The midland journal., 1897-07-16
The Money Monster and the Repub-
Iican Party.

bined power of wealth in control of the
Republican party. There never was so
dark all hour for the great republic as the
present
1--WE can be robbed by protective
tariff and still live" said a recent speaker,
"but when the robbery takes the money
and buys special legislation and turns it
over to campaign committees to buy votes
with, the very life of free government is
assailed. Nations do not go down 10
death in the momentous sweep of battle.
They rather die from the poison which
the lobbyist and the vote buyer infuse
into the body polite"
The Republican party, as it at present
exists, is the most dangerous party to the
liberties of the people that this country
ever saw, not because of any inherent
defects as political party, but on account
of the corrupt combination of wealth
which has seized and holds the party in
its iron grasp. A test is being made be-
tween the intelligence of the people and
the concentrated power of wealth. While
the people can be bribed, frightened and
cajoled to keep that oligarchy in power to
whatever party it attaches itself it will
shape laws that will rob the industrial
class and more tightly rivet their chains
as they become reduced by poverty and
less able to resist its encroachments. The
great newspaper press is entirely in its
hands, by which it holds the public in
comparative ignorance. Its great corps
of hired editors are its satraps who watch
every movement of the leaders of the
people and hasten to Illustrate it by abuse
and falsehood.
Republican form of government is now
on trial as it never before has been in the
nineteenth century. This oligarchy of
wealth has mustered every ally on its side
that its corrupting hand could reach.
The judiciary and the chuch have fallen
victims to its bribery and Establishments,
and its Shiny serpent trail is seen over
every branch of business, from which
honesty and honor have we'll nigh fled
and rascality has been enthroned. 1t
stabbed the nation in its back from Wall
street at the time the slavery rebellion
was engaging it i'll front. John Clark
Ridpath in the arena draws the following
graphic sketch of that attack from Wall
street:
"There has never perhaps been an in
stance in human history in which great
power has so ardently devoted itself to
the preservation of free institutions as
did Wall street in that epoch of moral
agony. Then it was that Wall street ell
gagged in the patriotic work, first of
destroying the national credit, then Of
buying it up at half price, then of con-
verting it into bonded debt to be per-
petuated for full generation, and finally
of compelling the people to pay it in
dollar worth four times as much as the
dollar with which it was purchased. 1t
was beautiful scheme of devotion and
self-sacrifce the like of which history has
never before recorded. 1t was speculation
which involved the life of the American
Republic. The Union was OH trial. All
nerves were strained, and all hearts were
lOi AS NdS DiCSullS dl SNSID
pore. Every freight train that came from
the front brought back its loaded boxes
of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered
at the station and each received his own.
The rough coffin containing the body of
the patriot boy who had given his life for
the flag was taken by the silent father
and mother to its resting place under the
apple trees. All true men had fearful
faces. and stern resolve in the heart.
And while this was the condition of the
nation and the people. the high toued
Wall street was speculating on the life of
the Republic. Thought and sold blood.
1t was bull on disaster and a bear on
victory. 1t established bureaus through
which to falsify intelligence and to bring
the nation to the verge OF ruin. 1t had
no compunction. 1t regarded the gore of
battlefields as the rich rain and mould out
of which its own harvest was to grow.
The more blood the merrier. The more
teors the richer the yield. The more war
the more debt. The more depression of
the national credit the more cheaply we
shall be able to gather it up The more
grapevine dispatches the more distrac-
tion and the better opportunity for us.
The more death the more millions. The
more horror and devastation the heavier
will be our Golfers. The more the people
groan the more we will shout The more
they die the more we will live. The more
the flag is torn the more our damask
curtains will futter. The more liberty
perishes and witbers from the earth the
more we shall plant ourselves aud flourish
and rule and reign over nation that we
have destroyed and people whom we
have enslaved."
And this fiend so we'll described by
Ridpath seized the Republican party from
behind while it struggled against the foe
in arms and has tightened its grasp on
the party every succeeding year, by every
cunning or corrupt device that money
could buy, till today the party lies help
less in the arms of this devil. Will the
people come to their own and the party's
rescue by depriving it of power 1t is
their only hope. President Mckinley is
helpless and completely cowed in the
grasp of this money monster
Burning, itching skin diseases instantly