People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1895 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Kentucky Populists are preparng for a grand fight in that state. The 'hairman of the state central commitee has issued a circular letter calling < 'or the co-operation of Populists in jther states, and asking for donations )f money and literature from such i states as have no elections this year. This is a good idea. Every inch of 1 ground we gain in Kentucky and other 1 states holding elections this year will help us in the light next year. The i ’opulists in Kentucky have a good plat- ; 'orm, and they have the pluck to make i i good fight. They ought to have all | the assistance from outside the state' I that is possible to give. Contributions | for this purpose sent to J. A. Parker, I Paducah, Ky., chairman of the state central committee, will be sacredly devoted to the cause. Let all Populists help some.

The Harvey-Horr debate is over. It Is significant for several things, not the least of which is that Mr. Horr was so effectually whipped that the plutocratic papers would not publish the discussion. Notwithstanding the fact that the gold bugs arranged for the debate, and challenged Mr. Harvey, it is now very plain that for their side it was a great mistake. But what were they to do? Harvey's book was crushing the life out of their cherished theories and bid fair to accomplishing the overthrow of their system. How was all this effect to be counteracted? They could prohibit the sale of the book on some of the railroads, but that only added its sales elsewhere. They bethought themselves to crush the author and the book at once by over-matching Harvey in debate. They sent east and imported one of the best-posted gold bugs they could find, and also one of the.most invincible debaters. That Horr’s own papers and friends will not publish the discussion is a plain and undoubted admission of his overwhelming defeat. Bring out another boss. * • • One of the facts that should not be lost sight of in this financial discussion is that the men who are clamoring loudest for “honest money,” as they call it. are themselves dishonest. They have never yet made a bargain wUh the people's representatives that old not savor of fraud, and in some cases fraud was so apparent that if the matter had been appealed to an honest court (if we had one) it would have been set aside; In proof of this assertion we need only to refer to the socalled credit strengthening act of 18(19, by which $1,500,000,000 in bonds were declared payable in a currency worth from 30 to 40 cents on (he dollar more than that for which they were sold; to the demonetization of silver In 1873, and again in 1893; to the exception clause which they had tacked on to the greenback, thus making a better money for themselves than they did for the soldiers who were risking their lives on the battlefield; entering into a conspiracy to produce the panic of 1893 for the purpose of influencing Congress to demonetize silver to the end that more interest-bearing bonds be issued; the deal made by Cleveland, Carlisle and Company, by which they transferred the keeping of the credit of the United States over to a syndicate, paying the syndicate $9,000,000 commission in the transaction. This is the class of men who are clamoring for an honest dollar, which, with them means a dear dollar.

A plutocratic paper of recent date makes this announcement: “The prediction that the session of Congress to begin four months hence will be short, has some chance to be true. There will be no financial legislation, and the tariff will not be touched. Probably before Congress meets the business Improvement will have wiped out the treasury deficit, and the necessity for new revenue legislation will disappear. Each party is anxious to do just as little as possible in advance of the election, and happily the conditions favor this aspiration.” “Each party is anxious to do just as little as possible.” That’s right. There is nothing like an honest confession. So we have the program laid down. There is to be no tariff legislation and no financial legislation. In fact there is nothing particularly to do but go to Washington and vote for an appropriation that will cover the salaries and stealage for the next year, and then go home and tell what a grand old party they belong to and work for re-elec-tion and more salary. This is a grand old government of ours, and humbug is the biggest thing in it.

One of the best evidences of the insincerity of those Democrats who want free silver “inside the party” is that they voted for Cleveland three times, and would vote for another gold bug if he is nominated by the next national convention. Cleveland began his campaign against silver in his celebrated Warner letter in 1885, prior to his first inauguration. Notwithstanding this, General Warner, president of tire Bimetallic League, has voted for him ever since. So has his party. The silver element in the Democratic party has been growing less ever since it anchored its hopes in securing free silver

through that party. Cleveland has been one of the most consistent men in his party on that question. While Carlisle, Hoke Smith, Bynum and others were ranting for free silver, Cleveland was writing letters against it, recommending the suspension of silver coinage. The Democratic party nominated and supported him twice after he recommended practically the same thing that he did when he called Congress together to repeal the only free silver law we had on the statute books. If the Democrats were sincere then they have