The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-01-28
WHO AXE 1.-THE PEoPLEY"

are pleading the cause of "the people"
while those who take the other side
of the question are siding with "the
banks and business men"
Surely there Is not a citizen of lola
but will see, If he stops to think even
single moment, how senseless and
harmful and unreasonable it is to
draw such line as that. Do not
"the banks and business men, make
up a part of the town, as well as
"the people"? Would lola amount
to much if she had no "banks and
business menu? Would gas ever
have been discovered here had it not
been for 1.-The banks and bushes
mem? Would either of the smelters
ever have come here, or the Manu-
featuring Company or the Brick Plant,
or would there be any hope of getting
any other industries here without
the help of "the banks and the bust
ness mem? And who has 80 large
stake in the town as they have?
Many of those whom these thought
less takers call "the people" could
go to another town next week If they
saw better opening there, and suffer
no loss except the expense of moving.
"The banks and business mem, on
the contrary have substantially their
whole capital and all their means of
livelihood planted right here. If the
town fails they are ruined.
Inasmuch then as "the banks and
the bushes men, have such vital
interests at stake Is it reasonable
to argue that they would be practi-
cally a unit i'm supporting policy
which would hurt the town; with no
other motive in doing SO than to
"crush the people,? Have they ever
shown disposition to do anything
of the kind? Would 1t be business
sense for "the banks and the business
men" to combine to prevent their
customers from finding employment
or earning living?
Surely nobody can fail to see that
1t Is rot and nonsense to attempt to
divide the citizens of lola into classes,
and to assert that the gas question
Is controversy between "the rich
and the poor". "The people" of lola
are the men, women and children
who live here. To attempt to confine
that term to the small property own.
ers or the laborers only, is the rankest
: demagoguery. Our interests are all
indissolubly bound together. Moth
ing can be done here to make the
mechanic or laborer more prosperous
that will not also help the business
man and the banker. Nothing car
be done to advance the interest Of
the business man and the banker
that will not also help the mechanic
or laborer. No matter what trade
business or profession he may follow
it is directly to the interest of every
citizen of lola to have every Other
citizen prosper. Indeed, if there is
any difference, it is the merchants
who are most concerned in having
general prosperity, for general de-
preston would ruin them.
The fact then, for it is fact, that
the banks and a very large proper
ton of the business men of lola are
opposed to adding $4,000 to the al,
ready heavy debt of the city for the
purpose of buying the gas plant, sc
far from being an argument in favor
of buying the plant ought certainly
l TO be an argument against it. If the
+ purchase of this plant were sure tC
advance the interest of lola every one
= of these men would be in favor of it.
4 But they are opposed to it because
$ they are convinced, as one of them
I who does not now and never did own
. dollars worth of gas stock said
Yesterday, that such step would
''inflict a blow upon the town from
, which 1t would not recover for ten
years" The business men DOM
+ want to see the growth ofIOla stopped
y short, they don't want to see the mer
, who have been giving their time and
, money to bring new enterprises here
discouraged and disheartened, they
. don't want to see the streets either
deserted or crowded with idle men
they don't want to see the build
ing of new school houses indefi
nitely postponed, and believing thai
I all these results would follow the
city ownership of the gas plant
= they are opposed to that proposition
Is not their united Judgment, con,
sidering the vital interest they have
at stake, entitled to some credit and
: confederation