Crawfordville advocate. (Crawfordville, Ga.) 189?-1???, December 06, 1895, Image 2

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l P A1J A I D t utiv/li QJTiIIV (,'/v|) Alili. 4 r T 1 I wll PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTA TION TRUE GOVERNMENT. Hi »m* Who Have No Voice in BecUia I ion. Whom* Opinion* Am Neither Heard >«.r ........... miim Fe<-1 DUeon lent l )!!• Majority Suffer* AI»o. If proportional representation is not made an issue in our state and national campaign next year, it certainly ought to he. Our present method of election is the politicians' stronghold. Adopt proportional representation and he is routed; his power is gone and the curse of party spirit is destroyed. If ours is a representative government, the people .vho constitute it muot he repiesentiu . but they are not. If an expression of choice could be given irrespecive of party, more than four-fifths of the voters would declare for the free coin age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, and yet silver has been denied free coinage, although both the old parties profess to be friends of the white metal. It is the determined purpose of the govern ment to maintain a gold standard. The great body of the people desire many reforms, but there is no way to reach them by the present method of nominating and electing candidates • We call ours a popular representative government. Every symbol of author¬ ity is professedly “From the people, by the people.” But every election results in the interests of the politicians and Iho people's interests are ignored and disregarded, ft is party control and not people’s control. This is so obvious that all but the purblind can see It. Such a government is not a people’s government; it is a government of the people by the politicians for the pluto rais. Any man who favors it is a partisan slave, and any one who tol erates, or Is indifferent to it ■ un won by of being an American citizen. David Dudley Field, an able jurist on whose opinion most people rely in judi cial matters, presents the subject un der consideration as follows: "Suppose a firm of twenty-five part ners. In a conflict of opinion thirteen may rightfully control the twelve. But at the beginning of the year, suppose It were arranged that the parties should bo divided into five sections, five or the partners in each. These sections would correspond to five districts in our po litical partnership. Each section is now to select one to compose a manag ing committee of five. This committee would correspond to our legislature. “Now who does not see that each one of this managing committee might be chosen by three of the five partners in the section, and thus the whole five of the committee would represent only fit teen members of tho firm, ten,'or two in each section, having voted against them. But th|s is not the end. This committee ot five representing only three-flftha of the firm are now to legis late for the company. In this legisia tive body of five, three would he a ma Jority, and they could dictate the whole buslness. "Finally, ns tho whole committee of five represented only fifteen members, a majority of said committee, or three, would represent but three-fifths of (If teen, or nine of the whole twenty-five members. Would anything but discon lent and dissension, before the end of the year , come of such an arrangement? What would happen In a private part nershtp upon so faulty a system, does happen, and must inevitably happen, in a state where a like faulty system of government is maintained. “The government of a republican country must represent the people or the people will be dissatisfied. (Not if they the'motto. are strictly partisans, and accept 'To the victors belong the spoils.") Those who have no voice in leglslation, whose opinions are not heard or heeded, will be restive under authorlty; and it Is not the minority only who suffer; the majority suffer also from having no proper check, and when at last the scale turns revulsion is violent and dangerous. ■•if th,. •inti heard" slavery minority could have been bv ‘their represents lives, from the beginning, increasing their representatives as their strength increased, , ' not , onlv ... they, ' but , , the pro rrLrrcr .. , , „ . ,, procured ,hr„„ B h Poa,„. u , lo«,.,.H.„. at a cost in treasure to say no h.ng the cost in blood of less than half the expendlture of the war. —Paper read before the American Social Science As sociation at Lowell Institute, April 5, 1870. “One of the most serious consequences of existing methods of election is the fear of throwing away your vote. Many voters would be glad to support re¬ form, but seeing, or thinking, the re¬ form party has no chance to win, al¬ though it may contain several quotas, ; they, having a prejudice against one or other of the old parties, will cast their votes in order to defeat it; whereas, with proportional representation they could throw their whole strength in the support of their own choice. "Could the principle of proportional representation have been recognized in the composition of the house of rep¬ resentatives twenty years ago, it would have introduced into congress a large number of northern democrats an,! southern whigs, men out of favor at home, but strong enough, both in num¬ bers and position, to check the violence that led to the last civil war.”—Ameri¬ can Law Review for January, 1872; vol¬ ume 6. page 2S0. Mr. Garfield said: “lu my judgment, the existing electoral system is the weak point in the theory of representa¬ tive government, as now organized and administered, and that a large proper Uon of the people are permanently dis franchised. There are a.unit ten thou sand democrats in my district, and they hava been voting there for the last forty years wltnout an >* more hope o£ joying a representative on this than of having one in the commons of Great Britain.”—Debate in Congress. If the congressional lines in his state had been erased, and proportional rep resentation adopted there, 10,000 demo crats would have been represented in congress. They certainly had as much right to representation as those voters who elected Mr. Garfield. If we view the facts as they exist, we shall see that, a fundamental principle of popular government, that Is, the gov eminent shall derive its powers from the consent of the governed, has been nullified, defeated and set aside, and the government virtually overthrown. In consequence, this has been brought nbout by a wrong ufi * of the ballot, by w ,, Jch th( , people's will has been thwart cd, and the weapon for the defense of tdifir liberties lias been turned upon them to enslave them. Is it not time to wake np to this mat¬ ter? We have been lured away by our zeal for party, by the false promises of ambitious and designing politicians, by false issues when thier real purpose: have been concealed. The sacred trust which has been be¬ queathed to us has not been guarded. The liberty for which our fathers sacri¬ ficed so much of blood and treasure and pledged their lives and fortunes to gain, and transmitted to their children In all confidence has not been preserved. With the ballot in our hands we have every means necessary to regain the lost treasure and vindicate our honor as American citizens. There is no alterna¬ tive but defeat or victory.—Industry, Oakland, Calif. WENDELL PHILLIP S’ VOICE. i, H bor, tho Creator of Wealth. Kntltled to AU u create*, Tho man wh wlth hiH han ds, digs c , amg of the 8eashoro or , climbing a ther8 apple8( or one who faB h a bo „ out ()f hard wood , is a pure, B , , fi , aborer an(i ia entitled to what h0 get8 or niake8 . The man who makes 8Uch a hoe one dayi and working with it tho next day> dlg8 twi( . e as man y clams UH when Uo used hla hands alone, is capita ii 8t and laborer united. He works a , oo) wblch lB capital, the re¬ 8Ult of paat labor . He l00 is an honest laborer and entitled to all he gets. A man who works a week and makes ten BUch boeB> tben join8 nine less skilled mon with himself, and they, the ten, stiaro fairly the product of his hoes and their toil, introduces co-operation and a just civilization; a system which to hold within Itself every possi ble safeguard against misuse and to be full of the seeds of all good results, The man who, having made such a hoe, ] (d8 it to another less skilled man to dig clams, receiving an equivalent for its use, is a capitalist. Such a system has no inherent, essential injustice in it, and, if it can be properly arranged and guarded, serves civilization. The difficulty is to guard it from degenerat ing into despotism and fraud, Tho man who, getting possession of a thou sand such hoes, sits with idle hands, and uo mental effort but selfish cun ning, and arranges a cunning network of laws and corporations, banks and currency, interest and "corners” to get seven out of every ten clams that are dug, Is a drone. We mean by an honest system to starve him out and compel him to work. The man who sits in Wall street, and by means of bank credit, buys up all last year’s claims to raise Hie price—who, taking fifty thou sand honestly earned dollars, makes a ( ! am Digging Company bribes newspapers to lie about it—creates ten banks and locks up gold, or arranges a corner to depress its stocks then buys "P every share, makes ten more banks and floods the land with paper and sells t,u F retiring after a week of such labot with a fortune, Is a thief. Such thieves ot thl ’ P :l »t we propose to leave undis turbed - 0ur plau is l ° niake such thicvos imposBible to the , future WE NDELL 1 IlI LLll fr. TWO HUNDRED millions. No , ,, :iimiKh «oi,i a.,.. unity to 0ur Interrst to KlI ’ „„, na h |f ^Imate of a $250,000,000 gold outpu five years hence the director of tl yield ' 0 '" ,n will , s probably V. reach ^ nearly * 'Una $200 * 000,000, , ami *, the .. recent . gains , , have not •» «r, a w - " %*££?£ " ST^ Uons w , n nQt be desperate enough to panlc8 hereafter/’-Globe-Demo- 1 O, yes; the scramble for gold among the nations will stop—when the milleu nlum comes, The boasted millions of gold produced last year will not be sufficient to pay the regular annual in¬ terest tribute to English bond holders and stock holders. What does $200,000,000 of gold amount to in this country where the people have to pay interest on $35,000, 000.000 indebtedness? Two hundred million dollars would only pay a little over half the interest for one year at one per cent—and everybody who bor rows or loans money knows that the nite will average five times one per cent on all the public and private indebted ness of the country. The paltry $200,000,000 of gold would not pay ‘ one-eighth part of the interest on our debts for a single year. Two hundred , , , million .... dollars ... , looks , .. big on paper—but when it is spread over the surface of the entire United States of America it become just an attenuated invisible vapor. It would require all the gold money on earth . and , that v . of eleven more worlds of equal circulation per capita to pay the total debts of the American people alone. President Cleveland’s friendship for monarchy is plainly revealed by his trying to seat a cannibal queen and re¬ fusing to recognize the Cubans who are struggling to establish a renublic. A NSW ACQUISITION. {From N&ttonal Bimetallist.) apP c BUSHES OF WHEAT G aoE si n product. f a rh 41 18 73 $. 1,400 I 8 T 3 p !ID00000 an 11 BE q| t M I ' t m I |:e property -- 3 E -• F same i|| 4850.000 1880 rJ'i't $.1,000 1880 II at p 1 m 31 •— | j V 5 m BB SHE iH SAME. dip PROPERTY 1890 $850 M 1890 3 F $7<?5 -000 q E 11 mm ym ~q; d % tV p V. ip'' 3 dE E. r /' ; k m ■ SAME : PROPERTY 1895 3 F $6 00 mi w iPFfl 1895 R $600000 : E : - :. m*. mil t m 3 3 F 'ss ii am, < .. Bg|| i f- m Western Banker.—The decline in the loaned millions. The property worm & Co again open the mints to free coin price of silver, wheat and other pro- $1,000,000 in 1873 has gradually declined age of gold and silver as it existed prior ducts since 1873 has been followed by with silver until it is now worth only to 1873. Western bankers can no long a decline in the value of the securities $600,000. The only way to restore the er afford to bolster up this pro-British (farms generally) on which v;e have value of property and prices of products policy in this country. COM ES FROM THE FA KM MORE INTEGRITY AMONG TILL¬ ERS OF THE SOIL. Agriculture In the Bail, of K ' ry thing •—And to Legislate Again s the Farmer la to Weaken the Foundation of Government and Society. Rev. Dr. Hawthorne, of Atlanta, preached a sermon to the National Farmers’ Congress during its session in ‘“Text!’Phillipians li-vi 5: 'Look not every man on his own things, hut every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ “Agriculture is ,ano ever will be, the basis of ail other material interests, To foster this industry is to befriend every other industry, and to cri&Dle it is to impair every activity whOcon- u Tho": . °could t t,U .»i P possibly five ** nee f , nts or ' ■ manufacturers, „ mci a I ’ or physicians, or lawyersk « i ve ••i. out politicians but withoui _the thn#r 1 solute essoniL i s fnr evervnuman ' 7 being is ireai and ‘‘j * 1 of , ; that is t o voca ion o e • „ To 11 WEAKEN ii_ ie. r VI’IJV > V FOUND - V- 1 1 of every lawful and useful indusiry. “Nine-tenths of the men who have risen to enviable distinction were born and reared outside of the cltiee. The majority of them were born in farm houses and had some actual experience in cultivating the soli. Look into the catalogues of our American colleges and you will find nine-tenths of the medalists and first honor graduates were from the country and courtry vil lages. Without the new blood (hat Is constantly coming in from the country in less than fifty years the cities would be INTELLECTUALLY IMPOVER- 1SHED. Without a constant infusion o nun and women from country ihti.c es ic llgi ° n %vo l ' ld degenerate into : e cat **' formalism , Let agriculture flourish country school houses multiply and country churches continue to oe true to the faith and worship of our country fathers and mothers and our NATION WILL BE SAFE. PROSPER¬ OUS AND HAPPY. -•* * •*««« -r otc r; “ “ “ ““ ^ sented in the text—‘An unselfish and self-denying concern for the welfare of our fellow-man, the only solvent of our social problems.’ “Society will never get rid of its discord and strifes and en:er upon a u'ntil nf ahidinsr Deace anc DrosDerity It is permeated by U* spirit and controlled by the principle Expressed in rhis nassaee As commonUes and na tioas dr if t a way from ths great law nf benevolence which Christ taught and iSSedVthSr illustrated in all He said And did and depravity increases and JJ their 80C i a i contacts amt calamities ultiply . Any legislation that contra V enes greaTseTmon the law of Christ contained in Hm on the Mount will be prolific of NOTHING BUT SOCIAL EVIL “We speak bpeaa the cue worts «rua of ui troth uulu and auu soberness when we say that :he power which propels the wheels of our pres en t civilization is not love, but greed. c P 0 ''tlcs and commerce there is premium on shrewdness and deception, Unswerving honesty and true Christian generosity are sneered at as virtues too sublimated and ethereal to be practiced by creatures who wear earth about them, and who have to grapple with h prosaic questions ’What shall ... 5Uc as j what shall I drink, and where w - ltha i shall I be clothed?’ “A civilization that is based solely upon self-interest, and that magnifies \nd rewards men who SUCCEED BY THEIR SUPERIOR CUNNING. aas no power withing itself to secure justice. There is nothing that needs saving so much as a civilization that is guided by no great ethical principle, and that marches on without any re¬ gard for God and his righteousness. The country that boasts of such a civili¬ zation is on the high road to anarchy, nihilism and barbarism. “Civilization is not a cause, but an effect. It is the product of human char¬ acter. It expresses the good and evil in the hearts of the people who sup Port it. Any government is just what the people make it. If a state or mum cipal government legalizes or tolerates such an iniquity as a bull fight or a gambling house, or a bar room or an indecent theatrical exhibition, it is he PEOPLE ARE nuDOAmrn DEPRAVED fwnTTAtr ENOUGH to de sire itr “The t , fountain . of any civilization . iS m the chaiacter ot the people If the civ.l.zat.on is corrupt, It a because corruption reigns in the hearts o the people. Tfi.s being true civ.hzat on can V 1 cleansed only by cleansing the lAia'asTh38eoiUiI-riaYc ^ off^fiUe -at moral sensibility and a feeble appreteia of t he distinctions which God between rigbt and wrong, there will be CLASS LEGISLATION, DESPOTIC MONOPOLIES, political rings, bribery and ballot-box Stuffing. A righteous civilization can be secured and maintained only by a people who love and practice righteous ness. We are like those foolish Gala tians, whom Paul describes as ‘be witched.’ We have been ‘bewitched’ by false teachers. “What, then, is our hope? How can society be redeemed? How can our civilization be transformed? How can the state be so reconstructed as to fur nish adequate protection to its subjects and to all of their legitimate interests? Our answer to each of these questions is: ‘By substituting for the law of self interest which now dominates our so cial life the law of love—the law of self-sacrifice—the law which Christ il lustrated when he became poor that we, through His poverty, might be rich— the law which makes each man HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER and requires us to bear one another’s burdens. “Is it your purpose to be useful to your fellow men? If that is not your purpose, and your supreme purpose, you have no claim upon the respect of mankind. If you intend to be a disci pie of Cain and repudiate all obliga tion to care for your brother man, you deserve to be treated as Cain was— BRANDED AS AN OUTLAW. If you will not be your brother's keeper and burden-bearer, you are his enemy, You will seize every opportunity to de fraud, oppress and degrade him. The spirit that controls you will make you A MONOPOLIST OR A GAMBLER. or a bank robber, or an anarchist, or a nihilist. “But if your purpose is to he useful— useful not only to yourself and your family, but to the whole world- your lif e must be a sacrificial life. You must look out over the wide world and rec ognize every man in it as your neigh bor, and feel your obligation to help bim as far as God gives you the ability and opportunity. To serve your day and generation according to the will of G°d and make an enduring contribu tion to THE WELFARE OF THE RACE. you must make an obligation of your possessions and of yourself. i! l,?alna . . 'oc-nons .. ..o claim to be Christians heartily accept this doctrine and conform their lives to it, we shall see Christianity grow as it has never grown. We shall see so ciety quickly cleansed of its present pollutions. W'e shall see the state purged of all injustice and favoritism We shall see STRIFES BETWEEN LABOR AND CAPITAL CEASE, and throughout aU our borders a reign af righteousness, contentment and pros perity. “To reddem society —to remove it from its present basis of selfishness and plant it on the foundation of the golden rule of the gospel will require heroic courage, great sacrifice and mar¬ tyr-like endurance on the part of men in every calling. In putting your busi¬ ness on the basis of the golden rule you would SUFFER GREAT LOSSES for a time. You could scarcely compete with men of selfish and fraudulent methods. Bankruptcy might overtake you. But in making the sacrifice you would have the fellowship of Christ. You would manifest His spirit, magnify His truth and grace, and extend the conquests of His kingdom. This would compensate you a thousand times for your material losses. “I am confident that among the men who till the soil of this country there is MORE INCORRUPTIBLE INTEG¬ RITY than can be found in any other element of our population. For more than two thirds of a century agriculturalists dominated the government and social life of this nation. It is now dominated b>. monopol ists, money lenders and that the changf has been PROLIFIC OF ANYTHING BUT GOOD, either to the material or moral interests of the masses of our people. It requires no prophetic gift to see that a return of the agricultural classes to power would result in a revival of that vir tuous simplicity and uncompromising integrity which characterized the American people in the BETTER DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC, “Gentlemen of the Farmers’ National Congress, if you are fighting for the en thronement of truth, purity, fair deal ing and Christ-like charity in the gov ernment and social life of your country, and are determined to be loyal to your convictions, even to the last extremity, you are knights of a nobler chivalry than ever UNFURLED A FLAG OR UN SHEATHED A SWORD on any of the world’s historic battle fields, and for each of you invisible fingers are weaving an imperishable chaplet.” Olney and the Railroad*, Olney, the railroad and trust attor ney, whose salary in these positions ex ceeds his salary as attorney general in the president’s cabinet, has permitted the Central Pacific railroad to turn a large portion of its $6,000,000 of a sink ing fund to the payment of interest, in violation of the Thurman, act, which authorized the formation of a sinking fund to be 25 per cent of the net earn ings of the road-this sum to be cov ered in the United States treasury for the liquidation of the principal of the railroad’s debt, the bond aided roads having pledged themselves to pay the interest upon the debt to the govern ment outside of this fund It will be ^half of thlTpeopie'aTagalnsi the the railroad'killed railroad., Killed him him politically politically, but out endeared him to the people. ns m famous tool of trusts and corporations ua n teJ t0 state o gotem ent P o ceenings against the railroads which should laie een nougriL many yu a S° and whlch have been begun u P° n 1 eir 11 ceut ai llle 0 pa> ‘; ® la ‘ tere « due th , « ^rnment. had they no t had f n ^tarney m the presidents ® , ' met 0 00 a ’ tel tneir la i t e=LS - - Th ® raliroads , of p the ^ntry are m open violation of every measure intendea in \ S «, ettle with ; T - tn do , it just , . by retaining ’ . . ‘ such ', consum mate rasca ls as Atorney General Olney. _ p ^ u . Advocate. Alu>rhpr Fectl!i3r CJock . The most peculiar clock in the world is that in a tower in the court yard of the palace of Versailles. Upon . b of a kl in anv por tion of Eu * be ban d is set at the moment of and remains in that posi t j oa until another king passes away. This curious custom is said to have or iginated ^ t he time of Louis XIII. The old parties are getting together, Reformers must unite. A VOICE OF WAS NINO. AN ENCLISH WRITER MAKES SOME OBSERVATIONS. And Chief Justice Brown Says that Bribery and Corruption Are So Gen¬ eral as to Threaten the Very Structure of Society. Wealth Maters: “I have watched th« rapid evolution of social democracy in England; I have studied autocracy in Russia and theocracy in Rome; and I must say that nowhere, not even in Russia, in the first year of the reaction occasioned by the murder of the czar, have I struck more abject submission to a more soulless despotism than that which prevails among the so-called free American citizens when they are face to face with the omnipotent power of the corporations.” These are the words of an English writer who has recently made a study of our municipal institutions. And As¬ sociate Justice Brown of the United States Supreme Court, commenting on the above, says: “Granting this to be overdrawn—for I am unwilling to believe that corpora¬ tions are solely responsible for munici¬ pal misgovernment—the fact remains that bribery and corruption are so gen¬ eral as to threaten the very structure of society.” Justice Brown in his article in the August Forum, from which the above extracts are taken, says, by way of ex¬ planation of municipal corruption, that: “The activities of urban life are sc intense, the pursuit of wealth or pleasure so absorbing, as upon the one hand to breed an indifference to pub¬ lic affairs; while upon the other, the expenditures are so large, the value of the franchises at the disposal of the cities so great, and the opportunities for illicit gain so manifold, that the mu¬ nicipal legislators, whose standard of honesty is rarely higher than the av¬ erage of those who elect them, fall an easy prey to the designing and unscru¬ pulous. Franchises which ought to net the treasury a large sum are bartered away for a song; privileges which ought to be freely granted in the in¬ terest of the public are withheld till those who are supposed to be most immediately benefited will consent to pay for them; gross favoritism is shown in the assessment of property for taxation; great corporations are permitted to encumber the streets and endanger the lives of citizens, while every form of vice which can be made is secretly tolerated.” Speaking of corporations in general, Justice Brown referred to the fact that “they have a practical monopoly ot land transportation, of mining, manu¬ facturing, banking, and insurance." “The ease with which charters are se¬ cured has produced great abuses.” The advantage advantage i4atf4?lh:u'& the^ofiTi thejf"efier of limited liabil ••.jRfc-pa*»*« paArto is t<j avoid paying their obligations, to cflish crush out rivals; charters are secured in 6ne state to do business in another or oth ers, so as tb bring litigation into Fed eral courts. The eminent writer de scribes the gross frauds of railroad con struction companies and the “wreck ing” process, and the vast profit, or rather plunder, thus got under cover oi law. Speaking of the trusts he said: “Worse than this, however, is the combination of corporations in so-called trusts to limit production, stifle compe¬ tition, and monopolize the necessities of life. The extent to which this has already been carried is alarming, the extent to which it may hereafter be carried is revolutionary. Indeed, the evils of aggregated wealth are nowhere seen in more odious form. If no stu¬ dent can light his lamp without paying tribute to one company, if no house¬ keeper can buy a pound of meat or sugar without swelling the receipts of two or three trusts, what is to prevent the entire productive industry of the country becoming ultimately absorbed by a hundred gigantic corporations? If a railway company originally organized to build 100 miles of road has by fifty years of consolidations and leases be come the undisputed master of 10,000 mUeg of lranspor tation, what is to pre¬ ven( . jt - n anotber fift y years from mo nODO ijj>i n g half the traffic of a conti nen f?” when a man sitting on the supreme benc h of the United States thus writes peo pi e should be aroused to act. ; Delays are dangerous. But what can . done w itli the great corporations, monopo ;i e s and trusts? The process of . conso ii da tion and the development of j s a forward movement in the j; ne j abor saving, of economic serv ice It cannot be checked, but monopo HeS sh0Uld b6 forced t0 P ay the government, and they 6 ® bought up by the government as fast as by complete consolidation and single organization they destroy competition, So rap i d j y are monopolies absorbing ihe wealth and resources of the people and grasping all power that prompt and radical measures are our only sal vation. The danger at present is that monopo iistic control of political parties and the press will keep the people ig¬ norant of the danger-and particanly prejudiced until violence and anarchy w ill follow. _ The trusts, the banks and every cor that .. . has grown rich . , under , the .. ! porauon shadow of special legislation passed by the representatives ^. of the two old par : „ a e fi g btin g the People's party lh ls is the best evidence that the Peo . pie’s party is the only one that is an j inveterate enemy to monopoly. No doubt Secretary Carlisle tells the truth when he says that “the silver men will fail to control the coming na ticnal convention of either the Demo¬ cratic or Republican party.” Too true# The Democrats are to be congratu lated on losing Brice and Gorman—but the country gains nothing.