Newspaper Page Text
ECHOES FROM THE ELECTION.
Details of the late election are now
coming in from all parts of the State.
The letters of correspondents relate
facts which disclose the means bv
which the result was reached. And
the means were fraud, bribery, drunk
enness, intimidation, murderous as
sault and homicide, all traceable to
the door of organized Democracy.
Here follow some samples. The first
is from Hancock county, the home of
Governor Northen:
One of the most glaring outrages
ever committed in a free country was
perpetrated at Sparta, Georgia, on
the day of election.
Rev. 11. S. Doyle, a colored min
ister who is striking such telling
blows for the People’s party, was as
saulted by a mob of Sparta’s most re
spected citizens.
Using the privilege of a freeman,
he was working for the success of the
party’s State ticket, when he was ap
proached by a crowd and informed
by the leader that he had come to
cut his throat. Several colored men
were around him, and pushed him
out of reach of the knife, when im
mediately pistols were displayed, and
as he attempted to escape he was
shot at like a dog. This was not the
only attempt on the life of Mr. Doy le.
Once before a crowd, led by the
mayor of the town, went to his par
sonage for the purpose of mobbing
him in broad daylight. He happened
to be out, but the mob, not satisfied,
went all through the house with pis
tols, searching for him.
This is justice, this is fairness of
the Democratic sort. It is enough
to make the cheeks of every man
with one iota of self respect mantle
with shame. It should be the rally
ing cry of all colored men as they
EO'iiid the clarion call for People’s
party men. Not so much because
Rev. Doyle was outraged, but 'be
cause this is a fair sample of Demo
cratic methods. They mean to silence
by force every man whom they can
not otherwise intimidate. It is the
duty or every man to rise and bury
the party of bulldozing, of assassina
tion and intimidation beneath a
shower of ballots, too deep to rise
ever again.
Mr. Doyle is now compelled to
leave his home and seek safety else
where. It is no secret—men have
openly sworn it—that they mean to
have his life. Hence he is an exile,
driven from home because he dared
to tell his people what he believed to
be right.
Whoever votes for the organized
Democratic party votes to perpetuate
'this system of political persecution—
a system more repressive than the
Siberian exile system of czar-ridden
\
nuse, men, wnite and taatk-, vuu
with the People’s party, and give life
to the party whose object is to bring
about a peaceful reconciliation of all
on the broad plane of equal justice, a
free ballot and fair count for all
men alike, both white and black.
The Democrats find nothing sacred
in the cloth of the divine, and allow
no right of asylum even to the par
sonage.
Then comes a letter from Albany,
Dougherty county:
There was a complete steal. We
had over 200 majority in this town.
Discovering that ballots were being
substituted at the polls, 25 tickets
were soiled so as to render them
easily distinguishable when folded,
and given to as many men who de
sired to vote for the People’s party.
We would watch through the win
dow and could see none but clean
ballots go in the slit in the box.
Twelve witnesses saw no less than 50
changes in succession. One voter
then folded his ticket in diamond
shape and passed it in. The manager
who took it dropped his hand behind
the box, and when it came up he held
a long-folded, clean ticket, which
went into the box. If we could have
had any show of justice, the People’s
party could have carried the county,
as the colored people voted nearly
solidly, there being only about 25
traitors. At one precinct in the west
ern part of the county, where every
voter favored the People’s party, the
polls were not opened, the blanks be
ing returned and 400 men deprived
from voting. In Albany of 937 votes
they stole all but 175.
The murders in Elbert county are
reported as follows:
At Ruckersville, Elbert county,
Ga., J. W. Rucker, a highly respect
able citizen, and from one of the best
families in the state, (I mention this
as we are called by the Democrats
rag-tags) was going quietly to the
polls with a squad of negroes and
white men to cast their votes as free
men. B. H. Heard saw some negroes
in the squad, who had once lived with
him, and who bore the name of
Heard; he commenced cursing them
for wanting to vote against the
Democrats. Rucker tried to quiet
him, but only received a cursing.
Rucker then told the negroes that if
any one of them wanted to vote the
Democratic ticket they had both the
right, and his consent to do so. None
of the negroes moved. That so ex
asperated Heard, that he took up a
wagon standard and struck an old
negro. The negro’s son, then struck
Heard, after which Heard ran across
the street to his house, loaded a
double-barrel shot gun, walked back
and deliberately shot down two ne
groes, one of whom has since died.
George Hall, another white Demo
ci at, drew his pistol and shot three
negroes. The negroes had committed
no crime, except the unpardonable
sin of wan finer to vote aaainst the
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER. ATLANTA, GEORQIA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1892
Democrats. A mob then surround
ed J. W. Rucker and Oscar F. Bell
and treated them most cruelly, strik
ing them with fists, feet, and stones.
The Democrats finally drove the Peo
ple’s party from the polls, and
wouldn’t allow them to cast a single
vote. They were mostly negroes
who are easily panic striken. As the
Democrats have all the law in their
own hands. We do not hope for
justice is this case, but can’t we have
protection in November? If the
law can’t protect us, we will protect
ourselves with Winchesters. We
will never be driven to the Demo
cratic party again.
From Bulloch county the follow
ing shows that counterfeiting may be
added to the list of Democratic
virtues :
Lying, red whisky and counterfeit
money (of which I have a SIOO bill
in my possession) has run the thing
over us—not defeated, not beat. I
consider that we have gamed a grand
victory. Such fraud and corruption
will in the end help to destroy the
party that resorts to such base means
to carry their point. The people of
this county have never before seen
anything like it—the law openly vio
lated, drunken negroes led to the
pollsand voted; sober ones bribed,
and many of them, no doubt, with
counterfeit money, and those that
would neither get drunk nor be bribed
were driven by sheer force and made
to vote by threats of driving them
out of their hom es and-off the lands
where they were living. And I heard
one negro begging, within five feet
of the ballot box, to be allowed to go
away without voting, and saying that
he did not want to vote, and the fel
low that was forcing him told him
if he did not vote he would shoot
him. Some of the negroes who did
vote the People’s party ticket have
since been made to leave the houses
in which they were living. But our
people are giving them houses. 1
have heard of a few men who were
Democrats and voted the Democratic
ticket, but now say that they are so
disgusted at the way things was done,
that they never intend to vote with
the party any more. God grant that
thousands all over the country have
become disgusted. As far as I have
been able to learn our people are not
disheartened, and are still in the fight.
I am till death.
Richmond county did not escape.
Beside shooting down a negro
preacher at the poor-farm precinct,
because he was endeavoring to instill
manly independence in people of his
race, the Democrats are subject to
charges of gross fraud. Our corres
pondent writes:
Defeated but not discouraged.
This carried by bribery,
repeating. Victory
has been bought m this county at
I the sa’crifice of self respect and honor.
The officers of the Superior and
County Courts aided and urged on
the rascality. We had money, offi
cial power and the tyranny of the
employer to fight. There are two
solutions for the November fight—
money or the United States’ protec
tion of our homes and ballot. I pre
fer the latter.
NOT DEAD YET.
W e have just received a com
munication from a People’s party
club in one of the counties where
our ticket was snowed under by
crooked methods, asking our best
terms for 1000 copies of the Peo
ples Party Paper for one year.
These brethren are on the right line
and will whip the fight at the next
general election. How many coun
ties will follow suit in educating the
people?
A brother in another county
writes,! sent in a three months sub for
nineteen Democrats and Republicans.
All but two voted our ticket Octo
ber 5 th.
Put the People’s Party Paper
in the hands of the people, and it
will prove more than a match for
bulldozers, boodle and mean whisky.
In several States of the West the
Democrats have indorsed the Peo
ple’s party candidates for electors
and Congressmen. There seems to
be no difficulty in the way of doing
this in States ordinarily Republican.
In the South, however, the Demo
cratic scheme includes anything to
prevent the people from electing
either electors or Congressmen. The
address of the Democratic State con
vention of Colorado, adopted m lieu
of a platform, printed in this paper,
discloses most clearly the regard in
which the People’s party, with its
candidates, Weaver and Field, is held
among the Western people. Let the
people of Georgia compare this with
the conduct of the Democratic leaders
of Georgia.
THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT LAW.
John Morley, a London newspa
per man, makes some comments on
the Australian ballot law:
Each ballot has a number printed
on its back, and on its face a coun
terfoil containing the same number.
At the time of voting the ballot
paper must be marked officially. It
is then delivered to the voter within
the polling station and the register
ed number of the elector is marked
on the counterfoil. It is then taken
into a closed compartment, marked
and folded, and placed into the bal
lot box, the official seal uppermost.
The returning officer at the close of
the polls counts the ballots in the
presence of the candi
dates, or their agents, and at once
declares the candidate or candidates
receiving the largest number of votes
elected.
Incidentally, it might be well to
call attention the American voters
to the ease with which a vote can be
invalidated. The courts have de
cided that the following markings
on a ballot are illegal, and make the
ballot void. A cross in the upper
left hand corner outside the space
for names ; a cross at the left and
below; cross at both the right and
left; cross on the back of a ballot,
opposite the name of the candidate;
two crosses; cross the letter above
or below; cross with additional
marks of any kind; cross with the
candidate.s names in addition ; cross
with another name written in ; cross
and voter’s signature on any part of
the ballot; cross in form of ornate
script; cross with small lines run
ning in several directions ; circles or
ovals; spiral designs; star or aster
isk ; lines not forming a cross ; sin
gle line instead of cross; blot or
scratch in ink below candidate’s
name ; straight line on the back.
THAT LETTER.
The daily papers of the Demo
cratic persuasion have reproduced
part of a letter from Capt. D. N.
Sanders to Mr. Watson, being a con
fidential communication of a trusted
agent to his employer. Because the
letter -would hurt and not help the
Democratic scheme of campaign,
only such part was printed as suited
the purpose of the editor. The letter
was gotten by the meanest device ever
acknowledged by men claiming to be
honorable. No copy was kept by
the writer, and hence the reprint
from the Augusta Chronicle is ac
cepted as materially correct. Here
it is, reproduced and presented as
containing some practical suggestions
to the People’s party men that the
Atlanta Constitution did not dare
give its readers:
Dear Colonel—l find your letter
on my table on my return from home.
I knew you were not at home when I
telegraphed for means to pay freight
on paper, but I did not dream that
the telegraph operator would do
otherwise than send the telegram to
your house, where it would be at
once opened.
I went to Buck as a last resort and
borrowed the money from him,
stating explicitly that you were from
home, and I could not reach you in
timl’ifwrr answer my purpose. He
knows full well that it was done
without your knowledge.
The Telegraph asked us a favor to
sell or lend them ten rolls of paper.
I could sell at a small profit, and as
funds were scarce and we had a sup
ply for several months, long enough
I thought for it to be definitely deter
mined whether you would run the
paper permanently. I would not
have sold without consulting you,
but the Telegraph was without pa
per to get out its next issue, and it
had done us a mean little trick.. I
was anxious to treat it generously.
From what I could learn on Sun
day the Taliaferro boys are not
hacked. They tell me that my pre
cinct, which gave Peek a majority of
53 out of a little over 100 votes
polled, will give you a dozen more
votes than Peek received. We can
get around some of the bulldozing
in this way :
Let tickets be sent to good men in
each county just a week before the
election comes. Some full People’s
party and some with Harrison elec
tors, and let these tickets be distri
buted to good men in each militia
district and by them given to poor
white tenants, as well as to negroes,
who were bulldozed into voting the
Democratic ticket.
These poor devils who are afraid
of their bosses can put these tickets
in their pockets and receive tickets
from their bosses as before and
quietly exchange tickets and vote as
they desire.
It is pitiable to think how many
poor men of Georgia are reduced to
slavery. I learned from my wife
that a few days before election, the
negroes in my neighborhood were
told that I had denounced the Peo
ple’s party and declared for Northen
and Cleveland. Several of them
went to my wife to know if it was
true and when told that it was a
trick to deceive, they went off more
determined than ever to vote our
ticket.
I have about 200 more campaign
books than I am likely to dispose of.
We are getting very few letters giv
ing accounts of the election. From
what we hear, the amount of bribery
and bulldozing is beyond all calcula
tion. God help the people who are
selling their birthright for a dish of
pottage. Get back into your own
district as soon as you can, and stay
there. I -would as soon lose my right
hand as see you beaten. Yours, till
the end, D. N. S.
Os the 137 counties in Georgia,
125 voted on the legislative tickets
as follows: Democratic 120,537; Peo
ple’s party 61,957;*8epub1ican,2,123.
As there were a number of coun
ties in which the People had no can
didates for representative, Peek’s
vote was presumably several thous
and greater than noted above. Put
t down as being 75,000, and you
will not miss it much. A greater
vote than the Republicans ever cast
in the State by 12,000, and sufficient
to defeat the Democratic vote. A
majority of the whites are evidently
with the People’s party. The Dem
ocratic majority is less than the Re
publican vote, and the colored voters
controlled the balance of power in
favor of the Democrats.
THE FLOWERS.
The following aresome of the cards
accompanying flowers received by
Mr. Watson at Gibson and Appling.
Somepf the names of donors were lost
because of difficulty in handling and
preserving the prized testimonials
which they accompanied:
of Miss Gus Hie Sturgis.
Compliment# of MaUd Hall, Thomson,
Georgia. < ; ;
From Lillie LanscLlL To Hen. Thos.
E. Watson. ' '
Hon. Thos. BcWataon, from Miss An
nie Marshall. *
Hon. T. E. WatsoiUc From Mrs. M. M.
Lasseter.
Compliments of Hiss Lizzie Toole and
Mrs. R. E. Neal.
Compliments of'Sirs. J, W. Neal, to
Hon. T. E. Watson..r
With best wishes, to Mr. Watson, from
Emmie Magruder,. Appling, Ga.
Compliments of Miss Ada Clary, to
Hon. Thomas E.-Watson. c
Harlem, Ga., Qct.A 1892...
Compliments of Mrs. Phillips to
Hon. T E. Watson.. May you live long
to advocate the cause of the People.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson. May the God
of Heaven crown you with succes. Your
friend, Mrs. B. M. Gross.
October 3, 1892.
To the Hon. Thos. E. Watson, the
champion of the people’s rights. May
God give you courage and strength to
fight the enemies until the victory is
gained. Marie and Alice Evans.
Thomson, Ga., Oct. 4.
Those eggs seem to have left a
stench in Macon.i
THE CAMPAIGN IN TEXAS.
~4, ,
Judge Nugent, the nominee of the
People’s party for Governor|of Texas
is a strong man, fully in line with the
reform movement, as is shown by the
following extract from one of his re
cent speeches. His election is reas
onably assured, though there are
three other full-fledged] candidates
against him.
The census bulletin, issued by the
chief of the census bureau, shows
that in 1880 the nin<a North Atlantic
States—Maine, Vermont, New Hamp
shire, Massachusetts. Rode Island,
Connecticut, New York,-New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania, had '29 per cent
of the population of .the United
States, and that during the decade
ending in 1890, they secured 41 per
cent of all the wealth gained in the
Union; while the 21 States, Mary
land, Delaware, West’ Virginia, Vir
ginia, North Carolina, South Caro
lina,
sissippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennes
see, Kentucky, Ohio,’ Indiana, Illi
nois, Missouri, lotva, Kansas and
Nebraska, with 56- per - cent of the
entire population in 1880, secured
during the same pnly 23 per
cent of the aggregate wealth gain
of the country. And yet the nine
States mentioned ; contain 168,665
square miles of territory while the 21
States contain 98p,(55 square miles.
Moreover the njpe States in 1880,
had an aggregate assessed value of
$7,559,928,915, shife the 21 States
had in the Same year an aggregate
assessment of $6J83D,554,628. Thus
the nine States, with little more than
half the labor, about one-sixth of the
land, and about the same amount of
capital, secured, during the decade
mentioned, nearly 1 twice as much of
the aggregate wealth gain of the
country, as the 21 States. Again,
comparing the State of New York,
the financial center, with West Vir
ginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Flor
ida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illi
nois, lowa, Kansas and Nebraska,
fifteen States, we find that, in 1880,
the fifteen States had nearly four
times as much population as New
York and about one and one-half
times as much assessed value, and
that their territory as compared with
that of New York nearly sixteen
to one. Yet, New York gains, in the
decade mentaioned, >6,197,719 more
wealth than the fiffeeii States. The
following clipping the Dalia
News of August wotild seem to
indicate that the enormous wealth
gain of the Nortfy Atlantic States is
not likely to suffer Any curtailment
under the fosterihg ! ca¥e 'of the Mc-
Kinley bill: 91 nu '
“The Mills GrpAving richer—Cot
ton Manufactures’ ."Wore Prosperous
Than Ever Petorb.-- Fall River,
Mass., Aug. 14.—Published returns
from the mills here fpr the past quar
ter show they arbnow Henjoying the
most prosperous seaitfry ever known
in cotton manufacturing in Fall River.
Thirty-one corporations representing
46 millions have paid dividends-of
8538,880 on a capital of $18,128,000.
The total dividends paid for the cor
responding quarter last year amount
ed to $233,25ft In addition the
mills have unburdened* themselves of
debts and interest accounts and made
extensive alterations 'And additions.”
Thus it is plain to see that the
manufacturing and financial centers
have no reason to complain of pres
ent conditions. "''Gorged-to repletion
with the good things that a paternal
government has showered upon them
for lo these many years, what caie
they if barefoot Texas women and
children pick decent cotton to supply
their mills, or Kansas farmers raise
10 cent corn to pay interest on their
mortgages ?
But this is not all. The farmer
from 1850 to 1860 found himself in
possession of about 70 per cent of the
national wealth, and growing richer
each year. The gold miners of
California were annually adding to
the circulation, enhancing prices, em
ploying labor and diffusing prosperi
ty through all the avenues of our
social, commercial and industrial life.
Farm values went up and farm pro
ducts commanded ready sale at good
prices. The farmer’s sons and
daughters, as they grew “up and
married, were easily provided for and
settled around the old homestead, or
at least in convenient reach of it.
But what a fate has overtaken this
plodding, conservative, brave and
honest citizens. Poverty and debt
press him, taxes press him, freight
rates press him, and it has become
his hard and burdensome lot to toil
from January to December for the
bare necessaries of life. Wife and
children must relinquish the small
comforts and luxuries which once
were within their reach. The boys,
as they giow up to manhood’s estate,
vanish from beneath the paternal
roof to seek their fortunes in the
facinating and mysterious West; but,
alas’ they find no West that prom-i
ises fortune. The speculator, the
railway and the syndicate have pre
ceded them and occupied the ground.
The railroads own 281,000,000 acres,
foreign and domestic syndicates own
84,000,000 acres, making a total of
376,000,000, and 787,906,375 are in
farms. There is probably not now
left of our vast public domain more
than an average of three acres per
capita of our population and much
of this is desert or barren land, unfit
for many reasons for occupation by
the housekeeper. Thus cut off by the
policy of our government from ac
cess to the cheap public lands, is it
wonderful that such a large portion
of our people are tenants —that in
fact over 700,000 farmers in the
United Stabs are compelled to share
their crops with landlords ?
But not only are the money and
lands monopolized, but railroads as
well. In the present adjustment of
our social and industrial life rail
roads, as a means of exchange and
distribution, have become an abso
lute necessity. The use with which
a railroad is charged, being public in
its character—being in fact the ex
ercise of a function belonging more
to government than to private indi
viduals—there is the same reason
for reducing rates of traffic on these
lines of transportation as exists in
favor of a reduction of public tax
ation. Every person feels that
high rates of taxation are burden
some, and hence the demand for the
reduction of public expenditures to
the necessary expense of govern
ernment economically administered.
A moment’s reflection will serve to
convince any candid mind that the
same rule should apply to the ex
pense of operating that system of
intercommunication by w’hich the
products of labor are exchanged and
the social and business life of the
country is so largely maintained.
Certainly agencies which affect
every member of the political com
munity and which largely determise
and give shape to the complex re
lations and functions of society—
which in fact deeply affect and in
volve its organic life—ought not to
be mere matters of private specula
tion and gain. The inter-communi
cation of intelligence and the ex
change of wealth products by the
railroad and telegraph certainly lie
at the very foundation of our indus
trial, and thus our social well-being,
since our complex social life finds
expression (evolution) in our com
plex industrial system and their
maintainance must be seen to be
rather a function of government than
of the individual. And government
ought to take care that the expense
of maintenance shall be reduced to
the minimum like any other public
tax.
With this in view, the enormity
of the tax levied upon production by
the railway and telegraph system of
the countiy may be appreciated,
when it is understood that of the
$10,000,000,000 of stocks and bonds
representing the nominal cost of the
railway system of the country, ap
proximately one-half is fictitious or
waetred, and that the gross income
derived from the operation of this
system amounts to more than sl,-
000,000,000, a sum probably exceed
ing the entire amount of money in
actual circulation among the peo
ple. The net earnings of the sys
tem for 1890 are put down in
No. 226 of the Statistical Abstract
at $346,921318.
But while the manufacturer, the
banker and bond-holder and the rail
roads thus levy tribute upon the
productive forces of the country, the
government adds its own increased
burdens. Look at these figures,
showing appropriations z by the con
gresses and for the years named :
Congress. Time.
Forty-third, . . 1875-76 $633,794,000
Forty-fifth, . . 1879-80 704,527,000
Forty-eighth,. . 1885-86 655,269,000
Fortv-ninth, . 1887-88 746 342 000
Fiftieth, . . . 1889-90 817,963,000
Fifty-first, . . 1891-92 988,417,000
These figures are correct, as they
have the indorsement of Senator
Gorman, a prominent democratic
candidate for the Presidential nomi
nation, who contends that the annual
expenditures of the government are
“justly growing.” He is also the
Senator who justified the building of
a great navy as a means of subsidiz
ing “the great steal industries.”
Around us on every hand may be
seen the evil results of the vicious
policy which I have but briefly out
lined, and these results may be
gathered up and expressed in the
statement that for thirty years past,
in this great republic, dedicated in
blood to human liberty and the
rights of man, the “rich have been
growing richer and the poor poorer.”
A million tramps, homeless and
hopeless wanderers, trudge along our
highways and gaze despairingly over
illimitable areas of unused land,
monopolized and withheld from set
tlement by the speculator, the syndi ■
cate and the corporation, for the
sake of the “unearned increment”—
that deep and ineffaceable stigma
upon our statesmanship and civiliza
tion. For the tramp no flower
blooms, the grass does not grow, and
Mother Earth, with her generous
bosom affords no nourishment. A
fugitive and vagabond, no human
sympathy follows him as he flies
from the face of his fellow man, only
to find rest when crime forces him
within prison walls or the grave
opens to receive his wasted and
wearied body. But the tramp is
fortunate in at least one respect—he
has found his way out of the cities
into the country, where beggary
may prolong his useless existence.
Thousands of poor in our cities are
ess fortunate. “In New York 40,-
000 working women are so poorly
paid that they must accept charity,
sell their bodies or starve. In one
precinct twenty-seven murdered ba
bies were picked up, six in vaults.”
In California girls are paid wages
ranging from $1.12 to $1.90 per
week. “In the sweating establish
ments of Chicago,” says the Sociolo
gic News, “the wages paid girls and
women range from $1 to ss“a week,
dishonor or death being made a ne
cessity.” The same authority says:
“The average wages paid street car
drivers in Ohio is $1.53 per working
day of twelve hours and thirty-five
minutes. The average pay of men
in street car stables is $1.37 a day,
working eleven hours and a quarter.
* * In the Pennsylvania mining
regions the miners] receive $178.40
a year. Out of this pittance they
pay to the mining companies for the
hovels they occupy 40 per cent of
the value of the hovel.”
But here is another picture. There
are 9,000,000 mortgaged homes in
the United States. In the last de
cade tenant farmers have increased
in number in Kansas more than 20
per cent and more than 11 per cent
in Ohio. Texas alone had, a few
years ago, 66,465 tenant farmers,
leading all of the producing States
except Illinois.
I have alluded to the decline in
prices. This will strikingly appear
from the following comparison of
prices by decades:
From 1860 to 1870, average price of wheat
per bushel, $1.99.
From 1870 to 1880, average price of wheat
per bushel, $1 38.
From 1880 to 1889, average price of wheat
per bushel, $1.07.
Price at this time 80 cents.
From 1860 to 1870, average price of corn
per bushel, 96 cents.
From 1870 to 1880, average price of corn
per bushel, 63 cents.
From 1880 to 1889, average price of corn
per bushel, 46 cents.
Price at this time, 38 cents.
In 1870 wheat brought $12.76 per
acre ; in 1890, $8.60 ; loss per acre,
$4.16. Corn brought in 1870,
$18.75; in 1890, $8.73; loss per
acre, $10.02. Rye brought per acre
in 1870, $19.75 ; in 1890, $6.26; loss
per acre, $12.18. Cotton brought
per acre in 1870, $32 ; in 1890, $9.96 ;
loss per acre, $23.94. In like man
ner it may be shown that there was
a loss on barley of $12.57 and on
oats of $9.79. The aggregate loss
on these crops will run up to many
hundred millions, but falling prices
and shrinking values only affect the
farmer, the laborer, the artisan, the
producer and the worker. The
bondholder still clips his coupons
and draws gold from the treasury,
the banker to the same pleasing per
formance adds the taking increased
usury and the manufacturer still
holds his clutch on tjae market by
means of the protection against com
petition, which a compliant govern
ment gives him. As a result society
is rapidly dividing itself into two
classes—the very rich and the very
poor. Look at this statement, com
piled by a most accurate and consci
entious statistician, of the wealth of
the United States:
200 people are worth, $ 4,000,000,000
400 people are worth, 4,000,000,000
1,000 people are worth, 5,000,000,000
2,500 people are worth, 6,250,000,000
7,000 people are worth, 7,000,000,000
20,000 people are worth, 10,000,000,000
31,100 people are worth $36,250,000,000
Thus it appears that one-twentieth
of one per cent of our population
own three-fifths of the entire wealth
of the country.
Your Secretary’s Request.
Friends to whom packages have
been shipped by express from me,
are earnestly requested to call and
take them from the Express office
paying the charges (25 cents) at once.
We would have sent them every
one prepaid but we had no money
with which to do it. So in order to
get the express company to take the
packages I had to become personally
responsible for the charges on every
package shipped. Now unless you
take the packages out the whole bur
den will fall upon me. It is only 25
cents to you but it is fifty dollars to
me, and 1 am not able to stand the
loss, for after nearly a year’s work for
the people’s cause with no compensa
tion except that which comes from
the conscious preformance of patriotic
duty, lam entirely without money.
Get the literature, read it, and have
your friends and acquaintances to
read it. Yours always,
Oscar Parker.
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