4
THE ADVOCATE.
r i
AIH) TOPEKA TBIBUHE.
OFFICIAL STATE PAPER.
IT. IL. I. L.
FUBLISHXD BVKBI WBDIOtSDAT BT
THE ADVOCATE PUBLISHES COHPAXY,
Boomi 43 and 45 Knox Building,
TOPXXA, - - KANSAS.
$1.00 PER YEAR.
ADVERTISING BATES.
For single Insertion : Display matter, 20 cents
pat Una, 14 lines to tlut Inch. Beadiajj notices,
40 cents per lice. Discount for long-time eon-ractt
Ind. Rural Press Assoo'n,
P.O.VAMVLMT.Mgr.
Boyoa Building.
Intered at the poitofflceat Topeka, Kansas, ai
second class matter.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1894.
Keep off the grass.
The war cry of the stand-up crowd
this year is, "Keep off the graes."
There h no use condemning our
national legislature until we settle
the question as to whether it is made
up of criminals or imbeciles.
Conoress goes right on discussing
such stupendous question as ad valo
rem duty on boracio acid, Cleveland
and Carlisle go fishing, while busi
ness languishes and workingmen's
families go hurjgry. And there are
people who innocently ask why in
the world these Coxey ites want to go
to Washington.
Politicians and the great dailies
are greatly exercised just now in
consequence of the many indications
of revolution apparent upon every
hand. They have been warned that
it was coming. In all ages of the
world like causes produce like effects.
Oppression breeds discontent and
discontent leads to revolution as the
only highway to liberty. Those who
uphold the causes should not shrink
from the consequences.
Republican editors are very much
exercised because the governor did
not call out the militia at the behest
of Missouri racific railroad attorneys
to help them capture the common
weal army. The governor remem
bers that Geo. T. Anthony called out
the militia once by request of Santa
Fe railroad officials and succeeded in
shooting an inoffensive preacher; and
he, like many other good citizens, is
not precisely certain that a state ex
ecutive is subject to the orders of
railroad officials. Republican prece
dents would seem to indicate that he
is, but some doubts have been ex
' pressed upon the subject, and the
governor don't propose to act hastily
in such cases. Keep as cool as yon
can, gentlemen; this is not your
inning.
TBI EQUAL SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN.
The Kansas Equal Suffrage asso
ciation has just commenced an ag
gressive campaign in behalf of the
constitutional amendment that is to
be voted upon at the coming election.
Meetings have already been held at
Kansas City, Leavenworth, Law
rence, Topeia, Valley Falls, Atchison,
Hiawatha, Burlingame, Osage City
and Cottonwood Falls, and a large
number of meetings are advertised
in other parts of the state. In these
meetings the Kansas women are
desperately in earnest in this cam
paign. Tney are strixing for a ngnt
which, denied to man, won! d unhesi
tatingly be declared to be tyranny.
In these meetings which are being
held prior to the assembling o( the
party conventions, the chief fight is
for recognition in the party plat
forms. These women are such im
practical politicians that, they seem
actually to believe that party plat
forms should enunciate principles
on the sole ground that they are
right, and should not refrain from
their enunciation on the ground of
expediency. They seem further to
believe that party policies should be
so far governed by the platform
declarations upon -which parties are
elevated to power as to render the
supplemental statement, "and we
mean what we say," entirely unneces
sary. They further declare that the
masses of the people agree with
them in these strange doctrines, and
that only the politicians and office
seekers in either of the leading par
ties of the state are manifesting any
uneasiness in view of a possible plat
form declaration in favor of equal
suffrage. Some of these women in
both of the leading parties intimate
that the incorporation in the plat
forms, or its omission therefrom,
of a declaration in favor of the
amendment will be received by them
as an indication whether the people
or the politicians and office-seekers
control the conventions, and they say
they shall govern themselves accord
ingly. Very strange politicians, these
women, lney ao not seem 10 nave
any regard for "expediency" what
ever. The question of right seems
to be all they think of. They lack
experience in real politics, you see,
and they are so impractical. If they
should be given the ballot it will be
just like them to carry these strange
doctrines into practice, and who can
tell what th e effect might be upon
the "dear party' and upon the man
who is dodging around through the
underbrush to escape from the office
that is in pursuit of him?
These women intimate further that
the great moral problems that are
demanding the recognition of politi
cal parties must not be set aside much
longer on the ground of expediency.
They have little faith in expediency
and seem to think that a political
party that builds upon it rests upon
a very unstable foundation. They
say that a party in order to endure
must draw to its support the better
rather than the baser elements of so
ciety, and this can only be done by
building upon the eternal principles
of right and justice. There are even
some men foolish enough' to agree
with these impractical women upon
this subject, and it is hard to tell just
what will come of these strange doc
trines. We present them for the con
sideration of our readers. Somehow
we are unable just now to discover
the weak points in their novel theories,
but they are so inexperienced and
impractical that we turn them over
without further ceremony to the ex
perienced statesmen of the land.
THE
POLICEMAN'S SPECIAL MARK OF
MERIT.
Every day affords new proof that
stupidity and brutality are the chief
recommendations of what are called
"th e good policeman." There is not
a city in the land where a police
force exists that does not furnish ev
idence of this fact. These qualities
in the police of Washington city
were specially manifest in the recent
assault upon Coxey and his fol
lowers. That the commonwealers
were guilty of nothing appeared at
the trial. True they were convicted
of "walking upon the grass." This
conviction, so far as Coxey was con
cerned, was obtained on the perjured
testimony of the blue-coated ruffians
who pose as peace officers, as convic
tions are obtained every day in the
police courts of the land; and in the
case of Browne, it was shown that he
was driven upon the grass to escape
the clubs of these brutes. After all
the bluster and blow, the riot drill
for months of the Washington con
tingent of the national guard and of
the police; and the expressed deter
mination to find the commonweal
army guilty of some terrible offense
against the laws and the peace of
society, the only charge that could
be found against these men by a too
willing gang of legalized thugs was
wearing a badge and getting upon
the grass. Of course, Washington
society and this great government of
the United States must be protected
from such dangers as this. The
demo-republican campaign cry of
1894 should be changed from "re
deem Kansas" to "keep off the
grass."
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME, ETC.
The Kansas City Journal, which
has searched its vocabulary for years
for terms mean enough with which
to characterize the People's party, is
gradually adopting the principles of
the party and putting them forth as
its own. Only a short time ago it
championed practically the principle
involved in the financial plank of the
Omaha platform although, of course,
it failed to give the proper credit
Now, in the issue of May 11, we find
the following:
We alluded the other day to the new idea
or system of the "initiative and refer
endum." Here ia a more substantial re
form in full view than haa been proposed
since the abolition of slavery, and it ia
within the control of organized labor to
bring it about Its freedom from the dem
agogue is one of the reasons for its being so
little known. Make it a part of our state
constitutions, which can be done by votee,
and in ten years every practical reform
will be practicable, and the "olasa"
distinction disappear from American poli
tics, where it is as yet an unnatural for
eigner. This will kill demagogy.
Of course, the Journal would not
admit that this is Populist doctrine,
and we shall not insist upon it A
rose by any other name is just as
sweet, and if the Journal will give
this measure its support, its readers
will soon be looking around for a
party that proposes to carry it into
effect, and that will not be the repub
lican party.
WHY DIDNT THEY LET US CONTINUE
TO PROSPER?
Republicans now clhim that under
their administration and under the
laws enacted by republicans this
country enjoyed a degree of pros
perity up to the beginning of the
Cleveland administration such as it
never enjoyed before. The Con
cordia Blade very pertinently in
quires, if this be true, why republi
can congressmen ioined with the
wicked democrats to interrupt that
prosperity by the repeal of one of
their wise and beneficent statutes?
Why didn't they let the country con
tinue to prosper as it had never be
fore done in its history! The point
seems to be well taken.
The gold reserve is again redaced
below the hundred million dollar
mark in consequence of the "foreign
demand," and we may look for an
other issue of bonds any day. While
it has been the policy of the Ameri
can people topay the bonds issued dur
ing the war to the uttermost farthing
notwithstanding all the frauds con
nected with them, bonds issued now
should be repudiated without cere
mony. There is no call for them, no
law for them, and nobody to profit
from them but a set of pirates who
live and grow fat upon legalized
plunder.
Nor an American-born citizen took part
with the rioters in Cleveland. It was the
riff-raff of the foreign element which has
created all the trouble in that city during
the last few days. Kansas City Gazette,
May 6.
How came this "riff-raff of foreign
element" in the city of Cleveland,
and what was it doing there before
the riot? Doesn't our system of pro
tection to American labor protect?
"I regard the credit
of the United States
government as safe
in the hands of Grow
er Cleveland and
John G.Carlisle as if
it were in the hands
of a republican."
John Sherman.
"Say what you
will, I believe the
Ford brothers are
just as repuatable,
law-abiding eitizens
a a I a m. J ease
James.
The Corner Stone.
In the clash of state boards and the whirl
of offices, what has become of "initia
tive and referendum scheme?" Emporia
Gazette.
Don't worry about it; you'll hear
from it in due time. What have you
to say about it?
YOU'RE NOT A SUBSCRIBER.
Well, what of it? That's no reason
you should not read this paper and
then give it to your neighbor. Some
one has paid for it or else it is sent
to you as a sample. By reading it
you may catch onto something you
did not think of before.
"Stubborn Facta in a Nutshell," Ecg
lish, German or Swede; five cents each;
U per hundred ; $30 per thousand. Ad
drees People's party headquarters, Topeka.