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An Old Resident of Hancock County,
Now in Arkansas, Writes a Word
to the Folks at Home.
Editor People’s Party Paper:
When old reformers who have
been in the work for the last four
teen years read the thrilling and
soul-cheering valedictories of such
men as the Hon. T. E. Winn, of the
old ninth district of Georgia, and
Col. Sidney Harper, of the fourth
district in Texas, it is a hard matter
for them to find words sufficient to
express their joy and gratitude for
the acquisition ot such strong and
influential men to help battle for the
cause of the oppressed and down
trodden. Now, if none can be found
more preferable, let the good reform
people of these respective districts
in Georgia and Texas meet in con
vention as early as practicable and
nominate these men for congress,
and in November next go to the
polls every man to a man and
elect them, and they will never re
gret it, because they have declared
war against the money-power and
cut loose from both the old parties.
Three cheers for the noble ten al
ready in congress and the reinforce
ments who will come in the next!
I am truly proud, Mr. Editor, to
see old Georgia taking the bold stand
she is against the money-power; and
especially am I proud of old Han
cock county my birth-place and
home until I came to years of matu
rity. Tell the boys to remember
Thomas Jefferson and General Jack
son and the noble fight they made
against national banks, and all will
be well. Very truly,
W. M. White.
Stephens, Ark., May 23, 1892.
Lon says—and oh, ye gods, it
must be true if Lon says it—that
Polk has gone to North Carolina to
advise the alliancemen to stick to the
Democratic party.
In sober earnest I have got a sug
gestion to make; that somebody,
some curiosity-hunter—the world is
full of them in this speculative age,
procure one of those strings of but
tons the children used to get togeth
er and try and keep tally of Lon’s
lies. I have seen some of these
st< ings of buttons that would reach
seven times around a ten acre field ;
but if one should prove to be of in
sufficient length it would be easy to
hitch another one on, and still anoth
er and another. After they were all
used up and the present supply of
buttons in all the stores had been ex
hausted I for my own part w r ould be
willing to give the button manufac
turers some special privileges in the
manufacture of billions of other but
tons rather than Lon’s capacity as a
liar should go uncounted.
For lam a naturalist; I w’aut to
know the extent of the man’s capacity
in this line. lam a thinker ;if Lon
can demonstrate immortality to me
by his infinitude of lies, I shall be
under obligations to him.
Moreover, I am a believer in evo
lution, and I would like to know what
species of spider Long sprang from
that he can pull such an endless web
of lies out of himself and not use
himself up faster.
However, it must be admitted that
he is using himself up, not from any
shrinkage in his lying capacity, but
because of the insufficiency of the
Constitution’s reels to keep the web
straight and in order. Unfortunate
ly for the poor old man he is becom
ing hopelessly entangled in his own
web and is even now strangling to
death in the superabundance of his
own power to create. It is another
case of over-production.
Mary Jane.
The Pinkerton investigation reso
lution has passed the house at last.
There was a hot fight, but enough
democrats and republicans were
either in sympathy w ith the measure
or afraid to vote against it, together
with the solid People’s Party vote, to
pass it.
Bvnum, the great Indiana demo
crat whom the moss-backs of Geor
gia brought down here a short time
since to teach the people—Bynum
fought the measure bitterly.
What do the brethren think of
that ?
Don’t you think them a fine set of
fellows to be giving advice to the
voters of Georgia—these men who
import such plutocrats as Bynum to
teach them democracy?
Enthusiastic on the Reform Movement.
Paola, Kan, May 13, 1892.
Editor People’s Party Paper:
I wish t<> say a few words on the
subject of reform.
No doubt you will be pleased to
know that the people in this locality
are wide awake, and are already
holding large and enthusiastic meet
ings.
Having just finished a series of
lectures in this county, I can
speak of the farmers. I found them
hard at work, but notwithstanding
the fact that th-ey work both late and
early, they are not too tired to go to
the school house in the evening to
hear the gospel of labor discussed.
They are waking up to the fact that
for years they have toiled inces
santly but have received no reward,
and they are anxious to know the
cause.
It is both surprising and encour
aging to sec whole audiences of men
who have hitherto held on to the
skirts of the old parties and turned
a deaf ear to everything that did
not agree with the smooth-tongued
politicians, who for years have been
keeping them blind-folded with the
kerchief of prejudice while they rob
them of their hard-worked-for earn
ings, listening attentively to a three
hours’ lecture in the interest of the
masses instead of the classes, and at
the close of the meeting declare that
they have heard the truth and their
eyes are opened so that they will
investigase the question further and
are willing to lend a helping hand to
lift labor from its crushed and bleed
ing condition.
Yours in the work,
Anna Collins.
Who Gets the Increase J
For our People’s Party friends to
study: According to the census re
ports the gain in population from
1880 to 1890 was 43.27 per cent,
while the increase in wealth in the
same period was 80.61 per cent. This
doesn’t seem so bad after all, does
it?—Quenemo Republican.
If the pin-headed statesman who
edits the Quenemo Republican will
only go a little further and tell his
readers how small wa’s the per cent
age of the American people that gob
bled ap this increase in wealth, then
he will be giving some facts for the
people of every party to study. Let
us ask him how many of the farmers
in his county increased their wealth
80 per cent in the ten years alluded
to? How many tradesmen did it?
Yes, how r many merchants did it?
No People’s man wishes to deny
that this nation is not increasing in
wealth. This nation is increasing in
wealth as no other nation ever in
creased before. It has nearly doubled
its wealth in ten years. But when
we stop to see w’ho gets this increase
we encounter a phenomenon that is
simply frightful. The percentage of
the American people that have ap
pro} >riated the bulk of this increase
can be counted on the fingers of one
hand.
Viewed in the aggregate it is
grand; in the segregate it is hell.
We are becoming a race of paupers
and millionaires. The great middle
class are surely passing away. While
this nation in ten years has nearly
doubled in wealth, the masses of its
people have doubled in poverty-
The broad stream of wealth is fed
and increased by every farmer and
toiler in this nation, but it flows on
and on, and empties alone into the
coffers of the money-lender and the
railway magnate.
For twenty-five years the repub
lican party has been the servile tool
of the banks and the railroads. By
legislation it has bound the people
hand and foot and delivered them
helpless to these robber institutions.
According to the government’s own
showing, the railroads of this coun
try collected $1,178,644,696 for the
year 1890 alone. The government
says to the money-lender, if the
farmer don’t pay you, we will sell
him out and you can bid in his
property for a song. And when the
money-lender asked the government
to see to it that there did not money
enough get into circulation for the
farmer to pay his debts, the govern
ment complied with the fiendish re
quest.
It would seem as though some
fiendish desire possessed the repub
lican party to place a mortgage on
every farm and a tramp on every
highway. It was once the bene
factor of the oppressed. To-day it
is the scourge and curse of the peo
ple.—Attaway (Kansas) Journal.
A Great Property.
Within the past day or so the
Tennessee Goal and Iron Company
had a meeting of its stockholders at
Tracy City.
Eighty-five per cent of the stock
was represented. Harmony pre
vailed, and the trade by w’hich this
company acquired the Deßardelben
properties was confirmed without a
dissenting vote. Thus two of the
largest coal and iron industries of the
South have been welded. The com
bination now’ controls seventeen of
the most improved blast furnaces,
and twenty-three coal mines, w T ith a
daily output of iron, 2,200 tons, and
that of coal, 12,000. The new or
ganization starts off with 366,000
acres of the best selected coal and
iron lands in the South, with fur
naces located so near the company's
coal mines in Tennessee and the Bir
mingham district of Alabama that by
actual demonstration it is shown that
material necessary to make pig iron
is assembled here at very much less
cost than any w’here in the known
world. The new 7 combination starts
off with a capital of $1,250,000 over
and above all floating liabilities of
every description. Notwithstanding
the great depression in the iron trade,
the report of the T. C. I. people
show’s that the earnings of this com
pany last year were greater than ever
known in its history.
Among the stockholders are to be
found some of the strongest men of
finance in the East, and it is believed
the common stock of this company
will be among the dividend-payers
within the year.
And so the work of combination
and consolidation goes on.
Will some G. O. P. statesman
please rise and explain what will be
the condition social and political of
the great mass of free born Ameri
can citizens after a few thousand
soulless corporations have absorbed
all the sources of wealth in the coun
try.
Will it not be a condition of social
degradation and political vassalage ?
If so, w’hat remedy does the leaders
of either G. O. P. offer for such a
monstrous evil?
We pause for a reply.
Crowding Them Out.
Poor men are being crow’ded out
of Illinois. The independent farmer
is every year finding his pathway
narrow’er, his hill more steep, his
load more heavy. The renter and
hired man are taking the place of a
population. Thirty families last
week left a single neighborhood in
McLean county because since 1888
land values have decreased 40 per
cent, all about them. Increased
taxation follows this rise in. valua
tion, and farming—which yields only
a modest profit at best, will not keep
pace w’ith the added burden. Those
whose farms are unincumbered can
do better with their capital in newer
states. An inquiry developes that
the buyers are investors, not far
mers. Home after home has fallen
into the hands of capitalists w r ho re
quire a cash rental too hopelessly
high to admit of a margin of profit
to the husbandman, and on terms so
severe that surrender means loss.
Cass county, Livingston, Logan and
McLean are affected. It is estima
ted that 3,000 farmers will this year
leave central Illinois for the cheaper
lands of the west. They are men
w’ho can ill be spared. Reports may
make the state seem rich, but the
man who stands on the land that he
owns is worth more than a world of
money. —Chicago Herald.
They Must Go.
The Pinkertons will go. This con
gress will not pass a law 7 disbanding
them, but w’e repeat, the Pinkertons
will go. Those who think that the
American people will forever allow
the heaping up of great fortunes at
the expense of honest toil, and then
tolerate a band of hired cut-throats
to shoot down the laboring man
when he protests, doesn’t understand
the real American spirit. The Pink
ertons and their masters must go.—
Cincinnati Herald.
Down With The System.
Missouri World.
We heard an old gray haired man
ask a lawyer the other day whether he
would be safe in p utting in a crop on
his farm tnis year. The old gentle
man went on to state that he had a
fine farm, but had a deed of trust on
it amounting to about sls per acre,
held by some syndicate, and that he
was short or would be likely be unable
to pay his June coupon and it seemed
he had been told if the deed of trust
W’as foreclosed it would take the crop
as well as the laud, and so asked the
lawyer’s opinion as to that point. The
lawyer very kindly advised the old
gentleman that under the laws ofMis
souri a sale under the deed of trust
w’ould carry with it the growing crop ;
and even if the lands were sold while
in the possession of a tenant, a pur
chaser of the sale would take his crop
although the tenant had paid cash
rent to the prior owner. The old man
hung his head and remarked he would
try to pay the coupon, put in his crop,
gather and dispose of it, and leave
the farm where he and his wife and
children have lived for many years,
and let the syndicate have it. Twen
ty days after default in the payment
of the June coupon is all that is re
quired to sell the old man out and
transfer to the syndicate or other pur
chaser both the farm and the crop.
There is a statute cf redemption in
Missouri but it is absolutely worthless
and of no personal benefit—a fraud
upon the statute book. But we can
not say anything more now. What
troubles us is to know what w’ill be
come of that old gray haired father
and his family. And his condition is
not singular; thousands of men all
over this country are in the same fix.
Do you suppose the old man’s shift
lessness reduced him to his present
condition ? Down with a system that
robs the old as well as the young.
A View Os Georgia From Washington.
A special from Washington to the
Chicago Tribune says:
Georgia is the backbone of the
Farmers’Alliance in the south. With
two or three exceptions, all its mem
bers belong to the Alliance organiza
tio J* Senator Gordan also joined the
Alliance after his election. Tom
Watson was the only one of the Geor
gia delegation w’ho staid outside the
Democratic caucus and declared him
self in favor of a third party. His
re-election is conceded now by all
hands, while it is admitted that there
is scarcely an Alliance Democrat who
can be returned. Colonel Livingston,
Everett and the other mongrel mem
bers are powerless to stem the tide.
It is now stated that the Alliance will
have a straightout candidate in every
district of the state who will run en
tirely independent of the Democratic
machinery.
The third party leaders declare
they will beat everybody, including
Speaker Crisp, Blount and Turner.
Crisp and Turner represent the great
cotton growing district of the state.
All the Democrats there have been
educating their people to the belief
that the low price of cotton is mainly
due to the lack of unlimited silver
coinage. They have taught that the
two go together. Now it is impossible
for them to explain why a Democratic
house, with a majority of 235, has
failed to give the south free coinage.
The passage of a tariff bill putting
cotton ties on the free list does not
make amends in the view of cotton
growers for the failure to give them
fre.s coinage. They have reasoned
it out and they won’t listen to argu
ment or to promises of what some
other congress will do.
The modern democratic orators
seem to be afflicted with an acute at
tack of political jim- jams, a kind of
political delirium tremens. When
ever they hear the name of People’s
Party the air becomes filled with
blue devils, Union soldiers, twelfth
planks and negro supremacy in a
confused jungle, and in their frantic
zeal they saw the air with tremen
dous valor —Don Quixote and the
Windmill, see.—People's Advocate,
Greensboro, Ga.
The plutocratic order of the day
now is to abuse Post, Ellington and
other leaders of the people. What
does it prove to call people foul
names?—The Allianceman.
Rip Van Winkle.
Rip Van Winkle is a very fair
sample of the average farmer and
laborer of the United States. After
his sleep of twenty years he has
arisen to his feet, brushed the dust
and cob-webs from his eyes, and is
rapidly learning the true conditions
that surround him. Prejudice and
hate, brewed by the rebellion, is the
liquor which the geni of organized
capital gave him to drink. The
frosts and damp of monopoly have
stiffened his limbs and financial mil
dew has rotted his clothes, and his
once trusty weapon, the ballot, has
been rendered well-nigh worthless.
But he is again on his feet, his eyes
wide open, and although dumb
founded, amazed, dazed by the
changes that have taken place
during his long sleep, he is donning
new garments, repairing and modern
izing his old fiint-lock and will drive
the geni back into the defiles of the
mountains and smother them in their
holes.—Western Advocate, Kansas.
Are you ?—The politicians say the
tree coinage of silver is dangerous.
Are you beginning to fear that possi
bly it is ? God have mercy on your
poor, deluded soul! Suppose some
one had said that free coinage was
dangerous prior to 1873. What a
fool he would have been considered.
Washington signed the first free
coinage bill. Jefferson and Madison
supported it. Jackson, Calhoun,
Clay, Benton, Webster, Lincoln, and
all the statesmen back of 1873 sus
tained it. London bankers first found
out it was “dangerous.” They told
the Wall street gamblers, and the
Wall street gamblers whispered it to
Congress; and now you are begin
ning to believe it ’ Don’t you know
that you are being used as our Con
gressmen are being used, as plastic
clay in the hands of the money pow
er ? There is just this difference be
tween you and the Congressmen—the
gold-bugs make millionaires of the
Congressmen, but they make fools of
you. That is all the difference.—
Progressive Farmer.
Listen to these words of wisdom
from L. L. Polk, president of the
National Farmers’ Alliance: .‘•/Die
agricultural states of the south, the
west and the northwest must come
together and stand together. I know
there are men in the south—some
through the force of association, some
through patriotic motives, and some
through a lust for spoils—who would
still crouch at the feet of Wall street.
With me this is the alternative pre
sented. Should the south continue
to lie supinely in the octopus arms
of great the autocratic money power,
with, its tentacles fastened in her
very vitals, until it sucks the last
drop of her life blood; or should
she accept the outstretched, fraternal
hand of the great northwest, whose
interests are her interests and making
common cause, wrest the government
from the hands of plutocratic power
and place it in the hands of the peo
ple?”
We have a bashful young man
over at our house who invariably
lost the use of his tongue when he
came into the presence of his “best
girl.” Last week he discovered that
he could talk through the telephone
without blushing, and has since been
getting along nicely until to-day.
The old man did not leave for the
store this morning at the usual hour,
a fact of which the young man was
not apprised. Having called up the
proper number, he w’hispered into
the receiver a few soft, sweet words
and paused for a reply. The reply
came, but instead of being in Miss
Lula’s silvery notes, a deep bass
inquired, “What’s that ?” Just then
a strong electric current must have
come in contact with the telephone
wire, judging from the effect upon
our young man’s nerves. He is now
resting easy and we have strong
hopes of his final recovery.
We are not a prophet or a son of
a prophet. In fact w*e are giving
our undivided attention to other
branches of industry. We have re
cently traveled extensively in Kan
sas and have discovered that the Al
liance is neither dead nor disbanded,
but is very much alive and ready to
give the old parties a terrible shak
ing up at the coming election.—To
peka Illustrated Weekly (Rep.)
Bribing the Church.
T. V. Powderly makes the start
ling statement that a Reading rail
way emissary has been in the Lacka
wanna valley for some time in the
interest of the great coal combine,
and that this man had seen every
minister and priest of every denomi
nation, to some of whom he had of
fered passes and money if they
would indorse and approve the com
bine from their pulpits. In two in
stances, Mr. Powderly says, the em
issary proposed to assume the debts
of churches and erect parochial
schools.—Farmer’s Advance.
The recent Wyoming massacre
was more fiendish and diabolical than
that of a hundred years ago. That
was committed by Indians—savages
—in the defense of their homes.
This by English capitalists and their
hirelings to drive American citizens
from the homes they had made on
the lands the capitalists coveted.
The murderers in this case, had the
support of both the State and gen
.eral governments. God forbid that ■
that there should be a wretch in To
peka foul enough to cast a vote in
support of such a devilish adminis
tration—Topeka Populist.
It costs from S6OO to S7OO to send
a car load of strawberries from Flor
ida to New York; a freight car cost
about SBOO. When we consider that
the road is only out of the car about
five days and gets nearly first cost
for one load of freight, it looks like
an argument in favor of government ;1
ownership. But never mind about
that. The fool who raises strawber
ries, corn, wheat, oats, cotton and
such things ought to be fined for it,
anyhow. We expect it will become
a penitentiary offense after awhile.
—Progressive Farmer.
The 70-cent man, the fellow who
says the silver dollar is not as good
as any dollar on earth, is the laught
ing stock of the West. He is a fool
or an infernal scoundrel.—Topeka
Tribune.
We have the fellow here in the
metropolis of Kansas. He edits a
Republican paper, in which he says,
“pie silver dollar is worth only 69,}
cents in gold.—K. C. (Kan.) Sun.
They are arranging for People’s
Party camp-meetings in Missouri
and Kansas, lasting from three days
to a week, and have written Mr. C.
C. Post, asking that he go there for
a series of speeches, which he has
declined to do at present, but says
that later in the campaign we would •*
try to arrange to exchange speakers— ’
a few of our speakers to go to Mis
souri and Kansas for a couple of.
weeks whille some of their ablest •
men come to Georgia.
Colorado Getting* Desperate.
The party in Colorado that in
dorses either Cleveland or Harrison
will be defeated, and should be. For
Colorado to cast its electoral vote for
either would be like presenting a rob- .
ber with a gold medal who had brok
en into your house at midnight arid
stolen from you all the savings of a* “
lifetime.—Denver News. ‘ r ‘
A subscriber from Texas wants to
know what the Demo-Republicans
paid for Livingston? We are not in
his confidence, but as the Constitu
tion, which is on intimate terms with ,
him, has classed him as a thirty-dol
lar statesman we are willing to ae-
CVpt the estimate as about right.
There is a little Democratic paper *
down South that compares Moses, of
Georgia, the man who went back on
his Alliance constituency for the
Democracy, with Alexander IL*
Stephens. The publisher of that pa
per surely needs a guardian.—New
Era.
Just why it is heroism to enlist for
a campaign with bayonets in defense
of a just cause, but crankism to en
list for a campaign with ballots in
defense of a like cause, has never
yet been explained by the would-be
censors of a citizen s duty to his
country. —lowa Farmer.
A physician once said, “the child
is dead and the mother is dead, but
I will try and sive the old man.”
The Democratic party has killed free
coinage and tariff reform, but it is
now making a last effort to save
Cleveland.—Emporia Republican.