People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1896 — BRAZEN AND DEFIANT [ARTICLE]

BRAZEN AND DEFIANT

DESPERATE CONSPIRACY AGAINST ■ THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. The Confederated Trants and Syndicates Opedly Declare War Against the Producers of the Country—Can They Defeat Win. J. Bryan? Chicago, Oct. 2, 1896. [Special.] What are the forces arrayed against William J. Bryan and the people in this moss remarkable campaign? What Influences must be encountered and defeated if a victory be won on Nov. 3? It is now possible to answer these questions. The lines are drawn and they are drawn sharply. There is no middle ground. It is organized greed against the people. It is unscrupulous and defiant wealth against American workman and producers. It is the concentrated power of money, trusts and syndicates versus the unorganized patriotism of the United States. If William J. Bryan is elected it will be in spite of the desperate efforts of the following classes and individuals: 1. The presidents and stockholders of every robbing trust in the United States. There is not a trust but that has willingly paid an assessment to Mark Hanna’s corruption fund. 2. The sc-lid membership of that gilded coterie known as New York’s Four Hundred. Every simpering snob and English-aping dude is for McKinley and the gold standard. Every titlehunting Anglo-maniac, with more money than brains, is opposed to William Bryan or any other man born west of New York city. 3. Every money lender, gold broker and syndicate promoter in New York and the other money centers is solid for McKinley and gold. This list includes such distinguished patriots as August Belmont, Heidelbach, Ickelheimer & Co., Lazard Freres, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and many others with unpronounceable names are now calling the farmers and workingmen of the United States "anarchists and thieves,” and asking that the gold standard be made permanent. 4. Ninety-nine per cent, of the bankers and stock brokers of the United States. They have joined hands with the great? life insurance companies and have inaugurated a reign of financial terrorism against those business men who dare question their right to dictate votes or control legislation. The “bankers’ boycott” against those who dare express an opinion favorable to silver is a feature of this campaign. 5. Every man who ever denied the right of workingmen to organize for mutual protection, is for McKinley. Every hater of labor ■every man who has grown rich by oppressingworkmen; who has fattenedjust In proportion as he has reduced wages, is against W. J. Bryan and in favor of the gold standard. Name an exception if you can.

6. Every unprincipled corporation Which finds it necessary to employ men to bribe legislators and secure special legislation, is contributing money to swell the corruption fund for “McKinley and honest money.” Every man whose money has bc4n used to debauch congressmen, members of state legislatures and of city councils can be found arrayed against William Bryan and denouncing the common people as thieves. 7. Every wealthy tax dodger, who makes it a practice to bribe assessors, is for William McKinley and a gold standard. Name an exception if you can. Pick out the richest, meanest and most stingy man in your community and see how he stands in this campaign. Select those men who have grown rich by grinding the poor, by taking advantage of the unfortunate, and who, having thus acquired a fortune, perjure their souls, and evade the payment of a fair share of taxes, and see how they are going to vote. 8. Every mortgage shark, every pawnbroker, every man who thrives on the enforced poverty of the people is opposed to the election of William J. Bryan, and is heartily in favor of perpetuating the gold standard. 9. Every newspaper owned by a banker or controlled by a syndicate, and every newspaper mortgaged to a bank has been compelled to- declare for the gold standard and in many instances stultify an honorable record and prostitute its columns at the dictation of Mark Hanna and Wall street. How do these forces expect to win? There is no secret about this. They are fighting in the open. They are not using concealed weapons. They expect to win by the use of a cojjruptign fund, by the general circulation of lying literature, and by the wholesale intimidation of merchants, workmen and mortgaged farmers. They rely upon the cupidity of impoverished voters; the timidity of workmen who have been robbed of everything but their underpaid positions, and upon a money terrorism engineered by the banks and the insurance companies. They have already mapped out a plan of wholesal'- purchase of election judges on election dj>y; the debauchery of returning boards and as a last resort the purchase of electors in the event the election is close. Can they win?