People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1895 — The Deacon Lignts. [ARTICLE]

The Deacon Lignts.

The populist is a student; lie knows the reasons for his political convictions: he is usually able to give a lucid explanation of his propositions; he is familiar with the teachings of all schools of political economy; he knows the history of legislation from the foundation of this government; he is often the college professor, the physician, the minister of the gospel, the jurist, the author, the thinking unselfish mind of every calling; lie is allied with organized labor as a farmer or an artisan; he is of the great middle class of progressive, well-to-do citizens, who have made a reasonable success of life from their own exertions. The populists are of neither of the two extremes of society; the rich man who lives upon vested interests is too shrewdly selfish to want a change, and the unorganized poor are too ignorant to know the cause of their poverty; and the politician is rewarded only through the operation of the existing system which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. The brightest intellectual lights which blaze to-day unsullied by the tempting power of gold are populist beacons, and from among these true champions of human liberty will a Cincinnattus rise to rescue the perishing heritage of a once free people.

Germany is desirous of an international conference to restore silver to its coinage rights, it being generally admitted that bimetallism will greatly benefit the peasant classes. The sale of bonds, to be paid principal and interest in gold, is the severest. blow yet dealt to silver. It firmly discredits silver, and in so doing injures the credit of the United States. Senator Peffer has asked congress to submit the financial question to a direct vote of the people. The represenvatives of the banking power who are a a majority respectfully decline. Look out, that is paternalism, that government cable to Hawaii, for which congress has just appropriated half a million dollars. Now just connect it with a government telegraph and turn, it all over to the post office. More people will die of starvation, privation and despair in attempting tho pay the Cleveland gold bonds than were killed and maimed in 1861-65, and tnoi’e money will be paid in interest upon those bonds than it cost to capture Jeff Davis.

Trust the people. Prosperity is still lost. The gold reserve is going, as usual. To Grover: Don’t monkey with Honolulu. The business men are beginning to kick —now look out. You can’t help a laboring man b 7 making him a target. The first kicking a disgusted democrat should do is to kick himself out of the party. Seven hundred and fifty-eight silver dollars coined—and seventy million people sold. All the principles of good government are embodied in the capacities of each individual. The small merchant is one of the greatest victims to the usury and contraction system. Judge Woods might issue an injunction against the United States senate impeaching Judge Ricks. The congressman who says that he is ‘‘a friend of the laboring man” should do something to prove it. Oh, it will come out all rijght—the Union Pacific railway has its lobby in Washington to help congress. The senate will pass the railway pooling pill—and then railroad rates will go up all over the country. All the western railroads have agreed to advance rates, Feb. 15. That is one of the effects of pooling. The big trusts are killing the poor man’s trust at the store, and wiping out the trust of the store at the bank. Boys! the merchants will be with us in our demands for more money and cheaper transportation before ’96. Mark this. Mayor Sutro of San Francisco - isn’t afraid of C. P. Huntington, or any other thief. He proposes to bring Huntington to justice. Remember, please, that all we ask is good government and a fair show. We don’t care who fills the offices, as long as they fill them right.

President Marion Butler of the National Farmers’ Alliance goes to the United States senate to help prepare i the way for Populist government. . ... i —— The little merchants who vote with the fellows who are crushing them out of existence, are beginning to discover that there is something the matter. The same principles that are best for the proper regulation of a home or the life of an individual are applicable and good for the regulation of a nation. Claus Spreckles, the sugar king, must be protected if the whole United States , navy has to go to Honolulu. Spreckles is a hun-a-lulu —and so is Grover Cleveland. The merchant in an agricultural community has no interest greater than the prosperity of the farmers—yet he votes for the fellows who rob the men who make his living. All that is known about Lucien Baker, \ the newly-elected senator from Kansas, I is that he defeated J. Rats Burton, the. republican Breckinridge of Kansas. Baker was a “dark horse.” If the aggregate increase of wealth In the United States were two hundred thousand million dollars a year, and one man owned it all, wouLd that in* dicate national prosperity? The merchants who are failing all , over the country at least admit that they fail because collections are bad — and their patrons know that they can’t pay because there is no money in circulation. No fundamentariaw of nature works singly—and no single issue can be ] worked out completely without modifying all the things to which it is related —in other words, free coinage ofsilver will not solve the social problem. The money power is opposed to Populism because the populist party proposes to elect honest men to office, men Who can not be bought. It vs not the platforms of parties that the money, power fears, but honesty and justice. The New - York chamber of commerce has met and passed resolutions asking the government to issue more gold bonds—and in spite of the fact that three-fourths of all the people of the nation are opposed to more bonds, the demands of New York’s handful of gold bugs will be duly considered and probably acted upon by congress. The merchant who thinkff he can do business when the people have no money to buy with, is a fool. And when he wakes up under the pressure he will stir up the plutocratic menagerie with a sharp stick. The small merchants are beginning to feel that they have no part in the usurer’s banquet.

There is not one merchant in a thousand but whose income comes principally from the patronage of farmers and laborers —yet, there is not one merchant in a thousand who votes for the best interests of farmers and laborers. The contraction caught the common laborers and “odd job" men first; then the mechanics were squeezed; next the farmers felt the pressure; and now the merchants and all legitimate business men are groaning under the burden of Shylock. Soon there will be an upheaval that will shake the devil off hla throne.

listen to the man. Hurrah for Mayor Sutro. Democracy is still dead. Tell nothing but the truth. — r - ~ 1 Sold at auction —American liberty. “Don’t vote the old “scab” tickets any longer. Circulate reform books among your neighbors. Workingmen should vote only for workingmen. Organized labor should not “scab” at the ballot box. Mayor Sutro of San Francisco is stirring up the animals and the railroads. Stick to the Omaha platform and the middle of the road. Rapidly the old parties are fusing against the advocates of good government. Who w asi tsaidt heP opul is t conference would confine itself to the discussion of silver? While there is a single acre of American land held by aliens thfe land question will never be settled. The labor unions are learning that they can’t succeed by voting either of the old party “scab” tickets. The national pawnbrokers who call themselves bankers, should be forced to earn their living or starve. Mayor Sutro of San Francisco seems to be loaded with an earthquake pointed at C. P. Huntington. There are enough lands unjustly held by corporations in this country to furnish homes for ten million people. The best made currency plans of bankers and gold bugs have to be stuffed with government fiat, before they can make a shadow. When C. P. Huntington violates the law, the officers refuse to issue a writ for his arrest —but the poor man may be arrested without a writ. If the check of the bankers could be ■converted into confidence, the country rwould experience an over-production of this ethereal commodity.

Lawyers thrive only on the strife, of the people. Think of that, and then of how many lawyers we have In congress—about three hundred. The way for the bankers to prevent the greenbacks emptying the treasury of gold is to stop taking their greenbacks there and demanding gold. The corporations and trusts are wiping out the individual business men all over the country —and yet the little fellows continue to vote for cut-throat competition and monopoly. Every interest-bearing bond issued by the government is an endless chain on a force pump revolved by the wheels of oppression to pump the products of labor into the tub of monopoly. The amount of land granted by the United States to railroad corporations amounts to more than the area of the original thirteen states. Don’t you think it about time to consider 'the fond question ? The idea of “redeeming” bank notes and silver certificates with gold, in a country that owes more gold than the nation possesses and pays more gold interest to Europe every year than all the gold produced. Absurd, isn’t it? IS is not claimed that equal rights to pKI and special privileges to none will transform men into angels at once—but it would give every man an oppor- • tunlity to better himself —which many can't do now, even if they already possessed the disposition of angels. Senator Hill is in favor of the election of senators by popular vote. Tne people have been in favor of that for many years. Reforms always originate down among the people, and then when some great leader finds out what the people are thinking about he is hailed ns a man of original ideas.

The Chicago Tribune recently devoted a full page to describing the silks, and diamonds worn at a great “charity” ball in that city. It must make tjhe poor recipients of plutocratic bounty feel happy to know that the benevolent dancers had to sacrifice nothing in their gorgeous alms-giving. The moneyed men of the country, ■having secured during the depression .a great deal of cheap property by foreclosure and otherwise, now desire a temporary expansion of currency so that they may dispose of their stealings. But they want bank notes that can be contracted when they get ready te make another haul. They are opposed to government issues which would make the expansion permanent. It is generally remarked in Kansas •that the reason J. Ralph Burton was defeated for the senatorship was because he had not yet reopened his assignation house for the season, and the republicans had consequently cooled in the tarcflpr of their convivial love for him. He was defeated as closely as was Breckinridge in Kentucky —and ■doubtless for the reason that he was ■getting ttoo good. *The security of the bank notes proposed is ©sly 30 per cent On the other hand the government might issue ■enough legal tender greenbacks to ini crease the present currency to SSO per capita, and all the wealth of all the ■ people of the nation would be behind •.it, insuring security by a backing of »over three thousand per cent for each and every government note.

Farmers, haul your grain to lartley Bros, and receive Remington and Geodland prices.