Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS
Newspaper Page Text
THE ADVOCATE. 5 petenoe without the privilege in return of asking the ooat of our own productions? The presumption of farmers in asserting their right to think for themselves, to claim a fair share of profits, and to assert opin ions upon public issues, is a departure from time-honored oustom. This movement is not a particular mani festation of unrest, or the spirit of com munism, on the part of the farmers of the great West, but part, and we oan truthfully say the most intelligent part of the uni versal movement by manual workers throughout the world, who are seeking more light and taking a step in advance of previous history. In this oountry it means the exemplification of our republican de mooraoy. It means a protest against the oppression of class legislation and jobbery, state and national. From the rich and powerful, reforms never come. The history of the world shows that in all ages reforms, moral, social and political, have oome up from the people. It will be seen from the above that Joseph did cot at that time accept thfl theory of overproduction as the cause of low prices; and yet when we have leas wheat per capita in this country to-day than we had in 1874, and the price per bushel is much less than then, he would have his dupes believe that overproduction is the sole cause of the decline. Did he tell the truth in 1874, and is he lying now, or was he duping the Grangers in 1874 and is he telling the truth now? Our readers must judge. WILL THERE BE ANY PROSECUTION OF SANTA FE OFFICIALS? Stephen Little, the expert account ant employed by the Santa Fe re organization committee to examine the books of the company, has sub mitted his report; and concerning the over-statement of income the re port classifies the sources of it and among others is this one: First Rebates for the four years ended June 30, 1894, the debits for rebates to shippers on the Atchison system aggregated $3,700,776 92; and $305,897.49; total, $3,906, 674.41. This sum was oharged, not. to the earn ings, from whence it oame, as it should have 'been, but to an account entitled "Auditor's suspended account speoial," and reported from year to. year as a good and available asset, while in faot it had no value whatever. Now this granting of rebates is one of the things especially pro hibited by the interstate commerce law, and yet we see no republican or democratic paper among all those that have only recently been crying out so vociferously against lawless ness, now urging a prosecution of the Santa Fe railroad officials for this violation of law. Why is this? Was law made for such people, or was it not? But this is not the whole of this story. It is now currently reported that these rebates have gone into the hands of the railroad officials them selvesthat they have been engaged in the purchase and shipment of grain along the line of the road, and that this more than 7 million dollars of rebates, have been rebates upon this grain and the money has gone into the pockets of these corpora tion grain dealers. It is just pre cisely this same system of rebates that has given the Standard Oil com pany an absolute monopoly of the oil trade of the entire country. Are these corporation grain dealers seek ing to acquire a like monopoly of the gram trade? What private grain dealer, paying full freight charges, can compete in the markets with these cormorants who possess such advantages of .freight rebates? Are the people of Kansas and of the United States ready to see the estab lishment of such a monopoly of the grain trade as this rebate system ren ders possible? Shall the people own and operate the railroads in their own interest, or shall the railroads own and operate the government for private gain? This is the question that is presented to Americanpeople, not by a political party merely, but by the attitude of the railroad cor porations themselves, the unwar ranted authority which they have assumed, and the arroganoe and utter disregard of law with which they pursue their purpssas. HARDLY 8ATI8FACTOBY. What induced the Capital to take down its quotation from the speech of Hon. David Overmyer which was kept standing at the head of its editorial oolumns from the time the speech was delivered up to a few days ago? Will the Capital explain? Topeka Advocate. We didn't know you were watching us so closely, Doctor. But the game is up and we might as well admit that the reason we took it down was because of a conspiracy on the part of ourselves and the Barings of London. Orders came from the gTeat red dragon to take it down, and down she oame. Do you feel better now, dear Doe tor? Capital, August 9. Tne explanation is not very satis factory, Major. We are inclined to the belief that the cause of the re moval of the quotation from David's speech from the head of the editorial columns of the Capital is to be found nearer home. It. J. Sloat, who is the president of the local assembly of the American Railway union was re cently unanimously chosen by the Populist legislative convention of the Thirty-sixth district as its candidate for the legislature in opposition to Colonel Veal e, who is the Capital's candidate in the interest of Major Hudson for state printer. In his letter accepting the nomination, Mr. Sloat made the following reference to the passage in question: No workingman ever fears injustice at the hands of a Populist governor, or a Populist judge. During the present strike of rail road men, from Populists, and from Popu lists alone, have oome outspoken resolu tions championing the cause of the strik ers. Only under Populist administration have strikers been able to feel secure that government sympathized with workingmen in their struggles, and that the power of the state would not be used in the interest of greed to crush defenseless labor. Who that reads this utteranoe by Mr. Overmyer oan doubt as to the sympathies of the party he represents: "Populism has now reached the stage where it is simply Coieyism, and Coxeyism is incipient revolution superin duced by organized vagabondage and mili tant sooundrelism." The next morning after the publi cation of Mr. Sloat's letter contain ing this reference to the quotation, it disappeared from its customary place in the Capital This was rather short notice to put up a conspiracy with the "Barings of London." Think it over, Major, and tell as if the real reason for the removal of this passage from your columns was not because Mr. Sloat's utterances respecting it indicated that the pas sage was not popular with the rail road men, and its continuance would not help Mr. Veale's chanoss for a seat in the next legislature. Honor bright, now; isn't this the reason? It's a leading question we know, and yon don't have to answer it if you don't want to, and as it is a delicate subject we will not press it I HUDSON ON FIAT MONEY. In 1871 J. K. Hudson was editor of the Kansas Farmer, and in the is sue of that paper of April 29 of that year may be found the following edi torial comment: President Grant has vetoed the bill fot the issue of 44 million dollars additional currency. To the West and South this action of the president is reoeived with surprise, and fox the most part with indignation. To the Eastern bankers and bondholders, to the European capitalists who hold our securi ties, this veto of the president, which in. creases the value of this property, gives great satisfaction. To the South and West, not' yet recovered from tho great financial troubles of last year, who are the creditors who have these debts to pay, they find themselves without commercial prosperity and without money to pay these obligations to the East. To them the prcspeot is most disoouraging. We have no long argument to make to show that our business and the rapid de velopment of the West, requires a greater volume of ourrenoy. To all sane men who are cognizant of affairs in the West, this is only too patent. Monied sharks, East and West, glory over the fact that the pound of flesh will have to be paid in full. The Wall streets of the country all alike rejoice. The producers of the oountry, on the other hand, are almost unanimous in their con demnation of the veto. The result will be to postpone indefinitely the better times we had hoped for the West, and politically to raise a troublesome issue of the republican party a Banquo'e ghost that will not down at the bidding of the party leaders. At the present time when Senator Peffer or any of our Populist represent atives in congress introduce bills for the inorease of the currency, Joseph joins the "monied sharks East and West" in glorying "over the fact that the pound of flesh will have to bo paid in full." He "rejoices with the Wall streets of the oountry" in the defeat of all legislation calculated to relieve the money stringency and furnish the means to the people that will enable them to pay their debts. THS WRONG CROWD. A Popoxist olub of Topeka has de manded that Lewelling be removed from the tioket. Emporia Gazette. You are just a little bit off concern ing the character of that club. It is simply a Corning club, not a Popu list club. It consists of old Cy Corn ing and W. H. Bennington. Re specting this outfit the Lawrence Journal (rep.) of August 7, says: If the republican state central committee is paying old Cy Corning and W. H. Ben nington for the roar they are making against the state administration then the oommittee is throwing money away. Cy Corning is a back number, and Benning ton is no good. Neither of them can carry a vote in the state save his own, and anyone can get that by offering proper induce ments. The resolutions that were promul gated by the meeting at the court housa tha other night, one of which I demanded the removal of Lewellkg's I name from the tioket, were drawn up and passed by Corning and Ben nington and were sent over the wirc3 to Eastern papers by the republics managers in this city several hours before the meeting assembled at tha court house. There is nothing like fosing on time in matters of this kind. THEM OF A KIND CAN'T BEAT THIS PAUL. Old Cy Corning and W. H. Ben nington claim to be true Popu lists, but opposed to the present stats ticket in Kansas because, they say, it is corrupt If their claim istrco they, would certainly be in favor of the success of Populism outside of Kansas, and would not do anything to injure the party elsewhere. Why, then, did they give their resolutions, purporting to have been adopted at a mass meeting of Shawnee county Populists, to republican managers to be telegraphed to eastern papers several hours before the meeting was held at which the resolutions were said to have been adopted? Of course they knew that if these reso lutions were to have any effect at all it would be outside of Kansas where the facts are not known, and they evidently did their dirty work with the direct intention of doing injury to the Populist party in other states if they could. Passing as Populists they are evidently in the pay of re publican managers and doing scav enger work on commission. David Mastim David Martin? Oh, yes! lie is the man reoeotly converted to the Populiatio faith in Atonison, and by the way, he is a Missouri Pacific attorney, only second in ooramand in all this Western oountry to Bailey Waggoner. This givas the Missouri Pacific a trinity of pulse-feol-era Kelso, republican; Orr, democrat; Martin, Populist all presided over by Waggener, whose doctrine is to get the per simmon. Clay Center Times. Hasn't that story gone far enough? Judge David Martin has not left the republiean party, and has not intimated that he in tends to do so. Judge Martin is not a Pop ulist; is now, as ha has always been, a per pendioular, square-toed republican and aa honest man. It is natural that Populists should seek to make a man odious because he is the attorney for a railway corporation, or a merchant, a manufacturer or banker, but republican papers ought to be above such things. We understand that Populist newspapers are claiming Judge Martin as a convert to their faith, but there is not a word of truth in their story. Atchison Champion, August 5. Now, that's too bad. The Clay Center Times will have to take back all it said about Judge Martin. If it were really true that he had left the republican party and joined the Pops, of course it would be necessary to make him out a very bad man, and in that case the story of ths Times would have been all right It may place the Times in an embar rasing position to have to take back what it said, but it will have to be done now. If Judge Martin remains a republican, of course his good name must be preserved. David Ovebmier is a great joker. He said in his speech at Hamilton hall the other night that the demo cratic party is the only party that is in favor of free coinage of silver. Gat up 1 club tor the Advocate.