People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1896 — Page 6
6
EDITORIAL NOTES.
Kansas now has three separate prohibition tickets in the field, the third being nominated at Topeka last week. The effort of the republicans to capture the convention was a complete failure. * * * This is a great western movement and when the next congress meets with Bryan in the presidential chair, and the tariff is revised, its protective features will reach out to the great plains and see justice done there as well as to the eastern manufacturers. * * * Over a hundred McKinley pictures have been taken down in Lafayette and brought to the Bryan headquarters. There are five hundred more that are kept up by intimidation of laboring men who are threatened with discharge if they don’t display McKinley pictures and buttons.
* * * Nearly every labor paper in the country, certainly every one of national reputation, is for Bryan and free silver, and they are backed by the action of every labor and farmer organization, and this is the condition in spite of the desperate efforts being made by the gold men to capture the labor vote. * * * This is war; war with all the earnestness and desperate resolve of self-preservation on the one side, and of relentless self conscious oppressors on the other. It is war with all its passionate impulses except the violent shock of battle. The contempt of the classes is met by the hate of the insulted common people. * * * The Populists and democrats of Salt Lake county, Utah, have united on a county ticket. The Populists take four of the candidates and the democrats get the rest. The Populists in that section have heretofore been among the strongest middle-of-the-roaders in the country. The logic of events is doing more to unite reformers then everything else. * * * It is announced from Washington that the United States Treasury department will soon issue a circular giving information respecting National, State and Savings Banks, loan and trust companies and private banks of the United States, compiled from reports of the comptroller of the currency, showing the aggregate resources and liabilities of such institutions, together with other important information relating to finance. A copy of the circular will be furnished free to anyone applying.
An enthusiastic gold advocate was offering a bet on the streets of Rensselaer a few days since that if Bryan was elected every bank in the United States would be closed and we would smell burnt powder in thirty days. Desperate as we believe the money power to be, we know that the masses of the people are willing not only to submit to the verdict rendered at the polls, but would rally solidly to Mr. Bryan’s support in case the bauks attempted to carry out the threat of their, anarchistic apostle. * * * On Friday, Sept. 18, at one of the large factories in Indianapolis, when the mon were given their pay envelopes, they were also given buttons inscribed, 4 ‘Gold is good enough for me,” the cashier putting them on their coats. Two of the men refused to wear them and they were told that their services were no longer needed. This is but one instance of the general system of coercion that the republican party is practicing. It is a campaign so repulsive to American patriotism that it will react against the candidate who is holding royal court at Canton, Ohio.
Who is the Anarchist
A Massachusetts Minister Scores Hanna and His Metheds. Says He Would Paint the White Reuse Black. American Bluebeard. Skeletons of Union Workingmen Hang: Bleeding: in His Closet. McKinley’s a pitiable Figurehead in public Life Today. The New York Journal contained the following special from Lynn, Mass., dated Sept. 27: The largest congregation ever seen at a Sunday service in any place of worship in this city assembled in the Labor church today to hear the Rev. Herbert N. Casson preach on the subject, “Who Is the Anarchist, Bryan or Hanna?” The auditorium was crowded with people of all shades of political opinion, including leading Republicans, Democrats and Populists, several city officials, local labor leaders and a delegation from the Bryan-Sewall-Wil-liams club of Boston. The preacher’s fame as a pulpit orator is not confined to New England alone. He spoke for two hours and roused his hearers to a high pitch of enthusiasm when he said that “Nebraska never had a better loved son than Brvan.” The Rev. Mr. Casson said that as his sermon was a political one he would omit the reading of the Scripture lesson, and by way of preface read portions of several editorial articles bearing on bis subject from the New York Journal. Mr. Casson said in part: The laws of prosperity are to be discovered, not constructed. The real legislator for whom this nation waits is he who shall find and dare to proclaim the perfect social order foreordained by justice from the beginning of the world. The real anarchist is he who seeks to violate the laws of nature for the exclusive benefit of a small fraction of the community. During the present campaign the epithet “anarchist” has been hurled at the heads of some of the noblest and most capable men that this generation has produced. The fierce searchlight of publicity has blazed upon these men for years and not a single corrupt official act has been discovered. Bryan is caricatured, just as Lincoln was, as a highwayman, as a pirate, even as the devil, and in many similar ways. Whether Bryan’s political views are entirely correct or not, who can deny that he is a citizan of whom any nation in the world might boast?
Whether we consider the sustained ability of his addresses, his gentlemanly endurance of slander and misrepresentation, his unsullied public career or the magnetism of his unaffected cordiality to the sweat stained masses that greet him at every depot, we cannot avoid admiring him as a sturdy specimen of our American manhood. Compare him with the gagged individual who trembles in his mortgaged house lest Hanna may foreclose - compare him with that unfortunate Napoleon who has already met his Wellington and surrendered his convictions, and it is plain to see which best represents the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Bryan is the spokesman of the half awakened producers, who form nine-tenths of the population. He and his associates have revived the apostolic power of •‘casting out?devils” in the Dem ocratic party and of raising, the dead to life among the Republican rank and file. They have givsn" us at last a
THE PEOPLE’S PILOT, RENSSELAER, IND., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1896.
real issue instead of a sham one, and though their remedy may seem inadequate to progressive thinkers it is in the right direction and in accordance with the people’s will. During the last few years we have been rapidly developing a slave element in our population - a propertyless class, entirely dependent upon the sale of their labor. No longer does Jack hobnob with his master. The rich and tne poor do not live in the same quarter of the city. A second secession has split our society into two hostile elements, and it is childish to howl “anarchist” at the patriot who proclaims the unwelcome fact and seeks to weld the nation into unity again by repealing the laws that cause it to split asunder. America is the workingman’s “Paradise Lost,” and it can never be regained by passive obedience to the serpent. Our carpenters build magnificent mansions and live in rented tenements themselves. Our mechanics construct electric lights anduse kerosene at home. They manufacture pianos and do not own a tin whistle. They build carriages and go afoot. Our miners dig gold and die poor. They delve in dangerous coal mines and lack fuel in the winter. Our farmers raise grain and want food, export cotton and wool and lack clothing, sell cattle and are without meat. Our marvelous inventions have been monopolized so that in spite of the daily miracles of our machinery the hungry still lack food and the homeless wander through the streets. Step by step the moneyless man is losing his right to exist. Every recent change in legislation has been made to protect property and to defranchise men. Armories are errected and schoolhouses forgotten. Immense grants of land are bestowed upon railroads, but the settlers upon these grants are evicted. Trades union leaders are imprisoned for having contempt for a contemptable judge, while monopolists are aided by injunctions and federal troops. To-day Shakespeare has been revised, and Shylock is the hero of the play. Portia’s plea for mercy is called revolutionary, and Bassanio is branded as a repudiator. There is hardly a trust or syndicate than has inaugurated this campaign of threats and ridicule and object lessons that dare open up its own business career to' the public. One of these defenders of law and national honor, the Standard Oil Company, has illegally increased freight rates, closed rivers and canals, destroyed inventions, bought up inspectors and put its stamp upon explosive oil, attacked the property of competitors and blown up rival refineries. These trusts are religious at one end and murderous at the other.
This lawbreaking, aggressive spirit of monopoly has found a perfect embodiment in the person of Mark Hanna. He to-day towers above McKinley and above the Republican party, the American Bluebeard, who slays his workers instead of his wives. The skeletons of the Seamen’s union, the Miner’s union and the Street Car Men’s union hang bleeding m his closet. When McKinley was governor of Ohio, Hanna was his guardian. Therefore, in criticising Bryan’s opponent, we look not at the servant, but at the master —not at McKinley, the most pitiable figurehead in public life to day, but at Hanna, his owner and tyrant. No man’s character can be described by his private relations with his family. He may be, like the late czar of Russia, a “good husband and father,” but so is every tigei’ and wild beast. Before granting any man the diploma of morality we ask what
the influence of his career has been upon his fellow men. If he has gone through life as an elephant goes through a forest, crashing and breaking a pathway for himself alone, or as a devilfish crawls through the sea, grasping and sucking the lifeblood from every living thing in reach, how can we intrust such a man with the responsibilities and authority of public office? Give Hanna four years of power and he will paint the White House black! He will utterly destroy every vestige of trades unionism, for he will have the army, the navy and the treasury at his command. He will discover that it is cheaper to abolish manhood suffrage than to buy votes, and next November may be the last chance that moneyless men ever may have to record their vote for president. Many Republican workingmen are thoughtlessly going to the ballot box just as an ox goes to a barbecue—gayly decorated in honor of its own death. Mayor Pingree gave us a national motto when he said, “Give the people what they want.” I am not one of those who regard the people as dangerous, covetous animals who must be chained and muzzled. The experiment of the referendum in Switzerland has proved that when the people are left entirely free they are naturally conservative. French revolutions never occur except when some King Louis has repressed the people and goaded them to resistance. “I am the state,” said the boastful king, and the people replied with the guillotine.
1 trust in the common heart of all more than in the private scheming of any financial syndicate. I don’t excuse the ignorance of the masses, I don’t celebrate their poverty, I don’t ignore their frailties, but I say that they are far nearer the truth regarding all social and political problems than those hoodlum students of Yale whose only argument is an insane college yell. It is time to co-operate aud enjoy the creation of our hands; otherwise all the energy and daring and inventiveness of our fathers have come to naught. I do not believe that Columbus discovered America for Hanna or that the monopolist is the last and highest product of human evolution.
Notice Speculators!
According to gold bug argument good times are inevitable; whether Bryan or McKinley is elected it matters not. The logic of all their reasoning points to the one conclusion, without considering it necessary to give a reason, they say, “if McKinley is elected business will boom;” “if Bryan is elected one hundred cent dollar debts can be paid with fifty-three cent dollars.” As ninty-five per cent of the people are debtors, it would take no stretch of imagination, to comprehend what a relief the masses will experience; and, if their argument is correct, what an opening there is now for speculation not speculation for that implies risk but absolute profit; any man who has the security to procure credit should buy every thing in sight, and “if Mr. McKinley is elected business will boom,” all property will advance and can readily be unloaded at a profit, while on the other hand, if Mr. Bryan is elected every dollar of debt, so contracted, can be paid with fifty-three cents. The gold bugs say that “free coinage of silver will rob the poor man of his wages, the rich man of his wealth, the widow of her savings, the soldier of his pension, the creditor of his dues and the debtor of his ability to pay.” Now is it not about, time to ask who in thunder gets the benefit of all this robery? '
THE SILVER WAVE
Is advancing and is Bound to Sweep the CountryBryan’s Election Certain. Some Figures on Fopulist Electors—En. couraging Reports From Every Section of the Country. People’s Party News Bureau, I St. Louis, Mo.. October 15. f The chief point of interest to politicians and campaign figurers just now is fusion. The great gold standard papers are calling attention to the fact that a union on electors has been effected in so many states that McKinley’s election is not regarded with that complaisance that characterized his following a few weeks ago. In spite of party feeling, past hostilities and Hanna’s corruption fund, the following union on Presidential electors has been made: * * ELECTORS. STATE. DEM. POP. California 5 4 Colorado 2 1 Connecticut 5 1 Illinois 20 4 Indiana 10 5 Idaho 2 1 Kentucky 11 2 Louisiana 4 4 Michigan 10 4 Minnesota 4 4 Missouri 13 4 Montana 1 1 Nebraska 4 4 New Jersey 9 1 North Carolina 5 5 North Dakota 3 Ohio 18 5 Pennsylvania 28 4 South Dakota 2 2 Washington '.. 2 2 Wisconsin 9 3 Wyoming 2 1 In Kansas the ten electors are all Democrats, but are pledged to vote for the Vice-Presidential candidate who shall have the greater number of votes. In Oregon the electors are all Populists endorsed by the Democrats. In the recent election there the vote stood 14,242 Democrats. 27,965 Populists. In West Virginia the Populists support the four district electors, but named two electors at large. In Utah, the Populists have fused with the Silver Republicans and Democrats, each of the three having one elector. This is Utah’s first Presidential vote. In West Virginia the Populists agree to support the ten Democratic electors in exchange for two Bryan and Watson electors. The Democratic Committee substituted Sewall’s name and the Populist Committee tied—two against two; one being absent. No agreement could be made and the legal time for filing names has now expired.
Discharged.
Anderson, Oct. 11.—Sentinel Special.—The Buckeye manufacturing company, for some time considered the most unfair employers in the city have discharged four men. They were given their time and told to get out. Wnen it became public that such had been the case they made the statement that they were unaware of the employes’ political complexion. The matter simmered down is that the men refused to join McKinley clubs. They were waited upon and given to know that there jobs were at stake. They took the result and they got it. It is not improbable that the company will be called upon to give an explanation in legal form. This is but one of the many cases of coercion that is oeing worked daily in gas belt. The Washington Post, a strong gold paper, concedes Bryan 205 electorial votes, claims 140 for McKinley and put 102 in the doubtful column. Such a table is practically to concede Bryan’s election.
The Gold Bug’s Song.
[Tune Marching Through Georgia] BY JUPITER PLUVIUB. Members of the syndicate, all wealthy, fat and strong Who have controlled the currency so ably and so long; Come and fill your glasses as we sing thia little song, Forclose your mortgage on the people. CHORUS. Hurrah, Hurrah, for misery and woe, Hurrah, Hurrah, we’re bosses of the dough. What care we old comrads though evil winds may blow, While we’ve a mortgage on the people. Law may be against us boys, as we our schemes unfold: Equity and justice, too,are getting weak and old, Mer under U gold^ nd rlghteoUßness are buried For we’ve a mortgage on the people. CHORUS. We will teach the yokels how they ought to cast their votes. We will tack the gold clause on promissory notes, And tighten up the grip we’ve had upon the boobies throats. For we’ve a mortgage on the people. CHORUS. Isn’t It a wonder, what a dollar now will buy; Oats eight cents a bushel, I tell you that’s, no He, Corn and wheat will tumble In the sweet by and by, For we’ve a mortgage on the people. CHORUS.
Restoring Silver’s value.
Edward Atkinson denies that the congress of 1792 regulated the value of money. In Benton’s “Thirty Years” he states that th© congress of 1792, in fixing theratio of gold and silver, took the average value of the two metals in Europe for 300 years previous -that is, from the discovery of America by Columbus. This general average was continued until 1873, nearly 400 years. It was by legislation that silver lost its commercial value, and legislation alone can restore it. Wecannot have legislation favorable to silver unless we have a president favorable to silver, who will send a solid silver commission to> Europe, as by a divided commission we invite other nations to decide for us. If the commercial value of silver is not restored it will cease to be used as money. It seems to me that' it is either Bryan or the gold standard for the world forever.
Ashley, 111., Oct. 10.
Jay Gould’s Philosophy.
The following affair is a reminder that a few years beforehis death, Jay Gould said that “Capital had nothing special to fear from the laboring men’s organizations, for, if the worst comes to the -worst, “one half the laboring men can be hired to cut the throats of the other half.” Killed for Stealing Hides. New Haven, Conn., Oct. 6.—The police here assert that brakemen of the Consolidated railroad have been murdering tramps caught steeling rides on cars of that line. It is said that ten bodies, all mangled by being run over by trains, had been found on the tracks of the Consolidated within the last six months. A man named Molony from Brooklin was shot twice and thrown from a train by the train hands, survived his injuries. He has given information to the authorities which have led to the arrest of a brakeman named Bean. The latter, according to the police, confessed that trainmen made it a practice to kill tramps found on their cars.
A. L. Mimms, of Tennessee, although unable to get either of the opposing candidates for Governor to meet him, is making a vote winning campaign in his State. * x * There are already more than seventy populist presidential electors in the field in the various states—enough to hold the ballance of power in the electoral college and control the election of Vice-President. * * * Members of the Peoples Party recieve abundant and courteous recognition in the October periodicals. Carl Snyder writes of Chairman Marion Butler in the Review of Reviews. Gen. Weaver contributes to the Chautauquan; a characteristically well written article on the “Battle of the standard.” Leslie’s Weekly tells all it could learn of Seaborn Wright, of Georgia, contrast to this, is an article by an Eastern theorist, The heading, “Are the Farmers Populists?” is answered in the negative with an assimine gravity that makes it very funny for intelligent readers.
J. M. Durham.