The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], November 23, 1892, Page 8, Image 8

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

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

                
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TSSS1 A23 VOOASSZh
TEE NATIONAL 00UI0IL.
(Continued from pafl i4
box should be the sacred ark of our cove
nant, where we can doposit our princi
; (pies tor record with absolute faith that
they will be counted as cast. Without
this the franchise is a mockery, and our
system of government a sham.
The spirit of unrest abroad to-day may
by such means be suppress a
smothered for a timeit will not be
palliated or eradicated. It must have
vent. The longer it is suppressed, the
moie violent will be the explosion when
it does come. The duty of every patriotic
American citizen, every lover of our
country, every true man and woman in
our nation is to investigate well the
causes of the present unrest. If found to
be without just foundation, point out the
fallacy. If the claims of organized labor
can be proven unjust, no class will repu
diate them more quickly than the farm-
en, the acknowledged great conservative
class of the nation.
Temporary defeat will not solve tne
problem or stop the agitation. These
questions cannot be side-tracked by ridi
cule. We believe in our demands as
devoutly as any Christian man or woman
believes in his or her Bible. The elo
quence of an Ingersoll surcharged with
ridicule aimed at the sacred volume will
not cause a devout Christian to lose faith
in a single verse of that grand old book;
no more will the eloquence of all the sar
castic orators of the nation, aimed in
ridicule at our demands, cause the true
Alliance man to waver in his faith in and
devotion to the grandest platform of
political principles ever enunciated by
any body of men.
NO BAND-WAGON POLITICS.
Organized labor has arrived at these
conclusions after many years of careful,
patient investigation and study. If
changed, it must be by the same meth
ods. We must press forward on the
lines of justice, equality and truth. The
great need of the time is honest, manly,
courageous men honest in seeking the
truth, unbiased by partisanship or preju
dice; manly enough to proclaim it re
gardless of surroundings or past party
affiliations; courageous enough to record
it at the ballot box, though voting alone.
So-called "practical politics" or "ban8
wagon practice" can have no place in the
Alliance. Our duty is to vote our prin
ciples regardless of the result. Anything
issued officially, assumed or otherwise,
contrary to this, is in violation of the
grand, high and noble teachings of our
order.
I concede the right of every member
of the order to work and vote for the
political party of his choice. I concede
bis right to choose between the Alliance
and a political party. I believe it to be the
duty of every true Alliance man to advo
cate and support our demands as in his
judgment teems best. As an officer of
the Alliance, he can do so officially, con
sistently, but I deny his right to use his
official position to push the interests of a
political party that has not adopted our
demands, or, worse than that, fighting
them. The non-partisan feature of our
order has given rise to much misunder
standing of just what we mean, and a
clear definition of the term would be
advisable at this time. In connection
herewith it would be well, and I would
recommend that you seriously consider
whether it would not be wise to make
the support of our demands a test of
eligibility to membership in the order.
In that way we would avoid the anomaly
of having members fighting our demands.
One member opposing our demands can
do more harm than ten who are not
members.
I hope the Alliance will never become
a partisan organization, that is, the tool
of any political party. So long as other
classes remain organized we must per
petuate and perfect our organization or
remain at the mercy of the organized
classes. It is not enough that a political
party has adopted our demands we are
yet only on the threshold in this move
ment. We must continue the work of
education on the economic principles in
corporated in our demands, and this can
be done much better inside our organi
zation than through a political party.
In too many localities the mistake has
been made during the past year of con
centrating all effort for the success of a
political party, neglecting the Alliance
organization. We must now turn our
whole energies to the upbuilding of our
order on a more solid basis, and the
work of this session should be devoted
especially to that line of work. We
should economize wherever economy can
be practiced without impairing efficiency.
Farther recommendations on this line
will be submitted when I have had time
to investigate the report of the executive
committee.
WHAT OP THE PUTURE?
The most perplexing problem for us
to solve and the greatest obstacle in the
way of economic reform is to be found,
in my judgment, in the south. Three
years ago at St. Louis two of the great
stumbling blocks in our way were
happily removed when the Alliance of the
north and south resolved to unite as
rapidly as possible, thus removing the
sectional barrier, and the compact en
tered into with the Knights of Labor,
paving the way for unity of action at the
ballot box on the part of labor in the
field, shop and mind. In each of these
our progress has been phenomenal, as
evidenced by the great gathering of labor
at St Louis last February, in which
twenty-two great labor organizations
participated, and without a dissenting
voice united on our demands. The third
great barrier, and the one we find much
harder to remove, is that blind idolatry
of party peculiar to our republic. The
movement for its obliteration took root
in the northwest and spread rapidly to
the east and south, bidding fair at one
time to develop a majority who would
vote for principles irrespective of party.
Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and South
Dakota had shown their devotion to our
principles as early as 1890, giving a form
and stability to the movement hitherto
lacking, a nucleus around which the re
form forces might gather. Education
in the south on our demands progressed
with a zeaLpower and force unparalleled
in the history of any reform movement
of the past. The south seemed ready
once more to assume its place lost for
thirty-two years as a potent factor in
shaping the live issues of political
economy, something she never can hope
for so long as she remains a solid south
on sectional lines or partisan prejudice.
The result of the fiery ordeal through
which we have passed in the last few
months has been a disappointment and
developed this great object b our path
way, more powerful than any yet en
countered, and one more difficult of re
moval because less understood indeed,
incomprehensible to those of us havfng
no experience with the race problem.
When the great St. Louis conference,
called at the suggestion of this body and
in whose counsels we were a potent factor
closed its session, our friends in the
south were enthusiastically hopeful that
the new south would assert itself by ob
literating sectionalism, partisanship and
prejudice. Organized labor was hopeful
as it had never been in the past. We all
returned to our homes, north, south,
east and west, courage renewed, zeal in
tensified, radiant with hope, confident of
speedy victory for our principles and the
cause prospered as never before.
AH, HA, NO POLITICS.
The first sign of a new obstacle ap
peared when Alabama spoke, or tried to
speak, in August, and her voice was, by
fraud unparalleled, stifled and perverted.
This did not discourage us. The fraud
was so apparent that we knew it must be
righted. But when Arkansas, followed
by Florida and Georgia (Georgia our
banner stronghold) showed that race
prejudice and sectional feeling were still
the most potent factors at the ballot
box, it means that it will require much
more earnest, patient, self-sacrificing
work to dislodge the professional politi
cians and demagogues from their strong
hold. The recent elections all over the south
show that fewer men are elected indors
ing our principles than were elected two
years ago. Is this because reformers
have not had the courage to vote their
convictions, or plutocracy, realizing its
danger, used greater. effort and more
means to combine all anti-reform ele
ments against .us; and, further, to per
vert the ballot by the many sharp prac
tices known to politicians? Be this as
it may, tne west ana northwest nave
made great progress, while the south ap
parently has not. These sections must
stand together.
Education or devotion to our princi
ples will be useless unless those princi
ples can be recorded tn the ballot box
and counted as recorded. The Alliance
has been a great educational factor in
promulgating the demands of organized
labor, in uniting labor in the field, shop
and mine, in wiping out sectional lines
and removing prejudice. We must now
devote our energies to the solution of
the new problem, which retards further
progress. It cannot be glossed over. It
cannot be explained away.
The difficulty is local, confined to cer
tain portions of the south. In my judg
ment it must be solved from within. It
cannot be from without. The north and
west must learn the truth, that they may
not be altogether discouraged in the
conflict. We are paying the penalty for
mistakes of the past. The first, being
that of human slavery, for which the
north as well as the south is responsible
and for which all have paid the terrible
penalty inflicted by the civil war. It
was hoped by many that for that fearful
sacrificial atonement of blood and wealth
thirty years ago, the penalty had been
paid, but it has proven to be only the
beginning. The civil war, the outcome
of the agitation to prevent the extension
of slavery, abolished chattel slavery of
the negro, and in doing so permitted the
money power of Europe to fasten upon
us their financial policy of controlling
labor by controlling money, whioh in the
end, if continued, will make the condi
tion of so-called free labor, white and
black, infinitely worse than that of
chattel slavery.
The second mistake was in enfranchis
ing the ex-slave without an educational
preparation fitting them for an intelli
gent participation in the duties of citi
zenship. Those living in the north can
have but a faint conception ef the trials
of our brethren in the south during the
reconstruction period of unscrupulous
carpet bag njje. It is enough to know
that the recollection of it still haunts
their memory to such an extent that the
fear of rerjetition causes them to shudder
still. Restoration of white supremacy
became the battle cry. All other issues
were lost sight of, and this became paramount
A BIPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CRT.
Here another grave mistake was made
that cornea in now to check further
progress in the emancipation of labor,
and from which we must suffer, north
as well as south. I mean the suppres
sion of a free ballot and a fair count, and
which is now turned on our friends in
the south. This must make reform by
the ballot exceedingly slow in the states
where the negro vote is an important
factor. Having secured control of the
government in all the ex-slave states,
the white citizens began the discussion
of the economic problems pressing for
solution and were paving the way for a
new aligiment of political parties on
live national issues, when the republican
party made a grave mistake in trying to
correct from without that which can
only be corrected from within by the
passage of what will pass into history as
the "force bill,'' giving the plutocratic
machine another chance to renew its
lease of power by appealing to the fears
of white people of negro supremacy and
federal interference, and a repetition of
the reconstruction period, and an excuse
to count out the white man's ballot as
well as the blaek. In this the demo
cratic party are making their great mis
take. Our white brethren in the south
will not long stand being counted out.
No political party can hope to continue '
in power in a free republic on such a
foundation. In this connection there is
one thought I wish to press earnestly
on the minds of our southern brethren.
The machine element of the demo
cratic party appealed to you to put aside
the discussien of economic questions and
to give a united white vote to prevent
the enactment of the force bill, etc.
They lost sight ofjprmciplee and appealed
to fear, prejudice and passion. You
fought for principles. You claim, and I
believe justly, that a majority of the
white men in the south believe in our
principles. Once more many of you put
aside your principles of reform and voted
with the minority anti-reform element.
The proposition now is, shall you, the
majority, ask them to sacrifice their
prejudices and vote your principles, or
will you continue sacrificing jour princi
ples and voting their prejudices? Have
you not done that long enough? The
overwhelming defeat, almost annihila
tion, of the party threatening the force
bill should now remove it (the force bill)
as a factor from the political arena. Our
opponents surely can no longer make it
do duty to keep them in power.
The second factor used in the south
to prevent our friends voting our princi
ples was to cry out against every pro
posed reform that it was simply a
republican scheme to disrupt the demo
cratic party, etc.; but our friends in the
south must know that they tned to work
the same scheme in the west, except that
it was a democratic scheme to disrupt -the
republican party. However, in the
west and northwest we not only held our
own, but more than doubled our strength.
The only thing that prevented a great '
victory for our principles in the west
was the failure of the south to respond
with evidence of equal devotion to the
cause ef reform. When we can assure
our friends in the west that the south
will be able to break down the barriers
to reform there, they will meet you half
way with an avalanche of votes that will
sweep everything before it.
Our duty then at this session is to de
vote our very best thought to the up
building of the organization that has
accomplished so much in the past and
can be made the media m fordoing much
greater good in the future.
All selfish aspirations and Jambitfona