Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1894 — WHAT OF POPULISM [ARTICLE]

WHAT OF POPULISM

WILL IT‘GROW OR DECLINE? POPULISM DOES NOT COMMEND ITSELF TO THE SOBER JUDGMENT OF THE NATION AND IS DOOMED. R G. Horr In New York Tribune. i In last week’s Tribune I wrote an artir-le on the recent elections in their relations to the Democratic party and the duty of the Republican party after its signal triumph . In this article I desire to say something as to the result of that election upon the new party which styles itself Populist. f Two years ago the Populists with a great flourish of trumpets, claimed everything and actually carried a few states. Thereafter, all over the country they made enormous claims as to their future prosperity. I met them, overflowing as they were with all the enthusiasm of new converts, in Oregon, atthe election last spring. They were active, defiant, boastful. They claimed not only Oregon, but the rest of the world. They were headed by Governor Pen ney er, a renegade from the Democratic party who really believed that he was going to capture the place of United States Sen at- r through the aid of his newly found friends. He is a ready campaigner. The people flocked, in enormous numbers to listen • m No mw was ever more confi lent of sucaees. J had been in that campaign only a few days when I discovered that the Populist party is nothing mere nor less than the old Greenback party with One of their leaders, Solon Chase, of Maine, stated the exact fact when he said: “The two parties are as near alike as two peas; when a person has seen the one he has seen the other.” Mr.. Chase, having been a leading Greenbacker, and now a leading Populist, may be considered good authority upon this point.

Experience with the oid| Greenback party in Michigan, between 1878 and enabled me to identify the craze on the Prcific coast. No more curious disease ever afflicted the members of the human race. It has its origin in what, its victims call “a conviction” that the financial business of ' the world has heretofore been manag 'd without business sense. Its followers conceived the notion that the business of the world depends entirely upon the amount of circulating medium in existence. They to trace all the calamities of this world to what they call a “lack of circulating medium.” They assume that money is, and always has been, the creature of law; and then they assume that a government properly managed should always furnish the people with all the money they desire. They cling with great tenacity to the notion that the “fia. i ih government ooi only creates value, but makes good mon r out of anything which it shaii mpt They scout as an exploded delusion the idea that real money must be based upon something of actual value or which represents in some way human toil. If their position be true, thee, »•! -juise, wheiiias b-en supposed to be wisdom of the past beconirr. ils folly. Otl e’’ notions of the Populist party glow out of this wonderful pswnr wuicb they think every government possesses. They would

have the government own and control all the railroads and the telegraph and telephone lines. When one inquires where the Government is to get the money with which to pay for these enormous interests, they will tell you, in so many words, “Let the Government issue the money.” They would put no limit upon the amount which could in that way be supplied, and, they have no concern as to Whether such money would possess value or not. Why should they have? They assume that the value is to be found in the decree of the Nation; and no one can put any limit to the number of decrees that can be made. Populists look upon the idea that property should be acquired only through toil and frugalaity as exploded. They get their hold upon the masses by constantly abusing people who have acquired means in this world and whom they denounce as “money-bags.”

Their whole stock-in-trade consists in theshrewdness with which they attempt to make every person believe that he is being “robbed” by the moneyed men. They assume that the laws have all been enacted for the benefit of the money power, and that no legislation is ever enacted for the benefit of the people. They have all been eager to borrow money and have been ready and willing to give mortgages to secure the payment of such borrowed money. The moment the money is sec'ured and gone into their enterprises, then no language is severe enough to condemn the men who have loaned them the money and no epithets are vile enough to heap upon the people who insist upon collecting the debt when due. Ihe whole effort of their platform speakers and of their party journals is centered upon an attempt to art ay the people who have little or nothing against those who have something. When the people in Oregon came to look their notions squarely in the face and to understand just what these people were driving at, they repudiated them at the polls in an overwhelming ma jority. On my return from Oregon I visited, the State of Minnesota, and was present at the Republican convention at St. Paul. On the same day the Populist convention met at Minneapolis. The,. Populists, headed by that political tramp, Ignatius Donnelly, were yelping at the top of their voices and claiming everything. “General” Coxey told me personally that he was present at their convention, and never in his life had he seen a more wonderful-looking body of men. He assured me, with great confidence, that Minnesota was about to be be carried by an overwhelming majority for the Populist party. The recent elections have put an end to all these high hopes. The Democratic party has been well nigh annihilated, but the Populist party is actually removed from any part in the Presidential election of 1896. In 1892 the Populists had carried Colorado and Kansas. Both states have again

swung into the Republican column with enormous majorities. In one of the districts of lowa they nominated their pet, James B Weaver, for congress. The Democrats fused with them in order to to his election, but the people repudiated him overwhelmingly at the polls. In Minnesota, where they made such wonderful predictions, the Republicans have won by a majority far exceeding the combined vote of both the Democratic and Populist parties and have secured every member of Congress. In Kansas they have been beaten by a majority of 30,000 and have secured at most, only one Congressman out of eight. In Colorado they have lost both Congressmen and their pet governor by an enormous majority. One term of Populism seems to have been enough to satisfy the people of these two states. In Nevada alone of the Northern States have they held their own. They

have made some slight gains in the South. In North Carolina the Populists and Republicans formed a coalition, not that there is anything in common betwaen the two parties. The coalition was formed for one purpose, and one only. The two parties agreed to combine and see if they could not secure an honest election and a fair count. The practice had become general and irksome of defrauding the people by fabulous lists and fraudulent returns, and the two parties in North Carolina joined together to right that wrong. They claim to have no interest in common, to have no beliefs in common, but simply made the fusion for the purpose above referred to. They seem to have succeeded. No doubt both parties will receive a portion of the benefits of that election.

It would seem, from the recent elections, that the principles of the Populist party ai e so impracticable and foolish that no state can endure them through more than one administration. Their tirade against success and constant abuse of everyone who has saved a competency by industry and thrift are so unjust that decent people refuse to follow men who teach such doctrines. What the West and South need is more men with capital to develop their natural resources. Capital is just as necessary for the development of civilization as labor. The wild schemes of the Populist leaders have only driven men of means from the states where they have had control. The people soon discover that such legislation simply injures themselves. The people also discover, from investigation, that there is hardly one word of truth in the principal statements of the Populistic leaders. In the last thirty-two years the Republican party has originated and enacted far more laws for the benefit and protection of the poor than it has for the rich. That is as it should be. The poor the weak need protection. The wealthy can take care of themselves, ■

The people have also learned one great lesson - that the country is prosperous only when the people are prosperous. If people of means who build large enterprises and thereby furnish employment for the great masses American citizens do not themselves have some margin of profit, such enterprises will soon be abandoned and in that way the people will be thrown out of employment. A concern must make something to divide, else the working people will have nothing from which to get their share. Unprofitable investments are ruinous, both to capital and labor. The Republican party, from its organization down to the present time, has reorganized these great fundamental principles. They also understand well that the quality of the money in circulation is much more important than its quantity. They have discovered the important fact that our circulating medium should all be good, and that there never can be too much good money in circulation or too little poor money. Our country to-day is not suffering from lack of currency. Nearly half the money of the United States to-day lies idle for want of business to put it into nse.

Two years ago there seemed to be a combination between the Democrats and Populists to discredit all the well known principles of the Republican party. On the one hand the Democrats attacked the doctrine of Protection; on the other, the Populists were furious in their onslaught upon the doctrine of honest money and sound finance. Between the two the Republican party was driven to the wall in 1892. It met with, at the time, what was supposed to be a crushing defeat. The Republicans, everywhere, in spite of defeat, have stood ‘by their well known principles. For two years they have taught all over the United States the same doctrines which have animated the party

from the start. The people have recently rendered their verdict. The right, has again prevailed. In these elections the people have not only repudiated the free trade notions of the Democratic party, but the wild theories and revolutionary claims of the Populist party. The people have shown that they desire this country to be managed in the interest of our own people, and that they believe in the old-fashioned, common-sense notions of finance as being far better than the hair-brained ideas of these modern Greenbackers, now called Populists.

The Populist party were crying “calamity” right in the midst of the most general prosperity. Of course their cry went unheeded. When distress came to our people the Republican party pointed out the cause and called the party in power to an account for the condition they had produced. The Populist party have been heretofore howling about imaginary wrongs. The Republicans confined themselves simply to a statement of everyday facts. In the long run, it pays a party to be honest with itself and the people. _ ______ The business men of this nation have too much sense to trust the great business interests of our country in the hands of visionary schemers such as the leading Populists of the United states. Many of these latter are men who have been disappointed in' their ambitions while acting with one or the other of the old parties, or with both. They seek place and power and have taken refuge in the ranks of Populism as the only remaining chance of personal aggrandizement. Of course such men are in n<> way hampered by principle. They are ready to teach anything* to adopt anything, which gives them a promise of temporary success.

Neither are the rank and file of the party the kind of men who are not d for good management in their own personal affairs. It will be a long time before the people of this country will enter upon the doubtful experiments of the Populists. It will be a long time before the wage-earners of the United States will consent to such a tampering with the money of this Nation as will compel them to receive their weekly wages in a circulating medium not worth as much as the money they have been receiving during the last quarter of a century. Men who earn money must be considered in solving this problem as well as those who owe money. Alter all, the people have come to see that the doctrines taught by the Republican party for the last forty years are those best calculated to build up this great Republic and to make our people prosperous and happy. Their recent decision is most surely a wise one.

R. G. HORR.