Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-02-03

with as much cOmplacency as the Cir
cumstances will permit. Reeds policy as
set forth in this dispatch will be nau-
seating dose to Dennis Flynn and his
admirers but 1t must go in obedience to
the label on the bottle:
REED AGAINST FREE HOMES.
THE SPEAKER REFUSES TO LET THE SENATE
BILL BE CALLED UP.
Washington, Jan. 23,-The House committee
on public lands, after agreeing to report the
enlarged free homes bill as 1t came from the
Senate, has been working upon Speaker Reed
In the hope of securing his consent to the call
ing up Of the Senate bill, but the Speaker has
not only declined to give his consent. but Of
fers no promise of a time in the future, stat
ing as his reasons for declining that all of the
members of the House who had been active in
pushing the bill were defeated in the late cleo
tions, or at least were not returned to Congress
by their constituents.
Speaker Reed to-day, in talking with men,
Der of the appropriations committee upon this
subject, stated that he had made a speech at
Wichita, Kas.. in which he told the people that
| by their votes at the polls he would decide
| whether they were favorable to the bill. and
| would favor its passage if he thought they
wanted it, and 30 manifest their desire by re-
turning to Congress those men who had been
| instrumental in getting it up. Now that Mr..
| Flynn, of Oklahoma, the originator of the bill,
| Mr.. Gamble, OF South Dakota, Mr.. Wilson of
Idaho and Mr.. Meiklejohn of Nebraska, who
worked for it in committee, Messrs. Calder
head and kirkpatrick of Kansas and Halner of
| Nebraska and all the others who labOred for
| its success were defeated and he WAS therefore
| forced to decide that the people most concern
| ed did not favor the passage of the bill.
| Should the bill become a law it would prove of
] great benefit to the settlers upon Indian lands.
| whether purchased originally from the Indians
| or from the United States government after
| sale by the Indians. as it would make unneces-
sary the payment OF price for such land.
From this it will be seen that the
"Czar's" only reason for squelching the
Free Homes bill is that the republican
party was defeated in Oklahoma and
the western states. Talk about selfish
ness, vindlctness and arbitrary politl-
cal motives, Mr.. Reeds example is one
Of the most glaring in American histo-
ry. But it is only an outcropping of
the innate man and vivid display of
the rottenness of the party which he
leads. Tom Reed knows full we'll that
Dennis Flynn and other western con.
gressmen were not defeated because
the voters who are responsible for such
defeat, were opposed to the Free Homes
bill but because they were opposed tC
the single gold standard and national
banking sytems in finance as we'll as
the policy of the republican party in
creating and fostering monopolies thai
have no more regard for human justice
and common decency than has the mid
night assassin for the laws of the state
in which he commits the heinous crime
The election of Hon. j. Y. Callahan t
succeed Mr.. Flynn does not mean tha
the people of Oklahoma have thrown
cold water on the Free Homes caus,
but it does mean that in addition t.
free homes they want free silver, gen
eral financial reformation and some re
strictions placed upon monopoly for tn,
partial protection, at least, of a suffer
ing and outraged people. Mr.. Callahan
will be as jealous in the advocacy OF
free homes as was Mr.. Flynn. Tht
platform on which he was elected de
clares unequivocally in favor Of tht
measure and he has at all times pledged
himself to labor INCREASINGLY for it if il
does not become law before he take.
his seat. So no matter what Tom ReeC
and his republican allies may say, NJ
one who is at all informed can believe
that the election of Populist congress
men was reputation of free homes
Reed, himself does not believe it; he i!
simply determined to carry out thu
threat he made at Wichita last October
in his great speech''-when he de
declared that il Flynn would be defeat
ed, free homes would be defeated, free
homes would 90 down with his FRIEND
Dennis. That speech cost Flynn 8
great many votes and the western re-
pubiicans realized it before election
day. Many republican papers tried t.
apologize for the "Cza-" by saying II
was only bluff; but the apology didn'
go. The people of Oklahoma felt the
insult that was thrown at them by tht
eastern Plutocrat and then and Their,
they resolved to be Americans in thu
full sense of the word and when cleo
ton day came and passed it was seer
that Boss Reeds scheme to coerce anC
brighten the people of Oklahoma init
gold recommendation failed.
But Reed is having his revenge. TIL,
western people can expect to be insult
ed and injured by the republican part,
at every turn but they would rathe
bear it than to be owned and controllet
! by man or a party. They know tina
republicanism at its best means miser-
| and rriuo tiOn ond than n - 4