People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1899-08-17
Take Courage, Light is Dawning.

Only few years before the war one
Ralph Waldo Emerson one Of the great
est thinkers o: his time said Slavery
will be abolished; but l shall not live TO
see it. Emerson lived many years af-
ter the blacks were freed. At no time
did the evil seem 50 well entrenched, so
far from overthrow as during the few
years before the civil war. Many have
grown weary of the seemingly hopeless
struggle to reform present unjust condi-
tons, to replace the capitalistic system
by more righteous one. Blame is
placed here ard there and else
where for what no one could help. The
time was not yet ripe. The education
begun by the Alliance and followed up
by the Populist party in Kansas and
other southern and western states is
bearing fruit. Education is going on;
but more potent factor IS at work. The
slave power Overreached itself and in
that way brought about its own downfall.
IN the same way the capitalistic, trust
forming, competitive system is Oyerreach-
ing itself and must within the first de-
cade of the coming century fall of its
own weight Within that time direct
legislation. public ownership of public
utilities and money issued directly by the
government will be established upon
permanent basis
With these reforms accomplished the
rest will follow These must come and
within that spnce of time because at the
present rate of accumulation by trust
methods, the control of all wealth and all
means of production, the closing OF all
avenues of preferment to all hut the
very few will be SO great that the burden
will have become absolutely intolerable.
MultitudeS heretofore accustomed to all
independent livelihood will ind them
selves hunting for work and unable to
find it. With the tendency toward &C
cumulations of vast fortunes, no greater
than it has been during the past two de-
cadeS, the middle of the next century
would see the wealth practically all in
hands of few hundred concerns and
largely in the hands of few families but
more has been done along this line the
past year than during the two preceding
it and more will be done next year than
during the two preceding It. This in
creasing geometrical ratio is from the
very nature of things certain to continue
and this apparent evil will like the bred
Scott decision be an important factor in
bringing a speedy termination of present
unjust conditions and the dawning of a
brighter and better day. Take courage,
my brother. The promised land fol-
which many of us have sought these
many years is near at hand. With a Ger.
tainty Of victory so near at hand there
should be no faint hearts. This great
civilization can not go down in darknes.
and ruin. It has within Itself the seed.
of its own resorlra.on. The only possible
salvation from the fate of Greece anC
Rome and all other capitalistic, imperial
istic nations Of the past is through tin
reforms advocated by the PopuliSt rart,
from the days of its organization. Ever,
birth throe means pain. The chang
from the chrysalis to the butterfly mean
waste; but that change is surely comm,
and that soon and when it does civil
cation, far greater and grander than til
world has ever known, will be inaugural
I'd. The beginning OF each century sine
the great awakening during the earl
wears of the 10Th attendant upon the dis
covery Of this country has been marker