Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-05-26
Ingratitude of Parties.


ungratc,ul. Later Indications show that
the provcrb applies as well to political
parties as to republics.
The Republican party has had no more
faithful servant than Edward Atkinson,
the well-known statistician. For many
years he has been busy collecting statistics
and making calculations to prove that
under the gold standard the workingmen
of the country had become rich and in
creased in goods and were in need of mo-
thing. His favorite maxim has been that
"labor receives continalIv-increasing
proportion of continually increasing
product" With consummatc skill in the
management of figures andin the select
ion of data he has furnished piles OF ar
guments and figures to demonstrate this
fact.
Not only this, but he has also labored
faithfully prove that the workingmass-
es of the country ought to be able to live
happily, luxuriousIy and contentediy on
a dollar day lie has devised schemes
and invented stoves and cooking appa-
ratus on which he has shown than any
person can live, on the plan he outlines
on an income of eight cents day
His statistics have been the tower OF
strength and the rock OF refuge tor Ike
publican politcians, Republican editors
and Republican stump speakers. Not
being regarded as politician SO much as
a statistician his compilations OF figures
have carried great weight, and the num-
Der of men who were competent to ex-
anime his figures and show the fallacies
of his calculations and the falsity OF his
data have been few.
Probably no man in the country has
been more valuable to the Republican
party than Edward Atkinson OF Maasa-
chusets.
But this same Edward Atkinson had
unfortunately flor him) got into rut'
He has learned to make figures and
pile ND statistics for the benefit OF the
Republican party, but he hadno learned
that it was his duty to change position
at the dictation of politicians and accept
every new dogma which might be form
ulated at political headquarters.
Consequently when the question ofcx-
pansion come up, and the Republican
party in the course of Il year swung clear
around the circle and reversed itself with
the dextcritv and rapidity ola judge of
the s,1prctnc court, Edward Atkinson
was unable to make the curve. HIS
train was built for running on straight
tracks, and when the engine struck the
curve the wheels escaped from the rails
and the train plunged madly forward on
the same course which it had been pur-
suing before. So when the Republican
party suddenly became the party OF col
onial'aggression and acquisition, Edward
Atkinson was still moving along stead
fastly on the line which the Republican
party had occupied twelve months before.
He became the president of an Anti-Ex-
pansion League AS its vice president he
was its most active worker, His long
experience in compilations enabled him
to do some of the most damaging work
in compiling the declarations of Republic
an congressman and Republican speakers
on the anti-expansion side of the question.
As a result of this, he is now declared
by the Republican candidate to have been
guilty of treason, and the Republican
postoffice depa rtruent has placed its
heavy hand on his publications and de-
clarcd that they may not be transmitted
through the mails to our new acquisitions
in the Philippine Islands. AT the same
time, the Republican admins ration de-
clares that he is only saved from arrest
and incarceration in the pcnitcntiary by
the tenderness OF heart of the Republican
officials.
Thus once again is proved the fact
that not only republics, but parties, are
ungrateml 1t is doubtful whether the
Republican party. with all its power and
influence, could have carried the election
in golf it had not been for the assistance
furnished by Edward Atkinson and his
long tables of figures. Now they return
his services by proclaiming him a traitor
by excluding his books from the mail
and by publicly announcing that the
only thing which saves him from pen
itentiary sentence is the fact that the adj
minlstration regards him as a child
New Era, Springfield, o.
OVER at Chcrryvale this week the loca