People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1893 — Our Plea. [ARTICLE]

Our Plea.

The man who is surrounded by conditions that adversely affect his interests, and forces that impel him to his own ruin, and does not comprehend the conditions or recognize the forces, is, to our mind, of all men, the most deserving of pity. Such we believe to be the condition of the great body of the American people to-day. But he who pauses amid the activities of life, to look deep into causes and patiently gathers up results, carefully notes tendencies and interprets them by the lights of history, and thereby gains a thorough knowledge of surrounding conditions and realizes the final outcome unless changes are affected, is to our mind one

deserving of the greatest praise. Such persons we believe to be the People’s party men and women, persons who have broken party ties and left behind them so called Democratic and Republican principles, as measures wholly insufficient to meet the demands of the age, and out of their hardships, sufferings and researches have formulated principles which if enacted into law, would bring that happy readjustment in our social, financial, and commercial conditions that would place us far in advance of all past and present civilizations, and lay the foundations of our government upon such sure basis that it would endure while governments among men were necessary. It is of the past and present conditions and these principles that we are to speak, and submit to the consideration of a candid people. To fully comprehend the People’s party, its principles and the necessity of its existence, one fact must be constantly borne in mind, and that is, that we are in a new and wonderful age, that old things have passed away, (meaning production, transmission of intelligence, transportation and communication). The means of production in use in the memory of living men and women, are wholly discarded now. The age in which they were born and reared was a domestic age. Almost the entire wants of the household, were manufactured in the home. The flax was grown upon the farm, pulled by hand, spread on the meadow by hand, “rotted” and gathered up by hand. The old fashioned and homely flaxbrake, that was so ugly that the sight of one would have frightened an engine off the track, had there been engine or track in those days, was operated by hand, scutching and hatcheting were done by hand, and the little wheel of our mothers, with its flyers, distaff, quills, etc., were all operated by hand or foot, and the old fashioned loom, big and ugly, and always in the way, were the rude machinery by which all the table linen, sheets and toweling and largely the shirting for the family were supplied. The sheep were reared on the farm, the fleece was clipped, the burrs picked out, the coloring, much of the carding, all of the spinning, weaving, cutting and making of clothing and bedding were made in the household, and done by hand. On the farm similar conditions maintained, everything, almost; in the food line was the product of the farm; bread, meat, the sweets, and fruit were all of home growth or manufacture. A breaking plow, single shovel plow, an old fashioned reap hook, a grass sythe and a “three quarter augur” to tap the sugar trees, an ax, an iron wedge and a mattock were the farm implements of those days. The whole outfit would not cost forty dollars. (To be continued.)