Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-06-07
PLATFORMS AND PLATFORMS.
both Old Parties VIII Declare Against
Trusts but Neither Will Propose or De-
mand the Only Possible Remedy.

IN the Missouri democracy and there
lore rightly chosen as the official orator
Of the tan-bark banquet in st. Louis
he other night, made this declaration
N his forecast of next years plan of
campaign:
| We will put into platform as strong an
antitrust plank as the American language can
| nake-the American language mark YOU not
| Ehe English-which will restore to every citizen
II this republic the inalienable right of earning
| his bread in the sweat of his face: which will
guarantee to every laborer the enjoyment of all
| lis wages, and which will once more make pos
sible that competition which was supposed to
| De the life of trade until the republican party
;reated countless brood of trusts, which are
| sucking the life blood of the great body of the
| people.
This is pleasing promise, succinctly
and strongly stated. No doubt, too, it
Is promise which will attain fulfill
nent to the uttermost ability of the
trainers of the democratic platform-to
the last Titanic thrust of words, the
last giant photographed impulse of
which those specially selected limners
of party purpose and skilled artificers
IN English-American English-are ca
pable, individually and in mighty COM
bination.
But against what barrier will this
tenton verbal projectile be hurled? Up
on what brazen shields will this deadly
| shrapnel clatter? What rampant. de-
fiant host will it scatter and rend and
dismay?
Has not the republican party famous
limners of party purpose and deft
| artificers in English-even American
English? Has it not its master makers
Of wlnSome promises and it's magnetic
prophets of good times and glory?
VIII those talented and observant
platform-builders build for their party
scaffold? VIII they emblazon their
war flag with the red image of the
blood-sucking vampire of the trust
| makers?
Will not the republican platform, too,
contain an antitrust plank, fine to be-
hold, secure as the Rock of Ages and
glistening gaily in the sun?
Sure!! Both old parties will declare
against trusts and for the restoration
| of full, fair and free competition, but
neither of them will demand, as an
| alternative, that the people shall as
sumo control of all trustified industries
and administer them in the interests of
all the people. The party that obtains
the votes of the people upon the trust
| issue will be the one which embodies
in its platform the idea constantly kept
| to the front by Mayor Jones, of Toledo,
o. Says the Mississippi Valley Demo
crat:
Mayor Jones. of Toledo, the man
who will probably be the next gov
nf 1a 10
last week, and was interviewed by all
the daily papers. He was referred to
in these interviews as 'Toledo's eccen-
trio mayor, or the cranky mayor of
Toledo according to the sentiments
entertained by the particular paper
whose reporters happened to interview
him. In the estimation of partisan
newspapers every man who is sincerely
desirous of doing something to benefit
and help the people, is crank or an
eccentric. On the other hand, the man
who buys voters by the herd and cor
rupts and debases the government, is a
statesman and patriot.
1.-The central idea embraced in the
several interviews is expressed in this
paragraph:
is to have all the people combine to form big
trust in which all the people will do the work
and share in the rewards.
There is an old, familiar sound in
these words. They remind us of an
other great and good crank whose
teaching stirred the heart of the world
about 1900 years ago; who advised the
rich to sell all they had and give it to
q
members of one family and children
of the same Father. But the law-and-
order people of His day-the gold stand
ard. money-lending classes-thought
such teachings would upset the world
and ruin society: so they condemned
and crucifed Him. And the same peo-
ple-who are still on the earth-would
repeat the performance to-day if the
conditions were admissible. These
doctrines are referred to as new and
'lmpracticable' wild notions of lunatics
and cranks, Notwithstanding we have
been preaching them and teaching
them and writing tons upon tons of
books about them for nearly 2, 600 years
But in spite of the unfaithfulness
and hypocrisy of those who pretend to
believe these things, but whose real
god is the golden calf that they wor-
ship with all their souls. the time is
coming, and is not far distant, when
the doctrine taught by the Great
Teacher will become the handspring of
human society. The stone that was
rejected of the builders, and is still re-
jected by those who are wise in their
own conceit, will become the head of
the corner; and those great doctrines
that were proclaimed from the top of
Mount Olivet will become the con-
trolling principle of human govern
ments- There is a Golgotha just this
side of each Calvary crucifxion pre-
cedes the glory of each ascension. The
trusts are doing the crucifixion work
now. but they are showing the people
how to form "a big trust in which all
the people will do the work and share
in the rewards That time, dear
reader, may not come while you and l
live, but our children will see it and
wonder why the men of our day, and
OF the centuries that went before, were
not wise enough to see the glory of the
doctrine taught by Him who sspake as
never man spake.'"
Suppose that you owned house and
some other person always collected the
rents from it, how much would the
house be worth to you? Would you