The People's party paper. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, December 27, 1895, Image 4

The People's party paper., December 27, 1895, Page 4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Text4 People's Partu Paper. titered Rt the Post Office at Atlanta, Ga.. a* second-class matter. Oct. 15b 18M. Offl ce 39 West Mitchell Street. (Concordia Hall Building.) Subscription, One Dollar Per Year, Six Months 50 Cents, Three Months 25 Cents, In Advance, Advertising Rates made, known on ap plication at the business office. M oney may be sent by bank draft, Post Office Money Order, Postal Note or Registered Letter. Orders should be made payable to THE PEOPLE'S PARTY PAPER. SWORN CIRCULATION • 18,240. Subscribers desiring to change the ad dress of their paper will please give the old address as well as the new. We must have your old address to find your name on the mailing lists. Bonds—Not War. Os coins? the future is veiled from us, and the clash of arms may pos sibly be heard before ano her year is out, but our opinion is that Cleve land has aroused the war fever for the purpose o' loading us down with bonds, a costly navy and a standing a-my. The war-scare is a fake—a blind to cover mori sinister designs. Corning in from a duck hunt of more than a week, the President finds that the English reply to his request for arbitration of the \ ene zuelau boundary has been received in his absence. That reply is a re jection of his offer. He immediately sends to Congress a message which, if it means any thing, is a declara ion of war. Is it probable that Mr. Cleveland would have committed his country to this tremendous issue without con sultation, without premeditation, without the gravest investigation of our military resources ? Has he ever issued bonds without previous confabs with Benedict & Co.? Has he not invariably seat Carlisle over to New York to feel the julso of his Wall street bosses before he moved a peg in his finan cial policy ? Did he not move with extreme caution and deliberation in the Ha waian muddle, in the Niearaugan episode, and in the Waller case? Can anyone explain his impetu osity in virtually declaring war 'against the greatest on earth, in a dispute where the I cited States has absolutely nothing at stake? Is the attitude of Great Britain in refusing to surrender to Vonazula a strip of land which she. Great Brit ain, claims to have surveyed, marked off and taken possession of more than a generation ago so threatening to the “ Monroe Doctrine ” as was the action of Great Britain last year in sending an ironclad into the port of Corinto, seizing the custom house, and holding possession of the town until her demands had been com plied with ? England owns Jamaica, Guiana, and Canada; and (although it is an unpopular thing to say at this time) we cannot for the life of us see ho v England violated the “ Monroe D >c . trine” when she insists cn holding land which she, bona fide, claims to be already hers. So far as we can see, England has as much right to hold her Guiana boundry lino against Venezuela, as she has to hold her Canadian boundary line against the United States. She certainly ought to be willing to arbitrate the question. She would arbitrate it were she dealing with Russia or Germany or the United States. But Venezuela is weak and England won’t arbitrate. Strong nations do not arbitrate with the weak. It’s tho way of the world. Fran ‘e did not arbitrate with Madagascar, Russia with Poland, nor England with Burmah. Neither did combined Christianity, represented by France and Great Britain, arbitra’e with heathen China, when Chiistianity wanted opium sold in China and heathendom did not want it. Chris tian guns battered an entrance for the deadly drug; the heathens being too weak to be successfully virtuous cVor, by the way, did the United States arbitrate with Mexico. Wanted her land, went for it—got it. No arbitration. And if we have ever arbitrated our Indian laad-grab bles the instance does not occur to us at this particular moment. As we have said England ought to arbitrate. Arbitrations are very de cent things to hive; but we are not aware of any rule of international f«-w which authorizes one nation to compel another to arbitrate a <!-ff- r ence which said other nation has wnth some thirl nation. Our humble j idgment is that the United States has no right to compel Great Britain to a 1 bitrate a bound ary line dispute with Venezuela. And we further believe that this contention between Great Britain and Venezuela about the boundary line between the two jurisdictions has no more to do with the “ Monroe Doctrine ” than the average cow has to do with astronomy. For a great nation like the United States to commit itself to the fight ing of all the battles of all the small government in South America seems to us a policy of madness. If those small countries once get it into their heads that we will back them in all their squabbles with European pow ers, they will bee mac tho fussiest lot of nationalities on earth, and the United Stat’s will be in perpetual hot water on their account. To become the protector of these South American countries means enormous responsibility on our part, with no return on theirs. But Cleveland does not mean war. He means bonds. He means more battleships. He means 3 larger stand ng army. Hardly had the ink upon his war message dried, hardly had it become perfectly clear that all the suckers had swallowed the <oait, hardly had that constant and profound hypocrite David B. Hill, introduced in the Senate 3 resolution giving to the ex- Confeds a chance to fight for their plutocratic bosses, hardly had 3 par cel of sapheads in a Southern city had the opportunity to show what imbeciles they were by telegraphing Cleveland they were ready to light —on i thousand strong—hardly had these evidence.! of popular approval of the war-message been seen before the President showed what he was really playing for. He sent in another special message demanding authority to issue bonds. This war scare is to be utilized for the purpose of riveting the gold-bug shackles. Build more battleship?, enlarge the army, pile up the national debt— that’s what will come of it. The only possible danger in the situation is that tho two chief man agers seem to be Grover Cleveland and Lon Livingston. The first hired a substitute during the *aie war, and the latter disap peared from the army after the first battle and could only be found, there after, holding some shadowy connec tion with the suttler’s department. When two euch warriors as these are bossing the quarrel, there is a real danger than they may embroil somebody else in a tight. T. E. W. A Grand Convention. It is a novelty in politics for a state to select her delegates to a Na tional Convention so far in advance as Georgia has done. The National Committee has not yet met, the time and place of the National Convention has not yet been fixed, and the campaign year has not yet been reached. In advance of these events no po litical party, bo far as we know> ever elected and instructed dele gates. I) .it tho Populist-; of Georgia, with a cheerful disregard of ali custom or precedent, have held their conven tion, elected th ir delegates and bound them by i - Miens. Wisely, we th I ik. That five hun dred delegates ' d assemble, in midwinter, in an elf year, to choose their spokesmen in the national councils of tho party was emphatic and powerful testimony of the rose lute vitality of Georgia Populism. That these live hundred men, as good and true as ever convened in cur capital, should choose more than fifty delegac, without a word of wrangle er di.-icv.isfaetion, was un answerable evidence of the patriotic unity of spirit which guides the party and controls its action. Tii it thus'- fire hundred Populists should, with oniv ono dissenting voic ■, adopt a platform; which make? it v vidly clear that Populism in Georgia takes no stock in Socialism a-id intends that hereafter no man eh-. 11 have reason t > doubt that fact, is the most convincing demons ra lion of what wo have claimed alj along:—that we sm.id for the Demo cra ic-Repubiioa o; m -f our fathers, and no for revolutionary doc'rines whose logical results would ba an overthrow of all oar existing insti tutions. The platform a looted with the unpreceden ed unanimity we have stated, was not sprung upon the dele gatus suddenly. T--. y did not a:t without premeditation. On the oilier Li-.d, their action THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, DECEMBER 27, 189) . was the natural result of several j weeks of reflection and discussion. The state executive committee of Georgia, at i s meeting several weeks ago, had seen fit to recommend a modification of our platform to the people. The changes proposed were not departures from principle. In no sense were they a surrender to our opponents. They simply made our original position clear, put our actual creed where it could not be misrepresented, and re-stated our case in the simplest manner possible. The original agreement between the Knights of Labor and the Farm ers’ Alliance at St. Louis in 1889 did not contemplate an overthrow of cur present form of government. Neither di I tho Ocala platform contemplate any such resolution. Neither did the Cincinnati conven tion of 1891 declare war upon the government as it stands. Yet these platforms were the foun dations upon which the People’s Party was built. The Ocala plat form, especially, was accepted as the true exposition of the purposes of the reform movement: —its intention being to remedy the abuses in the present government, and restore it to its original parity and vigor as a Democratic republic. Along these lines we were meeting astounding success. We were ap pealing to the reason, self interest, patriotism, and sentiment of a ma jority of the people when we de dared against un-democratic and un republican abuses of govermentat power, and in favor of tho equal and exact justice which once shaped our policies and moulded our laws. Aiong these lines the Farmers’ Alliance dominated both parties in 1890. Nothing kept it from being the monarch of all it surveyed, but the fact that half of the Alliance was Democratic while the other half was Republican. And between them lay the “bloody chasm” of secession and civil war— a chasm which the professional poli ticians of both parties took good care should ever remain open and ever remain bloody. How to fuse the Alliance strength, how to get Democratic reformers '. and. Republican pefermers.-to act in concert was the problem. • That a new party was necessary to afford common ground upon which old foes could meet as friends was obvious. ' That the leaders would have a ■ delicate task in making this change was equally clear. That any change in programme, during this period of change, would be desperately dangerous, ought to have been plain, yet at St. Louis and Omaha the wording of one plank was altered so as to make it capable of being construed into an attack on the private ownership of land. These few words, slipped in per haps without special notice, cost us thousands of votes. They have been a sword in our side ever since. It has been said that we received 1 more votes under tho Omaha plat form than we bad ever cast befor . It isn’t the truth. The reform move ment polled more votes in 1890 than it has ever done since—or ever will do again, unless we cut loose from : Socialism. ! What votes we got in 1892 and ■ 1891 were given to us in epite of the objectionable feature of the O naha ■ platform. Thousands of citizens I ; voted our ticket, not because they - endorsed everything in the Omaha i platform, but because there was abso lutely nothing they could endorse in i either of the old parties. ; Then again, almost every Populist . in the South voted with us, believing : that cur platform had not bien al- ■ I tered at Omaha, but meant just what : j it meant at the beginning. So said we, and so say we now. As the great campaign of 1896 ap i preaches it becomes prudent and ; necessary to insure a national plat ; I form in which there shall ba n i ' chance for mistake or misrepresenta tion. IL nee Georgia has spoken; spoken , temperately an 1 skr the fullest op portunity for thought and debate. [ This great state reiterates the Ocala platform:--omitting tho sub treasury, which is a mare detail of ; i distribution. i W»a Georgians have no right what ever to dictate to any other Populists. We have no disposition to do so. > i Yet we claim for ourselves the ■ same absolute independence of con viction which wo are ready to c?n- ! cece to others. Georgia is Populistic for lieform, not far lievolution. She stands for the doctrines of Jefferson, not for those of Karl Marx. She believes in the Republican form of government, in the prin ciples of democracy, and in the con stitutional rights of the individual— individual liberty, individual enter prise, and individual property. She does not believe in Socialism, with its collective ownership of land, homes, and pocketbooks. If the People’s Party means Social ism—then we ought to be t old so in plain English at our National Con vention. If it does not mean it, —then we should get rid of the words which make it possible for our enemies to misrepresent us. T. E, W. Coavention of Stockholders. The largest moating of the stock holders of Our Publishing Company was held on the 18 th inst. The report of the President was unanimously adopted. Tse business of the company was found to be in a healthy condition and every holder of stock felt en couraged. Many of them paid for additional stock, then and there. It was unanimously resolved that we should endeavor to induce the holders of the Alliance Exchange stock to invest it with us. Should this ba done, the Daily Preus will be ready to resume publication at any time it seems to he specially needed. It certainly should resume by the time the campaign of 1896 fairly opens. The stockholders authoriz’d tho President to appoint a new Board of - In obedience to said resolution the following have been appointed: First District, W. R. Kemp. Second District, J. W. Barwick. Third District, Hiram Williams. Fourth District, Ab. Wooldridge. Fifth District, J. T. Davenport and Mrs. Dr. Eli Griflia. Sixth District, Dr. Glover, of Bibb. Seventh District, J. W. McGar rity- w Eighth District', Dr. J. L. Durham. Ninth District, Thos. E, Winn. Tenth District, S. 11. Rhodes. Eleventh Dl-xuct, 11. W. Reid. We trnsfy* It each of- those Di rectors will accept the trust, and will co operate with us in making the company a sue cess. Pensions for Old Soldiers. The Legislature at its recent ses sion authorized the Governor to bor row $120,000 to pay the pensions to the old and indigent Confederate soldiers. We state this because it is a matter of great interest to many of our subscribers. The Christmas Number of ‘ The Art Ama eur”is replete with .value ble practical material in every de i parlment of art work, and contains special articles suited to the season. ; The picture of the old fiddler, which is this year the attraction of the ' news stands thrc-ighout tho country, is from the fam jus picture by J. G. , Brown, entitled “A Sad Heart, but a Merry Tune.” Even more valuable to the Art Student is the striking study of “Fleur-de-Lis,” in water colors, by Frieda V. Redmond, | shown iti progressive stages of paint- ■ ■ ing, like the companion panel of' “American Beauty Rises,” issued I with the October number. Exam- I pies of decoration in the supplements ! ~ are numerous and seasonable—chin a I painters and wool carvers especially are given a rare treat. lu the letter press, araoig countless good things, , ■ the story of Lady Emma Hamilton, - with the portrait of Rimuey, is sym- i pathetically, and briefly told, “The , Study of Human Expression” deals \ with a subj ct of universal interest, a d the article on “Teaching the Child to draw” will attract not only teachers, but every mother in the \ . land. It is not cosy to imagine a ' more suitable holiday present for an J . ' artistic friend that a years’ subsorip | Ito this sterling raigazine. (Monta- i , gue Mauks, PuMisher, 2M Union Squirt, New York 35 cents ;$1 00 a year) i Just So. There are 125,0)0 populist voters : in Georgia. If tach one of these voters (or some of heir friends for them) would contrnute ?! a yea . toward the support of tho People’s Barty Paper and $ a year toward s | the support of the.i county paper, | . ■ tho people’s party <i Georgia wcu’d have a battery rhs; no plutocratic horde could silcnct Try it—even i half of you try it—nd the day of > j reckoning is at hand.—People’s ■ j Guide. Editorial Notes. We are paying English capitalists one million dollars par day as inter est upon the bonds, stocks, mort gages, etc., which they held against us. Do you suppose they will allow a war—the very first result of which will be that the tribute we pay them will cease? * * * Cleveland issues bonds to get gold, then turns loose the gold to get greenbacks, then issues bonds to get the gold again. Why not reverse the thing awhile? Why not issue greenbacks to get gold? Do you say he couldn’t get gold for green backs ? Try it and eee. * # • Chairman Taubeneck has called a meeting of the National Executive Committee for Jin 17, 1896. The place of the meeting is the Linden Hotel, St, Louis, Missouri. The purpose of the meeting is to decide upon the time and place for the next Populist National Convention. Thus the ball begins to roll. The indications are that 1896 will be the stormiest campaign year this country has known. * * * We have made arangemants to have our paper printed more speedily hereafter and to get it to our sub scribers more promptly. We will publish a larger amount of news and a greater variety of reading matter. We expect to add the Cartoon fea ture soon. Thus we hope to be in better shape to do our full share of the fighting in the great battle of 1896. • » • * Our friends brought us a hand some addition to subscription lists last week, and encouraged us greatly by their proofs of zealous friendship for the paper. If this revival of interest can be steadily kept up until every Populist in Georgia is fired with energy and determination, there is no power on earth that can keep us from success in 1896. * * * The contest in the Tenth goes merrily on. Our witnesses are not confined to the Peoples party. By Democrats of the* highest standing we are showing up systematic cor ruption of the ballot-box in Augusta. Read the testimony of Rev. Wm. B. Stradley, a prominent Methodist di'- vine. Ho was a Democrat at the time the special election was held, and had voted the ticket up to that time. * * * We are making out a case which damns the Augusta bosses, and which Congress cannot afford to ig nore. We are going to prove by un impeachable testimony every charge we have made against those unscru pulous sioundrels. We are g >ing to prove to the whole country that.!. C C. Black holds a fraudulent title, and knows it to be so. He has refused every honorable proposition we hai e made him looking to a fair and speedy settlement, here 3t home, of the vexed question which has rent the district. He has refused all our offers. Ho will agree to nothing that does not keep him in the seat. In vain have we appealed for decent methods, honest treatment, and a fair election. In vain have we ' pleaded for justice. In vain have I we invoked at the hands of cur op ponents that honorabe treatment which we have always accorded to I them, and to which we are entitled under the law. They need not believe that we ever intended to submit to the infa mous outrage they have put upon us. We have not deserved such treatment, have done n j;hing to jus tify it, and we do not intend to rest under it. Populism holds a majority’ in this district, and no little squad of po litical tricksters have the right to say that they will not allow the ma jority to rule. Th s district is being boesad by a few unprincipled po litical criminals. Not only do they admit that they swindled us but they boast of it. Insolently and diliintly they pro claim their contempt of law and justice—their determination to rule regardless of legal votes. Such a situation is just simply in tolerable, and we are going to fight it as long as our heart beats. If our people will continue ta stand by us, we have no fear of final results. Rascality cannot always prosper. Right must, at some time or other, prevail. T. E. W. Get your neighbor to subscribe foi this paper. ALLEN’S CALL. ; Open Letter to the Chairman a d Members of the Populis National Committee. If all the men of the country who are opposed to the Cleveland and Republican policy on the money 1 question would get together they could carry the election for Presi dent in 1896, and I firmly believe , that it is within the power of the ; leaders of the Populist pa-ty to bring ; about this united action without giv , ing up a single one of tho great prin i cities of the party. No new party can ever succeed to power, to bless mankind that has not the spirit of sacrifice, tolerance and compromise. This belief in the aphorism, that truth will prevail whether-or-no, or ’ that if crushed to earth will rise 1 again, has misled and destroyed the ' influence of many great men and par ties. Truth in the hands of zealots, bigotry and incompetence, has been crushed to earth and buried for ' twenty centuries. The opposition to the two old par ' ties hold the winning cards if they 1 know how to play them, but it is a ten-ace-hand that will neither per mls the player to finesse with, nor to , lead out from, but if the hand is led , up to, we can take the odd trick and win the game. The Republican Party, now flush- L ed with victory, his no fears of de feat in the coming race for Presi dent, and will, as usual with that par ty, call an early national convention ; , and the disintegration now going on ! in the Democratic Party will force this party also into an early national convention. The opposition, there . fore, has nothing to apprehend in ; this talk of late conventions of the . two old parties to frustrate and , thwart the will of the people; they will lead up to our hand. I wish now to draw attention to, ; and to discuss briefly, the two-third i rule that obtains in the Democratic Party, and which has governed the i action of every nation il Democratic convention since 1841. Under this rale it takes a two-third vote of all 1 the accredited delegates to the con -1 vention to nominate candidates or adopt a platform. This party, there- I fore, when it meets in National con vention next year, divided as it is ■ now on tho silver question as it was on the slavery question iu 1860, can ' neither nominate candidates nor 1 adopt a platform, but like the * Charleston convention, must inevita ' bly go to pieces. But suppose the Cleveland sonti ment should prevail with a email , majority in the convention, as most likely will be the eatje, and should proceed to repeal or refuse to adopt this time-honored rule and law of the party; then every brave and t patriotic anti-Cleveland delegate would walk out of the convention. I What would the Cleveland men do . then? Would they nominate candi ( dates? No. They would go holy . and soul to the Republican party, j But on the other hand, suppose tho , Cleveland men should conclude that , it would be best to nominate candi , dates for President and Vice.Presi den’, then those candidates would be derided as the candidates of a rump and bob-tail convention, and left , without the hope of carrying a tingle Slate in the Union. And in either event the effect of all this would be ’ to compass the ruin of the De no ! cratic party. In view of the foreshadowing re sults, it should be the policy of the People’s party to await events. No > action should be taken likely to ex cite prejudice, or that would seem unfair to the silver sentiment in the old parties, and when the proper time for action shall come, then let , a patriotic call go out inviting every friend of good government to take i his place with us on the ground floor of reform, with equal rights and privileges, and with equal hopes for the future. lam a P ipulist. Walter N. Allen. Meriden, K ms, The President’s Message. Iu the history of the world, as an index to a heartless ruler, a cold, calculating schemer, an enemy to his people, an abandoned wrench who cares not for the sorrow aud woe he creates s.a long as his own selfish lust and desires are gratified, the ■ annual message of President Cleve land points to h m as man who sur passes them all in meanness and God- i less defiance of the interests of hu manity. Herod killed two hundred inno ; cent babes, but he struck with the ■ dagger of sorrow these two hun j dred homes because he imagined hat the sceptre he held would there, by be eared. Nero fired his capitol city and played his fiddle while the homes of half a million citizens were burning to ashes, but he did it in a bachana- Han orgy without premeditation or design for selfish gain. The French king sanctioned the massacre of Bartholomew’s night and himself fired his musket into the fleeing helpless throng of Hu. geunots as they vainly approached the palace for protection, but he was a misguided zjalot who did it as a meritorious act of obedience to the church. Napoleon offered the flower of manhood upon the altar of his am bition, he made every home in his country a house ot mourning and drained the land by his war levies, but he did it for the glory of his em pire, and the fruits of his conquests were bestowed upon France. Unlike all the monsters which have ever cursed a nation by becom ing its chief ruler, Cleveland alone is the pitiless, conscienceless wretch , who would degrade his country, beggar and enslave his people, brinql , misery and suffering to every hum-1 ble home in the land, a’l for the sor-1 did purpose of self-aggrandisement; and he does not attempt it on the impulse of a moment, but after ma ture reflection and with set deliber ation. Ignoranco cannot be pleaded in extenuation of his crime, for he is in a posi.ion to be informed, and is i informed ; besides, he has witnessed the fearful consequences to the peo ple of the initiatory steps in the , s eheme he recommends, which havo i been taken. And all for a little selfish gain for • himself. This man, who but a few years ago was sheriff of one of the smaller [ cities of his stats and glad to serve . for the moderate salary which that , offiee paid, who is said to have been . so restricted in his income that he i acted as hangman to save tho fee of [ a jack catch, and who is now repu ted to count his wealth by the mil- • lions. Who is not content with hav i ing a store which is beyond his Mow er or the power of his family to\ex- t baust in supplying all their i however extravagant; but still 'pi-ts j to increase it in the same mysteri.ps - manner in which it has grown % 'II#, i present proportions. Why does he advise that U500,- 000,000 of the peop'e’s destroyed. Why does he ask ’that' i he be invested with authority to ex change a non interest bearing debt [ for interest bearing bonds ? Have ; the people vh > hold these notes ' and who freely pass it from hand to I hand ever complained or asked for , payment? Never. Ha himself states that only exploiting adven , turers have ever demanded payment of these notes, and that he, though - knowing their purpose, paid them gold for notes which had been given i for silver and which the law express ly stated should be paid in coin. Is not silver coin, and does not any sane man know that “coin” promised in exchango for silver means “silver” , coin? But he gave them gold on ; their demand, knowing their pur i po-e to be to reduce the gold re serve and force an issue of bonds. i Tie issued $162,000,000 and now has less gold than he had before they were issued. The whole purpose of these bond , issues was to force the destruction of the people’s money, to leave them no other way cf supply but the ban ker’s money for the use of which a , ,-.be?.vy toll will ba exacted. This . | scheme Mr. Cleveland knows and to 'it ho has been a party. Yet with sublime audacity he comes with his message and attempts to drive the people's representatives to forge the last link which shall complete this . chain of diabolism. Does history show a more detes table character than the man who sens that message?—Augusta Trib une. We Saj So, Too. Vol. 1 No. 1 of the Dublin Tran ecript is before us. Mr. J. Gurrie Thompson is its editor, and the initial i number promise of an able pB - i per. We extend a hearty welcome , Ito this new recruit, in the reform ranks an 1 trust the people of Liur ' ens county will give it the support it I j needs to make it a tower of strength iu their cause.—The Daily Tribune. Mary Anderson will tell in her au tobiographical paper in the January Ladies’ II me Journal how and where she made her first success on the stage, and of General Shetmau’s, General Grant’s, Edwin Booth’s and Dorn Pedro’s most encouraging com i niendalion of her early efforts as an II aotress.