Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1874 — A Spirited Address. [ARTICLE]

A Spirited Address.

We have received, says the Industrial Age, from a committee appointed by the Anti Monopoly members of the Legislature of Minnesota, a powerful and pungent address to the people of that State, reviewing the objectionable record of the majority party in the late session, and pointing out the remedies that are within the reach of the Reformers. The committee recommend the organization of the people in townships and counties, and the appointment of delegates to Congressional and State Conventions, and set forth the position of parties and the objects of the reform movement as follows: “ The man who now appeals to old party prejudices to divide the people should be set down at once as an enemy of the people. What good purpose can be served by keeping alive old hates and bigotries? What would be thought of the man who, while a Conflagration was raging, would seek to set the firemen by the ears by sounding the war cries of party? There would be only one explanation of his conduct: He wanted to steal something. “ What are parties? Simply concentrations of the people in defense of some right If our property, our prosperity, our future development, all our material interests are assailed by a rapacious crew who have no creed but deceit, and no purpose but plunder, why should we not come together and organize for self-defense? We are no longer either Republicans or Democrats.- We are the people—newly combined to meet new emergencies. We may call .ourselves Anti-Monopolists, Reformers, Potato Bugs, Hayseeders, or anything else. The name is nothing—the objects are everything. “ What are those objects? They are comprised in three words: Honesty, Economy and Sdf-Protection. “ Honesty in private life and public life. “Economy in our own affairs, and especially in public affairs—County, State and National. This means retrenchment, reform, the lopping-off ofall needless expenditures, and the reduction of taxation to the lowest point compatible with the support of Government. “ Self-Protection from all who would prey upon us. From the exactions of patent-right millionaires, who are levying cruel taxes upon our necessities on every implement we purchase. From the exactions of middlemen, who by their wits live on our labors. From the exactions of protected manufacturers, who annually steal one-third of all our incomes. Above all, from the exactions of the railroads, whose rule of procedure seems to be to* leave the farmers enough to induce them to raise another crop, but to take every cent above that limit."