The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-02-25


tion that Washington hoped to see
evolved in peace from the life Of the
new republic, hhd.ft was this Iciyilfza-I
tion that4he wished to protect against
the corroding infuencesof party spirit.
The party spirit to which he refers, is
not that loyal devotion to party which
seeks by just and honest methods to
enforce principle believed to operate.
for the public good, but it is that
other spirit of unreasoning selhshness
that follows the floating banners of
the party, believed to be the strongest,
because on them is inscribed the
damning heresy, ITO the victor be-
longs the spoils;" and that spirit
which follows a party, becauses it is
organized in the interest of section
of our country on some scheming
monopoly that would hide it's iniauity
under the forms of. law. I am per-
fectly sure that if 1 criticise any of
the mistakes common to all political
parties in this country, shall be rele-
gated by them to the domain of the
dishonored calamity bowlers Of the
country. Still / shall insist that all
questions of a public nature should be
discussed before the peopleeon the
rostrum and by the press in fair,
honest and candid,manner and with
out the aggravating assumption
that those who hold an opposite view
are maliciously bent on wrecking their
country. eyoa2Efs $50 Fl Hs9s o.
The political dialect of this country
has become one OF billingsgate; de-
traction and abuse, which prevents
any calm or dispassionate reflection 4
the part Of the masses. Sophistry g
substitution logic, rhetoric for tr, 4
and bombast for modesty. Long o
we abandoned in politics that rulc If
ethics that can alone preserve the n
tegrity of private and commercial
life, Every commercial or financial
distress is Haunted before the people
by blatant demagogues as conclusive
proof that the whole political policy
of the country should be renounced
and that any existing administration
should be contemptuously dismissed
as those plotting the ruin of their
country. The true cause OF any ex-
listing distress is not sought for or
cared for. Those who follow the cry,
''to the victor belongs the spoils,"
care for neither right nor Justice.
They are content with the chances
thrown from the rapid whirl of events.
They are like the wreckers on the
shores of Morocco who look with in
finite pleasure upon dismantled and
stranded vessel, simply because they
may be the jackals of its cabin. Il
Partisan spirit has always misguii-
ed the people as to the true cause of
our financial difficulty. When we re-
turn to honest and manly methods in
politics and business, party spirit will
be bereft of much of the food ON
which it subsists. RS q
II any man .ever lived who set an
example of probity and undertaking
honesty in every walk of his life it
was George Washington. He tear
lessly criticised the colonial congress-,
calling it, herd of spectators and
gamblers fattening on the miseries of
the country.
Plutocracy is the insidiouS foe of
every republic as it makes public
opinion by force and not by address
ing the intellect. Plutocracy exists
in every government but it is better
restrained bya despot who ca n throt-
tie it with an iron hand when it stirs
the people into revolutionary rage !.
When one man In "a single month
can by deceit, circumventi0n chicane
and the clandestine use or financial
power, force the price Of any commo :
dity to an abnormal heighth and then
extort millions of profits from the
people, he is no less than abrigand,and
a robber. Abraham Lincoln, who was
worthy to aunloose the ,latchet of
Wasbington's shoes, deplored the
existence of this tyranny of money and
said that ere long, If it was not modi :
fed by national conscience or re-
strained by law it would crush out the
liberties of the people.
The aristocracy of America is the
handmade of plutocracy. Not every
rich man is plutocrat but every plu-
tocrat is a rich man. The aristocracy
of America is not an aristocracy of
birth and blood, but is an aristocracy
of money. An aristocracy of blood is
genteel, educated and courtly. An
laristocracy Of wealth is ignorant.
staggering and contemptuOus. The
people viii endure the former, but 1t
holds the latter il utter contempt. I
do not belong TO that class that rails
at the rich man simply because he is
trich, but I do belong to that class
that demands in tones Of articulate
thunder, that. the rich, whether ma
tural or artificial persons, shall not
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