Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1894 — Decline of the Populist Movement. [ARTICLE]

Decline of the Populist Movement.

The Republican ticket of Jasper county is winning favor every day. There is not a man on it that dues not. through his ability and fitness for office, commend himself to the confidence and respect of every fair-minded voter in the county. It is a queer,way the Democrats have of relieving the people of their burdens. They relieve them of $30,0(10 000 of taxes on the tariff schedule, and then turn in and tax them v l -ugar. liii s Ui< y increase the people’s burdens instead of lessening them. There win be three ballot boxes at the tier''m this fjl. or..' for ■' e state ticket, which will be printed oa red i, u.iv luc vv......y ticket, which will be printed on white paper, and one for the township tic t . plm «><i.... ■.. . w paper. - I - I ~l ~ Let ever laboring man in J asj er county, before he makes up his mind how to vot? this fall, ask himself this one question: What, Las the Dem«'C» .< perc-c f-vr the laboring man? If that par’y has helped the laboring man, and has worked in Lis interest mure faithfull} and effectively than the Republican party nas worked, then let him vote the Democratic ticket. But if not, then let him give the Republican ticket his support.

And now we have the latest statistics given to the public by the British Labor Commission which show that in the agricultural districts the weekly wages of laborers average §3.25, and in many cases the hours ci labor are returned at twelve i t day. These laborers board themselves, live in hovels and subsist on vegetables, with meat once a week. How do our wage earners like such free trade wages? The Cleveland administration has been in power eighteen months, and during that lime it has borrowed $5Q,000,000 and has drawn - from 4he~-gt44"~4a~-the treasury," which the Republicans had placed there, $50,000,000 more. Thus it has run the governmental expenses above the receipts by $100,000,000. If that thing continues to the end of Cleveland’s term, we shall find ourselves something like $300,000,030 behind. Great is Democracy. A report comes from the treasury department at Washington which shows that the total amount paid out for pensions for the year ending June 30, 1894, was $137,J 36.981. The amount paid out the previous year was $158,155,342, showing a decrease of $26,000,000. This decrease was brought about largely by dropping pensioners from the rolls, and thus robbing them of their just dues. Will the old soldiers of Jasper county vote for a party that will thus rob their wcutLy comrades?

It is a remarkable list of deaths that has occurred in this count] y durihg a week past. Dr. O. W. Holmes, our greatest surviving poet; Ex. Gov. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, our greatest surviving “war governor,” and Rev. David Swing, of our greatest surviving preacher.

Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, of Indianapolis, spoke Tuesday night at the court house, to a crowded house. He is a young man of scarce 30 years, but beyond question one of tne most eloquent, logical and convincing speakers that ever came to our town. In fact, to use a much over-worked expression, he held his audience spell-bound till the very last. Should he ever come to Rensselaer again the court house would not furnish standing room for the crowds that would flock to hear him.

The way to vote a straight Republican ticket is to stamp inside of the square surrounding the eagle, at the head of the ticket, as is shown in the cut at the head of the ticket as now running in this paper. And having stamped in the square doril stamp anyplace else, or you will lose your vote* If you will vote a mixed or scratched ticket, you must not touch the big square, but stamp every name you want to vote for, in the little squares, to the left of each name.

When you hear a Democratic orator talking about the new tariff law making goods cheaper, just ask him if cheap goods do not mean cheap labor? Democratic papers and orators just now are claiming that under the new law all woolen goods will be cheaper. We do not believe this, but suppose it to be u ue. hat follows? But one thing can follow. The wage of the laboring man must go down. A fa : ~ p ' f~r a coat when labor is well paid is better than a low price for a coat when labor is forced to work oiarration wages. It will prove no advantage to a laboring man if he can buy a coat or hat cheap, so long' as he cannot earn enough money to enable him to buy that article. The era of cheap goods which the Democrats, propose to fmiug' i; tc will be a sad era for our wage earners. Cheap goods mean low wages, or no wages at all, and either of these is ruinous to labor.

Rochester Republican:’ Some of the enthusiastic Democratic editors are boasting that wool has advancediupricesincethat verynecessary commodity was put on the free list. Of course it has, but the price will never get back to the price paid under the McKinley drill in 1891-2, when the average price was thirty cents a pound. The slight advance in price just now is caused by a few mills resuming work to fill a few orders for cheap goods, and the employes are required to work at greatly reduced wages. .As soon as several ship loads of free wool arrive from foreign lands the will go down again. This is all understood by the farmer who is selling off his sheep for any price he can get It is difficult to “pull the wool over the farmer’s eyes” this season. The Democratic object lesson he has just received to his sorrow and distress will last him, at least until after he has experienced a few more years of Republican prosperity.

Argos Reflector: Considerable comment has been caused by the remarks made at the recent session of the Northwest M. E. Conference by Revs. Utter and Lewis. Both parties were accused by the übiquitious reporters for the secular press of saying wicked things about the Democratic party and the Prohibition party, and both have been put to the njeessity of making a statement of just what they did say. The Rev. Utter was at one time presiding elder of this district, and has many warm friends throughout this vicinity. He is opposed to committing the oonfer-

ence, by resolution or otherwise, to the interests of any political party; and in his card he states that his attitude was one of “opposition, to all partisan deliverances on the subject of prohibition or any other subject, believing them to be out of place, unwise, impolitic, and harmful.” That is the view taken by all fair-minded advocates of temperance. The moment a minister lugs into his sermons an appeal on behalf of the Prohibition, or any other party, that moment his usefulness as a minister is curtailed. The thing has been tried several times in Argos, and always with fatal results to the minister who attempted it The effort to commit the annual conference to the Prohibition party is attempted at every session, by a bull-headed minority, and is always the cause for an outbreak of bitter feeling. “No partisanship in conference action” is the position taken by Mr. Utter, and one that the Reflector believes to be correct. We hope he may always be found ready to defend his position.

The Hon. J. 8. Clarkson, who is thoroughly conversant with lowa politics, says that state “has fully recovered from the dangers of anything like Populism, and has come back to its permanent moorings in the Republican party.” To the same effect is a statement from the Denver Business Men’s League, a non-partisan organization devoted to the interests of Colorado. They say that the temporary success of the Populist party in that state and the erratic and violent administration of Governor Waite have inflicted great injury on the business and credit of the state. “Our people,” they add, “realize the evil effects of this administration and are now determined to undo the wrong that was self-inflicted, and will, by the retirement of Waiteism, restore confidence and again invite and attract capital and the best class of citizens.” In Kansas, where the Populist movement attained great strength, and, as in Colorado, inflicted great damage on the business and credit of the state, the people are impatiently waiting for an opportunity to relegate Governor Lewelling and his malodorous crew to the obscurity from which they came and bring the state back to the ways of decent politics and respectable administration. These are some of the indications of the decline of the Populist movement, especially in the north. It was inevitable from the beginning that it should run its

course in a short time. The American people are practical in their politics as in other matters, and they do not waste much time over political movements which do not promise any good results, or which, being tried, fail to stand the test Among seventy millions of people there will always be a good many men who are looking out for a short cut to the millennium through politics, but soon or late the saving element of common sense brings them back from by paths into the highway. The Populist party is going to pieces, and its dissolution will result in a large accession of strength to the only party that has demonstrated its ability to administer the government in such a way as to promote the honor of the nation and the prosperity and welfare of all the people. This, of course, is the Republican party.— lndianapolis Journal.