Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-09-14
ALTGELDINNEWYORK
Illinois Leader Talks on the Issues
to Eastern Democrats.
Trusts, Imperialism and Money Cues
tiOns Are Foremost -DemOcratic
Party Declared the Only Friend
of Wage-Earners.

New 1Ork celebrated LABOR Ody Win a
rousing meeting at Cooper Union, and
ex-Gov. John P. Altgeld, of Illinois, was
the principal speaker. The ex-governor
referred to William J. Bryan as the new
Jefferson of the west, and was cheered
for this utterance to the echo. His
speech covered all the issues of the day.
but it was most warmly received for
those parts which urged the reaffirma-
ton of the Chicago platform Of 1896.
Resolutions were passed indorsing the
Chicago platform and denouneing Pres
ident McKinley's policy in the Philip
pines. The tenor of the meeting was
decidedly against expansion. in the
course of his speech Mr.. Altgeld said:
There is the great financial question,
the effort on the part of the toilers and
producers of America to restore one of the
great money metals of the world to the
function and position which il had held for
ages. By stealth and by fraud one of the
money metals of the world was demon
etfzed by governmental action; not by
commerce, not by the industries and enter
prises of the world, but by the strong arm
of the government, welded by chicane
and the greed of the world. As the result
of this act the worlds volume of actual
money was gradually reduced by nearly
one-half, and, as the worlds volume of
money tends to determine the selling price
of property, it follows that the property of
the world. and particularly farms and
farm products, fell in the selling price
by nearly one-half, while the debts and
fixed charges remained the same
And even to-day, when we are told that
the farmer is prosperous, he is selling his
products at just about one-halt what ne
formerly got. This determines his pur-
chasing power and of necessity deter
mines his social status. By reducing his
purchasing power to about one-half what
1t formerly was, by deprlV1ng him OF MS
ability to buy at the factory and at the
store as he formerly did, the great Amer
lean market has been destroyed to large
extent and we are looking abroad in for
eign lands for markets for our goods, When
we would find a greater market than we
could possibly supply right at home If we
would again restore the farmers purchas-
ing power to what it would be if the worlds
prices of products were fixed by volume
of money consisting of both metals, in
stead of being fixed by volume of money
consisting of only one metal.
The Farmers and the Trusts.
"At present the farmer has to pay trust
prices-that is, prices arbitrarily made hlgh
by monopolies-for everything that he
buys; but he has to sell his products not
only in the open market of the world, but
he has to sell them on single gold stand
ard value, which is only about one-half as
high as a bimetallic standard OF value
would be. This great wrong having been
debtors, by government, must be undone
by government, and, inasmuch as the pow
erful moneyed classes of the country are
opposed to having the government right this
great wrong, we must have political par
ty with sufficient moral courage and sufh-
cient devotion to the cause of justice to
carry out this reform without the aid of
the moneyed classes.
EnthrOned Dollars, Enslaved Men.
again, the fierce commercialism of the
a which tended to enthrOne the dol
lar and enslave the man, has lowered the
standards and has covered the land with
corruption until corrupt concentra tons OF
money welded by INSCRIPTIONS men have
acquired such complete control of the gov
ernments, national, state and municipal,
that the people are almost helpless Laws
destructive to their interests are passed
through bribery, and laws necessary for
their protection are kept of the statute
book by bribery. The meet this new and
unfortunate condition it is necessary that
the people be given the power in certain
emergencies to legislate direct, either by
q popular vote to put specific acts upon the
statute book, or to declare certain specific
acts already on the statute book to be null
and void. This would destroy the business
of bribery, because it would render the
fruits of bribery worthless. No corpora
ton would buy a legislature or city
council if the acts of that legislature or
council could be nullified by the people.
Initiative and Referendum.
''In some countries of the world they have
long had a system of this kind. They call
1t initiative and referendum. meaning that
the people shall in certain emergencies
have the power to initiate legislation and
shall have the power to have legislation
that already exists referred to a vote of
the people. This system has worked mar
velousiy well where it has been tried, and
we must have political party in our coun-
try with sufficient devotion to free institu-
tons and republican government to estab-
Iish it here. 1t is not a question to specu-
late about. 1t is not a chimerical idea;
it is simply a question of self-preserva- |
ton.
Republican Party Sized Up.
again I ask you. which of the two great |
political parties shall it be? Let us for a |
moment look at the history of the party |
now in power. When headed by the mar |
tyred Lincoln it stood for humanity, it |
stood for high ideals, but in recent years |
1t has by its acts repudiated the principles |
of that great man. it has swung to the |
opposite pole. and to-day it represents or |
ganized greed, organized seIfshness, or |
ganized bribery, organized debauchery and |
organized hostility to free institutions. 1t |
has become one of the basic principles of |
this party to use the government, with all |
Its power, for the enrichment of the few |
at the expense of the many.
1T was this party which, long after the |
war, built up the system Of tariff robbery |
that proved the mother of trusts-that |
levied tribute on every toiler of America /
in order to enrich a few men who made /
contributions to campaign funds and, /
therefore. claimed the right to rob the
American people; system that built |
castles on the hills for the few and then /
covered the land With tramps. This party |
has, on all occasions, stood for especial |
privileges and it is opposed to municipal |
ownership of public utilities and is opposed |
to national ownership of transportation |
facilities and opposed to governmental |
ownership Of monopolies. 1t favors monop-
olies. but insists that the benefit Of the /
monopoly shall go to few individuals and |
not to the whole people. 1t pursues this /
course because 1t can then draw on the /
favored few individuals for the fabulous
sums of money with which to debauch the
American voter and with which to secure
false returns on election day.
Record of the Past Years.
"At the instigation of European bond
holders and American Benedict Arnolds |
this party used the strong arm of the gov
eminent to demonetize silver. and thus by /
one stroke doubled the labor. doubled the
sweat and doubled the blood which the
debtors of America had to give in payment
Of their debts; by one stroke spread paral-
ysis, bankruptcy, distress and ruin over the
richest land in the world. 1t is this party
the gold standard because English capital
lists benefit by it 1t is this party which
to-day is trying to force upon the American
people an alliance with England. 1t is this
party which insists that we shall get OF the
high moral plane we have occupied in inter
affairs and shall join hands with
England and embark in a career of brute
force, highway robbery and assassination.
'All this in order that few syndicates
and manipuiators may wax rich. It is this
party which sustains government by in
junction and upholds those creatures who |
have been elevated to the bench by corpor-
ate influence in their attempt to strike |
down trial by Jury and destroy the liberties
of the American people.