Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-09-13
THE DRIFT OF POLITICS.
There Are Many Manifestations of Ten
dency in the Direction of Independ-
ent Political Action.


The following powerful and forceful
arraignment of the two old parties is
clipped from the editorial columns of
the Chicago Record:
The politicians who are engaged in
making faces at the trusts are very
careful to avoid any mention of the
fact that the greatest and most sue
cessful trusts of modern times are the
two political parties which control the
making and execution of our laws.
These interesting organizations are
composed chiefly of ambitious men
with gift of ''gab," who have a long
ing to get their hands in the public
crib: the rank and file, who vote as
their fathers and grandfathers voted
before them. being of little conse-
quence except as they furnish the po-
litical property" with which their
owners do business. AS individuals,
the active memb bers of these trusts would
be very small potatoes in a very large
barrel. but they long ago discovered
the advantages of consolidating their
capital and ability, having anticipated
the commercial trusts in this respect.
Each of these men has surrendered his
political plant" and his Judgment of
what is right or wrong in government
to the control of the party in exchange
for certificate of membership or
stock and agrees to follow the party
regardless of where it may lead.
BY this accumulation of party capital
two great com mbinations have been built
up which monopolize about all the
political ability of the country and all
the sources of campaign funds. This
power is so great that they have
divided the free and sovereign citizens
OF this great country into two equal
and hereditary masses, and by some
unscrutable providence, or the more
mysterious power of the bosses, these
combinations generally alternate in
the control of the Offices and per-
quisites, as may be seen in the returns
OF our presidential and congressional
elections of the last 20 years. Their
monopoly is so perfect that they hoot
off the stage the ablest and most con-
scientous citizens who attempt to COM
pete with them. Commercial trusts at
best lead a precarious existence. Only
few of them have been successful.
and they have spent about as much in
fighting and buying off competition as
they have distributed in profits, and
their stockholders have often been left
to hold the bag. But the political trusts
| are SO secure in their position that in
| century past there has not been but one
change in the two great trusts that
have controlled the country, and that
precipitated civil war and all but dis
rupted the nation
They have increased our taxes more
than 5O-fold over the per capita ex-
penses of colonial governments prior
to the revolutions; they have built up
and fostered commercial monopolies;
they have allowed other nations to
snatch our merchant marine from us;
they have aided and abetted a railroad
monopoly that holds the entire country
in the grasp of foreign and eastern
bondholders: they have manipulated
the tariff and money questions in such
manner that they have been able to
wheedle and terrOriZe the people into
contributing enormous campaign funds
for the use and benefit of the chosen
few who control their finances and
policy; they have bam boozled the
people with promises which they
never meant to carry out, and while
neglecting the best interests of the ma
tion they have filed the statute books
and lined the pockets of their adher-
ents with legislation in the interests
of the drones and rascals; they have
caused and fostered financial panics
that paralyZed our industries and
brought millions of industrious work.
ingmen to want; and every four wears
they upset business WITH their cam
paigns and frighten us into thinking
we are going to the bow-wows unless
we bow down to them and acknowl-
edge their gods of silver and gold, or
pure brass, as the greatest institutions
on earth. These most vicious and in
famous trusts of modern times arise to
tell us that the trusts must go.
1t is probably useless to discuss any
measure calculated to curb the power
OF these organizations, but it is equally
useless to expect any honest legislation
to control the commercial trusts until
the power of the political trust is
broken. Commercial and political mo-
nopoly viii join hands secretly and
hold our government as firmly and
easily as the slave power held it before
the civil war. They have made a
fgarehead of the sovereign citizen and
led him in halter with running
| moose that will strapgle the animal if
he balks.