Newspaper Page Text
6
WATSON’S
_SPEECH.
•'Jopnlist Candidate Addresses
a Great Audience at
Dallas, Texas.
THE WOES OF THE PEOPLE
Have Been Principally Caused
by Turning the Government
Over to Corporations.
SEWALL MUST COME DOWN.
Charges that Bryan’s Chicago
Mate is a Kailroad. King, a
National Banker and
Monopolist.
From the Dallas Texas Morning News,
Sept- Bth.
Thomas E. Watson of Georgia ad- '
dreused 5.000 persons at the fair grounds
yesterday. From beginning- to end of
his speech the wiry little Georgian set '
the crowd afire. The cheering was
s imething more than the ordinary .
manifestation of the appreciation of j
tie people. At times it lasted for two |
or three minutes. Throughout the I
speech there were interjections and
exclamations of delight. And all went
away pleased, if not converted.
The introductory exercises ■were
short. Mayor Holland welcomed the
visitor and Gov. Barnett Gibbs presen
ted him in a very few words. Then the ;
throng got a chance to see the man
many of them had come many miles to ;
hear. As the orator stood up and sur
veyed the wide reaches of the grand
stand, the center section and that to
the north packed ami jammed, there
were expressions of disappointment*
Some had evidently con e with the idea
of seeing an Apollo or a giant in stat
ure. They were visibly disappointed,
Watson would nev.r take a prize in
’ * show, or Ist a single instant
of
r.ruarkcita of the speak-
er’s hta nd.
“Yes,” brawny man be
hind her, “he’s little, but fnl] of pizen.”
Watson fell to work in good style.
There are no pyrotechnics about him.
nothing of historian ism. He never re
hearses a speech or studies a gesture*
He makes both just as they come to
him. His gestures, by the way, are not
8s graceful as a dancing master’s, but
they are very impressive. And they
frequently emphasize the speaker's
words on the mind of the hearer. Wat
son uses his litho body to perfection,
ami his postures unstudied as they are,
form one of the most attractive accom
paniments to his speeches. His voice
s rather harsh, but it carries wqll, and
with a wind blowing across the stand,
he was beard yesterday to its remotest
coniines.
The lirst great cheer after the speaker
started in was when he referred to The
News. The crowd just made the rafters
q liver for a minute or O.
When lie paid his respects to Mr.
Sewall the applause was deafening, and
again when he declared that the Popu
list parly did not propose to be swal
lowed up by the Democratic party.
All through the speech, as the ver
batim report printed below will show,
the enthusiasm continued, reaching its
climax at the end. When he had fin
ished Watson's hand was squeezed os
that it pained. Dozens and dozens of
people were lighting their way to the
speaker’s stand to tell him how well
they liked his speech and give his arm
another wrench. In this the women
vied with the men and Mr. Watson was
the recipient of some, very extravagant
compliments from the opposite sex.
As soon as he could make his escape
Mr. Watson was driven to the Oriental
hotel, and during the afternoon nis
rooms were visited by hundreds of peo
ple. He left at 4:30 th's morning for
Bonham, where he addresses the people
at the fair grounds.
Mr. AVatson delivered his speech en
tirety without notes. The News, an
ticipating such a contingency, had a
corps of expert stenographers on hand,
ami this morning presents an absolute
ly correct and verbatim report of what
lie said. And as usual it will ba the
only paper in Texas accomplishing this
feat.
Mayor F. I*. Holland opened the cere
monies by a short speech of welcome.
He did not introduce the speaker of the
day, that duty having at the last mo
ment been relegated to Hon. Barnett
Gibbs.
Mr. Holland said:
“Ladies and Gentlemen— -It is my
pleasant duty today to welcome the
laborers of Dallas and the visiting
laborers and labor organizations to this
city. I did not know until just at this
time that this was to Lt; my duty. 1
welcome you all and turn the city over
to you. I have issued a proclamation
making this day aholiday for the police
as well as the rest of you and I assure
you that thee tv is yours. The Hon, I
Barnett Gibbs wdl introduce Georgia's
famous son, the Hon. Mr. Watson.”
(Applause.)
As soon as the applause following
the mayor’s remarks had died away,
Mr. Gibbs took the stand, and in a
speech that was literally punctuated
by applause by his hearers, introduced
Georgia’s little giant.
Mr. Gibbs said:
“Ladies, Gentlemen and Fellow Citi
: zens—The duty has devolved upon me
to present to you a man who is even
better known to the people of Texas
t han lam myself. In all the ages there
has been a movement among the people
for better and more equal government,
in all ages there have been reformers*
men who essayed to better the condi
tion of their fellow men. These re
formers, some of them, have been
spasmodic, in some the spirit of politi
cal reformation has been ever upper
most.
! “I have the honor to present to you
today one of those men whose record is
perhaps brighter than any reformer in
this country. A man who has struggled
ever since he was a youth to inculcate
the principles of reform, and a man who
has lived a life according to the prin
ciples that he has preached. A man
who, among his own people has their
hearty support, independent of any
political conviction, because of the up
right life that lie has led. It gives me
great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen,
to introduce to you the Hon. Thomas
Watson of Georgia, the Populist nomi
nee for vice president.” (Wild cheering
and handclapping.)
The Populist nominee for vice presi
dent was on his feet almost before the
Texas ex-governor had finished speak
ing, and, as soon as the applause which
greeted him had died away, he launched
out into his speech.
j Mr. Watson said;
; “Fellow citizens: ‘Peace has its vic
| lories no less renowned than war,’ and
the victories of peace are those which
carry forward the interests of hu
i manity. lam glad to be here today
with the labor organizations of the city
I and the laboring men of the country
' who have met on common ground to
consider their common welfare and to
: discuss these policies which are best
I for the laborers anti producers every
-1 where. I would rather that my name
were handed down to posterity as hav- ,
' ing been the author of the declaration
I of independence, that victory of peace,
than to have been chronicled to the
ages as the victor at the battle of
Waterloo. At the battle of Waterloo
no principle was established. A prin
ciple was violated, the principle that
the French people had a right to select
their own rulers. That violated prin
ciple reasserted itself almost before the
victor of Waterloo was dead and it is
vindicated for all time. Therefore the
battle of Waterloo accomplished noth
:,i "- and the victory accomplished was
■
I speak o’, the victory by estab
lishing the principles incorporated in
the publication of the declaration of
, independence which has never lost, but
I gained ground, wlrch never can he lest,
established once for all the principle
■ that so far as the future is concerned
the law shall be established that all
men are created free and equal and
that the government shall do equal and
exact justice to all men. (Applause.)
“I am here today to remind you
laboring men of the cities, that you j
entered into a contract with the labor- •
ing men o* the country and yott ought j
to stand by it. lam here to remind the ]
Western reformers that they entered J
into a contract with the Southern re- ‘
formers and that they ought to stand
.by it. (Cheers,) lam for straight Pop-
I ulism. (Cheers.) Ard] do not propose
; to be carried to one side of the road or
j the other, but I expect to bear the ban
i ner right straight down the line and
! carry it to victory or fall with it in de
feat. (Wild cheering and prolonged
; handclapping )
“What was that contract and when
I was it made? What brought it about?
In ISS9 th re were governmental con.
I dittoes that were unsatisfactory to the
i wage-earner, whether in forge or sac
tory. whether in country or town, |
whether in the East or West, whether
in the North or South. The sum and
substance of this dissatisfaction was
this: that the non-producers got what
the producers n a !e an 1 the producers
got nothing of what they themselves
j produced.
' “What was the contract; where was
i it made:’ At St. Louis in 1889 seven
teen labor organizations representing ■
the organized labor of the cities of this i
republic met the Western farmers and
th«- Southern farmers and signed up an
agreement that they would act to
gether ard vote together until the re
forms demanded in their platform had
been enacted into law. What these
reforms were, 1 shall discuss later on.” ■
Just at this time a table for the ac :
commodation of the reporters arrived I
and he stopped his speech until it could '
; be put in place. The atmosphere was
so oppressive that Mr. Watson change! I
his coat, putting on a light alpaca.
This action set the crowd wild and the I
, cheering which greeted this act on his
part was the loudest of the entire meet
ing. “The ladies won't mind; take her
oil Tom, take her off,” came from ail ,
sideu. Mr Wat: on kept his coat on,
however. Continuing he said: “I am !
a newspaper man myself and the news
paper boys must have all the elbow
room they want. (Laughter.) ?am
told that in Dallas, Tex., you have a 1
newspaj- r —The Dallas News—which
is opposed to you and the principles you
and 1 advocate z\ paper, however,
which g ves absolutely truthful ac. •
counts of your m ’ct ings just as they do '
of their own and J congratulate you
and I congratulate the State of Texas. <
and I congratulate the city of Dallas ;
that you have newspapers that tell the ;
truth no matter who it helps or hurts. ■
; (Cneers.) Now, let me go back, be’ i
• cause no matter how 1 may be diverted |
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER. ATLANTA, GA.. SEPTEMBER 18, 1896.
by incidents that occur, I always know
‘where lam at.’ (Wild cheering.)
•‘I say, then, the laboring men of the
towns and the cities entered into a
written contract with the farmers of
the country, and that written contract
was signed by Powderly, by Wright
and by Ralph Beaumont on your part
and was signed by Macune, by Living
ston and by Polk on the part of the
farmers.”
Here an old man sitting away back
in the audience jumped up and com
menced to read the riot act to a lot of
small boys who were making an awful
racket at the other end of the stand.
His speech created a great commotion
and it was some time before Mr. Wat
son could proceed.
“If my friends,” proceeded Mr. Wat
son, “will give me about five minutes
to get this crowd in my hands they will
never get lost again. (Laughter.) If
my friends here in front will just
sit down and leave this thing to me 1
will have it all right in a few minutes.
This ain’t the first crowd I ever faced
by a jugful. 1 can hold my own with
the boys—l am one of the boys myself.
(Laughter.) Now here, let me get
back to it again and I hope there will
be no more interruptions from anybody
in the crowd, for no matter however
well meant they disturb rather than
quiet.
“I say, then, it doesn’t become me to
say why or how certain of the labor
leaders are no longer supporting these
principles and standing by that contract
no more than it is worth my while to
talk about whether Macune is doing it
or Livingston is doing it. Ido say this:
That 1 believe that the rank and file of
the labor organizations were true to
that contract then and are true to it
now, just as I know that the rank and
file of the Farmers* Alliance were true
to it then and are true to it now.
Leaders may fall but the cause shall
not fail. (Cheers.) Leaders may sell
out, but the gold has never been coined
that can buy the patriotism of a whole
people. (Cheers.) Leaders may hold
themselves aloof from the party and
trade off principles for pie, but the
rank and file still cling to the principles
of that contract and they have sworn
and I swear it with them that the bat
tle shall not cease until the victory is
ours. Ttyen, I say to the labor organi
zations of the United States you pledg
ed your faith to us. Upon that faith
we of the South have acted. Upon the
faith that the laborers of the city would
stand by us the laborers of the country
have gone forward in their movement.
So far as I am concerned it is well
known to you that I ran for congress
on the contract and platform of 1889,
was elected to congress, stood faithfully
in congress by every plank in our plat
form, followed the party when it in
structed me r.ot to obey the caucus
dictations of either of the old parties,
followed the grand council at Indian
apolis wht-ii juu -instructed the con
gressmen that were elected on that
contract platform of St. Louis in 1889
not to go into the caucus of the old
parties. I followed the movement and
your instructions when you came to
the conclusion that from neither old
party could you get any of the relief
you demanded. Further, I followed
you into the Peoples party, ran for con
gress on the Peoples party platform
and was swindled out of my seat.”
I Voices—* 4 ‘That’s right.”
i “I was swindled by frauds that no
' Democrat will deny and no Democrat
!can defend. I contested it in congress
and was denied a hearing. I fought
j the bat tie again in 1894 and was swin
dled out of it again and the Democrats
• themselves admitted that they had
overdone the thing. They had cast
IG.OOO ballots in a county whose male
population old enough to vote was 11,-
000. (Yells and laughter.) Even the
Democrats themselves said to me:
‘Don’t let's contest this thing. Let’s
have it over again.’ We had it over
again in 1895; I was swindled out of it
again. The contest is now in the house
and will be carried forward until it is
settled one way or the other. But in j
the meantime comes my party at St.
• Louis and asks me to take a presiden- ;
I tial position upon this same platform, j
and, believing in it as I believed in it !
when you made it, I stand by it now as j
I did then. I have given live .years of
my life to it; I am ready to give five
more and I simply ask yon who made
the contract to stand by it just as I am
I standing by it, and if yon will be as
true to me as I am going to be to you
; God will bless our efforts and we will
• achieve the reforms we wish to achieve. |
1 (Wild cheering.) Unless the reforms I
which we demanded in that platform >
have been carried out we ought now to |
come forward and carry them out. It |
is binding upon you and binding upon
me to carry forward the work until the
contract is established. The only way
, you can escape from it is to say that the
Peoples parly has been untrue to the
contract made between the city laborers
i and the country reformers. Can you
say it? (Chorus of voices—No.)
I “We have been represented in con-
I gross by a body of Populist congress-
I men, and they are the only men in con
; gross who have never voted against a ,
single plank in their platform, but at ■
everi’ turn of fortune, on every ■
, turn of legislation, they have voted
solidly for the pledges made in their
platform and, therefore, 1 say that the
Peoples party has been true to the j
labor interests of the country and the I
labor interests of the country ouizht to i
be true to the Peoples party. Have 1 '
been untrue to it? (Cries of ‘No, no,’
from all over the stand.) Pardon me
while I give you the record. Not only t
did I carry out every plank in that
platform and do everything n my
power to have the reforms enacted into
law, but I di<l this especially in behalf
| of the labor interests of the country. 1
! Laboring men! I voted in congress for ,
an eight-hour law. AVas that right? |
i (‘Yes, yes,’ from all over the crowd.) i
| I voted in congress against the Pinker- I
tons and introduced a resolution and
had it passed against that infamous
gang. Was that right? (Wild yells.)
I defeated on the floor of the house the
Cutting military bill, which sought to
bring the State militia of every State
under federal control and thus increase
the power of the federal government,
centralize the military strength of the
plutocracy of the land and put the
laboring people and the farmers of the
country under the hee-l of such men as
Grover Cleveland. I defeated that
law. (Cheers.) Not only that; the
resords of congress will show that I
look a leading and decisive part in
passing the automan tic car coupler bill,
which compels the railroad corpora
tions within from the time
that law was parsed to buy and put on
their trains these automahtic car
couplers—self-couplers of trains, which
will rescue the laboring men from dan
ger an save the thousands of men who
are every year mangled and maimed
and are killed in coupling cars. Was 1
right? (Shouts of approval and loud
and prolonged cheering.)
“Then, fellow citizens the party has
been true to you and its nominee has
been true to you. Then, I say, the
contract ought to stand that yoa made
with us at St. Louis; that you made
with us in 1892 again; that you made
at Indianapolis, and that you made
at Omaha. The contract ought to
stand unless the reforms demanded
have already been carried out. Have
these reforms been carried out? AA’hat
were they? Fir~t of all, j*ou demanded
that the tax system of this country
should be equalized, should be upon a
aster footing, so that the wealth of
:he land might bear its fair share of
the taxes. Didn't you do it, didn’t you
think it was right then; don’t you think
now it is right? Oughtn’t the federal
taxes to be levied upon those who are
best able to pay them? Ought not the
principle that is in your town tax, that
is in your county tax, that is in your
State tax, obtain also in your federal
taxes —that a man should pay in ac
cordance with what he has got?
Oughtn’t the federal tax be paid in
proportion to the property which the
federal government protects? The man
who has got 1,000 acres of land ought
to pay ilore tax than the man who has
got one, the values of the two tracts
being relatively the same. The man
who has got 1,000 cattle should pay
more tax than the man who has got
only one dozen, the value of the cattle
being relatively the same. We say this:
that the federal tax is so levied that
the wealth of the country escapes taxa
tion. Who is it that pays the taxes?
It is the laboring man, it is the small
merchant, the small farmer, the artisan
and the mechanic. The day laborer
pays his federal tax when he buys the
goods that clothe his nakedness, the
food that feeds his hunger, the house
which shelters him from the storm,
and when he buys the tools he works
with. He pays a federal tax on cloth
like he pays a federal tax on tobacco.
The amount of the federal tax is added
to the cost of the tobacco and the man
who chews and smokes tobacco is the
man who pays the tax. He pays a to
bacco tax like he pays a whisky tax.
The man who buys and drinks whisky
is the man who pays the federal tax
because the tax on the whisky has b:en
added unto the price thereof. It is the
same way about the house, about the
clothing, about the shoes, about the
furnishing goods and about the 3,000
articles which enter into the home life
as necessaries of life. The tax is added
to the price of the goods, and you pay
for the tax when you buy .the goods;
therefore the tax is levied ou the man
who buys these things, on the man
who buys farm implements and on the
man who uses farm implements, and on
the man who needs the necessaries of
life, therefore it is that the poorest
man may pay more tax than a rich
mao. We say this is wrong. AVe say
that the federal tax, like the State tax,
ought to be levied on wealth. AVe say
that the great railroads, owning one
fifth or one sixth of all the wealth of
1 the land, who pay no federal taxes,
ought to pay them. The great manu
i facturers who used to pay a federal
ta.K, pay none now. The manufactur
ers’ tax was a tax laid on wealth.
They sent a lobby to congress to have
i. repealed and congress obeyed the
demands of wealth and took off the tax
of the manufacturers. Therefore, hav
ing laid it uponyou. you thereafter had
to pay your own tax and the manufac
turer's tax, too. (A voice—That’s right.)
! Not only that; there used to be a tax
: on the great insurance companies. They
have the wealth of the land, they bring
i in royal revenuesand they pay princely
■ salaries. They have no federal tax.
The federal government in former years
made them pay a tax. It was a tax on
wealth. AVealth objected to paying it
and the insurance companies sent a
lobby to congress and demanded a re
peal of that tax. The.y had it repealed
and had their tax laid upon our shoul
ders, so that today we pay the tax of.
the railroad companies, the manufac
turers’ tax and the insurance com
panies’ tax’, and still you don’t get
t happy! (Laughter.)
• “There was a tax on express com-
• panics. They repi esent wealth, they
represent corporate industry and cor
porate prosperity. They 7 have royal
revenues and you can’t buy their stock
on the markets for any money. They
I used to pay a federal lax; they pay
; none now. AVby ? Their lobby de
’ manded that congress repeal it and
congress obeyed their demand and took
off the tax from them and added it to
, your burden. What else ? There was
a tax upon bankers. That was a tax
upon wealth. AVealth objected to pay
ing it and demanded its repeal. Con
gress obeyed the wishes of wealth and
repealed the law and that tax’, just as
i the other, was added to your tax and
: you pay for wealth as well as for labor,
i you pay yours as well as others, and it
j is do wonder that a great cry of dis-
tress comes up from all over the land.
It is an unjust government It will
cause unhappiness among the people
and we ought to fight it, we ought to
battle against it, we ought never to be
satisfied until we get laws enacted that
; will treat all the people alike, until we
get a fair tax. (Prolonged applause.)
“Do you want to remedy 7 this situa
tion ? Do you want a fair and equal
tax ? Is there any man here that can
claim that lam a demagogue? (Vo ces
—No.) Well, if because I stand here
and advocate a better form of govern
ment—a government that will give all
men an equal show, and because
I am opposed to the smallest
wealth paying the heaviest tax
and I am called a demagogue for
that, call me a demagogue forever. I
say that these reforms demanded have
never been accomplished. Can you ac
complish them by electing McKinley’
and Hobart? (Chorus of voices—Never,
never.) Don’t talk before you think
now. (Laughter.) Look before you
leap. lam going to carry you along
with me, lam not going to give you
any chance to get back across the
branch. You must burn the bridges if
you follow me. (Laughter and cheers)
I deal in straight goods and nothing
else and I mean exactly what I say and
I am talking to you straight from the
shoulder. Isay this now: Can you do
it by electing McKinley and Hobart?
Isay no and you say no. Let me give
a reason for the faith that is in me.
Every large manufacturer in the coun
try, with but few exceptions, is con
tributing freely to the McKinley and
Hobart campaign fund, every railroad
company in America stands by 7 McKin
ley and Hobart, and the gold trust and
the bond syndicate stand for McKinley
and Hobart. They represent the con
centrated and monopolistic powers of
money. Don't you know it ? (Cries of
“yes.”) They ha»e no tax; now do you
suppose they are going to elect a man
that is going to make them pay any?
Do you suppose that they are going to
elect a man that will do anything that
I you want done ? Do you suppose that
he will take away the privileges from
them which they now enjoy or regu
late the class legislation by which they
now get their money ? Do you think
these men arc going to let McKinley
and Hobart errry out our reform prin
ciples? (“No, no,” from all over the
stand.) Then you don’t want McKin
ley and Hobart ? (No, no,)
“Can you get reform by electing
Bryan and Sewall ? (The crowd yelled
itself hoarse at this juncture and men
jumped upon the seats and chairs and
shouted “No!” until they could not
utter another word. The crowd simply
went wild.) Hold on, now, boys.
(Here a fellow shouted, “No AVatson,
no Bryan!”) Just you keep from in
front of the wagon ; I’ll attend to that;
just you get in behind and keep up.
No, you can’t do it by electing Bryan
and Sewall. AVby? Because Sewall
stands for the same monopolis tic inter
ests that McKinley does. (Cheers.)
He stands for the some railroad combi
nation that McKinley does, he stands
for the same national bank privileges
that McKinley does, he stands for the
same autocratic power of money that
McKinley does. Sewall is a contradic
tion of Bryan and every argument
that proves Bryan to be right proves
Sewall to be wrong. (Wild cheering.)
Then you can't do it by electing Bryan
and Sewall. Now you have got Hob
son’s choice, boys. (Laughter,) You
can do it in only one way and that is
i by meeting the democrats half way and
• no more than half way. (Y'ells.) You
i can do it by standing in good faith by
the action of the St. Louis convention
and by the St. Louis platform. That
platform lays down a law for you and
for me. It did not do what I wanted
done, as you all know. I told them
not to do it. I begged for them not to
do it. But they did the best they could.
They haven't violated their principles;
they haven't disbanded the party; they
have left me in charge. (Cheers.) And
while Tom AVatson lives the people's
party can’t be buried. (Cheers.) Now
I say that you can’t readjust the tax’
system unless you stard by the St. Louis
convention and its nominees. Bryan
but not Sewall —Bryan and AVatson.
I (Cheers.) Every argument that proves
i Bryan right proves me a little more so.
(Cheers.) That 1 mean business my
past life shows, that I mean actual
I war, I have got the scars of battle on
Ime to show. People’s party of Texas,
! I appeal to you! Listen to the voite of
I reason and not to the voice of passion.
, Don’t go astray. You can't indorse a
single Sewall elector. (Cheers.) They
might offer you ten to two, but the in
i consistency would still be there, the
1 sacrifice of principle would still be
there, the degradation of party honor
[ would still be there, the disgrace of
! your party ilag would still be there,
i Ain’t that so? (Cheers and affirmative
1 yells.) And you can’t support a single
McKinley elector for the same reason.
I (Cheers.) Hear this doctrine. Listen
• j to it before you act. I am going to give
: you the straight doctrine. You can’t
stand by Sewall and you can’t stand by
McKinley; you must stand by your own
nominees at St. Louis. The only dan
ger of Bryan’s being defeated is the
continuance of that man Sowall on the
ticket. (Yells and a voice: “That’s
right Tom. Give it to him again.”)
Let that eastern man take his hat and
go home. (Laughter.) This is a move-
- ment of the south and the west; let a
western man speak for the west and a
j southern man for the south. (Cheers.)
: This is a movement of the masses. Let
Bryan speak for the masses and let
AVatson sptak for the masses and let
Sewall talk for the banks and the rail
i roads, (Cheers.)
1 “Now, we have got along very har
moniously so far. haven’t we ? (Laugh
ter.) Now let us keep on down the
line. There was another reason why
you wanted reform- It was another
element in your contract, AVhat was
it? Y’ou said that the transportation
system was all wrong and it must be
righted. Is it any less wrong now than
it was in 1889 ? Are there not the same
complaints now that there were then ?
You talk about our railroad system!
AA’hat was our objection to it? Now,
mind you, I am not making any war
upon the men who own them or the
men who cont’ol or operate them. I
am making war upon the system. They
are simply doing what you or I would
do under the same system, because we
are all made out of the same mud. AVe
are making war upon the system, and
I say the system is wrong. AVhy? It
erects in the government a power
greater than the government itself and
that ought not to be. It works in with
trusts, monopolies and combinations
and that ought not to be. The system
exercises the power of taxation with
out representation and that ought not
to be. That system represents the
autocratic power of money to discrim
inate against your industry to build up
another one, against your town to
build up another town, against your
state to build up another one. They
can make the grass grow in the streets
of Dallas within a year if they paralyze
it with antagonistic freight and passen
ger rates and you know it. Its con
trolling pow’er over legislation is won
derful. It buys up congressmen and
legislatures and subsidizes newspapers
and those sources from which the pub
lie sentiment obtains its inspiration,
therefore the entire system is against
good government. They say that the
government can’t run the roads, and
yet to-day the government is running
a large percentage of the roads through
the federal courts aided now* and then
by a mail bag and the Uniled States
army. (Cheers.) You say that if the
railroads were owned by the govern
ment they would have too much power
and yet to-day there isn’t a railroad in
America that isn’t trying to make its
employes come up to the captain’s win
dow and tell them whether they are
going to vote for the gold standard or
not. (Cheers.) My God, think of it!
If I employ a man to hoe my cotton, if
I pay him for that work and he does
the work I have got no more right to
tell him how to vote in tne coming
election than a railroad has got to ask
its engineer how he votes, or its brake
man how he votes. If that engineer
runs that train right and gets his pay
for it that’s all the relation there is
between him and the company; if that
brakeman does his work and he gets
his pay the railroad company has got
no more right to dictate to him than he
has to dictate to the railroads. I say
these railroads are in politics to-day
and trying to control the votes of their
employes. They may honestly believe
that they are trying to convert these
votes to a right cause, but every man
in America ought to stand to the prin
ciple that we do not sell our bodies nor
sell our souls when we hire to work,
but that the honest laborer everywhere
is as much a king in this country as
the man that employs him. (AVild
cheering.)
“Gentlemen, we want to stop rail
road and corporate domination in the
United States, and we are going to do
it. A democratic senator like Calvin
Brice and a republican, senator like
John M. Thurston speak for the rail
roads. In Cleveland’s cabinet Richard
Olney and Daniel Lamont speak for the
railroads —that is, whatever Cleveland
himself has left unspoken. (Loud
cheering.)
“Now I say to you, can we remedy
the situation by the election of McKin
ley and Hobart? (Loud cries of “No,
no, no.”) AVhy not? (Cries of “Be
cause they are interested.”) Because
they represent the corporations, be
cause of their gold standard domina
tion, because their leading spokesmen
are leading attorneys for these very
railroads, because the men who are
managing their campaign own these
railroads and whose chief source of
revenue is from the bonds of the rail
roads. Therefore it is quite clear that
these men will not abolish this system
upon which they have grown rich. On
the contrary, they are pledged to main
tain it.
“AA’ould you do away with that sys
tem by electing Bryan and Sewall?
Sewall is a railroad King. He is con
nected with almost every monopoly in
New England. He is a corporation
man from top to bottom. He is in sym
pathy with the great moneyed trusts
of the east. That man can no more
represent you or your principles than
McKinley and Hobart can. (Loud
cheers.) How can you remedy the sit
uation ? By electing Bryan and AVat
son electors. (Great cheering.) Bryan
does not own any railroads nor do I.
No railroad owns Bryan, and I am reas
onably sure that no railroad owns me.
(Laughter.) No railroad .syndicate has
contributed to our campaign. AVe stand
boldly for the people in this campaign.
We say the railroads tnemselves are
fast approaching that stage when they
will ask that the policies of tne Peoples
party be carried out. (Cheer-.) AVhy?
They have to furnish more free passes
every year which private and public
citizens demand. Every judge on the
bench wants a free pass. Every con
gressman must have a free pass for
himself and his family 7 . Every mer
chant who ships over the road wants a
free pass. All of these high-priced
lawyers want free passes. Every man
who says he controls a hundred votes
wants a free pass. This abuse is grow
ing so that this eternal issuing of free
passes, this eternal subsidizing of news
papers and of every other agency of
public opinion, this eternal buying up
of high-priced lawyers is becoming so
expensive that the time is fast coming
when the railroad men will say: ‘AVe*
are tired of trying to run these things.
Take our railroads, pay us a fair price
forthem and run them to suit your
selves.’ (Cheers.) Some people assert
that we cannot pay for them. AVhat
do the railroads want with the proper
ty then? I tell you, wc have already
paid for them once. You and I and the
balance of the people have paid for
them in freight rates within the last
twenty years. All they have had to do is
to pour a little more water on the stock
and issue a few more bonds and then
make us pay for them again. And yet
they say the railroads do not belong to
us after we have paid for them twice.
AVhat we want to do is to follow the
example of Australia, of New Zealand,
of India, Germany, Austria, Holland,
Belgium, Sweden and other enlighten
ed countries, and let the government
operate the roads in the interest of the
people. \Ve say we want to buy the
railroads, pay a fair price forthem and
run them in the interest of all the peo
ple of this land. (Loud cheers.)
“There is another plank in our plat
form and still stipulation in
our contract, and that is the pledge to
reform the financial situation. Has
the situation been remedied? Instead
of being alleviated we are suffering
more. The disease has not been cured,
but aggravated and uow needs two
doctors instead of one. That is the
reason you want Bryan, the Democratic
doctor, and AVatson, the Populist doc
tor.
“You cannot expect much out of
Sewall because he has not been in soak
longenough. (Laughter.) He is a new
convert and has not yet served out his
period of probation. (Laughter.) The
free silver disease is only skin deep
with him. He says he is a free silver
Democrat, and yet only three months
ago he was supporting a man for gov
ernor of Maine nominated on a gold
standard platform and pledged to the
continuance of the rule of the money
power. (Cheers.)
“AVe say the financial system of this
country is wrong and we propose to
reform it. AVe say let’s go back to the
free and unlimited coinage of gold and
the free and unlimited coinage of sil
ver, and let us issue treasury notes to
the people in a sufficient quantity to
transact the business of the country.
(Loud cheers.) AVe have waged our
fight on this line and we propose to
stick to it. AVhy was the situation
wrong in 1889?. Because it had become
the settled policy of the government to
quit issuing treasury notes, and to burn
up your paper money. There was no
longer the free and unlimited coinage
of silver, and the purchase by the gov
ernment tDf that metal was limited to
2,500,000 ounces a month. In 1890 they
passed a bill requiring the government
to purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver a
month. The Democratic party said^^e•
demonetization of yttter
-
(Imu-dil us more 1
money, they Pledged to ]
raise prices by money in- I
to circulation, they lowered prices by
giving us less money. AVestern Repub- «
licans said the Democratic party had
done the devilment. Southern Demo
crats said the Republican party had
done the devilment. It took us some
time to find out that no matter what
the two old parties said about each
other during a campaign they always
came together when they reached
AVashington. (Laughter.) It was a
case of pot and kettle. It was a case of
coon and raccoon. It was a case of
jumping out of the frying pan into the
fire. (Laughter and cheers ) AA r e say
to the people of the United States that
this financial system is radically wrong
and we are going to remedy it. It is
wrong for the reason they are still
burning your paper money, they will
not allow the coinage of silver except
to take the place of paper money,
which cow simply represents silver.
Therefore the silver they coin does not
add one iota to the currency. We say
this system is wrong. AVby? Money is
but one of the commodities which obey
the great law of supply and demand.
If you have much money it is easier
get than w hen you have little money.
The less money there is the harder it is
to get. If today it takes two bales of
cotton to get the same amount of
money that you got for one bale six
years ago, then you have let the money
changers swindle you out of the price
of one bale of cotton. (Cheers and
cries of “That’s right.”) If you could
pay your poll tax by working one day
in 1867, whereas now it takes three,
you have allowed the money changers
to swindle you out of two days of your
life. The money you get today cosls
four times as much labor as the money
you got in 1866 or 1867. If the prices of
prcducts and the prices of labor have
gone down, the result will be that the
men who are in debt now will never
get out. That the man under the wheels
today will never get from under them.
(Applause.) A man stricken down by
the pow’er of the gold standard is lost
forever.
“They tell me that the laborer must
get as good a dollar as anybody else
gets. AV here is the. laborer who is dis
satisfied with the collar he is getting?
He is dissatisfied with the dollar which
he is not getting. (Laughter). He is
grumbling about the dollar he cannot
get AVhy ? Because it roosts too high.
(Laughter). It’saw’ay out of his reach.
These people who think they have ab
i sorbed all the financial sense in the
world tell you that an increase in the
prices of farm products would not help
the laborer, and speaking through the
mouth of Bourke Coekran of New Y’ork,
they want to know how on earth the
laborer is to be benefited by higher
prices for our products, and assure us
that higher prices w ill decrease the pur
chasing power of wages. I don’t ex- J
pect to convince Mr. Coekran nor
