Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-09-13
TWO POLITICAL TRUSTS.


making faces at the. trusts are yer,
! careful TO avoid any mention of tn,
fact that the greatest and most sue
cessful trusts OF modern times are thu
two political parties which control the
making and execution of our laws
These interesting organizations arr
composed chiefly of ambitious men
| with a gift of .'gab," who have a long
ing to get their hands in the public
crib; the rank and file. who vote a.
their fathers and grandfathers votec
before them, being of little consequence
except as they furnish the polirlca
property with which their owners dc
business. AS individuals, the active
member of these trusts would be very
small potatoes in very large barrel
but they long ago discovered the ad
vantages OF consolidating their capital
and ability having anticipated the com.
merclal trusts in this respect. Each
of these men has surrendered his politl.
cal plant" and his judgment of what
is right or wrong in government to the
control OF the party in exchange for a
certificate of membership or stock
and agrees to follow the party regard
less OF where it may lead.
BY this accumulation of party capital
two great combinations have been built
up which monopoliZe about all the DO
lltical ability of this country and all
the sources Of campaign funds. Their
power is SO great that they have diyid
ed the free and sovereign citizens of
this great country into two equal and
hereditary masses, and by some I'M
scrutable providence, or the more mys-
ferrous power Of the bosses, these com.
blnatlons generally alternate in the
control Of the offices and perquisites, as
may be seen in the returns of our pres.
ldentlal and congressional elections of
the last twenty years. Their monopo.
ly is SO perfect that they boot off the
stage the ablest and the most conscien-
tious citizens who compete with them.
Commercial trusts at best lead a preca-
rIous existence. Only a few of them
have been successful, and they have
spent about as much in fighting and
buying oft competition as they have
distributed in profits, and their stock
holders have often been left to hold the
bag. But the political trusts are so Sc
cure in their position that in a century
past there has been but one change in
the two great trusts that have control
led the country, and that precipitated
the civil war and all but disrupted the
nation.
They have Increased our taxes more
than fifty fold over the per capita ex-
penSeS OF colonial governments prior to
the revolution; 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 railroad mo.
nopoly that holds the entire country in
the grasp of foreign and eastern bond
holders; they have manipulated the
tariff and money questions in such a
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 theirs finances and
policy; they have bamboozIed the peo-
pie with promises which they never
meant to carry out, and while neglec t.
ing the best interests of the nation
they have filled the statue books and
lined the pockets of their adherents
with legislation in the interests of the
drones and rascals; they have caused
and fostered financial panics that par
alyzed our industries and brought mil
lions of industrious workingmen to
want; and every four years they upset
business with their campaigns and
brighten US into thinking we are going
to the bow-wows unless we bow down
to them and acknowledge their gods of
silver and gold, or pure brass, as the
greatest institutions on earth. These
most vicious and infamous trusts of
modern times arise to tell us that the
trusts must 90!
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 brok-
en-. Commercial and political monop.
oily will join hand secretly and hold
our government as firmly and easily as
the slave power held it before the civil
war. They have made tigurehead of
the sovereign citizen, and lead him in a
halter with running moose that will
strange the animal if he balks.
chester IL. Brown, Kalamazoo, Mich.
says; "Kodol Dyspepsia Cure cured me
Of S1Vpro aaco nf ipl;oo.A:1