The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-11
Tuesday, April II, 1905
ADOPTING POPULIST IDEAS.

That the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the cause" seems to be as
true regarding politics of the present
as it was of the church" in the earlier
days of the Christian era. With the
slaughter of the pOpulists many OF
their tenets became the fundamental
principles of the other parties for the
hest government for the people. 1t
cannot be denied that many of the re-
forms now advocated by Ii two great
parties were either ridiculted or de-
bounced by their members during the
existence of the populist party.
When the pOpulists demanded estab-
lishment by Legislation of maximum
freight rates for the railroads they
were told hat such could not be done
cOnstitutiOnally. Look what the pres.
cnt republican legislature of Kansas
has done. The democratic minority
and the republican majority in that
body We'd with each other in their en-
thusiastic support of such a measure
and some others along the same line,
intended to repress the greed of mo-
EOpOlist!c corporations.
POpulist ideas on municipal wner
ship of public utilities were ridiculed
and secuted. The democratic candi-
date for mayor of Chicago was elected
last week by an overwhelming major
ify ofta. n hnn%nl .nnfact in which
he advocated this principle.
When the populists demanded gov
ernmental control or supervision of the
railroads doing interstate business
they were told that they were carrying
~paternalism to a dangerous extreme,
During the last session of congress q
republican house of representatives, at
the earnest solicitation of a republican
president, passed a bill extending the
powers of the interstate commerce
commission to he extent of giving it
power to regulate freight rates on such
railway systems. That bill, as our
readers know, failed to pass the SEN
ate, but President Roosevelt has not
abandoned the fight for such legisla-
ton. Only last week DIN his speech to
the Texas legislature he referred to
this matter and declared his belier
that before the expiration Of his term
of office such law would be in effect.
The charge of paternalism was also
made against the populist demand for
the establishment by the government
of warehouses wherein the farmers of
the country could store their crops and
hold them for better prices. The other
parties have not given in to this idea
yet, but the sentiment of the cotton
growers of the south is becoming SO
urgent for the establishment of such
repositories through private enterprise
that when once put into operation ana
their benefits to the people demon
strated the country need not be sur
prised to find a demand SO great that
it can not be denied for the establish.
ment of like storage warehouses by the
government.
To learn to what extent the demo.
cratic party of this state has adopted
he populist principle of the referen-
dun one has only to look over the acts
OF the legislature of the more recent
sessions.
These instances show what change
has come over the sentiment of the
people in the last few years regarding
some of the principles of government
which the populist party advocated be-
fore most of its members found their
way into the republican party or went
back to the democratic party. Their
ideas nave grown and spread through
the two other parties until now many
of them have been adopted by both.
There really is no populist party now
but some of its principles live in
the tenetS of the democratic and re-
publican parties. While not bodily
adopted in their platforms they are
recognized by the leaders and by the
rank and file as measures calculated to
benefit the people.
Wonder if Castro knows that Presi-
dent Roosevelt is near the Gulf coast ?
Now would be an opportune time for