The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-05-03
Pierre, S. D., Feb. ~, 1906.
General S.. j. Conklin,
Clark, s. d.

81 ~ ~
trained with the republican party.
Some seem to fear that this insurgent
movement will tend to break up the
party.
To me, and to many Others it would
be a pleasure to know just what your
ideas are, on the present trend of pO-
litical thought and action in South Da-
kota, from a Republican standpoint.
Have you the time and disposition to
write me? 1t would be a favor highly
appreciated by me and many of your
friends. Truly yours,
G. b. BILLINGHURsT. =
-
Clark, S. D., March 8, 1906.
Hon. G. b.. Billinghurst,
Pierre, S. d..
Dear SIR
/ am in receipt of your letter of Feb.
q, saying thatyourself and many other
friends of mine would very much like
to know my views upon the present
trend of political thought in South Da.
kota, and | have the honor to respond
to your and their request, as follows:
If having in 1856 zealously assisted
to organize the first Republican party
that ever had an existence in Stuben
county, New York, and if having left
my shoe bench for five weeks in the
fall of that year to advocate from the
rostrum the principles of the new par
ty, and the election of John G.. Ere
mont, for President, in various towns
in southern New York and northwest
ern Pennsylvania, if having advocated
Republican principles from the rOS-
trum during every political campaign,
state or national, from that day to
this, except while defending Republi-
can principles in the army during the
civil war, and except the last cam
paign in this state when no speeches
were deemed necessary, If having
never voted any but a Republican tick
ct from the first organization of the
party, and never expecting to vote any
but q republican ticket, constitutes a
respectable republican lineage, it may
not be considered p~resumptious or
vain, for me to state at ONE length my
views upon national and state ques-
tons that | deem to be of grave i'm
p%ortance, particularly to the plain peo.
pie, that element of national strength
which alone car be depended upon to
protect and preserve the rights and
liberties which patriot sires secured
INT handed down to them.
THE PLAIN PEOPLE SHOULD WAKE UP.
In my judgment the time is at hand
when the plain people should wake up
to the fact, that insatiate corporate
greed has its jeweled hand fastened
upon the throat OF national industries,
natural Interests, and the equal op
portunity Of the people, to such an
extent that nothing short of a cyclone
of political effort on their part can
shake it off, and strip it of power it
should not have, and set the bounds
that in any form it shall not pass.
Within my remembrance there were
but four millionaires in the United
States; now there are over thirty
thousand; some of them worth tens
and some fifty and others hundreds of
millions each. These monstrous and
dangerous fortunes are mostly the &C
cumulations Of the last forty years;
combinations Of wealth have seized
one by one upon the individual
manufacturing industries, once con.
Quoted in every village and hamlet,
and forced the small proprietors to
flee from their positions and useful in.
fluence in society, in politics and the
church, to the factory that had driven
them out of business, there to become
human machines.
Henry Wilson rose from the shoe
bench, and Douglas from the cabinet
shop, to the United States senate, and
Andrew Johnson from his little tailor
shop in Tennessee, to the presidency
of the United States. Among the thou
sands Of mechanics under the old sys-
TEN, hundreds could be found serving
in official positions covering the whole
field of official life in the United
States, from the lowest to the highest.
No shoemaker or cabinet-maker or
other mechanic, is now thought of for
even a justice of the peace, in a man
ufacturing town. Thus are millions of
men shut out from all practical par
~ticipation in the government, except
that of the ballot.
Great changes have come oyer the
American people. Our fore-fathers were
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and economical:
they were proud of their proficiency
in laborious pursuits, and had only
contempt for pomp and ostentatious
display. They were content win
small accommodations Of property, and
greed for wealth beyond the reason
able need of its possessor, was a badge
OF d%ishonOr, and a bar to his prefer.
ment to places Of honor and public dis
tinction. Moral worth AID unselfsh
purpose and zeal for the public good,
were jewels of character priced above
all others by the Pilgrim fathers.
Now there is a mad race for wealth,
pomp II power; idleness, luxury and
extravaganza, which only enormous
wealth a maintain, abound and
tempt to ruin and disgrace thousands
of unsuccessful imitators. Old meth
DDS to obtain a wholesome competency
have become too SLOW: the genius OF
greed has been taxed TO its uttermost
to contriye more rapid methods to &C
cumulate wealth; ard as q result we
have combinations, and corporations,
n trusts, and c~Ontrivanccs, of every
kind that favor the increase of aggre-
gated wealth; today such aggregations
control almost every industry. to the
exclusion of competition Of any kind
by the mass Of the people, who are
thus compelled to pay tribute to that
greed which is only limited Inv such