Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-03-16
SHOULD ACT NOW.
Republicans Appeal to Loyalty
and Patriotism.
The Party Represents Only the Money
Schemes of the Worlds MOnOpOIisIs.

At a recent conference of the promi.
nent Ere. Silver Republicans of the
state the posi- on of the boilers of the
st. Louis Convention nominees is for
cibly stated, and numerous good rea-
sons are given why it is the duty of
every patriotic Kansas republican to
act independently of party name.
AN ADDRESS TO THE REPUBLICANS OF
KANSAS.
The Free Silver Republicans of this
state entertain the belief that partizan-
ship is one of the most potent evils of
American politics They hold stead
fastly to the principle that the people,
to be free from the thraldom of dema
gogues, must be enlightened; that
when the government, by it's complex
conditions, passes out of and beyond
the comprehension of the masses, il is
no longer free or a safe government
They believe that voters must be brave
enough and strong enough to resist
the lash of party and vote as their in
telligence and conscience tell them is
just; that the bitterness engendeI ed
by the civil war was factor that made
easy the commission of Legislative,
economic and industrial crimes, by
playing upon the bigotry, prejudice
and partizanship which came to the
American people as an inheritance
from th 1T great struggle; that before
the intolerance and clannishness en-
gendered could spend their force, the
avarice, cunning and corruption of a
non-producIng few laid a legislative
network to secure for themselves the
entire fruit of labor and its product.
So carefully planned is this wretched
and unpatriotic work, that today less
than $4,000 of our Is, 900, 900 people own
more than one-half of the wealth of
this wealthiest and mightiest of ma
tions.
(Mr. Ingalls,: "Yes-and as the SEN
ator from Massachusetts we'll observes,
and / thank him for the suggestion
AhOANS hlOlCJ lLdL
the entire wealth of the country when
it was established and founded. Four
hundred persons possess $4,000, 900
each; 1000 possess IS 100000 each; p
100 persons possess $2, ,500,0O each;
5000 persons $1,000, 600 each; Is, 900
persons SoOO,OO each; making a total
of 81 500 people who possess $50, ,250,-
O0G, 200. Mr.. President, it is the most
appalling statement that ever fell upon
mortal ears. 1t is, so far as the results
of democracy as a social and political
experiment are concerned, the most
terrible commentary that was ever re-
corded in the book of time-and Nero
tiddles while Rome burns. 1t is thrown
off with laugh and a sneer, "as troth
upon the beer" of our political and So
cial system. As l said, the assessed
valuation i'll the great national ledger,
standing to our credit, is about $65,-
OO0, 100000. Our population is %, $780,
900; and by some means, by some de-
vice, by some machination; by some
incantation, honest or otherwise, by
some process that cannot be defined,
less than two-thousandth part of our
population have obtained possession,
and have kept out of the penitentiary
in spite of the means they adopted to
acquire it, of more than onehalf of
the entire accumulated wealth of the
country $. Senate, January IA,
1917
They believe that the bitterness
springing from civil strife has largely
subsidized, and that an era is upon us
in which greater number of voters
than ever before are demanding the
"whys" and "wherefC res" of political
action. Party name, blatant dema-
gogery, prejudice, passion, personfied
stupidity and ignorance have no power
to hold them. They vote, not for party,
but for what they merely and earn
estly conceive to be for the best inter
ests of their country. They believe
that the safety of American institu-
tions rests in independent voting, and
stand ready to give their votes to that
plan which points out the shortest and
speediest roue TO public reforms.
They demand sine, rity of purpose
from all parties, and will hold them
responsible for the intelligent fulfill
ment of pledges made. They have
come to bel eve that unreasoning
clinging to party through thick and
thin is mark of stupidity brand of
feudalism. 1t is to men whose percep-
ton of right and wrong is not blinded
by partizan bias, and to men to whom
the party lash has no terrors, that they
appeal. Tney independently declare
that the laws of the country do not de-
mand that the voter shall cast Re
publican, Populist, Democratic or Pro-
hibition ballot, and that the voter is,
therefore, unit, independent of all
others, and absolutely free to judge
and act as he pleases. They contend,
however, that duty to his family, to
prosperity and his country demands
that he shall intelligently, and with
out prejudication or party bias, study
the economic, Industrial, financial and
social conditions of our common coun-
try. aud then vote his honest convic-
tions, regardless of the dictates OF
party priests. They know that each
man might vote for candidate of his
own nomination if he SO desired, and
that there might be as many candi'
dates voted for as there are ballots
- 49,. tt.at - axercisinp the fran.