The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-10-17
9aiau :Ea9le
d. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor
KANSAS AND HER HOMES.


Friday, at Guthrie, John j. Ingall
said: DO not tell me this is an age o
poverty, degradation and despair. Tn
poorest man here has lived longer in III
last fifty years than did Methusaleh il
all his stagnant centuries"
About Us today lies Kansas, her vel
vet wheat fields glistening greener IN
der the Frightening. invigoraing toucf
of a recent rain. Her homes are myriad
her granaries vast, her school houses
and churches standing as senunels OF
progress on every hilltop. Men are
well-to- do, are happy. are well dressed
we'll fed and educated. in full enjoy
ment Of the gifts of Divine Being and
Of political party-the Republican
party.
For the great fields were given us by
government administered by the then
newborn Republican party. The lands
were given us over the silly. idiotic pro-
test Of a Democratic president, Buchan-
an, who vetoed the first free homestead
bill passed by congress with the brill
liant objection that THE OFFER OF
FREE FARMS WOULD PROBABLY
HAVE A POWERFUL EFFECT IN
ENCOURAGING EMIGRATION, ES-
PECIALLY FROM STATES LIKE
ILLINOIS, TENNESSEE AND KEN
lucky, TO THE WEST OF THE
MISSISSIPPI, AND COULD NOT
FAIL TO REDUCE THE PRICE OF
PROPERTY WITHIN THEIR LIN
ITS. AN INDIVIDUAL IN STATES
THUS SITUATED WOULD NOT PAY
ITS FAIR VALUE FOR LAND
WHEN BY CROSSING THE MISSIS-
SIPPI HE COULD GO UPON PUB
Lie LANDS AND OBTAIN A FARM
ALMOST WITHOUT MONEY AND
WITHOUT PRICE" Think of that!
This was the narrow Democratic view.
This was the view of a president who
believed that free lands to the west of
the Mississippi would damage Illinois.
Kentucky and Tennessee. A Repubn-
can president, himself from Illinois,
gave us our lands. Abraham Lincoln
was president Of the United States, not
of Illinois. The west got its farms. 1t
has them today, and it has to thank for
them the Republican party, and only
the Republican party.
And through the Republican party it
will retain them. And by the wise and
business-like administration Of the Re
publican party it will further enrich
them.
The Democratic party is still with us.
AS President Buchanan, in 1860, pre-
dicted to the new Republican party that
the Union could not last so today an
other Democrat. Jerry Simpson. is blat-
antly prophesying a revolution and a
panic next year.
And what will the Populist party do?
Nothing was so strongly held by the
Populists six years ago as the belief
that Populism was TO be a second Re
p-olicaniSm. Nearly every Populist be-
l'eved with d feverish, religious inten-
sity that Popuiism was born to the
epoch as the Republican party in 1856
had been born to the epoch. The Pop |
ulists believed that an Abraham Lincoln |
lay hidden in the great common masses
who, at the proper moment, would /
spring forth and take command and |
lead them on to victory. A revolution, |
according to the Populists, was to take |
place which would be as momentous as
the Civil War.
Let us look back over the first six |
years of the Republican party. Did 1t
do anything in those first six years? Did |
it espouse lot of tenets and immedi-
ately drop them as the Populists have
successfully espoused sub-treasury
warehouses, paper money, maximum
freight rates and dropped them? Did
the Republican party begin its career
by the election of VIGOROUSLY corrupt
and inefficient legislatures? Is PETER to
be compared 10 Charles Sumner, or
Terry Simpson to William H. Seward?
Did Abraham Lincoln push about the
country charging thousands Of dollars
for his political talks?
Did not the Republican party rather
begin forthwith TO be something. to
forge something, TO do something? Did
1t not go 10 work and open the west into
free homesteads? Did II not set about
the humiliation of slavery and seces-
sion? Did it not proceed to put the
country on a business basis?
Then many years passed, years OF
great and unexampled prosperity. Part
of the people of Kansas believed that
the Republican party had become cor
rupt and imp0tent for good. They turn
Ell against il. They turned it out. That
party was out four years. Last year it
came back. Six months ago it stepped
into power. Today the nation Is ad-
Today the farmers are pros
pering. Today the factories are run
ming. Today the disastrous issue OF
Democratic bonds has ceased Today
money is easy and banks are overloaded
with it Today the people, the corpora |
tons, the government. is snatching
back the mortgages which have been ,
against them.
This is not the work of party that
has outlived its usefulness. This is not ,
the work Of party that has become |
corrupt, faithless and impoient for good !
But it is the work of a party which is
Today as vigorously American as II was