Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1874 — A REVOLUTION. [ARTICLE]

A REVOLUTION.

For three or four weeks past people who had business to transact in Rensselaer, either in the stores or with tne county officers, have been accosted by the enemies of the .movement in Jasper copnty, and told frightful talcs about its being a scheme set on foot by the ancient Democracy assisted by a few designing, disappointed, soreheaded, office hunting traitors and demagogues from the Republican ranks lor the awful purpose of assisting the- old Democratic party into power. Over in Marshall county, where, at the last election, Governor Hendricks received a majority of 472 votes in a poll of 4,1718, the diabolical Grangers have set the political cauldron boiling exactly as they have done here, and now the Plymoutl* Democrat sits up on its hind lags and howls about it in the following vigorous raann'er: Now, if ever, it becomes the duty of ail Democrats to stand firmly by the old organization and' rally to its support the wavering and fainthearted. Never in the history Of the partv was a more persistent effort made to disorganize and destroy if; and the effort is being made by traitors in the camp working in the interests of, and under instructions from.'the common enemy— the Radical partv. Disap-

jiolnted office-seekers and chronic grumblers-, Irien who have always t failed to secure tin- confidence of the ; party, now profess to have discovered ! new lights, and cry aloud disband- | ment. In doing so they know they are merely playingJntq the hands of j the Radicals, and in many instances ! that is their sole purpose. The Radical party in tills [Marshall] county is well aware of its inability to secure cot color the affairs of the county With-. ; out securing the aid of some powerful , ally,and by promises of reward to a few self constituted leaders of the Farmers’ movement the real leaders of the Radical organization think to transfer into their camp a large numj her of Democratic voters and thereby f place themselves, apd the tools with j whom they work, into profitable , positions. j Such is the shriek in Democratic ! Marshall county. Transpose the words Democrat and Radical in this quotation, and substitute Jasper for Marshall, arid you have the average court house wail as it’ heard in this locality. Office holders are standing in their own light all over the country. They mistake the temper of the voting masses; and they do not comprehend the significance of this mighty, spontaneous, almost universal movement. Today the United States is the theater of a political revolution, fully as important as that which swept away slavery. Tlie problem solved by that revolution was, Shall capital own labor? The issue now is, Shall capital pay labor? To reach a solution of this problem upon equitable terms the laboring elements must be properly represented in State legislatures and in Congress. Hence the force of this revolution is not aimed against county officers. They are not the enemy, but only his videttes and skirmish line. The game sought is larger. The people mean to wage war upon corrupt legislatures which make taws that discriminate against the-pdor man and the laboring classes; legislatures controlled by corporations, monopolies and rings, where money is the great motor power, and where money must be used to procure the passage of needed laws. There is no use to ask justice or fairness of sordid men who evade constitutions in order to increase their own pay, because these elements are not in their breasts. Legislatures which increase the pay of public officers when there is no occasion requiring it to be done, and legislatures which increase the burdens of taxation inordinately, are not friendly to the interests of the people, and it Is the sheerest folly to keep tUera hv power and look fov thorn -.to make wholesome laws. Congress, also must bo renovated. Credit inobilier rings flourish, thrive and fatten only in corrupt atmosphere. The men who go into such schemes are sordid, selfish, and mean; they aspire only to increase their own wealth and are unscrupulous about the means usc.d to accomplish their purposes. Members of Congress who cVunsel with these rings, take presents from them, and keep their veiy existence hidden from the public, until the truth is wrung from their unwilling lips, word by word, by the most searching questions of investigating committees, are not friends of the people, no matter what their hypocritical pretensions to honesty, morality and religion may be, or how often they appear occupying chief place In synagogues and forums. Congresses which grant subsidies to railroad and steamship companies, and pass laws inimical to competition in the .business of trauspprtation, do not have the public good at heart. — Congressmen who ste.al back pay, and who vote to squauder millions of dollars in Centennial fuss ami and Congressmen who cannot live on a salary of $5,000 per annum, when times are hard, taxes high and the nation in debt, are not fit to represent a people demanding reform" and retrenchment. These men do not sympathize with the toiling millions in any manner. They do not understand them, and cannot make ■proper laws to govern them. Congressmen of that stamp have no ideas of republican simplicity as practiced at Washington fifty years ago, and demanded by the necessities of the hour. No political organization can truthfully claim to represent the laboring classes, which recognizes as its head aud leader an extravagant and luxurious President. No previous occupant of the White House ever dared to outrage the theory of republicanism 1 , as applied to social life, as President Grant has done. He is no longer the friend of the laboring men whose votes elected him to office, but be i hal deserted them, betrayed their interests and become the willing, sycophantic tool of a contemptible ■money aristocracy. There is no longer any use of people holding to, or voting with,

cither of the political organizations whose representatives now control legislation, and divide the spoils.— Both are simply dishonored tools managed by. men having only their personal ends in vievv ; neither loots after the welfare of the people. The day has come for honesty and intelligent men to ignore the narrow bounds of party lines, and unite together for the common good. Our co.untry is not in jeopardy of invasion by a foreign foe, nor is it threatened with civil war ; but peace lias her dangers no less than her victories,and the struggle of the hour is to resist the attempt of money—in the form of eorpitra- ! tions and rings—to oppress the i bone and sinew of our land.— i Opulence is haughty and tyrannical, I it is mean and unscrupulous ; it is I also powerful and its hireling allies I are*numerous. Nearly every important journal in the United States opposes this movement in the interest of the laboring masses because they do not understand the temper of the people, and because the revolution has not progressed far enough to indicate the result with certainty; nearly all of the abler politicians stand aloof for the same reasons. But these circumstances need discourage no one, for careful investigation is all that is required to convince any reasonable unprejudiced person where the right is, and the right must ultimately triumph. Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again, - —r- . . The eternal years of God are hers. In Democratic communities, Democratic ringmasters will say the movement is of Republican origin, in Republican sections Republicans will call it Democratic, while in still o(her places, as in Oregon for instance, both effete parties will join hands, just as they have frequently done in Congress and in the Indiana legislature, to thwart the interests of the people. But these cries and efforts will certainly be in vain. A few may he frightened by threats, and a few cajoled by promises, but the majority have a clear vision of their own interests, and now are determined to look well after them. For many years these cures were delegated to that class of middlemen known as wire-workers, convention manipulators and party leaders, and they betrayed their trust. The day of reckoning is now at hand, when the unworthy are to be separated out and caused -to-step -aside; arid it is foolishness to stand in the way and attempt to heat down popular sentiment, or intimidate by. cracking party whips.’