People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1895 — ADDRESS TO POPULISTS. [ARTICLE]

ADDRESS TO POPULISTS.

People’* Party CongreMstnen Outline The notifies of Their Constituents. The populist members of the senate and house have issued the following address to the members of the people’s party: “As early as 1865-66 a conspiracy was entered into between the gold gamblers of Europe and America to accomplish the following purposes: “To fasten upon the people of the United States the burdens of perpetual debt; to destroy the greenbacks which had brought us safely through, the perils of war; to strike down silver as a money metal; to deny to the people the use of federal paper and tsilver, the two independent isources of money supply guaranteed by the constitution; to fasten upon the country the single gold standard of Great Britain, and to delegate to thousands of banking corporations, organized for private gain, the sovereign control for all time over the is.sue and volume of all supplemental paper currency. Thus they doubled the demands for gold, forced upon the country an appreciating money standard,, intailing an indefinite period of falling prices; robbed enterprise of its just profits,, condemned labor to idleness, and,confiscated the property of debtors. “For nearly thirty years these conspirators, have kept the people quarreling over less important matters*, while they have pursued with unrelenting zeal their one central purpose. At the present moment every device of treachery, every resource of state craft, and every artifice known to the secret cabals of the international gold ring are being made use of to deal a final death blow to the prosperity of the country and. the financial and commercial independence of this country. They seek to accomplish their fell purposes before the blow can be averted through the ballot. Their plans have been long matured and their line of action is fully chosen. They address themselves to the one subject—the money question—in all its breadth and magnitude. This brings the country face to face with a perilous issue, which calls for immediate and united action on the part of the people. Every behest of patriotism requires that we shall at once meet the issue and accept the challenge so defiantly offered.

“To falter now is to invite disasterous failure. We earnestly urge the populists throughout the country to concentrate their entire force and energy upon the tremendous contention presented, and thus meet the enemy upon his chosen line of battle. Invite the aid and co-operation of all persons who favor the immediate free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1; the issue of all paper money by the general government without the intervention of banks of issue, and who are opposed to the issue of interest-bearing government bonds in time of peace, In a word, to extend the hand of fellowship to all w r ho agree with you upon the money question, which is certainly the mightiest and most fundamental controversy evolved during the present century.” The above is signed by Lase Pence, O. M. Kem, T. J. Hudson, William Baker. W. A. McKeigan, William V. Allen, John C. Bell, James H. Kyle, H. E. Boen, H. E. Taubeneck, J. H. Turner, and J. B. Weaver.