The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-01-15
AZ 81. e AsPERA.
Let EaRsas Fopusista Give = Practical FTu
Etfo1 az the Motto ssf Their state.

Gehes or W44cbiHcE ~ - W run nAVLf- IA
the same rHts the old parties have
worn deep; whether we are to forget
the things that are past and press on
to the things that are before, or
whether we are to turn back among
the tombs
Our system Of government has be-
come iossilized. We are eramPed by
the straight jacket Of forms and pEeee-
dents and constitutional limitations
Year by year the people find them
selves possessed Of less power, while
the government machine they have
created grows ever stronger and more
burdensome A hundred years ago
our governmental arrangements indi-
Gated progress, To-day, UNCHANGED
and unimprOved, they imply Ossifca-
ton. The fathers of the republic
thought its chief danger would arise
from the peoples rashness in trying
experiments in government So they
gave US a constitution which it takes a
revolution to change, Three amend
ments, born Of the throes of civil war.
are all that we have had for a century.
Who hopes to see another submitted
to the states so long as peace reigns in
the land?
Our political system is becoming fos-
silized No matter how desirable or
necessary it is to change our methods
of doing public business, the interests
which fear a change are So powerful as
to be almost ihvincible. The free coin
age Of silver was defeated because it
meant financial change.
We are not the most progressive peo-
pie in the world, but are becoming the
most conservative and hidebound.
What we need is a good shaking up.
There is nothing we can lose in the
commissions of a change that will not
be well lost, if we can get the shackles
off our lin rs and breathe freely again.
Our governmental system must grow
toward perfection OF it will die. We
can't stand still. Unless our laws are
changed to adapt them to changing
conditions in finance and transporta-
ton and trade, the waters of liberty
will become stagnant and the springs
of our national life will waste away.
When people lose their aspirations
for more just laws and more equitable
conditions they are retrograding.
Hence, l say that the man who advo-
Gates conservatism in Kansas now is
a poltroon and a coward. Radicalism
is at the front and on trial, If it turns
back into the easy ways Of the past
and trots along contentedly in the
paths that have been marked out, it
will sadden the hearts and unnerve the
arms Of every apostle Of progress in
the land.
Forty years ago Kansas was the
theater on which the first scenes Of a
tremendous drama were being enacted.
She was setting tho pace which the
nation followed. The free soil agita-
ton that awoke on these wind-swept
prairies knew no rest until in our
country, from the Atlantic to the Pa
cife, from the lakes to the gulf, there
was not left q foot of territory that
was pressed by the foot of a slave.
Has this great central common
wealth, the dome of the national struc-
ture, lost her prestige and her pride2
Or does the same passionate love Of lib
| erty still inspire the hearts of her sons
and daughters as made the very name
of Kansas a synonym for freedom in
the sos? The issues to-day are deeper
and grayer than those OF that era. It
is not alone the freedom of the black
race that is at stake now, but the
rights and liberties, the hopes and as
pirations of every man that breathes.
When 1 hear men expressing the hope
that the new Kansas state govern
ment will prove a conservative one, and
that nothing will be done to disturb
existing institutions or to make any
changes in our system of government,
1 wonder what they think the reVolu.
ton that wiped out so, 900 ublican
majority in this state means. And
when the very men who have been put
in the front ranks as champions and
opponents of reform, echo this reac-
tionary cry, I am amazed. We have
got to inaugurate a new departure,
We must stir up the dry bones, The
grave clothes of the old order must be
shaken off, We are called upon to
rise on stepping stones of our dead po
litical life to higher things. He who
hesitates is lost. He who doubts i;
damned
If the populist party in Kansas does
> not mean to blaze out a new path IL
= government; if it will not, now tina
e the power is in its hands, lift some o.
, the burdens the strong have placed
upon the weak, it were better it has
never been born. We are confronted
= now by the grandest opportunity tina
ever presented itself to any people OF
earth, We stand at the threshold of Z
? new era wherein justice and righteous
t ness shall prevail. VIII we turn away
: VIII we fail to grasp the victory tina
3 is within our reach? Forbid it shade,
! of Patrick Henry and Washington an,
: Jefferson. Forbid it Almighty God.
The lines along which our pathway
lies grow clearer to me every day. 1
e is less government Of the people ant
: more government by the people tina
we need. t. is the removal of the hin
p ORANGES and barriers that prevent tn
execution Of the popular will It /
: the diffusion rather than the concen
! tration of power It is the growth o
S democracy and the overthrow of priv
0 lege. The tendency to the concentra
: ton of power is as marked as to tn
p concentration of wealth. We have go
0 to fight it first in ourselves and then il
3 others.
/ To exact that the whole people shall
/ have a veto on any law they choose.
+ to diminish the power of tie legisla
r ture. It would lie an entering wedP
for an entire reconstruction of our gov
ernment But a government that pro
o dHees such fruits as ours needs recon
sfrucginor The raorfa of Kansas ar