People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1895 — WE WILL STAND FIRM [ARTICLE]

WE WILL STAND FIRM

“Keep in the middle of the road.’* The panic was caused by the banks. “Sound money” is a hollow mockery. Can anything good come out of Washington? Go to work and organize Industral Legions. The last bond issue ought to be repudiated. Oh, yes, the democratic party is for free silver! The Reform Press is loyal to the Omaha platform. Men of brains and men of courage is what is needed now. Government ownership of the railroads is coming fast. Thirty-year bonds is a mortgage on a generation yet unborn. The monopoly of money is the worst monopoly of them all. The practical side of all issues is the condition that makes them. The main question is, shall money or manhood run this country? Bland is still at the forks of the road trying to go both ways at once. If God and the Reform Press is with ! us who can stand against us? The attack on the greenback is concentrating and gathering energy. Don’t be in a hurry to swallow the old party silver bait. It is a fraud. The old parties have at last confessed that the money question is paramount. The hard times were brought about ■ by the banks and those who control the I money. The democratic party is agitating the question of appointing free silver receivers. Cleveland and Carlisle permitted an English syndicate to make $8,000,090 out of the last bond deal. A leader who has not the courage to say where he wants to lead to. is not to be trusted.

If you want t > be a genuine democrat you must get out of the party that goes by that name. The fifty-third congress was democratic, but it was a billion-dollar congress, all the same. Gold lunacy is the worst insanity on earth. It has destroyed great nations, and notv threatens ours. The question now troubling the democratic politicians is, “what will we lie about in the next campaign?" Grover Cleveland is as much a democrat as the other men who persist in staying with the democratic party. Over seven hundred million dollars was subscribed for that last bond issue of $02,000,000. Oh. how our credit is suffering. "I resent the dictum, that because a man stands by the platform, he is a traitor to his party.”—Gen. Paul Van Dervoort. Two years of unrestricted democratic iule and—well, how do you feel about it, anyway? Where, oh where, are the good times promised?

The republicans are not anxious for an extra session or congress—in fact about the only thing tli?y are anxious for is their salaries. ‘ What will the republicans do to relieve the situation?” is a question which they don’t seem to be inclined to answer themselves. Prom all points c>me expressions from the peopia that in their humble opinion the Omah<j platform was made to stand upon. The democrat who don’t indorse Gro ver Cleveland should get out of his party. That party has already indorsed Grover three times, and that is evidence enough that he is the party ideal. The leading republican (Sherman) and the leading democrat (Cleveland) stand together on the financial question. It is time for the followers to get together and lead themselves into the People’s party. j Toward the close of the session the fifty-third congress voted to appropriate over $5,000,000 as bounty to the sugar planters. It is charged that the lobby for the planters spent $250,000 within a few minutes to secure the passage of the measure. Of course we will meet the enemy on Jhe money question. We have always met him. What’s the use to issue addresses appealing to the people to do what they have always done and wall continue to do? “I cordially thank the People’s party press everywhere; they represent a gallant band whose sacrifices will never be known, who cannot be bought, sol i or bartered, and whose unselfish and unrewarded labor for our party is beyond all praise.”—Paul Van Dervoort. • C. P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins built the Central Pacific railroad—that is, they furnished the cheek and about $25,000 in money, got the government to build it, made about $150,000,000 out .it. and now it is proposed for the ■' -sment to donate some $40,000,000 • • uliit >. paid n rail- • b'”. o the contpan.'. A very qu -n and net 1 bi I • *l..

That chance is gone. No bartering for votes. The “chance” has petered. Down with banks of issue. Banks of issue must be suppressed. Go to work for the campaign of 1896. It makes a man sweat to be a democrat now. The issue of bonds is a result of the bank conspiracy. A silver party Is all right as tar as it goes, but it don’t go far enough. Everybody seems to agree that the last bond deal was a bunco game. The record of the fifty-third congress is so loud that everybody can smell it. The fifty-third congress came in like a lion and went out like a sheep-killing dog. The People’s party will help to administer upon the estate of 'the democratic party. John Sherman says he believes Cleveland is honest. The devil has not been heard from. A new silver party would give every southern state to tfiie Populists. Let it be organized. The only credit that has ever suffered seriously in this country was that of the banks. The “give us a chance” congress appropriated $12,000,000 to build some more battle ships. Nothing short of government issue of money will correct the evils of our rotten financial system. It is in bad taste for the men who have voted for Grover Cleveland three Times to say now he is not a democrat. There is no consolation in the thought that when Grover goes out a republican of the same political stripe will come in.

Miss Gould gave $3,000,000 for her husband, and, it is said, she got full count. And, of course, the count will get full, too. The democratic party is bankrupted to such an extent that it can’t even furnish a possible candidate for the presidency in 1896. Debs says the judicial nets are so constructed as to catch the minnows [ and let the whales get through, and we think he is about right. All the great republican papers are defending President Cleveland’s financial policy. Who says the republican congress won’t carry it out? True Populists may differ but they will keep their hands off the Omaha platform until the people assemble in another national convention. If there is a professed Populist in the United States in favor of sacrificing the Omaha platform for silver only he should go back to the old parties where he belongs. | If both old parties are in favor of free silver why don’t we have it? They have the power to give it. to us. Somebody is lying, and somebody else is swallowing the lies, although anyone ought to see them. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, one of the great leaders of the republican party, complacently pronounces Alexander Hamilton “one of the greatest finance ministers the world has ever Seen.” It is a difficult feat to perform, to talk for free silver and vote for a gold standard, but the two old parties have accomplished it, and a lot of foolish voters are getting ready to say that it is , all right.

The net profits of the railroads for 1894 was over four hundred million dollars. This means about $7 for each and every man, woman and child in the United States. This, and more, could be saved by government ownership. There is a great deal of talk now about socialism. Before you commit yourself get a standard dictionary and see what it means. Some people make fools of themselves by using words of which they do not know the meaning. Don’t let the glitter of silver in the old parties blind your eyes to the atrocities of the railroad and bank system, which they favor. They would willingly concede free coinage if they were sure that thereby they could stop agitation of the railroad and bank questions The record of the fifty-third congress as reviewed .by democratic papers appears to be considerable of an apology —the republican papers call it a failure and the Populists give it credit for proving that the two old parties are led by the same class of highwaymen. It has opened the people’s eyes, if nothing more. If railroad companies were held reI sponsible by law for all accidents ! wherein passengers are killed or injured, such slaughters as that which ocI curred a short time ago in Mexico would ' not be so common. Corporation murderers should be punished the same as individual cut-throats. It would be Interesting to know why the President’s “former law partner” engineered the late bond deal with the English syndicate—a deal on which the syndicate realized $8,000,000. It would abo be interesting to know what the President’s ’’former law partner’’ .realized out of the deal

LET TIE NEW SILVER PARTY GO ON. It Will Take No Votes from the Great People's Party—Will, However, Rip Up the Old Parties Up the Back Keep Step to Their Mnslc. The dispatches from Washington indicate the formation of a new silver party. The agitation of this movement began several months ago, but has only •ecently attracted any serious attention from the politicians at Washington. It is reported that Mr. Bland and Mr. Bryan will not join the movement, but propose to continue the fight for free silver within the old party lines. A Washington dispatch to the St. Louis Republic of March 2, says: “The action of Mr. Bland in throwing cold water upon the movement, and starting the manifesto which has kept the democrats within the lines of their party, has had a depressing effect upon the extremists. Senator Stewart, Gen. A. J. Warner of Ohio, and the Populist members of both houses are the active spirits of the Bimetallic league. They have established a connection with Taubeneck’s Populist machine, and there will probably be a merging of the two new parties in a short time. The Bimetallic league is not taken seriously here by serious politicians, and since Don Cameron has discountenanced the idea of a new party, the power of the league for good or evil has very much diminished.” Whatever of truth or falsehood there may be in the above dispatch, it is well known that efforts have been made to unite the silver men with the Populists for the campaign of 1896. This union of forces looks plausible on the face of it, but we may well stop to inquire what is to be the nature of the basis of the union. The People's party has fought its way to the important position of a factor in the politics of the nation. It has got its case in court, so to speak. The silver men have no organization, save the Bimetallic league, which has spent great sums of money and accomplished nothing in the way of legislation. It has, however, done some good work in the line of education. The silver men, we are informed, want to make this union of forces, but will not. do so on the basis of the Omaha platform. Certain Populists seem to be willing to make the union, but when pressed and confronted with the charge that they want to make it on the basis of an abandonment of a portion of the , Omaha platform, they deny it. Then i how is this union to be effected? If the silver men won’t stand on the Omaha platform, and the union of forces is made, the only alternative seems to be that the Populists will have to stand off of their platform. This is the only : logical conclusion. There is a large number of voters in the People’s party who believe that the transportation and land questions are of equal importance with the currency question, but are loyal to the whole platform.

, The silver men do not indorse our posi- , tion on either of these problems. The I abandonment of these two features, I to please the silver men, would lose us thousands of votes that are loyal to the whole platform. Would it be policy to take this step? What is to be gained jby such a coalition? We have no as- ■ surance that all, or even a considerable portion of the silver democrats and republicans would join the new party. Bland and Bryan already refuse to do so. What have they got to offer us? Would it not be better to wait until they ‘ have marshaled their forces and gone 1 through at least one campaign, and ■ won their spurs, before closing terms with them? The formation of a new party is held up to our eyes as a great bugatoo. What have we to fear from the organization of a new party on the basis of the currency question? The ■ People’s party covers every phase of currency reform which this new party would. Then why should any one leave the People’s party and go to the new? On the other hand, a new party would draw its strength from the two old parties, thus weakening our adversaries. A new party will cause a hopeless split in the democratic party—a split that , will insure its defeat in nearly every I southern state. When this is done thousands of republicans and democrats ; who have only been kept in line because of fear that the other party would win would join the People’s party. The best thing that could happen the People’s party would be the formation of a new party. Many voters have been kept in line because such leaders as Bland and i Mills and Teller and Wolcott have adI vocated free silver and currency reform within the ranks of the old party. If , thess men form a new silver party many of the rank and file will follow them. With such a split in the two old parties and the People’s party standing firm and unwavering, our chances of success would be as good as was that of the republican party in 1860. By all

means let the new silver party be organized. It would be one step toward Populism, and eventually the movement would gravitate into the Populist party. But any union of forces on the basis of an abandonment of any part of the Omaha platform would be a step backward, create dissension in our ranks, and discourage those who have stood loyally by the platform and contributed to build up the party to its present magnificent proportions.