^A. i V\a^^^\W^-^6!TW ■Q-"--^^^ 'fz. i^A ^ BOSTON, MASS. I SECOND EDITION. I=OR SKLE BV THE TRKDE. PAPER, 50 cents; CLOTH, $1.00. THE PEOPLE'S CAUSE. I, *' THE THREEFOLD CONTENTION OF INDUSTRY." JA3IES BAIRD WE A VER, Prexirleiifial Xoininee People's Paitij. II. "THE NEGRO (QUESTION IN THE 80UTH." TH03IAS E. WATSO^\ Member Congress from (ieorgio. III. " THE MENACE OF PLUTOCRACY." B. 0, FLOWElt, Editor .trend. IV. " THE COMMUNISM OF CAPITAL." JOIIN^ DA VIS, Member Coufjress from AVf/fscs. V. "THE PENDING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN," JAMES H. KYLE, United States Senator, Soxth JJakotri. THOMAS E. WA TSOA^, Member Conyress from deoryia. Jh^ PUBLISHING CO. Copley Square, Boston, Mass. Copyrighted i8g2. Arena Publishing Co. COPLEY SQUARE SERIES. Vol. I. No. 5. AUGUST. 1892. Subscription, $3.00 per annum. Published Monthly Entered at Post Office, Boston, as Second-class Matter. SINGLE COPY, 25 CENTS. THE THREEFOLD CONTENTION OF INDUSTEY. BY GENERAL J. B. WEAVER. There are three fundamental questions pressing for solution in America. Indeed, they to-day challenge the attention of the whole civilized world. They are distinct and yet cognate, segregated though inseparable, and seem destined to advance pari passu, and to conquer together. United they form the triple issue of organized labor, which for magnitude and importance has never been equalled since man became the subject of civil government. They are the wheat which has been winnowed from the chaff on the thi-eshing-floor of the century. The patient, long-suft'ering people are at last aroused, and there is hurrying to and fro. They seem to have received marching orders from some mysterious source, and are mov- ing out against the strongholds of oppression on three distinct lines of attack, but within supporting distance of each other. It is evident that a general engagement is but a short march ahead. One army corps proposes to give battle for our firesides ; for a foothold and for standing-room upon the earth. It has inscribed upon its banner, " This planet is the common inheritance of all the people ! All men have a natural right to a portion of the soil ! Down with monopoly and specu- lation in land ! " . The second is marching to deliver those who sit in dark- ness, — the needy who cry, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. They seek to open wide the door of opportunity, and to throw back the iron gates which shut out from the bounties of nature the miserably clad, wretchedly housed, shivering, haggard, care-worn victims of adversity and slaves of debt. Upon its guidon is the tracing of a whip of cords, upraised by the hand of Justice above the heads of the money changers. The legend underneath reads, '' Money is the creature of human law ! We will issue it for ourselves ! Down with usury ! Liberty for the captives ! " The tliircl is leading an attack to get possession of the highways and lines of communication which hare been wrenched from the people, and which connect cities, distant communities and States with their base of supplies. This corps has inscribed upon its flag the battle cry, " Restoration of the public highways ! They belong to the people, and shall not be controlled by private speculators ! " "When Barak, after he and his people had suffered twenty years of oppression, overthrew Jabin and the caj^tain of his Host, Deborah declared that the battle was from heaven ; that " the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." And may we not reverently believe that the struggle of the oppressed people of our day, to reinvest themselves of their lands, their money, and their liighways, is from heaven also? The Constitution provides that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of government." This language implies a permanent contract — a joint pledge on the part of the Federal and State governments united, to maintain Democratic institutions throughout all the States ; the general government pledging its great power that the people shall not be deprived of the form, and the States undertaking, as to all matters within their jurisdiction, to make their local institutions Republican in spirit, substance, and administration. In other words, we have here a solemn declaration of purpose : a guaranty to all the people that government, both State and national, shall be held strictly to its original and lofty function, that of securing to the citizen " certain inalienable rights," which he received at the generous hand of his Creator, and which no government has the riglit to impair or permit to be impaired or taken away. The })ledge is that this obligation shall never be departed from, not even in form. These " inalienable rights " are, first, such as grow out of the relation of man to his Creator, and second, those which spring from his relation to organized society or government. The land question comes under the first subdivision. Can it be denied that all men have a natural right to a poition of the soil ? Is not the use of the soil indispen- sable to life ? If so, is not the right of all men to the soil as saci'ed as their right to life itself ? These propositions are so manifestly true as to lie beyond the domain of con- Bouthern Pamphlet* Rare Book Co]i - ^n TINC-Chape' troversy. To deny tliem is to call in question tlie riglit of man to inhabit the earth. Tested by those axioms, the startling wickedness of our whole land system, — which operates to deprive the weakest members, and even a vast majority of community, of the power to secure homes for themselves and families, ren- dering them fugitives and outcasts, and forcing them to pay tribute to others for the right to live ; that murderous sj's- tem which permits the rich and pov\^erful to reach out and wrench from the unfortunate their resting-place upon the planet, and to acquire title to unlimited areas of the earth, — is at once revealed in all its liideous and monstrous outlines. It also discloses to us the unwelcome truth that our govern- ment, which was instituted to secure to man the unmolested enjoyment of his inalienable rights, has been transformed into an organized force for the clestruction of those rights. Ordained to protect life, it proclaims death ; undertaking to insure lilierty to the citizen, it decrees bondage ; and having encouraged its confiding subjects to start in pursuit of happiness, it presses to their famished lips the bitter cup of disappointment. Society may, in some respects, be compared toa great forest. We can no more construct a secure and flourishing common- wealth amidst a community of tenants than you can grow a tlirifty forest disconnected from the soil. Both men and trees receive their strength and growth from the earth. One tree cannot gather food for another. Each takes from the earth its own nourishment. When it ceases to do so it must perish. And the moment you sever man from the soil and deprive him of the power to return and till the earth in his own right, the love of home perishes within him. He comes as a freeman, and is transformed into a predial slave. And hence, concerning the absorbing question of land reform, we contend that the child who is born while we are penning these thoughts, comes into the world clothed with all the natural rights which Adam possessed when he was the sole inhabitant of the earth. Liberty to occupy the soil in his own riglit, to till it unmolested, as soon as he has the strength to do so, and to live upon the fruits of his toil without paying tribute to any other creature, are among the most sacred and essential of these rights. Any state of society which deprives liim of these natural and inalienable safeguards, is an organized rebellion against the providence of God, a conspiracy against human life, and a menace to the peace of community. When complete readjustment shall come, as come it must quickly, it will proceed in accordance with this fundamental truth. The stone which the builders rejected will then become the head of tlie corner. The money and transportation j^roblems relate to the second class of inalienable rights above mentioned. But in our day they are so directly related to those conferred by the Creator as to be practically insepara])le from them. They are the instrumentalities throuo-li which the natural rights of man are rendered available in organized society. Such^ it is clear, was the conclusion of the Fathers when they incorporated into the Constitution the following among other far-reaching and sweeping provisions : — " Congress shall have j^ower to regulate commerce Avith foreign nations and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." Whatever may be the meaning of this j^rovision, it is certain that the framers of the Constitution regarded the power to be exercised as too important to be confided to the discretion of individuals or left to the control of the States. It is taken away from both, and grouped with those matters which are of national concern ^ — things which require the united wisdom of the coiuitry to solve, and the constant exercise of its combined power to sustain and enforce. When this clause was incorporated into the Constitution, the Union was composed of only thirteen States, grouped together along the Atlantic seaboard ; and at that time our internal commerce was but trifling. To-day forty-four fixed stars and four minor planets shine out from our galaxy. Interstate commerce has become annually so vast as to baffle computation. Then we had but three million souls. We now number more than sixty-three millions. We have crowded the nineteenth century full of marvellous achieve- ments ; but during the last quarter of that time there seems to have been a studied effort in certain powerful circles to discredit our Declaration of Independence, and to circumvent all that was accomplished for individual rights by our war for self-government and our later struggle for emancipation. We have byen vigilant concerning everything except human rights and constitutional safeguards, and have suffered injuries to be inflicted upon the great body of the people which a century of the wisest legislation possible cannot fully efface. We will first consider this provision of the Constitution negatively, and point out some things which Congress may not do under this grant of power. First, Congress cannot disavow the obligation wliich this provision imposes, retrocede it to the States, or surrender it to the various traffic associations. It cannot grant to individ- uals or corporations such control over the instruments of commerce as will place the great body of the people at the mercy of those individuals or corporations. It cannot so regulate commerce among the States as to compel the farmers of the Northwest to ship their j^roduce to Chicago and New York when they wish to transport it to St. Louis and New Orleans. The Congress could not prescribe such discrimi- nations in freight rates as would compel Western merchants and jobbers to purchase their supplies in Chicago or Pliila- delphia when they desire to buy at Des Moines or Omaha. Congress may not prescribe rules for the control of commerce among the States which are designed to banki-upt the mer- chants and manufacturers of one locality and to enrich those of another. It could not scheme to stimulate the growth of trade in one city or manufacturing centre and to destroy it in another. Congress cannot rightfully grant to individuals and syndicates such control over the public highways and facilities for interstate traffic as will enable them to concen- trate the entire cattle trade of the continent into a single city, or number of cities, dominated by a combination of harpies and commercial bandits. It could not conspire with individuals to grant to them such rates of trans- portation as would build up a gigantic oil monopoly, and enable them to crush out all competing producers and refiners. It could not enter into a conspiracy with the great antlu-acite coal companies to afford them ample facilities to transjDort their product, and refuse like favors to competing companies. If Congress should openly attempt to commit such outrages as these, an indignant people would sweep them from place and power like a torrent. If persisted in despite public senti- ment, it would be regarded as a declaration that government had been dissolved, and the people would fly to arms as the only refuge from the atrocity. The Fathers evidently foresaw that evils of tliis character would arise if the power to regulate commerce were left to individuals or to the States, and hence took it away and vested it exclusively in Congress. Aj)prehending that at some time localities might still attempt to levy tribute upon others, and that Congress itself might not always be disposed to act with fairness, the framers of the Constitution were careful to expressly declare that " No jDreference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another." We will now consider the powers and corresponding duties which this provision confers and enjoins upon Congress. Commerce among the States consists in the interchange of merchandise or other movable property on an extended scale between the people of the different States. It finds its chief expression in the instruments used in the exchange and trans-shipment of the same. These are tlu-ee in number. 1. Money. 2. Facilities for transportation. 3. Facilities for the transmission of intelligence. It will be readily seen that these instrumentalities are the indispensable factors in modern civilization, and relate directly to the acquisition and distribution of wealth, and hence to the tranquillity of society and the maintenance of personal rights. Faithfully wielded by the general govern- ment, they constitute a triple-plated armor, capable, if held steadily toward the foe, of turning aside the heaviest projec- tiles of tyranny, and broad enough to shield at all times the whole body of the people. With this view of the subject before our minds, the wisdom of the provision which vests this power exclusively in Congress, and which excludes the insatiable passion of avarice from any share in its exercise, becomes apparent to all. How has Congress discharged this important trust, and ■with what effect upon Democratic institutions ? It will be readily seen that within the limits of this pfiper we can only treat the subject suggestively. But the mere interrogation foreshadows the startling outlines of our national dilemma, and the prodigious growth of corporate power at once rises like an impassable mountain barrier before the mind. The whole trinity of commercial instruments have been seized by corpo- rations, wrenched from Federal control, and are being used to crush out the inalienable rights of the people. They are interlocked by mutual interests, and advance together in their work of plunder and subjugation. They constantly do all those things which Congress could not do without excit- ing insurrection. They make war upon organized labor, and annually lay tribute upon a subjugated people greater than was ever exacted by any conqueror or military chieftain since man has engaged in the brutalities of war. They corrupt our elections, contaminate our legislatures, and pollute our courts of justice. They have grown to be stronger than the government ; and the army of Pinkertons, which is ever at their bidding, is greater by several thousand than the stand- ing army of the United States. Instead of the government controlling the corporations, the latter dominate every depart- ment of State. We may no longer look to Congress, as at present dominated, for the regulation of these facilities. That body is bent on farming out its sovereign pov/er to individuals and corporations, to be used for personal gain. Our national banking system is the result of a compact between Congress and certain speculative syndicates. Con- gress agreeing to exercise the power to create the money, to bestow it as a gift, and to enforce its circulation ; while the syndicates are to determine the quantity, and say when it shall be issued and retired. No currency whatever can be issued under this law unless it is first called for by associ- ated usurers, and then they may retire it again at pleasure. If they decline to call for its issue, the affliction must be borne. If issued, and speculators desire to destroy it, the disastrous sacrifice must be endured. The power of the government to issue lies dormant until evoked by a private syndicate. Then the money flows into their hancls, not to be expended in business or paid out for labor, but to be loaned at usur}^ on private account. It cannot be reached by any other citizen of the republic except as it may be borrowed of those favorities, who arbitrarily dispense it solely for per- sonal gain. To obtain it, the borroAver must pay to these dispensers of sovereign favor from six to twenty times as much (according to locality) as was paid by the first recip- ient. It is a fine exhibition of Democratic government to see our Treasury Department create the currency, bestow it as a gift upon money lenders, and then stand by with cruel indifference and witness tlie misfortunes, the sharp competi- tion, and the afflictions of life drive the rest of its devoted subjects to the feet of these purse-proud barons as suppliants and beggars for extortionate, second-hand favors. This sys- tem was borrowed from the mother country, where it was planned to foster established nobility, distinctions of caste, and imperial and dynastic pretensions ; and those who planned it have always been satisfied with its operation. Tliis, then, is our situation : — For a home upon the earth, the poor must sue at the feet of the land speculator. For our currency, we are remanded to the mercies of a gigantic money trust. For terms upon which we may use the highways, we must consult the kings of the rail and their private traffic associations. For rapid transit of information, we bow obligingly to a telegraph monopoly dominated by a single mind. Our money, our facilities for rapid interstate traffic, the telegraph, — the three subtle messengers of our intensified and advanced civilization, — all approj)riated and dominated by private greed ; wage labor superseded by the invention of machinery, and the cast-off laborer forbidden to return to the earth and cultivate it in liis own right ; population rapidly increasing ; highways lined with tramps ; cities over-crowded and congested ; rural districts mortgaged to the utmost limit, and largely cultivated by tenants ; crime extending its cancer- ous roots into the very vitals of society ; colossal fortunes ris- ing like Alpine ranges alongside of an ever widening and deepening abyss of poverty ; usuiy respectable, and God's law contemned ; corporations formed by thousands to crowd out individuals in the sharp competition for money, and the trust to drive weak corjDorations to the wall. Such are some of the evils which have given rise to the discontent now so universal throughout the Union. From the investigations which this unrest has awakened has been evolved the " Threefold Contention of Industry," covering the great questions of Land, Money, and Transportation. Should it be the subject of criticism or matter of astonishment that our industrial people feel compelled to organize for mutual and peaceful defence ? That they are actuated by the purest motives and the highest behests of judgment and conscience in making their demands, cannot for one moment he called 9 in question. They are conscious, also, that their contention is based upon the impregnable rock of the Constitution and intrenched in the decisions of our Court of Last Resort. They do not seek to interfere with the rights of others, but to protect their own ; to rebuild constitutional safeguards which have been thrown doAvn ; to restore to the people their law- ful control over the essential instruments of commerce, and to give vitality to those portions of our Great Charter which were framed for the common good of all. Let it be understood that organized labor demands at the bar of public oi^inion a respectful hearing. It will ask for nothing which it does not believe to be right, and with less than justice it will not be content. Conscious that it hath its quarrel just, in the struggle to obtain its demands it will employ and it invites the use of only such weapons as are proper in the highest type of manly intellectual combat. THE NEGRO QUESTION IN THE SOUTH. BY THOMAS E. WATSON, M. C. The Negro Question in the South has been for nearly thirty years a source of danger, discord, and bloodshed. It is an ever-present irritant and menace. Several millions of slaves were told that they were the prime cause of the civil war; that their emancipation was the result of the triumph of the North over the South ; that the ballot was placed in their hands as a weapon of defence against their former masters ; that the war-won political equality of the black man with the white, must be asserted promptly and aggressively, under the leadership of advent- urers who had swooped down upon the conquered section in the wake of the Union armies. No one, who Avishes to be fair, can fail to see that, in such a condition of things, strife between the freedman and his .n^ ' owner was inevitable. In the clashing of interests ana of feelings, bitterness was born. The black man was kept in a continual fever of suspicion that we meant to put him back into slavery. In the assertion of his recently acquired privileges, he was led to believe that the best proof of his being on the right side of any issue was that his old master was on the other. When this was the case, he felt easy in his mind. But if, by any chance, he found that he was voting the same ticket with his former owner, he at once became reflective and susj^icious. In the irritable tem- per of the times, a whispered warning from a Northern " car- pet-bagger," having no justification in rhyme or reason, outweighed with him a carload of sound argument and ear- nest expostulation from the man whom he had known all his life ; who had hunted with him through every swamp and wooded upland for miles around ; who had wrestled and run foot-races with him in the " Negro quarters " on many a Sat- urday afternoon ; who had fished with him at every " hole " in the creek ; and who had played a thousand games of *' marble" Avith him under the cool shade of the giant oaks 11 whicli, in those days, sheltered a home they had both loved. In brief, the end of the war brought changed relations and changed feelings. Heated antagonisms produced mutual distrust ■ and dislike — ready, at any accident of unusual provocation on either side, to break out into passionate and bloody conflict. Quick to take advantage of this deplorable situation, the politicians have based the fortunes of the old parties upon it. Northern leaders have felt that at the cry of " Southern out- rage " they could not only " fire the Northern heart," but also win a unanimous vote from the colored people. Southern politicians have felt that at the cry of " Negro domination " they could drive into solid phalanx every white man in all the Southern states. Both the old parties have done this thing until they have constructed as perfect a "slot machine" as the world ever saw. Drop the old, worn nickel of the " party slogan " into the slot, and the machine does the rest. You might beseech a Southern white tenant to listen to you upon questions of finance, taxation, and transportation ; you might demonstrate with mathematical precision that herein lay his way out of poverty into comfort ; you might have him " almost per- suaded " to the truth, but if the merchant who furnished his farm supplies (at tremendous usury) or the town politician (who never spoke to him excepting at election times) came along and cried " Negro rule ! " the entire fabric of reason and common sense which you had patiently constructed would fall, and the poor tenant would joyously hug the chains of an actual wretchedness rather than do any experimenting on a question of mere sentiment. Thus the Northern Democrats have ruled the South with a rod of iron for twenty years. We have had to acquiesce when the time-honored principles we loved were sent to the rear and new doctrines and policies we despised were engrafted on our platform. All this we have had to do to obtain the assistance of Northern Democrats to prevent what was called " Negro supremacy." In other words, the Negro has been as valuable a portion of the stock in trade of a Democrat as he was of a Republican. Let the South ask relief from Wall Street ; let it plead for equal and just laws on finance ; let it beg for mercy against crushing taxation, 12 and Northern Democracy, with all the coldness, cruelty, and subtlety of Mephistopheles, would hint " Negro rule ! " and the white farmer and laborer of the South had to choke down his grievance and march under Tammany's orders. Reverse the statement, and we have the method by which the black man was managed by the Republicans. Reminded constantly that the North had emancipated him ; that the North had given him the ballot ; that the North had upheld him in his citizenship ; that the South was his enemy, and meant to deprive him of his suffrage and put him " back into slavery," it is no wonder he has played as nicely into the hands of the Republicans as his former owner has played into the hands of the Northern Democrats. Now consider: here were two distinct races dwelling to- gether, with political equality established between them by law. They lived in the same section ; won their livelihood by the same pursuits ; cultivated adjoining fields on the same terms ; enjoj^ed together the bounties of a generous climate ; suffered together the rigors of cruelly unjust laws ; spoke the same language ; bought and sold in the same markets ; classi- fied themselves into churches under the same denominational teachings ; neither race antagonizing the other in any branch of industry; each absolutely dependent on the other in all the avenues of labor and employment; and yet, instead of being allies, as every dictate of reason and prudence and self-interest and justice said they should be, they were kept apart, in dangerous hostility, that the sordid aims of partisan politics might be served ! So completely has this scheme succeeded that the South- ern black man almost instinctively supports any measure the Southern white man condemns, while the latter almost uni- versally antagonizes any proposition suggested by a Northern Republican. We have, then, a solid South as opposed to a solid North ; and in the South itself, a solid black vote against the solid white. That such a condition is most ominous to both sections and both races, is apparent to all. If we were dealing with a few tribes of red men or a few sporadic Chinese, the question would be easily disposed of. The Anglo-Saxon would probably do just as he pleased, whether right or wrong, and the weaker man would go under. 13 But the Negroes number 8,000,000. They are interwoven ■with our business, political, and labor systems. They assimi- late with our customs, our religion, our civilization. They meet us at every turn, — in the fields, the shops, the mines. They are a part of our system, and they are here to stay. Those writers who tediously wade through census reports to prove that the Negro is disappearing, are the most absurd mortals extant. The Negro is not disappearing. A Southern man who looks about him and who sees how rapidly the colored people increase, how cheaply they can live, and how readily they learn, has no patience whatever with those statistical lunatics who figure out the final disappearance of the Negro one hundred years hence. The truth is, that the " black belts " in the South are getting blacker. The race is mixing less than it ever did. Mulattoes are less common (in proportion) than during the times of slavery. Miscegena- tion is further off (thank God) than ever. Neither the blacks nor the whites have any relish for it. Both have a pride of race which is commendable, and which, properly directed, will lead to the best results for both. The home of the colored man is chiefly with us in the South, and there he will remain. It is there he is founding churches, opening schools, maintaining newspapers, entering the professions, serving on juries, deciding doubtful elections, drilling as a volunteer soldier, and piling up a cotton crop which amazes the world. II. This preliminary statement is made at length that the gravity of the situation may be seen. Such a problem never confronted any people before. Never before did two distinct races dwell together under such conditions. And the problem is, can these two races, distinct in color, distinct in social life, and distinct as political powers, dwell together in peace and prosperity ? Ui^on a question so difficult and delicate no man should dogmatize — nor dodge. The issue is here ; grows more ur- gent every day, and must be met. It is safe to say that the present status of hostility between the races can only be sustained at the most imminent risk to both. It is leading by logical necessity to results which the imagination shrinks from contemplating. And the horrors 14 of such a future can only be averted by honest attempts at a solution of the question which will be just to both races and beneficial to both. Having given this subject much anxious thought, my opinion is that the future happiness of the two races will never be assured until the political motives which drive them asunder, into two distinct and hostile factions, can be removed. There must be a new policy inaugurated, whose purpose is to allay the passions and prejudices of race con- flict, and which makes its appeal to the sober sense and hon- est judgment of the citizen regardless of his color. To the success of this policy two things are indispensable — a common necessity acting upon both races, and a common benefit assured to both — without injury or humiliation to either. Then, again, outsiders must let us alone. We must work out our own salvation. In no other way can it be done. Suggestions of Federal interference with our elections post- pone the settlement and render our task the more difficult. Like all free people, we love home rule, and resent foreign compulsion of any sort. The Northern leader who really de- sires to see a better state of things in the South, puts his fin- ger on the hands of the clock and forces them backward every time he intermeddles with the question. This is the literal truth ; and the sooner it is well understood, the sooner we can accomplish our purpose. What is that purpose ? To outline a policy which compels the support of a great body of both laces, from those motives which imperiously control human action, and which will thus obliterate forever the sharp and unreasoning political divi- sions of to-day. The white people of the South will never support the Re- publican Party. This much is certain. The black people of the South will never support the Democratic Party. This is equally certain. Hence, at the very beginning, we are met by the necessity of new political alliances. As long as the whites remain solidly Democratic, the blacks will remain solidly Republican. As long as there was no choice, except as between the Democrats and the Republicans, the situation of the two races was bound to be one of antagonism. The Republican Party represented everything which was hateful to the whites ; 15 the Democratic Party, everything which was hateful to the blacks. Therefore a new party was absolutely necessary. It has come, and it is doing its work with marvellous rapidity. Why does a Southern Democrat leave his party and come to ours? Because his industrial condition is pitiably bad ; because he struggles against a system of laws which have almost tilled him with despair ; because he is told that he is without clothing because he produces too much cotton, and without food because corn is too plentiful ; because he sees everybody growing rich off the products of labor except the laborer; because the millionnaires who manage the Democratic Party have contemptuously ignored his j)lea for a redress of griev- ances and have nothing to say to him beyond the cheerful advice to " work harder and live closer." Why has this man joined the People's Party ? Because the same grievances have been presented to the Republicans by the farmer of the West, and the millionnaires who control that party have replied to the petition Avith the soothing counsel that the Republican farmer of the West should " work more and talk less." Therefore, if he were confined to a choice between the two old parties, the question would merely be (on these issues) whether the pot were larger than the kettle — the color of both being precisely the same. III. The key to the new political movement called the People's Party has been that the Democratic farmer was as ready to leave the Democratic ranks as the Republican farmer was to leave the Republican ranks. In exact proportion as the West received the assurance that the South was ready for a new party, it has moved. In exact proportion to the proof we could bring that the West had broken Republican ties, tlie South has moved. Without a decided break in both sections, neither would move. With that decided break, both moved. The very same principle governs the race question in the South. The two races can never act together permanently, harmoniously, beneficially, till each race demonstrates to the other a readiness to leave old party affiliations and to form new ones, based upon the profound conviction that, in acting 16 together, both races are seeking new laws which will benefit both. On no other basis under heaven can the "Negro Question " be solved. IV. Now, suppose that the colored man were educated upon these questions just as the whites have been; suppose he were shown that his poverty and distress came from the same sources as ours ; suppose we should convince him that our platform principles assure him an escape from the ills he now suffers, and guarantee him the fair measure of pros- perity his labor entitles him to receive, — would he not act just as the white Democrat who joined us did ? Would he not abandon a party which ignores him as a farmer and laborer ; which offers him no benefits of an equal and just financial system ; which j)romises him no relief from oppressive taxa- tion; which assures him of no legislation which will enable him to obtain a fair price for his produce ? Granting to him the same selfishness common to us all ; granting him the intelligence to know what is best for him and the desire to attain it, why would he not act from that motive just as the white farmer has done ? That he would do so, is as certain as any future event can be made. Gratitude may fail ; so may S3anpathy and friend- shi23 and generosity and patriotism ; but in the long run, self-interest ahvays controls. Let it once appear plainly that it is to the interest of a colored man to vote with the white man, and he will do it. Let it plainly appear that it is to the interest of the white man that the vote of the Negro should supplement his own, and the question of having that ballot freely cast and fairly counted, becomes vital to the ivhite man. He will see that it is done. Now let us illustrate : Suppose two tenants on my farm ; one of them white, the other black. They cultivate tlieir crops under precisely the same conditions. Their labors, dis- couragements, burdens, grievances, are the same. The white tenant is driven by cruel necessity to examine into the causes of his continued destitution. He reaches certain conclusions which are not complimentary to either of the old parties. He leaves the Democracy in angry disgust. He joins the People's Party. Why? Simply because its platform recognizes that he is badly treated and proposes to 17 fight his battle. Necessity drives him from the old party, and hope leads him into the new. In plain English, he joins the organization whose declaration of principles is in accord with his conception of what he needs and justly deserves. Now go back to the colored tenant. His surroundings being the same and his interests the same, why is it impossi- ble for him to reach the same conclusions ? Why is it unnat- ural for him to go into the new party at the same time and with the same motives ? Cannot these two men act together in peace when the ballot of the one is a vital benefit to the other ? Will not political friendship be born of the necessity and the hope which is common to both? Will not race bitterness disap- pear before this common suffering and this mutual desire to escape it ? Will not each of these citizens feel more kindly for the other when the vote of each defends the home of both? If the white man becomes convinced that the Demo- cratic Party has played upon his prejudices, and has used his quiescence to the benefit of interests adverse to his own, will he not despise the leaders who seek to perpetuate the system ? V. The People's Party will settle the race question. First, by enacting the Australian ballot sj'-stem. Second, by offer- ing to white and black a rallying point Avhich is free from the odium of former discords and strifes. Third, by pre- senting a platform immensely beneficial to both races and injurious to neither. Fourth, by making it to the interest of both races to act together for the success of the platform. Fifth, by making it to the interest of the colored man to have the same patriotic zeal for the welfare of the South that the whites possess. Now to illustrate. Take two planks of the People's Party platform : that pledging a free ballot under the Australian system and that which demands a distribution of currency to the people upon pledges of land, cotton, etc. The guaranty as to the vote will suit the black man bet- ter than the Republican platform, because the latter contem- plates Federal interference, which will lead to collisions and bloodshed. The Democratic platform contains no comfort to the Negro, because, while it denounces the Republican pro- gramme, as usual, it promises nothing which can be specified. 18 It is a generality which does not even possess the virtue of being <■>■ glittering." The People's Party, however, not only condemns Federal interference with elections, but also distinctly commits itself to the method b}^ which every citizen shall have his constitu- tional right to the free exercise of his electoral choice. We pledge ourselves to isolate the voter from all coercive influ- ences and give him the free and fair exercise of his franchise under state laws. Now couple this with the financial plank which promises equality in the distribution of the national currency, at low rates of interest. The white tenant lives adjoining the colored tenant. Their houses are almost equally destitute of comforts. Their living is conlined to bare necessities. They are equally burdened with heavy taxes. They pay the same high rent for gullied and impoverished land. They pay the same enormous prices for farm supplies. Christmas finds them both Avithout any satisfactory return for a year's toil. Dull and heavy and unhappy, they both start the plows again when " New Year's " passes. Now the People's Party says to these two men, " You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earn- ings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despot- ism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both." This is so obviously true it is no wonder both these un- happy laborers stop to listen. No wonder they begin to realize that no change of law can benefit the white tenant which does not benefit the black one likewise ; that no sj^s- tem which now does injustice to one of them can fail to in- jui-e both. Their every material interest is identical. The moment this becomes a conviction, mere selfishness, the mere desire to better their conditions, escape onerous taxes, avoid usurious charges, lighten their rents, or change their precarious tenements into smiling, happy homes, will drive these two men together, just as their mutually inflamed preju- dices now drive them apart. Suppose these two men now to have become fully imbued with the idea that their material welfare depends upon the 19 reforms we demand. Then they act together to secure them. Every white reformer finds it to the vital interest of his home, his family, his fortune, to see to it that the vote of the colored reformer is freely cast and fairly counted. Then Avhat? Every colored voter will be thereafter a subject of industrial education and political teaching. Concede that in the final event, a colored man will vote where his material interests dictate that he should vote ; concede that in the South the accident of color can make no possible difference in the interests of farmers, croppers, and laborers ; concede that under full and fair discussion the peo- ple can be depended upon to ascertain where their interests lie — and we reach the conclusion that the Southern race question can be solved by the People's Party on the simple projDosition that each race Avill be led by self-interest to sup- port that which benefits it, when so presented that neither is hindered by the bitter party antagonisms of the past. Let the colored laborer realize that our platform gives him a better guaranty for political independence ; for a fair return for his work ; a better chance to buy a home and keep it ; a better chance to educate his children and see them profitably employed; a better chance to have public life freed from race collisions ; a better chance for every citizen to be con- sidered as a citizen regardless of color in the making and enforcing of laws, — let all this be fully realized, aiid the race question at the South will have settled itself through the evolution of a political movement in which both whites and blacks recognize their surest way out of wretchedness into comfort and independence. The illustration could be made quite as clearly from other planks in the People's Party j^latform. On questions of land, transportation and finance, especially, the Avelfare of the two races so clearly depends upon that which benefits either, that intelligent discussion would necessarily lead to just conclusions. Why should the colored man always be taught that the white man of his neighborhood hates him, while a Northern man, who taxes every rag on his back, loves him? Why should not my tenant come to regard me as his friend rather than the manufacturer who plunders us both ? Why should we perpetuate a policy which drives the black man into the arms of the Northern politician? 20 Why should we always allow Northern and Eastern Demo- crats to enslave us forever by threats of the Force Bill ? Let us draw the supposed teeth of this fabled dragon by founding our new policy upon justice — upon the simple but profound truth that, if the voice of passion can be hushed, the self-interest of both races will drive them to act in con- cert. There never was a day during the last twenty j-ears when the South could not have flung the money power into the dust by patiently teaching the Negro that we could not be wretched under any system which would not afflict him likewise ; that we could not prosj^er under any law which would not also bring its blessings to him. To the emasculated individual who cries " Negro suprem- acy ! " there is little to be said. His cowardice shows him to be a degeneration from the race which has never yet feared any other race. Existing under such conditions as they now do in this country, there is no earthly chance for Negro domination, unless we are ready to admit that the colored man is oui* superior in will power, courage, and intellect. Not being prepared to make any such admission in favor of any race the sun ever shone on, I have no words which can portray my contempt for the white men, Anglo-Saxons, who can knock their knees together, and tlu'ough their chat- tering teeth and pale lips admit that they are afraid the Negroes will " dominate us." The question of social equality does not enter into the calculation at all. That is a thing each citizen decides for himself. No statute ever yet drew the latch of the humblest home — or ever will. Each citizen regulates his own visiting list — and always will. The conclusion, then, seems to me to be this : the crushing burdens which now oppress both races in the South will cause each to make an effort to cast them off. They will see a similarity of cause and a similarity of remedy. They will recognize that each should help the otlier in the work of re- pealing bad laws and enacting good ones. They will become political allies, and neither can injure the other without weakening both. It will be to the interest of both that each should have justice. And on these broad lines of mutual interest, mutual forbearance, and mutual support the present will be made the stepping-stone to future peace and prosperity. THE MENACE OF PLUTOCEACY. BY B. O. FLOWER. In the presence of grave problems which menace the very existence of the Republic, the mind naturally reverts to the parallels of history; for nothing is so pregnant with helpful warnings as the age-long struggle of justice and freedom with chameleon-skinned despotism, as chronicled in the records of the past. In his description of Rome under the lirst Triumvirate, Mr. Froude has given us a vivid picture of social and political conditions which immediately preceded the establishment of imperial government, that is well calculated to arrest the attention of thoughtful students of contemporaneous events, for social conditions to-day are paralleled in so many respects by Roman society when the Republic suffered total eclipse. Says Mr. Froude,* in speaking of the days of Cttsar, Pompey, and Crassus; "The intellect was trained to the highest point which it could reach; and on the great subjects of human interest, on morals and politics on poetry and art, even on religion itself and the speculative problems of life, men thought as we think, doubted as we doubt, argued as we argue, aspired and struggled after the same objects. It was an age of material progress, material civilization, and intellectual culture ; an age of pamphlets and epigrams, of salons and of dinner parties, of senatorial majorities and electoral corruption. The highest offices of state were open in theory to the meanest citizen; they were confined, m fact, to those who had the longest purses or the most ready use of the tongue on popular platforms. Distinctions of birth had been exchanged for distinctions of wealth. The struggles between plebeians and patricians for equality of privilege were over, and a new division nad been formed between the party of property and a party who desired a change in the structure of society. Tlie free cultivators were disappearing from the soil.t Italy was being absorbed into vast estates, hekl by a few favored families and cultivated by slaves, while the old agricultural population ivas driven off the land, and was crowded into towns. The rich were extravagant, for life had ceased to have practical interest, except for its material pleasures; the occupation of the higher classes was to obtain money without labor, and to sjjen d it in idle enjoyment. Patriotism * " Caesar." By James Anthony Froude, A. M. page 6. t^ince writing this article I notice in an exchange the foUowing, which bears rarticularlv on one Pliase of the historical parallels of which I am speaking : — Some tiuie ago a writer in the Korth American lievleiv made the startling statement that the United States is the largest tenant farmer nation in the world. Here is a list of the tenant farmers in some of the states as given by the above ^^Tlter: >.ew \ork. .39 872- Pennsylvania, 4.'-),825; Maryland, 13,.5.37 ; Virginia, 34,898 ; North Carolina, 52 ,28 fieoro-'ia 6^75 West Ohio, 48,283; Indiana, 40,050; lUinois, 80,244 Mtchigan^^'411; Iowa 4^74; 'MiisouVi, .58,^02 11,4>.1 ; Kentucky, 44,027 kansas, 22 0.51 ; Tennessee, 57,29G; Mississippi, 41,5.58; Arkansas, 20,130 ; Texas, 55,465. Here kre twentv-one of our leading states with more tenant farmers than England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 22 survived on the lips, but patriotism meant the ascendency of the party which vrould maintain the existing order of things, or would overthrow it for a more equal distribution of the good things, which alone were valued, lieligion, once the foundation of the laws and rule of personal conduct, had subsided into opinion. The educated, in their hearts, disbelieved it. Temples were still built with increasing splendor; the established forms were scrupulously observed. Public men spoke conventionally of Providence, that they might tlirow on their opponents the odium of imi^iety;* but of genuine belief that life had any serious meaning, there were none remaining beyond the circle of the silent, patient, ignorant mulcitude. The whole spiritual atmosphere was- saturated with cant — cant moral, cant political, cant religious; an affectation of high principle which had ceased to touch the conduct, and flowed on in an increasing volume of insincere and unreal speech." This glimpse of a notable epoch in past history is valuable in that we find in many respects a counterpart in our social and political conditions to-day. The age-long strug^^le of despotism against liberty and justice for the masses is as determined to-day as in olden times. In 1861 President Lincoln, Avith marvellous intuitive insight, divined the nature of the supreme danger -which a generation later cast its portentous shadow over the dial of Liberty. Hence in 1861, in his message to Congress, we find him making the following prophetic warning : — Monarchy is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I would be scarcely justified were I to omit exercising a warning voice against returning despotism. There is one point to which I call attention. It is an effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of the government. I bid the laboring people beware of surrendering a power which they already possess, and wliich, when surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement to such as they, and fix new disabilities ujion tliem until all of liberty shall be lost. With the close of the civil war came a wave of thought favor- able to centralization, and a mania for lawmaking took possession of the people. Never was there a moment when wise and far- sighted statesmanship, coupled with single-hearted patriotism, was more needed upon the part of lawmakers or executives, than during the decade which followed the assassination of President Lincoln. But unfortunately for the republic, these influences were far less potent during this crucial period than the greed for gain or the spirit of partisanship, which so often proves the bane even of the best disposed lawmakers. Hence with the close of the war the government fell into the hands ♦ Recently, ostensilily in deference to the clamor of a few persons wlio are enprafred in attemptin}; to unite church and state, Senator M. S. Quay of I'ennsylvania intro- ducedi a provision to the- bill for grantins an approjn'iation to the World's Fair, that the grant should be conditional on the World's Fair being closed on Sunday ; althoiigh his colleague from Ilhnois showed conclusively that su;'h a provision would inuueuscl.v increase crime, immorality, and debauchery, by cniwding tlic saloons and brotlu'ls of the Prairie City with strangers who, being in the city and not being able to enjoy the fair, would drift to these places, which abound in Chicago, and so largely dominate the city government of the great AVestern metropolis. 23 of designing men, whose cunning was only equalled by their cupidity, and an era of class legislation ensued * Thus, for example, special privileges were given railway cor- porations, and a nation's marvellous wealth in rich land passed into the hands of monopolies. Yet the railway corporations were only one class of many similar conspiracies of shrewd and designing men who secured class law through Congress and the various state legislatures, by the special privileges by which, in an incredibly short time, a few favored individuals or classes became many times millionnaires at the expense of the masses. As a nat- ural and inevitable result of these class laws, a mushroom aristoc- racy of millionnaires soon arose, who, having acquired wealth largely by legislative acts, came to look upon the government as a servant of corporate interests; while running parallel with this era of special legislation, came an era of gambling. Lust for gold seemed to have seized the nation. The Louisiana Lottery, which has recently been made a scapegoat for the na- tion, was merely a tendril on the great gambling vine, whose root was then, as it is now, in Wall Street. Stocks were w^atered, and combinations were made coolly and deliberately to obtain money under false pretences; false items were industriously circulated for the sole purpose of deceiving thousands of persons who had become infected with the speculative mania, and who had not yet lost confidence in mankind. In this manner, and by other meth- ods no less reckless, shrew^d, and unscrupulous, speculators who had already become possessed of sufficient money to hold a win- ning hand, soon succeeded in transferring from the pockets of then- victims millions of dollars which were never earned, and, had no false representations been made, would never have been gained. The class legislation of this period, which was so largely the result of shrewd artifices and of bribery, either direct or *In this In bis most connection it is interesting to glance at a page from the histor\' of England. „ ...„st admirable "History of the English People," Mr. Green [Vol. 1. p.] makes some thoughtful observations and suggestive hints, while discussing the prime causes which led to the gradual decline of the power of Parliament, or the voice of the people in government, which assumed such significant luoportions during the reigns of Edward IV. and Henry VII., and culminated in all but absolute despotism in the reign of Ilenrv VIII. He shows that special privileges lay at the foundation of despotic supreinacv. " It was to the selfi"sh panic of the land-owners that England owed the statute of land-owners and its terrible heritage of paupers. It was to the selfish panic of both land-owner and merchant that she owed the despotism ot the Monarchy. The most fatal effect," he continues, "was seen in the striving of these classes after special privileges." Later says our author, " Corruption did whatever force failed to do." , ^ ^, i . „* In Cade's revolt the Kentishmen complained that " the people of the shire are not allowed to have their free elections in the choosing of the knights for the shire, but letters have been sent from divers estates to the great nobles of the county, the wliicn enforceth their tenants and other jieople by force, to choose other persons than the common Willis." Of the state of societv, Mr. Green further observes: " the motnes flings so dark a shade over the Wars ot tiie Koses. r rom no j eiio.i n. ..... ...... ..^,...^ we turn with such weariness and disgust. ... It is this moral disorganization tnat expreae^-e itself in the men whom the civil war left behind it." 24 indii'ect, enriched the few at the expense of millions. The era of speculation made a nation of si^eculators, who affected to abhor gambling. It enabled a few score of men to amass princely for- tunes in extra-legitimate ways, and, as was inevitable, it lowered the ethical stcmdard and the Idgher sensibilities of the nation. In fact, the craze for money anaesthetized the public conscience. The unheeded warning of Lincoln became a grim reality. Bishop Potter, at the one hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of Washington, on Api'il 30, 1889, graphically summed up the social condition in the following language : — When I speak of this as the era of the plutocrats, nobody can mis- understand me. Everybody has recognized tlie rise of the money power. Its growth not merely stifles the independence of the people, but the blind believers in this omnipotent power of money assert that its liberal use condones every offence. The pulpit does not speak out as it should. These plutocrats are the enemies of religion, as they are of the state. And, not to mince matters, I will say that, while I had the politicians in mind prominently, there " are others." I tell you I have heard the cor- rupt use of money in elections, and the sale of the sacred right of the ballot openly defended by ministers of the gospel. Since then the strides of plutocracy have been gigantic and uninterrupted, until to-day, so eminent, thoughtful, and safe a jurist as the incorruptil)le Judge W. Q. Gresham, declares as his calm judgment, that "Thoughtful men see and admit that our country is becoming less and less democratic, and more and more plutocratic. The ambition and self-love of some men are so great that they are incapable of loving their country." It is an incontrovertible fact, plain to the vision of all students of events who are not blinded by prejudice, who have no bias in favor of conventionalism, or no case to sustain in the interest of class privileges, that the greatest menace which threatens the Republic to-day lies in the rapidly growing influence and the un- scrupulous exercise of power on the part of plutocrac}^ and the corresponding decay of the spirit of pure republicanism, which characterized the early days of the Republic. So rapid are the undemocratic encroachments of recent years, that in a brief paper it is impossible to even summarize the principal illustrations. I shall therefore confine myself to one or two recent innovations which call most vividly to mind passages from the history of other days, which are freighted with ominous warnings. A few months since the Scientific American published a finely executed illustration, with a description of the new "^j>o/("c(S gun.^^ In its description of this instrument of death the Scientific American says : " WJien set up i7i the bacJc part of a patrol wagon, and 3eri:ed hy tviO or three 'men, it is designed to do more ejfective work in dealing with a mob or in dispersing riotkrs, than could be accom2)Ushed by a whole company of infantry. In 25 26 the patrol wagon is also carried a supply of ammunition^ and a tripod on which the gun may be mounted, for service out of the wagon?'' This description and the illustration, although ap- pearing in one of the ablest and most influential weeklies of the Republic, called forth little or no comment, although the general introduction of these guns would be a confession on the part of the governing powers that they have lost faith in the militia, as well as prove a startling example of the brutality of enthroned power in coolly preparing to slaughter citizens of the Republic who might be led to remonstrate against injustice. Another significant illustration of the decadence of republican influence and the rise of plutocracy is seen in the toleration of the Pinkerton army of detectives, a thoroughly irresponsible body, said to-day to be larger than the regular army of the Re- public. The regular army represent law ; behind it floats the flag, with all the authority it represents. The soldiers are sup- posed to be picked men ; they are certainly under strict disci- pline, and, if they are guilty of a breach of discipline, are punished moit severely. Standing in antithesis are the Pinkerton hire- lings, who are, to say the least, of coarse fibre ; for no man of refined sensibilities would enter the ranks as a hired Hessian of plutocracy, expecting to shoot down his brothers at the command of capital. Of their utterly reckless and irresponsible character, many striking illustrations might be cited; such, for example, as the shooting of an innocent and inoffensive woman and child in Albany, N. Y., during the strike on the Xew York Central. It will be remembered that the management of that road hired a large number of Pinkertons. At Albany some strikers expressed the scorn and hatred they felt for men who would willingly enter the business of killing their own countrymen in tmies of peace and without the authority of the national government. Some one in the crowd also threw a stone at the carload of Pinker- tons, whereuj^on the detectives fired into the crowd, shooting among others a woman and a child. Had a private soldier dared to do so, he would have met with prompt and terrible punishment; had an officer in the United States Army, Avith no more provoca- tion, ordered his men to shoot promiscuously into a body of American citizens, he would have been disciplined and dishonored. But the Pinkertons were guilty of such anarchical and lawless proceedings. That this lawless power which exasperates and inflames the toilers, and whose very presence lowers, when it does not destroy, all reverence and res])ect for law, should be tolerated for a day in our Republic, is in itself a startling exhibition of the decline of democracy. Still another deplorable illustration of the mornl inertia which 27 has followed the rise of plutocracy, is seen in the greey P'lla Wheeler Wilcox. [May.] XIII. The Democracy of Darkness, by B. O. Flower. [June.] XIV. The Bed Rock of True Democracy, by A. C. Houston. [JUlie.] XV. The True Basis of Currency, by Miles yi. Dawson. [June.] XVI. W^hy The People's Party Should Elect the Next President, by Hon. Thomas E. Watson, M. C. from Georgia. [July.] XVII. Women in the Alliance Movement, liy Annie L. I )iggs, illustrated. [July-] XVIII. The Basis of Currency, by H. A. Higgins. [July.] XIX. The Pending Presidential Campaign, by U. S. Senator James II. Kyle. [August.] XX. The Communism of Capital, by Hon. John Davis, M. C. [.September.] XXI. The Menace of Plutocracy, by B. O. Flower, illustrated. [September.] The su!)Scription price of the Akkna is the same as the North Ainerican Review and the Forum, viz. : .'$,5. 00 a year, or 50 cents a copy; but we will send a sample copy to any reader of this advertisement who desires to examine it with a view to subscribing, for twenty cents. Address, AllEIVA. l*XJ13LISHI]VO CO., COPLEY SQUARE BOSTON, MASS. GREAT PAPERS IN PAMPHLET FORM. I. 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