Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1904-09-16

Where does the national democratic
party stand on the labor question!
Can anybody tell?
We know what its record is. We
have not forgotten how, at the call OF
the Pullman Palace Car company, a
democratic president invaded a SOW
ereign state with federal troops, in
spite Of the protest of its democratic
governor-John P. Altgeld-a better,
ADLER and more patriotic man than ever
Grover Cleveland was.
We all remember how the strike Of
the workmen whose wages had been
cut was broken by the mailbag farce,
and the prostitution of the power of
the United States army to the service
Cf a greedy and heartless corporation.
The democratic doctrine of state rights
was tIampled under foot, and, urged
on by Olney, the railroad lawyer,
Grover Cleveland exercised q power
which Daniel Webster, advising An
drew Jackson, believed could only be
exercised by authority of a special act
OF congress.
CIeveland's New Precedent.
Well might Judge Cooley, the emf
nent constitutional lawyer. write let
ter of congratulation to Cleveland for
having established a new precedent in
constitutional law. 1t was new And
the greatest novelty about it was that
the railroad attorney. Olney. was able
to force a democratic president into a
position vastly more undemocratic
than that which Alexander Hamilton
| ;oy oLcfo hoI
take when similar crisis occurred in
the administrations of Washington and
Jackson.
| Parker on Colorado.
They tell us that Judge Parker is a
maj. of judicial temperament-calm
meditative, circumspect, dispassionate
and yet in his speech of acceptance
he prejudges the laborers of Colorado,
assumes as proven the unestablished
accusation that union men resorted to
dynamite and thus demonstrates that,
if elected president, he will go into
office with his mind made up against
the laborers upon one of the most Sc
rious and doubtful problems of the
day
Who has supplied Judge Parker with
the proofs that the union laborers COM
mitted that dynamite outrage? Where
has he listened to witnesses whose tes-
tinony was given under the solemn
obligation Of an oath? Surely Judge
eminent jurist and just judge
did not find these men guilty until
they mad l'een proven so. Surely, as a
lawyer and judge, he presumed that
even a union laborer of Colorado
bounded and driven and bull-penned
and banished by the Peabody and Bell
conlrne--to be innocent till proven to
be guilty?
No. lie could net presume innocence
in such a case. He could not give the
accused the benefit of any doubt. Upon
the one-sided statement Of their bit
terest enemies, the democratic nomi-
nee for the presidency prejudges the
case Ct the laborers, and gravely de-
clal es that to their use Of dynamite
mvst be traced the horrible conditions
In Colorado.
| Cannot Fix the Blame.
en- not here to say who Is to blame
for the lawlessness in that distracted
state. 1t may have been the fedora
ton, 1t may have been the alliance!
| simply do not know. But this much
do say: the conduct of the legisla-
trre of Colorado in refusing to enact
the eight-hour law after the people had
sanctioned and demanded it by ballot,
was in it's very essence far more de-
structive to republican government,
far more demoralizing in its tendency
than any mere dynamite outrage that
ever was known in Colorado.
When corporations can corrupt the
law-making power to such an extent
that the will Of the people as legally
expressed at the polls is nullified, then
the end of popular government is at
hand 1t is Notwithstanding less.
Judge Parker, while condemning tho
!aborers for the alleged use of dyna-
mite, utters not one word of censure
against the INSCRIPTIONS monopolists
who debauched legislature into a
base betrayal of its trust.
So much for the democratic plat
form, and for the nominee who stands
upon 1t. Again ask, what is the issue
between Parker and Roosevelt?
"AInnost Identical"
The Hon. Henry G. Davis came up
to New York soon after his surprising
! nomination for the vice presidency,
and in the first gush Of his exultatior
told the truth. He declared that the
platforms of the two old parties were
almost Identical" and that the issues
were narrowed down to a choice of
persons. What pity it was that the
politicians had not got hold of the old
gentleman and inoculated him with the
don't talk" policy which prevails at
Esopus!
! The two platforms almost identical?
Certainly they are. Boiled down to its
! real essence. sifted to its real mean
ing. the democratic campaign of 1904
is mere INSCRIPTIONS hunt for office.
They have no fixed and certain creed.
They have no articles of faith by which
democratic loyalty can be tested. A
party, like an individual, should seek
to build up character. And without
convictions there can be no character.
BY. convictions | mean essential be-
liefs which become a part of a mans
very life: convictions by the light of
which he works; convictions for which
he would die. Has the democratic
party any such character? Can you
| measure II Inv standard like that9