Kansas agitator. [volume], September 08, 1899, EIGHT-PAGE EDITION, Image 1

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EIGHT PAGE EDITION.
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AGITATOR
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I'HR AUITATOR (4 paglrtj 1 Y.r,
Orange Judd Farmer. ...1 Ytmt.
k Kunn Jnuruul 4
OrtnfC JuiM f rniw .
Farm Journal
VOL. io.
GARNETT, KANSAS, SEPTEMBER 8, 1899.
NO. 16.
Devoted to the interests of
IHI HAIIKI.
A Fearless, Aggressive, Progressive Advocate of
All Reforms.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
A BUGLE BLAST!
FARMERS, AWAKE ! READ ! REFLECT !
- - --
W ().CI1AMPK.ANNA OHAMPK Editor
M. Ali.uh.ui, ) Aoclate Editor.
W. II. A BOH, 1
SUBSCRIPTION: 8-Pack Edition, $1; 4-Pagr Ed., r.iv
N. R. P. A.
t
K. R. P. A.
JCntMcdssMCond-cUssmull matter at theOarnptt, Kus.. pnstuflirc
May S3, 1899.
Gaenbtt, Kansas, September 8, 1899.
President McKlnley's Policy.
In' his welcoming speech to the returned
Per v-vlvanta troops the president clearly pre-
Per ylvi
fits
sfu . his policy towards tne rniiippines. lie
says: "They assailed our sovereignty and there
will be no useless parley no pause until the
insurrection is suppressed and American
authority acknowledged and established."
His justification ot this war policy of subjuga
tion is based upon these words: "Peace
brought to us the Philippines, by treaty cession
fro.n Spain. . . It became our territory and, is
ours, as much as the Louisiana purchase or
Texas or Alaska."
As one of the sovereign people the writer did
not understand that we were still in theslaveiy
business, purchasing people by wholesale to
gether with the islands which they inhabited.
r . 1 . 1 1 1. . 1 1 3 . 1 .
. ne unaerstuou mai we nau cmercu upuii ;i
humane mission, and out of real goodness paid
Spain $20,000,000 to relinquish all claims on
Cuba and the Philippines, that we might
give the people such liberty and such a repre
sentative government as we ourselves enjoy.
These people were struggling tor liberty and
a representative government, they desired a
voice as to what principles should govern them,
and the writer supposed that we were going to
give them the rights for which they had been
fighting to obtain, and help them to establish
th? best possible government. But this is not
the president's idea. The Philippines were
o ce Spain's, and they are now ours. Spain
once ruled the people, and we now have a right
to rul j the people. Spain once carried on war
with those assailing ber sovereignty; we have
a right to carry on war with these same parties
assailing our sovereignty. The president is
wrong in his position. It is neither American
nor Anglo-Saxon. t is a Iforman idea, agajnst
which pur forefathers lbpred fqr more than
five centuries. If qtir president's position is
right, Ge rge Washington was wrong, and our
Foiirth of July celebration a sin. Through ex
ploration and founding colonies and granting
charters the English government had posses
sion of those portions and peoplewherearo.se
the revolutionary war. The English govern
ment was under no more obligation to counsel
with the people settling in her possessions than
the United States to counsel with the Filip
inos. Nor had our forefathers any more rijht
to rebel against England because shut out of a
voire in government than the Filipinos
have a right to rebel against the United .States
berate sh,u,t flit of a yqwe ahoiit the future of
themselves, and their lands. Our nation ban
no right to purchase lands and force the peo
ple ti accept of onr ideas, nor has any govern
ment this right. All people have the same in
herent rights that we have, and which we have
written in 0111 co'islituUou. If the Filipinos
In I r.-q itstc I 11 11 in -with th- United St ite-s,
and if our government had been established at
their request, or by their consent, and rebellion
hud afterward broken out, the United States
would have a right to put down tiie . rebellion;
but there is no true justification of our presi
dent'? pfisitiRH awl pQljey- ft js Mniply the
policy of liheity-loving Greece d priviiig thous
ands ot captives of enjoying the privileges
which they enjoyed. If this war is justifiable,
it cannot be justified on the ground that the
An Unfair Competition.
From Orange Judd Farmer.
The alien contract labor law is- being griev
ously violated in Hawaii. No specific form of
government having been provided by congress
lor the Sandwich Islands, the Dole regime con
tinues in power. It is notoriously controlled
bv the sugar planters, who are developing their
plantations on a most extraordinary scale by
the use of artificial irrigation and Japanese and
Chinese coolie labor. Nearly $20,000,000 has
been invested in plantation improvements there
since annexation, and more than 12,000 coolies
have been imported during the past few
mouths. These Asiatic coolies, who are vir
tually slaves, now ontnuinbei the rest of the
population, both native and foreign.
No check whatever has yet been placed on
the importation of this contract labor, nor h is
anything been done to curb the slave system
under which this labor is worked on planta
tions. Indeed, the situation is even worse
than Orange Judd Farmer predicted, before
annexation was decided upon, that it would be
come. The talk about prohibiting coolie im
migration, about encouraging white labor, etc.,
etc., proves to have been mere buncombe, as
we showed it to te at the time.
The island planters hope soon to increase
the production of sugar from 250,000 tons to
500,000 tons, all of which claims free access to
the markets ot tlie United States. The sugar
made with coolie or slave labor can, of course,
undersell that produced by the beet growers of
of the north and west, or the cane growers of
our own southern states, and anything that
tends to restrict the beet acreage, by so much
increases the area of other crops, aud thus in
directly reduces the value of all farm produce.
The question therefore is, Shall our American
fanners and tax-payers be Obliged to compete
with the coolie labor of Hawaii?
A few years ago the tobacco growers of New
York and Wisconsin made a great protest be
cause they were indirectly forced to compete
with coolie labor in raising tobacco on the
island of Sumatra. And we all know what a
tremendous howl goes up from the lahor unions
of the country whenever a few contract labor
ers are imported from other countries in defi
ance of the federal law. But here is the whole
territory of Hawaii allowed not only to main
tain a coolie system of labor, but to increase it
until the coolies comprise the major portion of
its population. If these Hawaiian slaves were
competing with any branch of labor repre
sented in our American labor unions, these or
ganizations would long ago have made a pro
test against it. The labor unions would have
shaken the country from centertocircuinference,
and congress would have legislated in hot haste
against the evil under penalty of being turned
out at the next election by vote of the labor
unions. But our American fanners and their
hiieu men do not yet recognize the extent of
this unfair competition .and are not organized
to prevent it as aie the labor unions.
Vet they have got to wake up to their inter
ests or the coolie slave system will be extended
from Hawaii to the Philippines, Cuba and
Porto Rico, in whose behalf the sugar and to
bacco trusts are already clamoring loudly for
free admission of tropical produce into the
United States, inerican farmers will soon
realize the extent of this danger. And once
they are aroused, congress must correct the
evil or there would be a new deal at Washing
ton. Notice to this effect is hereby served
upon the politicians of all parties.
More than a vear ago we showed that, in its
economic aspects, the results of the Spanish
war would hs to raise just this new agricultural
issue th'at is now looming up. Many states
men and journals- who then accused us of pes
siin'sm now realize the truth of our position.
This question will not down, but is bound to
gro.v in intensity. As between the sugar trust
and coolie labor on the one hand, aud the in
terests of our American farmers on the other,
who can doubt the final result? Nor will state
or national bounties or any other makeshifts
serve to compromise the situation. Michigan
now lefuses to pay the bounty her legislature
voted, and a national bounty is hardly tc be
thought of. The farmers of the United States
have carried their share of "protection" these
many years, with results that have always been
questioned. But now here is a chance where
protection will really protect the farmer and
laborer engaged in growing sugar beets or
sugar cane within these continental United
States. If te fanner is now to be sacrificed at
the behest of the sugar refiners' trust, he knows
how to strike back.
jslaiids have been purchased, and without the
consent of the people.
Besides, there Is no parallel between the ad
mission of Louisiana, Texas and Alaska.
Colonists 111 Texas established a republic,
which was acknowledged by the United .States.
Twice that republic sought, and was refused,
admittance to the Union. After the republic
existed ten years and the republic had in
creased to 150,000, the United States sought and
seemed the annexation of Texas in 1845. It
mat'ers not that the settlement of the boundary
line involved the United States in war with
Mexico. The Texaus not only rebelled against
Mexico, but desired union, while the Filip
inos rebelled against Spain, and the United
States is pursuing the policy of conquest to
make the Filipinos consent to union. Nor
was the purchase of Louisina followed
with resistance. The battle following was
with Great Britain. So far as Alaska is con
cerned, the Indians had not been seeking to
establish a representative and independent
government, and we had no need to enter upon
a war of conquest. As Americans and citizens
of this republic, we have no right to expansion
through conquest. Our expansion should be
qnly by the consent of the inhabtauts. Nor
has the Lord given us a right to expand in any
other way. As a nation we are now trampling
upon those sacred rights that God has vouch
safed to every min, and which we prize so
highly ourselves. We are now laying our
selves liable to the same judgment that rested
upon oppressive Spain. While we were break
ing the tyrannizing power of Spain and setting
the oppressed fret, God's signal blessing was
upon us; but since our war began against the
oppressed, we see no evidence of special divine
favor. Let us beware. If we love our land,
let us not, by injustice, bring God's curse.
Correspondent.
Would Not Eat "Embalmed" Beef.
Honolulu, Aug. 26 (via San Francisco,
Sept. 2.) S. M. T. Four clays ago the United
States transport Senator arrived here en route to
Manila. Two days later a number of soldiers
bought several bottles ot methylated spirits of
alcohol, and were soon half insane under its in
fluence. A general fight ensued, which soon
involved over a hundred soldiers. A riot call
was sounded, and the police arrested the ring
leaders. On the way to the station the soldiers'
friends attacked the police, but citizens and the
prevost guard came to their aid, A few hours
later the Senator sailed with many soldiers in
irons,
The second day out from .San Francisco the
soldiers on the Senator discovered that a con
siderable of the beef aboard for their consump
tion was the tinned beef, which has acquired
the name of "embalmed beet." Trouble arose
immediately. The soldiers refused to eat it or
allow it to be served. They insisted that it be
thrown overboard, aud finally this was done.
Criticism Critisized.
We quote the following from the Midland,
one of the organs of the United Presbyterian
church. The article was written by J.
McCulloch:
In the issue of the Midland of July aand, the
editor criticised J. M. "Foster's article for inti
mating that the church should call a member
to account for wrong doing in the capacity of a
public servant, calling such action a dangerous
ecclesiasticism. Now the question resolves it
self into this: Cau a man in public life do a
wrong with impunity that would bring him
under the discipline of the church if done in
private life?
"When Governor Drake, of Iowa, signed a
bill authorizing the manufacture of intoxicat
ing liquors, while another law in the same
state forbade it, the Standard, of Cincinnati, the
leading organ of the church of which Mr.
Drake was a member, advised the church at
Centerville, where he held his membership, to
turn him out, and I think the advice was cor
rect. It was a diabolical act and a moral out
rage on the good people of the state.
"So when President McKinley upholds his
subordinate in defying the congress of the
United States by refusing to execute the anti
canteen law, thus causing demoralization, dis
ease and death in our army, I think the Meth
odist church at Canton, Ohio, or in Washing
ton, if his membership has been transferred,
lus a right to discipline him with a view to his
reformation. When he drinks intoxicating
liquors in his pubiic life and sets them before .
his guests at his table, he is just as liable to
censure by his church as though he did it at
his home in Canton.
"The church may not have the right to dic
tate to a public officer what he shall do,, but.
when he violates the law ot the church in his
public capacity and brings reproach on the
cause of Christ and the Christianity of the
nation, it is certainly the duty of the church to
call him to account for it.
"I have no sympathy with the doctrine that
a man can do in a public capacity what, his
conscience forbids him in his private life. Ii
a judge on the bench believes the licensing of
the liquor traffic is wrong, he violates his con
science when he issues a license on the petition
of a number of cititens, notwithstanding the
law says he may. The study of the lessons
in Daniel of late teaches that such an officer
must refuse to do the wrong and take the con
sequences or resign his position because of its
requirements; and if we had a few public offic
ers who had the stamina to do so, the eyes
of a sleeping church would soon be opened to
the sin of fellowshiping a 'throne of iniquity
which ftameth mischietby law.' "
Tine men who create the wealth of the world
earn it, but do not obtain it; wealth, under the
competitive system, is appropriated by the few
who earn nothing. Flaming Sword.
Let us do your next job of printing.
FARM LOANS . .
INTEREST
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REASONABLE COMMISSION.
ANNUAL OR SEMI-ANNUAL INTEREST.
No Delay if Title is Perfect.
We give the privilege of paving all or a part of
your loan and stop interest. We make our own ex
aminations and draw our own papers and thus
save time and expense to you. Our ratesand terms
nre better than ever twfore offered. If you wiH
drop us a line we call and see you and explain the
matter fully. In writing trive the location of your
property.
SLAUGHTER & TAYLOR.
T. J. Hassey, Mgr., Garnett, Kas.