Kansas agitator. [volume], August 09, 1895, Image 2

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

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

                
KANSAS AGITATOR: GARNETT, KANSAS, AUGUST 9, 1895.
Devoted to the interests of
THE HARIERi
Ferlei, Aggressive, Progressive Advocate of
All Reforms.
W. 0. CIIAMPE and ANNA CIIAMPE Editors.
J. M.
Alexander, )
W. IT. Ambrose, J
Associate Editors.
SUBSCRIPTION, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.
N. R. P. A. X K. R. P. A.
BRYAN AT GARNETT.,
Yesterday, ex-Congressman W. J. Bryan, of
Nebraska, spoke to a fair-sized audience in the
city park, on the silver question. Owing to
insufficient advertising, the crowd was not one
fourth of what it should and would have been
had the meeting been more liberally advertised.
Even in Garnett, we heard people say they had
teen no announcement of the meeting, and
knew nothing of it.
However, it was a very good and a very in
telligent audience that greeted the speaker. A
majority of the crowd was composed of Popu
lists, supplemented by the progressive, thought
ful element of the Republican and Democratic
parties and a respectable sprinkling of party
Prohibitionists. '
Mr. Bryan was not oratorical, but he gave
evidence of being terribly in earnest. We shall
not attempt to give even a synopsis of the
Hpeech, for we have not the space. It was an
excellent address, however, and was well re
ceived, although the Populists did not agree
with the speaker altogether.
Mr. Bryan is a Democrat, and thinks it pos
sible to force his party to. declare for the free
and unlimited coinage of silver, tte was fair
enough to say, however, that unless his party
does so declare, he will cease to vote with that
party. Capt. John R. Foster, president of -the
First National Bank of Garnett, here spoke up
and said unless the Republican party makes
the same declaration, he will cease to vote with
that party. Both men were honest in what
they said they doubtless meant it; and there
are thousands of Democrats and Republicans
who are of the same mind.
The speaker thinks the time is not yet ripe
for a union of the silver men of all parties, but
that the time is not far off. He paid a high
tribute to the Populists, and, although their
representation in congress was small, he gave
them credit with causing some much-needed
and very important legislation.
We may have cause to mention passages of
Mr. Bryan's speech in the future, but can de
vote no more space to it this week. We are
glad he visited our city.
Following is a portion of. a letter to the Farm
er's Tribune, of Des Moines, Iowa, from an
Alabama subscriber:
'The People's party executive committee is
called to meet in this city ' Birmingham on
the 24th inst. Just for what purpose it has
been called the public is in profound ignorance,
but it is called to further the Benman-Godwin-.Altridge
combine, viz.: fusion with the Repub
licans that is, nominating a Republican for
governor. It will simply defeat the Populists
at the next state and national election in this
state. Men who have deserted the Republican
f9tnn will not vote the Democratic ticket: nor
will the voters who have left the Democratic
party and joined the Populists vote the Repub
lican ticket. We have them both to beat before
we can get in power, and we may as well set
out to beat them both from the start as to fuse
with first one and then the other when both are
one and the same. If our executive committee
goes at such business as this, then we must
turn in and abolish the executive committee and
elect another committee that has some sense
besides office-seeking sense. We are contend
ing for principles as well as office not offices
alone. What good will it do the people of this
country if one set of men different from the
present set, but with the same principle, or no
principle at all, to get the offices? a la Demo
crat in and Republican out that's all. For
this reason I oppose the trading off of our prin
ciples. I believe in standing by our guns
every one, from the initiative and referendum
down to the free and unlimited coinage
ver at the ratio of 16 to 1. -
"Tn Alabama, it is coin? to take .more
moral suasion and a majorS? of the billots act
nally cast to elect and seat a governor, and,
therefore, the Populists will have to look to a
man with the requisite amount of manhood and
grit, as well as ability, to take the office after
he has been fairly and squarely elected; and
there is no earthly use of nominating or running
any other sort. B. D. Thcmate."
"BUSINESS REDEEMERS."
During the last campaign, the voters were
assured that all Republican nominees were
"businessmen" men of ability. Mr. Morrill,
' the head of the ticket, had helped to beat home
steaders; had banked and gotten unto himself
. wealth; therefore; Mr. Morrill was a "business
. man." Mr. Morrill was a quartermaster in the
army; therefore, he was a brave man. Mr.
Morrill was a Sunday school man ; therefor, he
was a Godly man. v When elected, Mr. Morrill's
first act was to draw on the public treasury for.
money to , pay a campaign bill. That ; was
"business." Mr. Morrill, as governor, declared
he could not enforce the prohibitory law unless
, public sentiment was behind the law a sample
' of Mr. Morrill's courage. Mr. Morrill attend;
ed a Bacchanalian revel in Leavenworth, and
was "one of the boys," which may be taken as
an exhibition of Mr. Morrill's Godliness. :
"Business," nowadays, is getting money, no
matter how it is gotten.
Courage is sneaking behind public sentiment.
Godliness is the gossamer web of long prayers
and stereotyped exhortations.
We witness the sublime spectacle in our "re
deemer" "business" officials of the people
making laws through their law-makers, and
choosing men to enforce laws thus made, tax
ing themselves to foot the bills, and then find
ing their work valueless, because a "business,"
"brave," "Godly" governor must have, in add
ition to law and power to enfotce law, a whole
lot of public sentiment.
Law is supposed to be an expression of pub
lic sentiment, and are not the people behind
law?
The governor had all the prohibition senti
ment and the power bf the state of Kansas be
hind him in the enforcement of the prohibitory
law the same as in other laws, but he required
monster meetings and private contributions be
fore he would so much as lift a finger to perform
a sworn duty. Why? Is it not because of his
ante-election promises? He promised prohibi
tionists to enforce the liquor law, and he prom
ised anti-prohibitionists that he would not en
force the law. If prohibitionists were quiet,
all would be well. If prohibitionists "kicked,"
Mr. Morrill could sneak behind "public senti
ment." The kick has been provided, and Mr.
Morrill is hedging.
If there were a large number of, thieves,
burglars and murderers, and Morrill had prom
ised them immunity, he could have demanded
a monster demonstration of "public sentiment"
before using his power to restrain law-breakers
along those lines of lawlessness with as much
consistency as in his attitude toward the violat
ors of the liquor law.
So much for "business." So much for "redeemers."
Thb National Tribune is the soldiers' paper,
but generally whoops for Wall street. Recent
ly, it got off the old gag about there being tons
and tons of silver in the government vaults;
that the people will not take it. If it is -a fact,
as claimed, that there are piles of silver coin in
the treasury, and the Tribune was as patriotic
as it claims to be, it could advocate making
silver coin a legal tender, and having the sol
diers' pensions paid from this government
store until the silver coin is placed in circula-
tion. The Tribune lies or is uninformed. If
the government has a single silver dollar lying
idle, it is the fault of the government. The
people generally, including soldiers, are wil
ling" to accept silver coin to any amount for
which it is made legal tender. The soldier did
. accept as wages a dollar worth only 38 cents,
and the Tribune's circulation of a Wall street
lie deceives no intelligent soldier.
. DOROTHY'S DEPARTMENT.
. t ". BY DOROTHY D0LITTLE-
ONLjY A WOMAN.
ALICE DANNER JONES.
She was only a woman, with a woman's heart,
Who patiently, lovingly, in paths apart
From the great world, with its tumult and strife,
Wrought out the duties of mother and wife.
She sought neither wealth nor titles of fame,
But, unselfishly, lived each day as it came.
Unassuming and modest her name was not
known,
But her power was felt by its pureness alone.
No toil for her loved ones she deemed too severe:
She shared every sorrow, she calmed every fear.
She brightened each joy, she lessened each pain,
And no one in need of her, sought her in vain.
Though heart was oft weary, she asked no
reprieve,
So long as for others she good might achieve.
She made of her home a blissful retreat
For world-wearied husband, and children's tired
feet.
Her face was not beautiful, save with the grace
Which a beautiful soul can fail not to trace.
Hands girlish and white grew blue-veined and
thin,
But in labors of love they had sanctified been :
Steps bounding aud joyous grew feeble and slow,
But they never had faltered through weal or
through woe.
Unselfish, pure, womanly, noble and true,
Her life held a grandeur which only God knew.
Long years passed away, then a village bell
. tolled ;
And kisses, unanswered, was pressed on lips
cold.
Hands, wearied at last, were folded for aye,
Damp locks were put back from a forehead of
clay.
Then a new grave was made 'neath flowers on
the hill,
And the mother's heart lay all pulseless and still.
No marble vault there, no monument tall,
'But old and young said : "She cared for us all."
Her love was her life ; to its altar she brought
All her beauty of soul and the power of thought.
As woman, wife, mother, she did what she could
To further the weal of earth's grand brother
hood. No nodding of plumes, nor of trappiugsso gay,
Told of honor or fame, as they laid her away,
But the deeds of her life were borne up above,
And the angels of God sang an anthem of love.
In the Harvey-Horr debate, Horr claimed
that he had traveled, in the last few years, in
thirty-seven states, and had seen no poverty
such as Harvey claimed existed. Horr traveled
in a Pullman car and roomed at ten-dollar-a-day
hotels. Had he ridden in cattle cars, or footed
it, and fed on hand-outs, his story might have
been different. Horr-is like the infidel or ag
nostic who does not believe anything he has not
Sfcen or known-from personal observation: If .
we limit all knowledge to the little we can each r;et Beeeher Stowe? She did more for the emari
acquire from our own observation, we shall die 'cjpation of the colored race than any other in
very ignorant, indeed. Horr is representative dividual, and yet. wha Jjfae asked the colored
Now it has been discovered to be an awful
thing for women to ride a bicycle. .The awful
thing of working for self support is not so aw
ful as it was. Then it is terribly awful to wear
bloomers. Men can girt their pant legs with
straps of steel, but the woman must ride with
flowing skirts. It is. all out of character for
them to adapt their dress to necessities. The
modern bicycle is one of the modem safeties of
womanly purity. She no longer needs to jostle
through a crowd of men on the street corner or
in the street car. The primesl little maid of
this city wears .bloomers, rides a bicycle and
works in a printing office. The New Republic,
Lincoln Nebraska.
Rev. Young, in his Emancipation day address,
said a colored man would take the bread out of
the mouths of his children aud give it to the
Union soldier in need, so great is his gratitude ;
but, brother, how about your gratitude to Har-
A Miss Flagler, daughter of General Flagler,
of Washington, shot and killed a negro boy for
stealing pears out of her garden, and the coron
er's jury took the view that she had a right to
forbid trespass, even at the point of the revolver.
Oh, yes! but Maria Barberi, a poor sewing girl,
is condemned to die because she killed the man
who stole her honor.
It makes a wonderful difference in the decis
ion of juries and courts nowadays if you have
money and influence back of you. I don't be
lieve in capital punisment at all, but if any
thing justifies such a thing, it is robbing a poor
girl of her honor.
President Cleveland says he is "the contented
and happy father of three girls. '. Wonder if he
would be so happy if his girls were grown to
womanhood and some libertine would sneak in
tothe home circle and betray one of his girls, as
he did poor Maria Halpin. Remember, Grover,
"as ye sow, so shall ye also reap" is one of the
inevitables, and you had better guard those
girls with fear and trembling.
A new claimant to the Gould wealth has put
in an appearance in the shape of a wife that
Jay married when he was 17 years old and she
15 years. One child, a daughter, was born to
them, and is still living, and is now on the road
east to establish her claim to her property. Now
what will Anna and her Count she bought do if
they lose their millions ? . ,
Mrs. T. De Witt Talmage is dead. She died
of nervous prostration.
Brooklyn saloon-keepers are lectured by the
Wine and Spirit Gazette for participating in a
Democratic ward meeting. The liquor interest
proposes to use parties, but not to be used by
them. It is like Gould: Democratic in Demo
cratic districts and Republican in Republican
districts, but everywhere and always on the
lookout for itself. In fact, the whole liquor
business has become an essential part of the
great capitalistic combine to enslave labor.
The breweries form trusts, crush out competi
tion and own the saloons in the great cities,
and, whether purposely or not, the liquor busi
ness serves the Plutocrats' purpose by diverting
the laborer from a study of his rights and a
realization of his wrongs, while at the same
time it robs him of the surplus earnings he
might use to make himself independent, and
aids in the work of concentrating wealth in
fewer and fewer hands. Tnie, the same results
might be reached in other ways if the saloon
did not exist, but where it does exist, it is not
only the friend and ally of capitalistic despot
ism, but itself an integral part of capitalism.
Star and Kansan, Independence.
The "rifle diet" for workingmen is just
ahead. They must fake work at the prices em
ployers are pleased to give, starve or take hot
lead. That's what the rich are in the saddle
for. The future for the men who create all
wealth is not as bright as a May morning.
This condition would have been here years and
years ago, if Uncle Sam has not had so much
land that was free aud good. Now there is no
free land in the west and workingmen must
starve where they are. 'And yet it is a scien
tific truth that every family in the United States
can have a good home and live in comfort and
plenty east of the Allegheny mountains if just
laws were in operation in this country. Our
people are beginning to taste the European con
'ditions. It will grow worse year by year so.
long as one set of men are allowed to monopo
lize land and its products and force men by fear
of starvation for themselves and families to
compete with other workers, causing a contin
ual reduction of wages and a continual enrich
ment of the few. Those, who see this are blind
to the conditions and the causes. The Coming
Nation.
The following we clip from the Kansas notes
in the Kansas City Star: "Senator Peffer never
rides on a railroad or sleeping-car pass, or uses
a telegraph or express frank. They are sent to
Jiim regularly, but he pays no attention to them
not evert sending them back. He says when
he gets back to newspaper work, he may return
to the old habit, but so long as he continues to
serve the public, he will pay fare."
rr . t 1 ' i : . - J T
j -a r u v. ..... 1 -rf j, 1- - t -t ihk uiiiu rupunsi cuavcuuuu uuuiinmcu j.
01 nis ciass, anu juai wuc men to nejp struct ine snacmes. on. tiMras 01 3 Coxey for governor,
and declared for state
of sil- they have not :9eeH, ad have -not tried to see, her s;sters, how many of you voted as she ask- tv&oi the liquor traffiic with all profits elim-
theywtherefore, do not and will nofcsee-'-thejr ej you to aud hcjw mafiy of you again were fjjLtffl
e;t'an will not believe? -liut'aVethbsrffrflo will'not siaVes slaves to party-Nbaves"or prejudice ?, ' . , , . ,
... .... '. TnwA TVmorrat declare for a single p-ola
Gold continues to go to Europe, and the
price of wheat continues to decline. If the
price of wheat justified shipping it instead of
gold, it might be different. The Topeka State
Journal."" -
How many of you voted to emancipate Kansas
women last fall ?
Iowa Democrats declare for a single gold
standard. Mississippi Democrats declare for
free silver. 16 to 1.
John J. Ingalls and JcrrrSunpsonMrt billed' Wayland, iate o the Coming Nation,
to speak Topeka on Labor day. J .
Jerrv Simpson will speak in Kansas City, La
bor day, Sept. and.
Coxey will speak at Kansas City, Aug. 1 ith.