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THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER.
Established October 15, 1891.
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That howling hum-
EDITORIAL bug and frizzly fraud,
The Georgia Railroad
NOTES Commission, has act
ually held ■ another
“hearing.” in Atlan
ta. That is to say, two of the Commis
sioners developed energy enough to put
in appearance. The third Commission- ]
er was too sick to come in person. He
hopes to be able to be strong enough to
draw his salary at the usual time. His
absence was not injurious to the rail
roads for he managed to muster up ]
suflicient strength to send in a decision 1
in their favor, in a case which was
tried in Atlanta while the said Commis-
i
sioner was sick in Americus. It occurs
to us, casually and incidentally, that
if one of these Commissioners can (
legally decide a case he has not heard, (
the other could do the same thing. If (
Judge Fort can lie abed, in Americus,
and decide a case .which is on trial in (
*
IbwwkSsS®. and Tom Cren
shaw to to leave the com- ,
forts and endearments of the home 5
circle, and the demands of private bus
iness, to listen to complaints against t
such law-abiding innocents as the rail- ;
road corporations.
•• • 1
A Griffin, Ga., firm made complaint «
against the railroads of Georgia that ,
their rates were not uniform nor rea- ,
sonable, that they discriminated in
favor of certain people and certain <
places, that they gave “through rates” <
arbitrarily to some towns and refused 1
them, arbitrarily, to others, and that
the people were being oppressed to pay ]
dividends upon millions of dollars of j
watered stock. i
These were in substance the charges ]
made by Messrs. Brewer <t Hanleiter, j
a business firm of Griffin
There isn’t a well informed mule in ]
Georgia which does not know that the ,
charges are true. i
The Georgia Railroad Commission ,
was asked to lower freight rates 33>i .
per cent In this demand nearly every ,
citizen of Georgia was more or less
concerned, on the one hand, and every
railway company was concerned, on
the other.
Therefore at the “hearing,” it was
to be expected that both sides would
be numerously represented. Millions
were at stake, and the facts and the
law were heavily on the side of the
people. But at the “hearing” it was
all one way. The whole proceeding
resembled the cut and dried programme
of a political caucus of one of the old
The people were represented by Mr.
Brewer. Not a brother merchant in all
Georgia stood by him. Not a farmer
was there to give voice to a grievance.
No lawyer attended to plead the cause
of the public. Mr Brewer was there,
and nobody but Brewer.
The railroads, however, were on
hand. In palace cars the Presidents,
and vice-Presidents, and General Man
agers, and corporation lawyers were
there tiH you couldn't rest The
ground was covered with them. They
couldn’t all get into the room where
the “hearing” was had.
This “hearing” was perhaps the
raciest farce ever played even by those,
our choicest commedians, the railway
commissioners of Georgia.
These official humorists shut their
eyes and their ears to conditions which
a blind terrapin can see and hear, and
they promptly flung Brewer down, and
poured sand in his ears.
• • •
The Constitution of Georgia forbids
the buying up of competing lines : the
Southern Railway Company has bought
up competing lines: the Governor and
the Commissioners know it: but no
attempt is made to enforce the law
against the law breaker for the reason
that the Southern is a rich corporation
and furnishes boodle to tha machine
Democrats of Georgia 1
In the matter of free passes, of dis
criminations, of excessive charges to
certain localities, the railroads violate
the laws of Georgia and of the United
States: the Commissioners know it:
they refuse to enforce the law because
the combined corporations constitute
the power behind the throne, making
and unmaking laws and policies.
Nearly every railroad in Georgia has
been loaded down with watered
stock and fraudulent re-organization
schemes; the public is oppressed to
, make it pay dividends upon these
fraudulent issues of stock : the Com
missioners know it: they shut their
eyes to the fact, for the simple reason
that they can have an easier and more
prosperous time by standing in with
the corporations than by fighting them.
• « «
Take for example the Central Rail
road of Georgia.
Its original capitalization was $7,500,-
000 —half of which was water,according
to Gen. Toombs. Pat Calhoun, Calvin
Brice, and other Wall street patriots
got hold of the property, worked a re
organization scheme on it, and poured
815,000,000 of water into it
Consequently, the managers of the
corporation had to reduce expenses,
and to maintain rates which would
pay dividends upon $23,500,000 instead
of $7,500,000.
Engineers, Conductors, Brakemen,
«fcc., were made to work longer hours,
or to accept smaller wages: train
crews were in many instances reduced,
and the section boss was compelled to
keep the road-bed in repair with a
smaller squad of hands.
And these reductions fell, as they
always do, on the naan who did the
hardest work and was least able to
stand the cut.
The salary of the President was not
cut. The General Manager, the Snper
tendent, the Attorneys, &c., got no
smaller salaries than before. In some
cases, they got an increase.
While this hardship was going on
inside the Company, the shippers were
“catching it on the outside. The
fruit raiser almost cursed the day he
was born. The saw mill man, being
naturally a profane creature, eased
himself partly by cussing the roads,
and partly by running up prices on the
man who bought his lumber.
The cotton planter had stood so much
already that he had hardly enough
strength left to growl, and therefore
while prices were falling on all the
markets he let the same old freight
rates gouge him without a kick.
The towns bought corn at 85 cents
which the western farmer had sold for
15 cents and no merchant dared to
make the point that there was some
thing wrong with a system which al
lowed three times as much for hauling
corn as for making it.
* • *
At last the fellows to whom Calhoun’s (
clique had mortgaged the Central,
foreclosed, got judgment, and sold the
property at Sheriff's sale.
Another Wall Street crowd took
hold, and (fentral, ,
again. t
Our good Samaritan, J. Pierrepont
Morgan, was in the deal this time, and
we naturally anticipated something i
gogeous. We got it. He reorganized 1
the Central up to $45,220 000, in bonded ;
indebtedness alone 1 (
In other words, the public were in- ,
formed that, thereafter, it would be
expected to pay freight and passenger j
lates which would yield dividends j
upon 845,220,000 instead of on $7,500,000!
And the Railway Commission of ;
Georgia, by its decision last week,
endorses the position taken by the ,
Wall Streeters.
If the corporations can compel the
public to pay dividends upon 745,220,000
for a company whose stock is only five
million dollars, then there is abso
lutely no limit to what a railway corpo
ration can exact from the public.
When the Commission endorses the
position that the people must pay divi
dends upon any amount of bonds,
mortgages and stock which the Wall
Street sharpers see fit to issue against
the property, they surely set sail upon
a shoreless sea There is no sense in
any such decision :no law for it; and
no justice in it.
« « «
But the corporations are organized,
and furnish boodle to the managers of
both the old parties while the people
are unorganized and have no boodle to
furnish anybody : —hence the corpora
tions give commands and the people
obey them : the corporations levy their
taxes and the people humbly pay
them.
* * *
While the spirit of democracy cowers
before insolent plutocracy in America,
it strides grandly forward in Great
Britain.
The Tory government has put upon
its passage, in Parliament, a bill which
is more sweepingly and practically
favorable to the laboring classes than
any legislation of recent years. It is
called the “Employer's Liability Bill.”
Its purpose is to make the employers of
labor, in certain industries, responsible
for injuries received by the laborers in
that work, regardless of the question
of negligence.
The law will not apply to household
servants, farm laborers, sailors, longs
horsemen, carpenters, masons, brick
lavers, and many others; but it will
apply to those employed in the service
of railroads, factories, mines, quarries,
and engineering works.
In Germany, the employers of labor
are required by law to insure their
workmen against accident, and to con
tribute a certain sum, each week, to
the insurance fund against sickness,
chronic invalidism, and the incapacity
of old age. A certain portion of the
I laborer’s wages is withheld for the
( same fund.
, Under this system, the German work
i man is guaranteed against want and
! assured a haven of rest when his days
$ of toil are over.
The Engiteh law now being enacted
- Is designed to do the same thing in a
j different way. It does not go so far as
THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER: ATLANTA, GEORGIA: FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1897.
the German law, hut it goes a vast deal
further than anything we have in
America.
• • •
Under the English law,it will not mat
ter whether the workman is killed or
injured by his own negligence or not.
It will be sufficient that he meets death
or injury in due course of employment.
The only question that will be asked is
did he get killed or hurt while working
for his employer ?
If so, he receives the benefit of this
nevi law.
• «
By the terms of this act, the work
man who is killed at his work will en
title his family to three year’s wages,
not less than $750, nor more than
$1,500.
For disability beyond two weeks,
permanent or otherwise, half wages.
The workman is to be at no expense
in getting what the law gives him.
The State to bear the expense of adju
dication.
Employers will be forced, now, to
insure their workmen against accident
just as German employers do.
If a workman is injured by the negli
gence of his employer, and does not
feel satisfied to accept compensation
under the new law, he can sue his em
ployer for damages, as heretofore.
It is hardly necessary to say that
this legislation is socialistic, paternal
istic, and so forth.
It will give some of our little hide
bound editors the shivers.
But when the Tories of England
enact laws for the laborers which the
Democrats and Republicans of Ameri
ca would reject with scornful jeers and
derisive hoots it is high time for
thoughtful men to see that names
count for little, and that principles
alone are worth attention.
In this land of liberty it is one thing
to enact a law, and quite another to
get it obeyed.
It it is against us common trash, it
will generally be obeyed as soon as
adopted. If it is against some power
ful corporation it will be obeyed when
it suits the corporation to obey it.
In 1892 Congress adopted a law that
the railroads should supply all cars
with self-acting couplers by 1897. The
limit of time has about expired, and
the railroads are paying just about as
much attention to the law as they are
paying to the anti-Trust Act and the
Supreme Court decision thereon.
It must be a luxurious sensation to
feel that you need not obey the law
unless jou want to.
* * *
One of the most pathetie pleas made
by the Central Railroad, in answer to
Brewer’s complaint against high
freight rates, was that they had re
cently been compelled by the dema
gogues and the corporation-haters to
pay 7146,000 in “back taxes.”
This piteous moan almost made
Newt Trammel cry.
It is a sad thing
1,
and make them pay “back lakes.”
What are “back taxes?”
They are taxes which the law said
the railroads should pay, and which
the railroads would not pay. It seems
that the demagogues got hold of the
Central, and made the tax dodgers pay
up.
And the railroad lawyers gravely
pleaded this hardship as a reason why
freight rates shall not be reduced.
No wonder the Commissioners were
melted to tears.
These .demagogues who make the
corporations shell out 7146,000 in “back
taxes,” deserve a good sweat at the
treadmill, and the Wall Street Samari
tans whc issue thirty odd million dol
lars in fraudulent bonds which the
public must pay dividends on, deserve
the thanks of all fair minded men.
So says, in effect, the Railway Com
mission of Georgia.
The Fusion Pops still allude to Mr.
11. W. Reed, of our National Committee
as a National Banker, and as a convert
to the gold standard.
Mr. Reed resigned the Presidency of
his bank in order to devote himself to
the Populist Campaign. He has never
resumed the position.
It is singular that a Populist who
proves his faith by bis work, as Mr.
Reed has so nobly done, should meet
with no approval at the hands of the
Fusion patriots.
Mr. Reed went to Mexico and bought
a gold mine, just as another man
might have gone to North Georgia and
bought a marble quarry. It was a
business investment and nothing more.
Owning an interest in gold mining
will no more change Mr. Reed’s princi
ples than owning a National Bank
made bin a tool of Wall street A
truer Ponulist than H. W. Reed does
not ir.nor a more estimable gentle
man. tie has not changed his vie vs on
the mc.no.y question, nor lost his zeal in
our cause.
We would not be surprised if Repub
licans or Democrats misrepresented
Mr. Reed, but it is certainly strange
that the Fusion Pops are so ready to
do him injustice.
♦ • ♦
Yes the Leadville strike has failed.
The miners were starved out With
the merits of the case we are not ac
quainted, but we do know that the
workmen suffered greatly, that they
struggled for about a year, and that
capitalism beat them down as relent
lessly as was ever done at Homestead
or Chicago.
Who are the mine owners?
They were “free silver or bust” how
lers, the ’ast one of them. They abused
Rothschild and John Sherman; they
denounced plutocracy and labor tyr
' annv; they want d more money, so that
the poor workmen would have a better
■ chance.
And they were gripping their work
-1 men in a death struggle all the while,
and showed exactly the same spirit
which actuated Pullman and Carnegie
i and Gould and Vanderbilt.
» They said they wanted the Govern-
ment to help the laborer. What they
actually wanted was help for them
selves.
They wanted the Government to take
6J cents’ worth of silver and make it a
dollar, by putting the Government
stamp on it.
They wanted “fiatism” to the extent
of 40 cents in each dollar.
But when a Populist would argue
that “fiatism” might create the dollar
as easily as it could create the 40 cents,
these silver kings were ready to lift
their voices in one loud wail of pain
and remonstrance.
Fiatism is a good doctnßMH
extent of 40 vents Ir. 1
But r
good for one
If the principle of
it is sound all the way. It cannot be
just sound enough to make up the 40
cents difference between silver and
gold.
If the government stamp can Sake
40 cents out of nothing, it can make 100
cents out of the same material.
* * *
We genuine Pops contend that L»w
makes money: that there can be no
money without law: that whatever the
law endows with the power to jfty
taxes and satisfy debt is money, and
that as money, in its last analysis, con
sists of a purely legal quality given to
a certain form of currency, it is wholly
immaterial what commodity that cur
rency is made of. It is the legal quality
which is essential, —not the material
substance.
It is not the gold which makes the
dollar, it is the privilege and the
power which the law gives to that
gold. »
Let the law say the same thing for
linen dollars, or paper dollars or pew
ter dollars, and the linen, paper or
pewter dollars will be money in every
sense of the word, just as gold is.
* * ♦
Throw a twenty dollar gold piece
under a locomotive, let it be flattened
into a wafer, losing its identity, shape
and stamp—and then go and try to pass
it as twenty dollars!
You can’t do it. Some man may
agree to accept it for twenty dollars,
just as some man may agree to accept
350 pounds of lint cotton, or 2,000 feet
of heart lumber; but no man is bound
to take it. As long as the gold piece
kept its shape, and stamp, its legal
identity, every citizen was bound-to
take it, by law, in payment of taxes,
debts, and purchases. The moment the
gold piece lost the legal identity, it be
came a mere commodity like lumber
and cotton, and all men were at liberty
to refuse it. 4-
The law made the money, not the
gold. >
• ” 1
Talmadge praises tlt e
Sugar Chapman,
defied and refused to t?TI
what Senators were implicated in * |*e
Sugar Trust Scandals. *
If a broker can defy the law, and res- .
1
fuse to give evidence, any witness can
do it. > j
If witnesses cannot be compelled to
testify, the courts will be paralyzed, ,
and crime will enjoy a regular Jubilee.
Mr Talmadge does himself no credit
when he publicly gives aid, comfort
and encouragement to rich violators of
the law. T. E. W.
We have received
MISTAKE IN several letters ob
jecting to the date
THE DAY set for the Nashville <
Conference, the 4th
of July falling on
Sunday. The date was fixed upon be
cause the Declaration of Independence
was promulgated on that day, and
without noticing that this year that
date fell upon Sunday. While a great
many people believe it is right “to do
well even on the Sabbath day,” jet the
scruples of others will be respected
and the Conference will not be assem
bled for business until Monday, July
sth, Friday and Saturday will be taken
up by the National Reform Press Asso
ciation meetings. All sg disposed will
go to church on Sunday, and at 10 a.
m. on Monday the Populist Conference
will be rapped to order. D. N. S.
If so, see to it with-
DO YOU FAVOR out a day’s delay
that your county
A CONFERENCE committeeman and
Congressional Dis
trict committeeman
and the State executive committeeman,
if one lives in your county, urges the
State Cnairman to take action in the
matter. If our officials are our mas
ters, the sooner we know it the better,
and if they are still the party servants
the sooner that fact is settled the bet
ter. The Chairman says he has no de
sire to oppose your wishes. If you
really want a conference leave him no
longer in doubt of that fact. This is
one of the occasions when, it seems,
the people are expected to lead the
leaders. D. N. S.
County resolutions
SHORT for publication
should be short and
AND SWEET. the P oint ’ Don,t
forget to select dele
gates to the state meeting anddon’X
neglect to instruct them as to what
you want done at the state meeting
and at the National conference.
Reports of Meetings.
Chairmen of county and district
meetings are earnestly requested to
have forwarded to this paper by next
mail after the meeting a full report of
the meeting. Don’t fail to attend to
’ this. It is important. D N. S.
Sid Lewis Philosophises.
The indorsement of Lyons by the
Augusta lawyers has come home to
roost, and is roosting very low. It
isn’t wise to be too lavish of indorse
i ments. The habit never fails, at some
Itime, co cause its victim a feeling of
sadness. — Is hmaelite.
“W. J. Bryan has
EDITORIAL written a letter to
the Democrats of the
COMMENTS. First Missouri dis
trict that he cannot
accept their invita
tion to speak against the Populist nom
inee, and they have secured the servi
ces of Champ Clark, and have also in
vited Joe Blackburn to help them.”
We clip the above paragraph from
the Jackson (Missouri) Comet. We are
sorry that the democratic campaign
committee has not given Mr. Bryan’s
letter of declination to.the public. We
Jre’inclined to the belief that it would
p
furnish more interesting reading than
any page between the covers of his
noted book.
Mr. Bryan claims to be not a popu
list but a democrat. If he is a demo
ctat at heart he should champion the
democratic ticket.
If he has become a convert to popu
lism he should have the courage to
come out like a man and say so. The
populists not only of the Ist Missouri
district but of the whole country would
like to know just why Mr. Bryan re
fuses to champion the cause of his par
Jw against a populist If he is looking
for populist support of his own candi
dacy again in 1900, we beg to inform
him that even Chairman Butler and
the fusion members of Congress have
declared against all fusion in the fu
ture. Whether Chairman Butler is
honest in this declaration we do not
know but there is no question that the
voters are.
If Mr. Bryan wants to run for presi
dent again in 1900, we advise him to
lose no time in making himself solid
with the voters of his own party.
There will be no place in the next race
for fusionists or half-beeeds of any
color.
* * *
Bishop Potter in a recent address
takes the position that labor saving
machinery is proving a curse rather
than a blessing to the people as a
whole. If the effects of labor saving
machinery is to relegate one half the
race to idleness, vagabondage and
starvation then the Bishop is right. If
the effect is to turn the laborer him
self into a mere human machine whose
sole business it is to place the raw
product in reach of the iron machine,
again the bishop is right. But the
chief objections that the Bishop charges
to improved machinery lie at the door
of unjust conditions through which
the machine owner reaps all the ad
vantages and the laborer suffers all the
disadvantages.
If all the conditions of exchange of
products were just and fair, then the
farmer who, with improved implements
could produce four times as great
crops as before and the clothier, shoe
maker and hatter could each produce
four times as much finished product as
before, then each could reduce the
day from ten to five hours
and yet each get more abundant food
uuuer uie uia mein- I
od after paying liberally for the use of
the improved machines. Bishop Potter
is right in declaring that factory work
is dwarfing our laboring people, men
tally, morally and physically. The
remedy is notin destroying the factory
with its improved machinery, but in so
shortening the hours of labor as to give
ample opportunity for mental improve
ment and physical recreation.
« « *
Our present patent laws should be
amended or abrogated. These laws
were designed to encourage useful in
ventions and suitably reward the in
ventors. As a matter of fact their chief
effect is to multiply the number of
grasping monopolies.
As a rule the inventor is poor and
after he perfects his invention he is
without means to build and equip a
factory for the manufacture of his ma
chine and is forced to sell his patent
right, often for a bagatelle, to some
man of means, who now having the
sole right to manufacture is a monopo
list pure and simple and wastes no
time in making the public acquainted
with that fact. The holder of the
patent on the sewing machine needle
exacted $10,000,000 from the public for
its use. The Bell Telephone and Bicy
cle patents are gouging them still
deeper. In fact, the holder of a patent
on any necessary article holds the
governments permit to rob the people
ad libitum.
The patent laws should first protect
the actual inventor by giving him an
inalienable lien to a certain per cent
of resulting profits. Secondly the time
should either be cut down to two or
three years, cr the patent declared
forfei’ if the article is sold wholesale
at above 50 per cent on cost of produc
tion and no patent should be allowed
to be bought up and held idle in order
to keep it from competition with some
other. While the patentee should be
allowed fair profit on his invention,
the public have some right to protec
tion and the patentees right should be
made to stop where robbery of the
public begins.
* * *
We notice from recent issues of the
Advance Guard, Defiance Ohio and the
Oklahoma Representative, Guthrie
Oklahoma that fusion and fusionists
have set our western friends to inquir
ing not only “where are we at” but
"what snail we de to be saved. Brother
Ayers, of Chairman Butler's paper,
•who assures us that no body is talking
fusion and nobody wants fusion should
read his western exchanges more
closely. We note with pleasure that
the genuine pops who were induced to
swallow the fusion prescription are
spewing up the nauseous dose Fusion
and genuine populism will no more
mix than oil and water.
Where the dose lies on the stomach
it is a well nigh infallible sign that the
patient went into the party for pie and
not for principle.
The Senate by a vote of 41 to 14 has
■ adopted Senator Morgan’s resolution
recognizing that a state of war exists
s upon the island of Cuba and according
J belligerent rights to the insurgents,
e There is no question about the senti
ment of the country being in sympa
t thy with the resolutions, but the gen-
• tiemen who bought the presidency for
- Mr. McKinley are largely interested in
- securities that would depreciate in
- value if the house should concur in the
senate resolutions, hence Mr. Reed,
a whose power of veto is practically su
e preme in the House, is delaying a vote
i of concurrence in that body. The
s Senate may force McKinley to consent
e to a vote by refusing to vote on the
3 tariff bill till the House acts on the
a Cuban resolution, or the constituents
s of the republican members may make
it hot enough for those gentlemen to
• force a republican caucus to make a
demand upon the speaker for action
e that he will not care to disregard. If
anybody was in doubt about the fact
- that popular government no longer
o existed in the country, that doubt
e should now be removed, and if any one
i doubts the necessity for the adoption
1 of the Initiative and Referendum in
- order to restore popular government
that doubt should now be removed.
?* * *
Under the initiative and imperative
! mandate, congress would have been
j compelled long ago to grant belliger"
B ent rights to our neighbors who are
. struggling to break the bonds of tyrany
s and oppression which bind them to
t Spain. Long ago the national bank
B question would have been settled and
even the tariff question which made
. life a burden to our daddies and which
, we are in a fairway to hand down to
I our children’s children would be set
tled at least to the extent of determin
, ing whether tariff taxes shall be laid
? for the purpose of getting revenue for
the government with small incidental
benefit to the manufacturers or for the
s purpose of building up great trusts
r with incidental revenue to the govern
p ment. No honest citizen who thinks
t with his head instead of his stomach
, can look into the question of direct
, legislation without endorsing it.
I* * *
f We invite the attention of the labor
- unions to an article in another column
» headed, “Protection for labor as well
r as capital.”
, At the last election the labor unions
; voted largely for McKinley and a high
s tariff They got McKinley and are in a
■ fairway to get a tariff that will almost
i double the price of many things they
- are compelled to buy. If the tariff
» results in increasing their wages in the
same proportion that it increases the
f prices they have to pay on protected
; articles then they have acted wisely,
. because they will get the increased
t price for all their product whVe they
will continue to buy all farm products
, at free trade prices. But will they get
, any increase of wages so long as there
, is no restriction against the foreign
5 laborer coming over and competing
I with them at their d >ors. Food
| in Europe, hence the European laborer ,
I can make blankets, shoes, hats, cloth- ]
ing, cutlery and every article on the ,
tariff list as cheaply here as at his home ■
across the Atlantic. i
So long as the tariff shuts out his 1
i product but not himself, what is to
hinder him from coming over in the
steerage of the next ship and holding
your labor down to its present price or
forcing it even lower than heretofore ? •
i Meditate on this querry for awhile and
i then go out behind the house and kick ;
yourself for being a consummate idiot.
* « *
The interview with a New York
- banker published in another column
makes interesting reading. The honest
I avowal that the millionaires of the
s country are m anarchists at heart,
i should interest all who believe in a
- republican form of government. It
b will also be noted that our banker
! friend has become a convert to govern
-5 ment ownership of railroads, not, how-
- ever, from a conviction that such pub
) lie ownership will be best for the peo
-1 pie, but because the wreckers and
i gamblers have made about all there is
s to be made out of them and now, that
r the orange has been sucked pretty
• dry, they are willing that the people
I should have the rhind by paying a
t sufficient price for it. The declaration
s that the money, now in the banks, is
3 is to be held for speculation, and not
for development or the promotion of
t industry is also an interesting an
i nouncement as is also the suggestion
t that when the bankers force a sale of a
j thousand millions of bonds so as to
r build up and strengthen the national
j banks that the bank notes shall be
g made redeemable in coin. This will
- be a beautiful arrangement to satisfy
i both the gold bugs and silv*’’ bugs, as
r the the bankers will continue to get
B their coupons cashed in go!£ while the
e people will get their bank j’otes cashed
in silver. We have never a..- n a grea
. ter quanity of interesting i- formation
e packed into one short interview.
e D. N. S.
Peffer Puzxled.
W. A. Peffer would like to get back
e to the Populist party, but he is afraid
B to break away from the Butler gang
e entirely, for fear he might only be
taken in at Nashville on probation, so
when he writes about the conference
he fears it cannot be legally held, yet
1 admits that it ought to be held if pos
r sible. The ex-senator need not worry
5 himself. There will be fifteen states
j- from the south, in which Populists are
j compelled to fight Democracy or have
e no excuse for existing, that will be
t fully represented in the conference
Then, there will come from the west
° ern states, a few faithfuls who have
e not yet been delivered to Democracy,
D who, by a straight and manly course
e in the future, may hope to accomplish
some of the reform work which might
h have been accomplished ere this, if
e such men as Peffer, looking for a job,
d had not sacrificed tbe caus-e on the altar
of Bryan Democracy.—Girard World.
Can the Chicago footpads who held
■ 8 up a woman and took SI2OO from her
R stocking be said to have turned tbe
» ho«e on their luckless victim. —Videtta.
The Story of Senatorial Corruption.
W’e have already explained what it is
that Chapman did for which he must
go to jail to morrow. But Chapman is
only an agent, a scapegoat. He “pro
tected his clients,” and his clients were
the rascals. It was they whose con
duct blackened the fame of the Senate
and brought the integrity of legislation
itself into doubt among the people.
The story is certainly the most shame
ful one related since Oakes Ames drew
forth his little memorandum book and
told how he had placed Credit Mobilier
stock “where it would do the most
good.”
Briefly this is the story: A Demo
cratic Congress and a Democratic
President had been elected on a pledge
to revise the tariff in the direction of
free raw material and free necessaries
of life.
The House in March, 1894, passed a
tariff bill intended to fulfill this pledge.
Among other things it put sugar of all
grades on the free list. Havemeyer,
the sugar king, declared in a published
interview at that time that his people
could do nothing with the House but
would find means of controlling the
Senate. They did so.
The bill went to the Senate on March
20 and was sent to the Finance Com
mittee. A Sugar Trust lobby, with
John E. Searles at its head and Have
meyer in consultation, met the measure
there with a scheme of sugar duties
which would impose a very heavy tax
on all imported sugars, with the heav
iest rates on sugars that might compete
with the Sugar Trust’s product—a
scheme carefully arranged to give the
Sugar Trust a secure monopoly and a
chance to levy an enormous tribute
upon the people, not for the replenish
ment of the Treasury but for the en
richment of the Sugar Trust itself.
This scheme of duties was drawn up
by John G. Carlisle, Democratic Secre
tary of the Treasury, as he himself con
fessed before an investigating com
mittee.
He submitted it, and after consulta
tion with friends of the Sugar Trust in
the Finance Committee made altera
tions in it in his own handwriting. He
also gave Havemeyer a letter of intro
duction to enable him to get a favora
ble hearing from the members of the
committee. This last proceeding was
so shocking to the moral sense of Sen
ator Milis, to whom the letter of intro
duction was addressed, that he flatly
refused to receive it, though its writer
was a member of the Cabinet.
Mr. Carlisle’s chief, President Cleve
land, afterwards characterized the
adoption of the schedule thus prepared
by the Secretary as an act of “perfidy
and dishonor,” but to the end of his
term he did not ask for Mr. Carlisle’s
resignation.
In behalf of this change, this flag
rant violation of the Democratic party’s
pledges, the Sugar Trust lobbyist
Searles, according to his own testi
mony, repeatedly saw and conferred
with such Democratic Senators as Mc-
Pherson, Brice, Smith, Murphy, Gor
man, Jones of Arkansas. Camden,
Faulkner and Morgan, and on June 5.
1894, when the vote was taken on the
acceptance of the schedule, David B
Hill alone of all the Democratic Sena
tors stood up like a man and vote
Tt waS'"currently reported and be
lieved —not without reason-—that Sear
les’s eloquence in thus winning sena
tors to betray their party’s principles
and pledges consisted of something
more potent than words, more persua
sive than eloquence. In plain language,
it was believed that soma at least of
those whom he converted were directly
or indirectly bribed.
Then came an explanation. During
the long discussion the price of Sugar
Trust stocks had fluctuated enormously
in the market, accordingly as the Sen
ate appeared likely or unlikely to adopt
the schedules prepared by Mr. Carlisle
at Searles’s solicitation through Sena
tor Jones. The Wall street prices
ranged all the way from 89 to 109 5-8-
changing from day to day by leaps and
bounds that meant fortunes for any
body who could know or influence the
course of affairs in the senate.
The newspapers discovered that a
number of senators who both knew
and could influence the course of as
fairs were all this time speculating in
Sugar Trust stocks —in other words,
making shameful market of their Sen
atorial votes.
An invest gation was compelled by
the force of public opinion. The com
mittee appointed went through the
motion of trying to find out the facts.
The active man on the committee was
Senator Allen, who, when the test
came, voted for the Sugar Trust sched
ules.
The committee drew from Secretary
Carlisle an admission of his agency in
framing the schedule for the Sugar
Trust. It drew from Senator McPher
son the exceedingly lame story that he
had “unwittingly” speculated in stocks
which his vote helped to control; that
he had written and left on his desk a
dispatch ordering his broker to buy;
that a servant, “under general instruc
tions.” had sent off the dispatch, and
that thus he had unintentionally
bought and sold stocks which under
the circumstances he could neither buy
nor sell without disgrace. It drew
from Senator Quay, of Pennsylvania
the insolent admission that he had
speculated, and tne Tweed-like defi
ance of the committee to do anythin g
about it.
The committee summoned one New
York broker, Chapman, who admitted
that Senators had speculated through
his house, but declined to give their
names. It is for this that he goes to
jail. He proiects his clients —these in
directly bribed Senators—from expul
sion in disgrace, and thus “makes him
self solid with all senatorial clients
who may hereafter wish to engage in
the disgraceful marketing of their own
influence and votes, by showing con
clusively that he is ready to go to jail
rather than reveal their shame.
I; is a scandalous story which we
here repeat only in brief outline And
the most scandalous part of it is that
no one of the guilty Senators has been
made to suffer and that the Senate is
not purged of members open to such
bribery as Havemeyer offered when he
told senators that he would “guaran
tee” an advance of 20 points in sugar
stocks if his proposed schedules should
become law, as th-y afterwards did by
the votes of these senators.
The great wrong is unredressed. The
stupendous threat to popu ar govern
ment is not removed. The popular
distrust of senatorial integrity still
hangs like a pad over the country.
Chapman is a pawn in the game.
The infamous players of it have been
allowed to escape.—New York World.
The National Conference.
' We published last week the call for
‘ a national delegated conference of the
’ people’s party to convene in Nashville,
Tenn., ors July 4th, 1896. The repre
-1 sentation in this conference will be
’ based on straight tyiot fusion) populist
i votes of record, as promulgated by the
1 committee appointed by the National
Reform Press association at its Mem
' phis meeting held February 22-24, 1897.
This national delegated conference
I is not intended to make war upon any
loyal official nor member of the peo-
L pie’s party, but for the purpose of uni
fying the party all over the nation.
Every populist in the nation knows
5 that there is widespread confusion
s among populists, as the result of the
f last national campaign. Those who
3 contributed most to the building up
and pushing forward the principles of
1 the party r were stunned and demoral-
• ized at the outcome of the St Louis
1 convention, and the unparalelled con-
• fusion that reigned through the cam-
I paign, and now they refuse to turn
s a wheel until the future policy of the
1 party is authoritatively declared and
J specifically stated.
The people’s party started out to re
-1 establish a people’s government. If
' the principles enunciated in the Omaha
1 and St. Louis platforms, wye erystal
ized into law, all the intelligent people
5 admit that, the object sought would
5 be accomplished Unfortunately the j
*■ methods of party
procedure hitherto practiced pwWiM
? ed the possibility of success. Thou
-1 sands of clear headed, intelligent re-
8 formers realizing this refused to ac
-1 tively aid in the movement.
3 The machinery of the democratic
and the republican parties is adjusted
purposely to take all power out of the
rank and file and place it in the hands
’ of a few officials, who, being clotbed
with autocratic power, become party
dictators, while the non-office holding
members become party slaves. The
people’s party by adopting the same
machinerv found themselves bandieap-
1 ped and helpless at St. Louis.
It is useless to deny these facts, and
3 it is silly to expect intelligent and
honest reformers, to again enter or'
push a vigorous campaign, until the
3 machinery of the party is so adjusted
’ as to place and keep the control of the
party in the hands of its non-otfice
holding members. In fact it wtl not
7 beaj.eopie’s party until this is done
nor will it ever be able to establish a
people’s government unless its party
machinery and party procedure exem
3 p'ify the workings of such a govern
-1 ment.
7 The application of the initiative and
’ referendum and imperative mandate
3 in our party government and procedure
will accomplish this great object, while
every other plan proposed and tested
’ has proven a dismal failure. We have
the referendum in successful operation
now in amending and adopting state
' constitutions and of the incorporations
of cities and towns After more than
a century’s experience it has proven a
’ perfect success. Other nations have
adopted the system, or modifications of
’ it, and in every ease it has proven sat
isfactory, and the trend of the times J
everywhere is to enlarge its
e.x'perie'''i hv w - e not P rcfll b ”
In fact no sucn thing as a govern
ment of. by and for the people can
exist without the application of the
initiative and referendum and impera
tive mandate in all matters of legisla
tion and tenure of office. The Mercury
challenges any one to demonstrate the
contrary. Our position being impreg
nable it follows that tho>e whc favor a
people’s government must and will
align themselves with the people’s
party as soon as it adopts these princi
ples as the governing force of the
party’s procedure. Those who prefer
’ autocratic government in or oct of the
people's party will use every influsnoe
at their command to defeat the objects
’ of the Nashville coi ference.
The N R. P. A. drew the line by de
daring in favor of the application of
the initiative and referendum and im
! perative mandate (which is a people’s
party platform demand) in the gov
-1 ernment of the people’s party. Every
’ populist who desires the success of the
princ ples of his party will aid in mak
-1 ing the Nashville conference a success,
pie eaters who recognize populist vot
ers as trading capital, will fight against
it The day for deception and fraud
has passed, the hour for the establish
ment of a government of the people
approaches, and nothing demagogues
may do or say can prevent the success
of the Nashville conference if the peo
ple desire to establish a government of,
by and for tbe people, and the Mercu
ry believes thev do
Upon this rock the Mercury stands
and nothing party bo-.ses may do or
say can drive it from its position until
s the cons -rence speaks.
Populists every where should see that
t early officials from precinct chairman
to nat onal committeemen take the
necessary steps at once to select repre
sentatives to this national conference!'"
I Where the party officials fail or refuse
to act, the live populists in the ranks
should take the matter in hand and see
that proper action is taken, provis
r ion made for representation.
Traitors and traders to the rear 1
I Let the people be heard I ’outhern
Mercury.
r Nature Study for Public ScuooU.
Nature study, or seeing familiar
i’ things in a new light, isa-valuable
1 factor in education. How many peo
-1 p e can explain, so that a child can un
r derstand, why water puts out fire; why
5 some young squash plants bring their
- shells out of the ground on' the backs
- and others do not, or show the differ
ence between a leaf bud and a fruit
s bud of tne apple ; or tell from whence
i all the house flies come ? The world is
i full of such common things, about
- which people do not inquire. Yet
1 such subjects can be made very inter
esting to children and they can be
3 taken up in tne schools, not as an ad
-1 ded recitation, but as a rest exercise
t once or twice a week to relieve the
i monotony of the schoolroom and later
i can be brought into exercise—accurate
i observation and the. power of expres
-3 sing definitely wlfftt is seen.
The college of>griculture of Carnell
r University has, under the Nixon or
1 agricultural extension bill, uncertaken
r to assist, free of expense, all teachers
who wish to introduce this work into
9 their schools. All parents and teachers
r interested in this work are asked to
1 send their address, mentioning the
People’s Parly Paper, for more detailed
j information to Chief Clerk, College of
. Agriculture, Ithaca, N. Y.