Kansas agitator. [volume], October 05, 1893, Image 1

About Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
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VOL. 4.
KANSAS AGITATOR
Devoted to the interests of
THE MASSES.
A Fearless, Aggressive, Progressive
Advocate of All Reforms.
GARNETT, KANSAS, OCTOBER 5, 1893.
THE WRONG OF IT.
If the Agitator was wrong in
publishing the statement that Presi
dent Cleveland was drunk, certainly
the Journal made no effort to point
out the wrong. The Agitator has
no desire to misrepresent or wrong
any one, much less the president of
the United States; and if the Journal
had pointed out a misrepresentation,
or that a president's sprees were
hedged about with divine rights, as
are (?) kings and emperors, then
we would be willing to make the
amende honorable ; but the Journal
does not deny the charge, nor our
right to publish the charge. The
Journal's weakness is in appealing
to Democrats to vote against the
party of the Agitator oh mere per
sonalities. Such a course, if the
president was wronged, would not
avenge the president, nor help the
voter, if the voter thereby voted
against his interests. The Agitator
is only the exponent of Populist
principles and it may be that it over
stepped the bounds of its mission in
making the statement as to Mr.
Cleveland's drunkenness, and if so,
we have only regrets. We do not
think that the first citizen of the
United States has a right to get
drunk, because thereby he brings
reproach upon the nation. In fact,
we will go so far as to say that it is
our private opinion that drunkenuesa
is so unnatural that no one has a
natural right to get drunk. We
will be glad to hear that Mr. Cleve
land was not drunk, as charged.
We will be glad to hear that Mr.
Cleveland does not drink intoxicants
at all We can and do wish Mr.
Cleveland, peruonally, all the good
vouchsafed to mortals, but political
ly, on some questions, we shall fight
him and bis adherents to the bitter
end.
MRS. MARY E. LEASE
Will, hereafter, be a frequent con
tributor . to the columns of the
Kansas Agitator. We feel (ike
congratulating our readers upon this
acquisition. Mrs. Lease is a vigor
ous writer as well as speaker.
MORE ANARCHY.
The attempt to injure our candi
date for county commissioner by
calling him an anarchist would be
malicious wero it not so transparent
ly untrue. Mr. Herrington is a
farmer, and it is a most impossible
story that he, after sixty years of
toil on a farm, in which his form is
bent, and his hair whitened, would
embrace principles that, in their ap
plication, would certaiuly cause him
to be a loser. As a matter of fact,
Mr Herrington is intensely hostile
to anarchy, and is fighting that
kind of anarchy that, in our financial.
system, doubles the debts ot the
debtor class; or that kitH of
anarchy that waters railroad stock
and levies a tariff on traffic to pay
dividends ; or that kind of anarchy
that tolerates a dictator m a one-
horse president of the United States.
In local affairs, Mr, Herrington can
be relied upon, if elected, to set
down on that kind 6f anarchy that,
in the form of a tax levey, forces
the tax-payer to part with his
money in order that the banks can
borrow capital at from two
to four per ceut. and loan to the
tax-payer at from twelve to forty
per cent.
The real anachists are found in the
political rings and in the capitalistic
combines on the one extreme, and
on the other in the low whisky hell
holes. Avarice and bad whisky
make anarchists, not farming.
Mr. Herrington has a well-cul
tivated farm and the finest flock of
sheep in eastern Kansas. If anarchy
were inaugurated, we believe that
Mr. Herrington well knows that the
men who are now calling him an
anarchist would be the first to
forcibly seize his fat wethers and
oust him from hid little home.
It's only those Democrats who
are hanging around the pie-counter
that get so "frothy" whenever the
stuffed prophet is criticised. Hon
est Democrats don't endorse the
Clevelaud policy, and they wiU not
act with the hungry crowd of office
seekers, who would kiss Grover's
toe if by so doing they thought
they could get one little slice of pie.
Again we say, honest, Western and
Southern Democrats .won't train
with that crown. j
At this writing, the metropolitan
press has a great deal to say about
senatorial courtesy, and some few
have gone about half daft over it
Just so long as the silver senators
were practically silent, they were a
nice lot of fellows ; but when they
went rbout uncovering the villainy
of the scheme to place this nation
in the bower of the usurers of
EuroDe. thev suddenly became
reprobates of the first order, and
upon the heads of a few of them have
these truckling paoers, noatably
... . .t tr r?
among winch 18 trie Kansas uity
Star, and the Kansas City Times,
poured out their bitterest invectives,
diiv following dav. According to
the philosophy of these papers,
political crimes cannot be exposed
without a breach of senatorial
courtesy. I he rights ot the peo
ple can be trampled under foot, every
crime known to be villianous legisla
tion can be perpetrated in the name
of law, and so long as opponents of
such legislation satisfy themselves
by simply voting against them, all is
well; but the moment those who
possess a knowledge of the villainy
expose it, the flood-gates of grime
and virtuperation are opened to their
full. Such courtesy is a back num
ber. We are glad to know there
are some men in congress who have
wholesome couvictions and the
courage to tell them everything is
not lost so long as such men stand
on the ramparts.
NO. 20.
Roue had her rise and decline and
fall. She increased in strength and
grew in power as long as her citi
zens loved their country much more
than place and power and wealth.
She had her Caesars, her Catos, her
Ciceros, and while these held the
reins of government, she prospered
and became mistress of the world.
But there came a time when blight
and mildew settled on her public
men, and decadence and national
death followed. From the fate of
Rome the people of this nation can
learn a wholesome lesson. The
United States has had her heroes,
her Washingtons, Adamses, Jefier-
sons, Lincoins, oewaras, uer
Stantons and unnumbered others,
and while they reigned, her honor
remained unsullied. But a venal
horde are now at the helm, and unless
the steps of the last few years be
retraced, decay and national decline
will v overtake us. Such are the
lessons of history. They cannot be
ignored. Just as sure as unjust
aws take the place of wholesome
ones, and a Godless greed for gold
dethrones the holier passions, will
men forget their patriotism and the
nation become a prey to every
species ot vandals cut it is not
too late to undo the burning wrongs.
It is not too late, but they will not
and cannot be undone so long as so
many blindly follow Caligula Sher
man and Nero Cleveland.
The salary of the president of the
United States is $50,000 per year,
and with perquisites is probably
something iver $100,000 fully as
much as 400 able-bodied men can
earn in the same time. What an
appalling curse this magnificent
salary has saddled upon the country.
It puts him beyond the peradventure
of pinching times during a bank
panic, or beyoud fear that contrac
tion will reduce the value of the
product of his labor, and with the
cold-blooded cruelty of a Cataline,
he enters into a conspiracy with the
Christ-killers and their dupes to
rob the men who accepted his word
last fall, and lifted him to the place
he now fills. Ingratitude is the
lowest of all crimes. Is G rover
guilty?
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