People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1897 — Page 2 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]

Direct legislation will purify our politics. Boodle seems to be running this country. Both of the old party machines are founded on pie. The greatest trust in this country is the money trust. Socialism is growing rapidly on the continent of Europe. We would like to see a few farmers in Congress for a change. American workingmen seem to have more brains than backbone. Whoever opposes direct legislation opposes government by the people. There were only thirteen candidates for United States senator in Illinois. Improved methods of production demand a new system of distribution. Any kind of a government promise is worth more than that of the old parties. When farming becomes profitable every other legitimate business will flourish. If the banks persist in speculating ’ on credit, they should be required to J furnish the credit.

Every Populist should attend the meeting of the Reform Press Association at Memphis, February 22. The gold reserve is now more than §140,000,000. but prosperity seems to have missed connection with it. The declaration of independence seems to have no part in our government except on the 4th of July. Managing a national campaign is no "infant industry,” yet it requires a great deal of “boosting” to help it along. It is reported that nearly half the people of Liverpool receive charitable relief. And this is in gold-standard England. The annual product of gold is rapidly incrasing, and the gold bugs may want it demonetized themselves within a few years. When a man borrows money out of a bank he has to give security; why should not the bank give security when a man deposits money with it? India is afflicted with what scientists call the bubonic plague. It is almost as fatal as the financial plague with which the United States is afflicted. It seems that Hanna is trying to sidetrack the regular State Republican machine in Ohio to the end of placing himself in the United States Senate.

The Rothschilds, having cornered about all the gold on top of the earth, are now evidently trying to obtain possession of what silver there Is in the earth. It costs England more than SIOO,000,000 annually to support her navy, but there are three or four trusts in the United States that cost the people a greater sum. There is danger of the people being swindled even in a foreclosure of the mortgage on the Pacific roads. No bid should be considered for less than the full amount of the indebtedness. The promises of politicians are a weak platform on which to build the hopes of the republic. Let us have the Referendum and Imperative Mandate. These will unhorse the scheming politicians. Our Revolutionary fathers said in the Declaration of Independence that a people have a right to “alter or abolish a government,” but the plutocrats call that kind of doctrine anarchy. Who is right? The Pacific railroads owe the government more than they are worth, and more than the managers intend to pay; therefore the government should foreclose its mortgage and bid them in, and operate them itself. At last accounts Senator Wolcott, who was sent to Europe to go through the motion of trying to secure international bimetallism, had the Rothschilds by the ear. It is the wrong sow, senator. Rothschilds want their pay in 200-cent dollars and will never consent to anything else. The Tennessee legislature wanted Tillman to put up a $25,000 bond to contest the election in that state. They value the office pretty high, but that is not as extravagant a demand as the one the Arkansas legislature made on Norwood in 1888. They wanted him to put up $40,000 to contest. President Cleveland’s jumping-jack, Mister Eckels, says It is only the "rotten banks that are failing.” Why, of course, how could a sound one fail—but there ahe no sound ones, therefore only a part of the rotten ones are failing. Nothing is sound that is based on confidence and does most of its business on credit.