The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-03-21
-sN>NiLA~
Daily Ea9Ie
NJ. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor.
THERE ARE HONEST POPS.

Fifth ward of this city on Friday even
ing, the resolutions of which were pub
lished yesterday morning, if somewha
pathetic, are none the less amusing ant
Instructive. The body of the Populis
party is made up of honest and earnest
men, which element should never make
the mistake of thinking that the Eagle.
TRADES against their leaders are intend
ed for the majority Of that partyS vot-
ers. These honest men, earnest in the
conviction that the times are out OF
joint, knowing the lawmaking powers
10 be more or less corrupt, that the find
ings Of courts are open to criticism, and
that executive and administrative Off
Gals are unreliable and vacillating,
were simply resolved upon bringing
about more healthy and normal con-
dition of things, and by legal methods.
Conscious that great wrongs exist, and
that the power to right these wrongs
rests in the hands of the people; realiZ-
ing, from dear experience, that inequali-
ties growing Out of legislation, and
springing from untoWard and Unequal
obligations, are combining TO sink the
links of industrial slavery into the souls
of the masses of a country where for so
long the boast has been that every man
is king in his own right and equal 10
every other man; hoping to reinstate the
j nd 1,ta+
when honest toll was accounted for
more than miserS' boards, and when
pluJocracy Of gold acquired by the I'M
righteous manipulation of combined
capital Waas not only dreaded, but I'M
dreamed of, these men, who constitute
the Populist party, impatient and de-
spairing of any relief from existing
political parties, came together mutual
ly and naturally. in self-defense. What
the result has been everybody knows.
That some of these, themselves, also
know, was made palmer by the spirit of
the resolutions passed by the Fifth
ward that we can stand.
There was no mistake made by the
men who organized and now constitute
the Pop party in their estimation Of IN
toward political and unequal industrial
conditions. The first chance mistake
was in attempting new organization,
and the second certain mistake was in
failing TO adhere TO the fundamental
idea of their party. that 1.-The Office must
seek the man" The trouble. all Of the
able to their leaders. These leaders
have not been Of the party's own chOos-
ing-the office did not seek the man
but they are men who have forced
themselves upon party whose voters
We're, if earnest and honest, still inno-
cent of the intrigueS of party politics.
These Office holders are men who were
not smart enough to become or remain
leaders in either of the old parties, and
who, therefore, foisted themselves upon
an inexperienced organization. The
leaders and representatives of the Kan
sas Populist party are the most venal
set OF Adventures that were ever per-
mitted TO pose as patriots. The legisla
ture, which adjourned, apparently but
yesterday, but which in reality adjourn
ed ten days ago, was the most corrupt, |
by far, that ever cursed this, or prOba- |
bly, any other state. Their governor,
himself a political adventurer, dumb |
founded, fed, in assumed CONSERVATION, |
and on the special car and at the eX-
pense Of the railway corporations which |
he had been hypocritically denouncing, |
fed days in advance of the adjourn |
ment of his legislature. What is true of !
the Pop legislature and Pop state Off |
Gals, is true of the average Pop county |
officials. They are all men who have |
successfully sought office at the hands |
Of confiding men who were working for |
better things, and they are. almost with |
out exception, venal. They eXtort and /
steal, depending upon the credulity and |
prejudice of the Pop party TO sustain
and defend them There possibly may
he found, here and there, al honest |
Pop official, but if SO, he was not a self |
seeker, buJ was chosen because of his !
worth. But as the Pop resolutions of |
yesterday, referred to, indicate, they are
few and far between.
No political party ever organized in
this country has been so successfully /
and persistently "Jonahed'' by unSu2-
ceSsful designers and worthless failures
rs has the PopuliSt party, and simply
through the confiding innocence of the
honest element Of real earnest men who
constitute the body of the party.