People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1895 — Kentucky Populists. [ARTICLE]

Kentucky Populists.

While there are practically only two political parties in this state, the campaign has assumed the aspect of a three cornered fight. The democratic party has consolidated with the republican party on the money question and together they are waging a fierce warfare against the peoples party and honest government. The money seems to have hypnotized the leaders of the old parties, like the old; Jew hypnotized Trilby, and they I arq powerless to do the bidding! of any others than Cleveland and the Rothschilds, the prince fakirs of Europe and America. P. W. Hardin, the nominee for governor on the democratic ticket, while passing as a staunch friend of bimetallism and an advocate of the free coinage of b.oth gold and silver, is a chameleon and changes color to suit the place and location. He has ah w ays been an ardent advocate of free coinage and at the late democratic state convention, after a straight out and out gold bug platform was made by the committee and adopted with a whoop by the convention, Hardin was nominated and put astraddle of it, to ride the party, like a boy would a broomstick, to victory and the spoils of office. The reports sent out to the world at large that there is dissention in the democratic ranks in th ; s state is a fake, and is not to be credited for one minute by honest people. Hardin is hand and glove with the money power, and while posing before the people as the friend of free coinage of silver, it is known that he is not honest in his purposes. The voting masses in Kentucky are

for silver and the money power knows it, and they thought to fool them by hanging up a stool pigeon like Hardin. They thought to caV*h the possum coming or going. They may succeed here in Louisville in the shadow’ of Henry Watterson, the tool of his employers. Halderman, the proprietor of the Courier-Journal and the Even-ing-Times, and the money brokers of Wall street, but in the rural districts the situation is different. The farming classes cannot be fooled longer, and it is astonishing what interest is being taken in the campaign by the farmers in western and southern Kentucky. The populists have nominated a splendid ticket, and are making a gallant fight. Thomas S. Pettit is the populist standard bearer for governor, and he is one of the brainiest men in the state. He is a fine speaker and a truehearted statesman, and is making one of the best campaigns ever W’aged in this state since the w r ar. His complete and comprehensive knowledge of the money question and a full knowledge of the infamies and practices of the old parties, gives him vantage ground, and as he unfolds the damnable conspiracies practiced by the old parties in robbing the farmers and citizens generally, he strikes terror to the hearts of his political He is making converts to the people’s party by the hundreds whereever he speaks. Such an awakening from Rip Van Winkle sleeps •the people of this state have never had. He shows them how the coils of death have been about them for years dragging them down, gently, like a pleasure bark on the placid stream, finally to be swallowed up in the whirlpool of destruction. At a recent meeting at Adair-

ville this state, Mr. Petit was introduced to an immense audience by Col. Wilbur F. Browder, an out and out thoroughly pro* nounced gold bug and one of the foremost corporation attorneys in the southern part of the state In his introductory speech Col. Browder seemed to forget for the time being that he was the tool of the money power, and reflected his true feelings and honest sentiments in the following characteristic remarks: “While I differ politically with Hon. Thomas Petit, I have known him for years to be a strictly upright and, straightforward gentleman of superior worth and ability and it now gives me great pleasure to introduce him as a candidate for governor of Kentucky of one of the grand political parties of the state.” It is said that Kerry Watterson while talking to the G. A. R.’s here during encampment week, shed barrels of tears. Even his best friends could not

understand what moved his lachrymal fountain to such a copious overflow. The mystery is solved in the above narration. Watterson had persuaded himself to believe that as a Kentucky autocrat he was invincible, and when he found that one of his gold bugs and corporation tools had wandered so far away from the touch of his plutocratic garments as to introduce a populist to an audience composed of thousands of the honest sons of toil, he began to realize while he was talking “Lincoln” to the old soldiers that his power of “fooling all the people (of Kentucky) all the time,” had suddenly come to an end, and he stood before the great common people of his state and the nation the cringing hypocrite and tool of Wall street that he is. The sudden letting down of one of his servants and lieutenants of the devil money power caused his soul to weep, and the citizens of Louisville were deluded into believing that it was a burst of patriotic feeling for the Union soldiers who had saved the nation thirty years ago. Not so. Watterson wept because his prophetic vision told him that the same patriotic sentiment that stirred the old veterans to noble deeds of action away back in the 60’s had taken possession. of the people in this year of our Lord thirty years later, and in this state. Thomas S. Petit is their commander-in-chief around whose banner the farmers and laboring people of Kentucky are marshalling, and will be led to victory in November.

In his speeches Mr. Pettit is opening the eyes of the tax-pay-ers to the villainous frauds and high handed robberies perpetrated upon them and their children by the old party officials in the sale of common school books. He showed them how they are being robbed right and left by being obliged to buy out of date, flimsy, inferior-made text-books at prices ranging from 50 to 100 per cent more than good wellmade books are sold for. He demonstrated to the satisfaction of all his hearers that Kentucky is paying to that hydra-headed octopus, the American Book Concern, over $200,000 a year more than better books can be purchased for from honest competing publishers.

lam lead to believe that if Hon. Thomas Pettit continues spreading the new gospel of reform throughout the state as he has since the opening of the campaign, southwestern Kentucky will be carried by the populists almost solidly. There is no question but that many populists will be elected to the legislature, and will hold seats in both branches of this lawmaking body. Here in Louisville the populists do not seem as yet to have made much headway. The Rothschilds have this city in their grasp. The merchants are almost to a man gold bugs, irrespective of politics. Democrats who have been denouncing the crime of ’73 have been touched with a golden rod and now go about screeching for gold and sound money. If you ask them why they are for gold and against silver, they cannot tell you why to save their necks. They are as ignorant on the money question as Hottentots. They want to Europeanize America, and tie themselves up to the Shylocks and money brokers of Europe s under the delusion that they are bettering their condition. They are like the dog in the manger, they will not eat nor allow any one else to eat-that is, in their bigotry they will not take advice or instruction on the money question from anybody but bankers, and won’t read anything that will enlighten them. The clerks and salesman and working men are such subservient tools of their employers that they do not dare to hold opinions of their own, and if they did they would be discharged. This serfdom will be broken up by the reformers and a new ligh t will dawn upon the people of this city and state. The populists have established an organ here in Louisville, the Free Republic, With Hon. S. M. Paytbn as editor and publisher. Mr. Payton was nominated at the recent populist convention l for attorney genera], and is making ■

I a brilliant campaign. He is an able attorney and one of the brainest men in the state. No man in the state or nation is better equipped than he is to battle against plutocracy. He is a writer andjiandles the old parties without gloves. He shows up their villainy in such a way as to make them wince. Mr. Pay ton does every bit of the writing orhis paper, as well as speaks almost every day and night. The Free Republic has a large circulation in every county in the state, and is causing the people to wonder why it is that they have been chained to the money power for so many years, It is a vote-getter and staunch reformer of the people and is driving consternation for Henry Watterson's soul. Mr. Payton is one of the finest orators in Kentucky and with his voice and pen is doing marvelous work for the people. The Kentucky State Central Committee, of which Jas. A. Parker is chairman, has every district in the State thoroughly organized and has placed good speakersin the field. Hon. James G. Field, of Virgina, who was the first vice-presidential candidate on the populist national ticket, is making speeches throughout the State, and is attracting large audiences. C. A. Power, of Terre Haute, Ind., the widely known author and writer, is helping in the fight as is also that young and brilliant orator, M. L. Daggv, of the Hoosier state. State Chairman Parker and State Secretary W. P. Marsh, of the state central committee, are both fine speakers and able campaign workers. Old Kentucky is being shaken from center to circumference, and the old parties will realize after the November election that they have the hardest political battle of their lives, and will have had a foretaste of what they will get in ’96.

S. P. V. ARNOLD.

Louisville, Ky., Sept 30.