Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1900-02-24
AN APPEAL
10 the Populist Party and Voters o, sins ham
County. idaho.

for the coming election which will be
the most important ever held in the
history of this government. We have
now reached a point in our national
career where all lovers OF liberty and
good government should mite to over
throw that hydra-headad monster, the
money power which threatens the des-
truction and downfall OF republican
form o. government. lcoucede to every
one the right to his or her opioion of
the political Issues OF the day and while
1t is honorable to differ it is human to
err. We can only Judge the future by
the past and history proves that when
the wealth OF any nation is concentr,,-
ted in the hands OF few il marks the
decline and fall of all the civilization
OF the past. We have now reached the
point where twelve per cent of our pop
ulation owns eighty-four per cent of the
entire wealth of our country. This has
been brought about through thirty
years of class legislation and broken
party pledges; we have delegated too
much power to the hands of few, who
have been cats paws for the money
power, trusts and combines
There is one factor in political econ
omy that past experience has proved
beyond doubt, that when any class
has had the power to control and reg
ulate the rate of of interest. land rents,
taxes or the volume of money in circu-
lation, then the masses are doomed to
become slaves to the classes as are the
people OF Europe aud America today.
The Caucasian race is now burdened
with debt, public and private and
municipal of over one hundred and
fifty billions of dollars, with a little
over four billions of gold with which to
redeem the debts of the world. We
are confronted with conditions that are
alarming; with our circulating medium
delegated entirely TO the hands of few
Shylocks and political leeches whose
love of liberty and patriotism is meas
nred by the almighty dollar.
>O+'' cbeS' go We 81 c ilu ioHu tuouOD-
oily. a transportation monopoly and mon
ey monopoly that have organized and
formed trusts and combines to control
all the avenues of trade and have put a
price on every article of consumption.
The lines are clearly drawn, the gaunt-
let is thrown down, the Republican
party has declared for the gold
standard and with England's finan-
cial system and her colonial and
Imperial policy which means large
standing army and an ever increasing
national debt.
The campaign cry of the gold stand
ard people in the coming election will
be the siren song of prosperity, like
the vampire that fans its victim tc
sleep while it sucks its life blood. StoI
and think moment. Who is prosper.
ing? The money lender, the Office
holder and the trusts; while the cottor
planter, the corn raiser and the wheat
grower have not yet felt that wave o
prosperity that has so long been pre-
dicted. 1t is true that wages have adj
vanced in some instances ten per cent
while the cost of living has advanced
thirty per cent and railroad rates ant
taxes and manufactured goods are still
advancing. | will concede the fact tina
through the memorable law OF suppl
and demand and scarcely the worl,
over have forced up the price of lead
wool and livestock. which advanced il
England, a free trade country, befor,
they did here.
II the volume of money, which ever
writer on finance from Aristotle to tn
present time bias claimed, controls tn
price Of labor and its products, the
we can never have prosperity under tn
gold standard or any circulating mediul
that is inadequate to The wants and d,
mands Of trade which is controlle
solely 10y few banking corporations.
What we want is legal tender do
lar that pays the bond holder the plo
holder and the miner who holds til
pick and the soldier who held the mu
ket, each and all alike; and a law tn;
taxes the rich mans fortune and I'll
widows mite in proportion to what the
have.
As we stand on the threshold OF til
twentieth century, after a hundred an
thirty years experience in represent
tive form Of government, it is apparer
to all thinking men that there is som
thing radically wrong with our polir
cal and financial system, when we co
template how rapidly the power ar
wealth OF our country has concentrate
in the hands OF few. With histor
OF sixty centuries as a guide and
warning, amid the art, science and e.
ucation of the nineteenth century. al
we equal to the occasion. What sha
The future be? a government OF tn
masses or of the Glasses. We ha,
now come to the parting of the way