t some thought at the coming
meeting to choose chairman; might.
in short, throw out d public intimatiOn
that, at least until another national
convention shall have said to the con
trary, the Populist party is real party.
all by its own self. and not mere diys-
ion of "allied forces" which were allied
only for particular campaign; land that,
for the present, nobody is authorized to
require Populists to look upon a demo-
crat as the only possible Populist can
didate for president.
While L have my hand In, and have
so far ruined myself with the 'practi-
cal" politicians of the "allied forces, -
[ may as we'll make complete mess of
it and ruin myself some more by men
tioning another fact, which undoubted-
ly is fact, although the practical gen.
tlemen aforesaid do not like it. A very
| respectful squad of Populists are not
free silver forces" at all. They have
no objection TO free silver, but they do
not believe, and they can not be made
to believe, no matter how anxious some
men may be to get office, that the re-
monetizatlon of silver would have, by
itself, any such tremendous effect as it's
advocates predict. If all the extortions
now practiced upon the people by rail-
road companies, insurance companies,
grain gamblers and others are to go I'M
checked, as they are sure to do while
the federal courts remain to dominate
sovereign states, thesePopulists believe
that an increase of the currency willy
produce the same effect as stuf1ing ten
dollar bills into the pockets of a man
in process of being ''gone through" by
an undisturbed highwayman. Unless
you drive off the robber, what is the
use of filling the victims clothes with
more cash? Who will get the money
as fast as you wad it into the poor dew
IFS pocket?
With his state government crashing
about his ears under the repeated blows
of federal judge, it seems to me that
the governor, at least, should be rapid
ly coming to the conclusion that there
is more important national is
sue just ahead of us than the free silver
question. His attorney general has
been enjoined from forcing one law, his
uperintendent of insurance another,
and the federal injunction machine is
still in good working order ready to
! grind up maximum rate bill if spe-
cial session should enact one. What is
the use of trying to carry out any re
| forms until we get rid of the federal
courts? The federal courts inferior to
the supreme court are not constitution.
al courts, but are creatures of statutes
which any congress can repeal; and the
supreme court gets its power to over
| rule state courts from statute about
two inches long. Repeal these statutes
and a law held good by the supreme
court of state would have to be obey
ed. abolish the federal courts; re-
store to the states their stolen sovereign.
ty, so that the people may rule not.
withstanding an unamendable federal
constitution" This should be the bat
tle-cry of all true refOrmers and cham
plens of popular rights in 1900, and
! from now till then.