The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-30
MIR. RIDDLE DISAPPOINTED
Chairman of the Populist State Gen.
trail Committee on the Presi-
dents Message.

Taylor Riddle, chairman of the Pop
ulist state central committee, discuss
ing the presidents Cuban message, said
to Journal reporter today:
The presidents message, which has
been anXiouSly anticipated by the pa
triOtic people of the country, is a sore
disappointment, not only to the RepUb
HcanS, TO which party the president be-
longs, but to the people of all parties.
Not line of patriotism is breathed in
the whole message. 1t is a cold blOOded,
financial document. Just such a one as
PierpOnt Morgan or Kitchener & Co.,
or any other gold gambler of Wall
street might pen. Think of the irony in
the latter part of the message, where +
says: I do not permit myself to doubt
that the sense of justice of the Spanish
nation will dictate course of action
suggested by honor and the friendly re-
latiOns of the two governments. In
view of the facts that the court of in
quiry, appointed to investigate the
cause of the Maine disaster, found that
the explosion which destroyed our bat
tleship was from without and believed
to be from a floating submarine mine,
this is a remarkable statement. Yet
this board of inquiry, like our spineless
president, makes this finding. All of the
70 coo 900 of people in the United States
Except the president and his board)
believe that the Maine was destroyed
by Spaniards, who hate the people of
the United States with great fervor.
notwithstanding this, the president as
sures us of the friendly relations ex-
listing between the two nations, while
mention is scarcely made of the fact
that 26O sailors and two officers perish
ed by this cowardly deed of the Span
iards. This uphOlds the Republican
doctrine which would place the value
of property above that of human life.
An attempt on the part of this admins
tration to settle this deViliSh crime
against the United States which Spain
has committed, for a mere money con-
Si fiOn will certainly carry COnVlC-
ton to the heart of every honest man,
that every material allegation in the in
I dictment has been proved.
1.-The Republican party stands for the
mOnied interests of this country, cold
blooded and mercenary q s they are. The
thousands of starving Cubans, to whom
we have recently sent ship loads of our
bountiful supplies, like our own dead
sailors, are not taken into account in
this cold bloOded financial transaction,
which the present administration IS en-
cheering through
oh for a General Jackson, in times
like these, who would have long since
brought Spain to account, if for nothing
else for her Outlandish treatment of the
suffering Cubans.
1--WE are fighting for the same cause
our fOrefatherS fought, in our own
struggle for freedom, and whose ap-
peals have been ignored by this govern
ment.
''They live in sight of the shores of
the greatest free government on earth,
yet the Spaniards have been allowed TO
murder them, starVe them and i'll treat
them in manners of cruelty known only
TO that nation of cut-throatS' which
once before left a trail of blood across
the southwest part of our continent
The loyal people of this country Will
certainly. in view of the recent occur
renee have to look elsewhere for patri-
otis17 than to our national Republican
administrations