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
TI-IHS ADYOOATE kjt i AITD TOPEKA TBIBUIIE. OFFICIAL STATE PAPER. IT. 33,. r. a.. PUBLISHK) BYKBY WD518DAY BY THE ADVOCATE PUBLISHES CO'JPANY. Booms 43 and 45 Knox Building, 70PXZKA. - . KANSAS. 01.00 PER YEAR. ADVERTISING RATES. For slngl Insertion : Dlaplay matter, 20 eenti pw una, 14 unei to tne incn. lunam noucm, 40 cents per Use. Discount for long-Ume eoo- ( Ind. Rural Press Assoo'n, Chliiso Office P. O. ViflVuir.Mjtr. ( Boyoe Building. XnUrodatthe poitofflce at Topeka, Hansaa, aa pcond class roattf r. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1894. What about circulating the Advo cate in your neighborhood? We are making remarkably low rates for large clubs. Send for terms. Every committeeman ought to see that there is reform literature circu lated in his neighborhood. The Ad tocate will help him do it. Those who fail to get their paper or their premiums within a few days after the order is sent in should notify us by postal card so that the trouble can be looked up. There's a man in every township and ward in the state who is idle, and who could just as well be getting up aa Advocate club if somebody would only induce him to act as solicitor. He could make a little money and do a whole lot of good. It is amusing to see the republi can "country editors" suggesting Populist measures to their represen tatives in Washington, just in order to oppose the democrats without con demning their own recent adminis trations. Many of them actually de clare that congress should have issued greenbacks so that the currency might have been increased without the issue of bonds. When inconsistency is bliss 't is folly to be honest. PECSPESIIY STILL BUSHIKQ IS UPON TJS. Dun's weekly review of January 26 says: Industrial gain is more definite than week ago. Few establishments hare stop ped work, while many have resumed or in creased production, and though these are not works employing thousands each, the aggregate inorease is considerable. Re ductions in wages continue, and about a quarter of them are of 20 per cent, the rest ranging from 7 to 17 per cent. The business failures for the week were 430 in the United States. Isn't there danger that our prosperity will overwhelm us? A PABADE OP 5ET7 TOM OITTS UNEMPLOYED. The newspapers tell na that a por tion of the unemployed of New York city had a parade few days ago. These men innocently imagined that they had the same right to make such a demonstration as have men in more favored circumstances, so long as they did it peaceably and refrained from interference with the equal privileges of others. It was a very unostentatious affair, and attracted very little attention. A single five line paragraph in the daily papers would have been sufficient notice of it had it not been for one little cir cumstance that will be mentioned later. There was no disturbance of any kind during the parade. The men picked their way as best they could Along the line of march, dodg ing drays, omnibuses, carriages and pedestrians; were quiet and orderly from first to last, and finally dis persed without any accident to mar the peaceable character of the dem onstration. Had this been a parade of bankers and railroad magnates, instead of un employed workingmen, it would have been headed by a squad of metro politan policemen bedecked in their best store clothes, and stepping to the music of the finest band in the city. The carrying traffic upon the streets mapped out for the line of march would have been required to suspend. Omnibusses, coaches and private carriages would have been driven into side streets. Footmen would not have been permitted to in vade the sacred highway, even at the street crossings. The way would have been mad clear, and he who would have had the audacity to ap pear in front of such a parade would have done so at his peril. The pro cession would not have moved on foot, as did that of the unemployed workingmen, but in gorgeous equip ages, and with liveried coachmen upon the drivers' seats. The horses would have been fat and sleek and bedecked with fine trapping and trimmings of gold. Gaping multi tudes of idiots packing the side walks would have thrown up their hats and yelled as the procession passed in review. Such is the awe inspired by caste and station. But the newspapers tell us of another thing in connection with the workingmen's parade. They tell us it was ascertained that the men car ried loaded bombs in their pockets during the march. Of course no bombs were thrown. No casualty oc curred. The men were peaceable and quiet in their demonstration. They were not "promoters of dis order," as bomb-throwers are usually said to be. What did they carry those bombs for? The newspapers tell us that the police had threatened to disperse them and to break ap the parade. Suppose that this had been attempted. Does anyone doubt that the bombs would have been used? If they had been, what kind of a story would the great dailies have told about the affair? Would they have had a word of censure for the police be cause of their unwarranted interfer ence with the rights of the workinjr men jor would they have denouncedthe workingmen as anarchists, and justi fied the brutalities of the police ? Who doubts what their course would have been? What has it always been un der such circumstances? But what say tha people upon this subject? Evidently the workingmen were peaceable in their intentions, aa the sequel clearly proves, and yet were they determined to defend their rights. Would they have been justi fied or not? It may be said that we are raising a hypothetical question, and one that it were better not to discuss. Yet, here were all the conditions that might have resulted in casualties of the most serious nature. The failure of the police to carry out their threat alone prevented the casualties from occurring. Similar cases may arise heraafter. We are told that a con templated parade of the unemployed of Chicago was voluntarily aban doned because of the announcement of the mayor that the p .dice would be called on to prevent it. Has it come to this, that the distinction of caste and condition is to make a distinc tion in the common rights of the dif ferent classes of American citizens? The current events of the times should cause fair-minded people to begin to think. We are drifting in a dangerous direction. Shall we pause and turn back before it is too late, or shall we plunge headlong over the precipice of revolution? ME3. LEASE VS. THE ADlflNISTBA TIOJT. Up to January 18, Mrs. Lease had made but one specific charge against the state administration. On that date, in a letter to Mr. Lattimer of the Pleasanton Herald, she adds two more, as tne case now stands ner specific charges are as follows: (1) That the administration is in partnership with the gamblers of Kansas Gity. (2) That the fusion crowd as she calls it, in which she classes the ad ministration, took bribes from three railroad companies; she does not state on what account. (3) That "they" (she does not say who) paid $500 for affidavits of im proper relations between her and General Weaver. Now if these things be true neither the Advocate nor the people of Kan sas will undertake to defend them; but charges of so grave a character should be accompanied by proof. Mrs. Lease said in her speech at Leavenworth that it was not yet time to present this proof that it would get old before the campaign opens if presented now. We submit that if it is too early to present the proof, it is too early to present the charges; and if the proof is liable to get old if pre sented now, the charges without the proof are liable to become exceed ingly stale much sooner than if the proof were to accompany them. In fact they are becoming so already. We desire to add that a mere multi plication of empty charges is not proof of guilt, and fair minded peo ple soon tire of a ceaseless repetition of them. Thosa who are ready to condemn when guilt is established are liable to look upon such constant repetition of unsupported charges as a result of disappointed ambition and personal malice rather than a desire to purge the party of the cor rupt elements it may contain. We demand the evidence of these charges. The people have a right to it if it exists. OLEAE AS MUD. There has been in session recently in the city of Chicago a body of men calling themselves "the national farmers' alliance." We have been asked several times what this organ ization ia. We do not know. We are aware that there was at one time an organization of this kind known as the northern alliance, which was non-secret and which attained con siderable strength. A consolidation was effected between that and the national F. A. and I. U., and we were under the impression that the consolidated body absorbed all of what was known as the open alliance. Presumably, however, this is a part of that organization that has main tained its identity. At the recent meeting in Chicago, among other things that were done, resolutions were adopted severely criticising Secretary Morton for his idiotic reflections upon the farmers of the country. This alliance also adopted a platform of political principles and declared that the farmers should elect members of legislatures according to their voting strength. In framing the financial plank of their platform these farmers must have been under the inflaence of mixed democratic and republican drinks. The result of their effort would be eminently satisfactory to the average democratic or republican convention. It may mean anything or nothing, jnst as the necessity of the case requires. It is as clear as mud. Here it is: Reached, 2. We demand in our monetary system a regular and equitable distribution independent of selfish and greedy combina tions, free from prirate manipulations, with stability as well as flexibility, and value aa well as volume. This takes the cake for a farmers' platform. MISTAKES THE IBGBEDIEirrS. "Prosperity is dead," eays the Topeka Advocate. Yes, an allopathio dose of democracy and Populism mixed was more than prosperity could stand. Emporia Re publican, January 25. The editor of the Bepublicsn is as dumb a chemist as he is a politican. He entirely mistakes the ingredients of the mixture that has been admin istered in allopathio doses to the peo ple. Take the dose administered by ' the late special session of congress as an example. It was forced down the throats of the people by a vote in the house of 138 democrats and 101 re publicans, and against the vote of every Populist in that body; and in the senate by a vote of 26 republicans and 22 democrats, and against the vote of every Populist in that body. An examination of the other doses that have killed prosperity in this country will disclose the fact that they are composed of the same mixture.