The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 12, 1896 Page: 1 of 16
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ANY MAN NOT IN TOUCN WITH THE MASSES OF THE COMMON PEOPLE IS AN UNSAFE POLITICA! LEADER.
VOL. XV., NO. 11.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, MAR. 12. 1896.
$1 PER ANNUM
HON. BARNETT GIBBS
SHELLS THE PARTY OF "PERFIDY AND
DISHONOR "
And the Old Party Pie-Kate Are
Panlc-Strlcken. and Take to
the Woods.
The brunette mudsiller was in high
glee over numerous letters, but es-
pecially one from the Old Alcalde,
the old "pay as you go" statesman.
He said: "You see from this letter
how a democrat of the old school feels
about this oligarchy masquerading as
democracy, and I intend to get the
Old Alcalde to turn loose that first
'etter.
"Marble Falls, Tex., Feb. 15.—
Gov. Barney Gibbs: Dear Sir—I have
received your kind letter of the 12th
instant in answer to my letter to you
commending your course in criticis-
^ ing the extravagance of our govern-
ments, state and national.. In regard
to your publishing my letter to you,
I must say that I do not wish to corner
before the public at present, if at all,
because I do not desire to get into a
newspaper controversy at my time of
life. I have had my day and am sat-
isfied to let younger men manage
public affairs. Still, when I see a
man independent enough to denounce
bad government in the control of any
party I can not well help to feel like
giving him all the encouragement I
can. You must remember that a man
over 80 years of age, as I am, is gen-
erally considered a 'back number,' an
old fogy, in his dotage, and to that
extent his advice is thrown away as
not up to the times. But I feel war-
ranted to tell you that not only I, but
thousands of true democrats in this
state, were gratified to read your ad-
vocacy of economical government,
state and federal. Respectfully,your
obedient servant,
O. M. Roberts."
Continuing, the mudsiller said:
"Political superstitions are hang-
ing like nightmares over the people,
and the most foolish of these are that
a man must vote either''' *the demo-
cratic or republican ticke^, and that
our highly educated, practical people
can't be trusted to cast a direct vote
on an important issue as do the peo-
ple of England, Germany, France and
Switzerland. The political parties
dominating this country don't intend
to permit political issues to be set-
tled by the people direct or to be di-
vorced from the patropage system.
They are unanimous on this and their
blind salary vote. For twenty years
these political parties ha*e been giv-
I Ing the people grand stand plays 09
t
the tariff and financial questions, and
when in power the difference between
the bills either party frames is the
difference between tweedle dee and
tweedle dum. Each party when in
the minority gets very virtuous and
does everything to raise discontent
and induce the people to help them
capture the offices. When in the
majority and in possession of the of-
fices they are as quiescent andacquies-
cent as a fat bear in early winter and
just touch up the tariff bill and the
financial policy enough to disarrange
business. A congressional friend
writes me that 'the $15,000 or $20,000
funeral they give a dead member is a
sign of that advanced civilization
that cares for its dead.' The trouble
is that out of this money the corpse
only gets a coffin, not even a 25-cent
headstone out of white rock. It
looks to me like swindling the dead
and humbugging the living and think-
ing neither one will ever find it out.
It looks to me as if when a man gets
in congress he thinks he is smart
enough to fool the living, "the dead
and the unborn and even the Lord
himself by doctoring up the Congres-
sional Record and casting those viva
voce votes. They seem to think the
Lord won't read any further than the
chaplain's ($10) prayer. A whole lot
of this devilment in congress comes
from extracting the old-fashioned
hell fire out of the Bible, for there is
nothing scares a congressman like
heat, and I found that out by looking
over the contingent expense fund and
finding that in winter time when the
Potomac was frozen so tight that a
wagon and team could cross, that it
cost the mudsillers $500 per month to
keep congress in ice. This is merely
a fact, not an issue, and may be a
democratic and republican custom
that is all right and that is necessary
to first-class statesmanship. In Texas
if a mudsiller dies, no matter if he is
good people, if his kinfolks or friends
don't bury him somebody must make
a pauper's oath to get him in a $4
contract county funeral, yet if that
same fellow could have carried his
whisky a little longer and died in
congress, he could get a $21,000 funer-
al without any pauper oath. Living
and dead these servants of the people
seem to get the best of the masters.
They say. customs make law and that
no man must say that law is not wis-
dom. I found in the contingent fund
(which is a political mystery of mys-
teries) $1000 worth of «• scissors, and I
asked a $5000 sergeant-at-arms what
congressmen did in one session with
so many scissors. He replied: 'They
use them to cut out complimentary
notices of themselves from the news-
papers.' I found the contingent fund
allowed $175,000 salary and perquisites
for the white house when the same
house and just as good democratic
presidents used to get through in
good style on $25,000 a year. Con-
gress is kicking at the president for
issuing bonds, and at the commission-
er of agriculture for not having on
hand a supply of Johnson grass and
tie vine seed, and yet even a mudsill-
er knows that $1,000,000,000 spent ev-
ery two years ia more gold and silver
than this country digs up in five pros-
perous years. If the Austin syndicate
had not read ine out of their party, I
am satisfied that I would have figured
myself out. Their only hope is in the
fellpws that can't read figures, going
crazy on silver being sufficient to pay
the freight.
"The fool people are expected to
go wild over the primary or oversilvre
without any note attachment or over
Senator Vest's demand for more free
seed. I know one good farm in Ellis
county that was ruined by the vine
seed sent out by a congressman, who
had it labelled with some Latin name,
and yet this is the burning issue in
congress. Johnson grass was sent out
in the same way under an assumed
name, and some farmers who had
their farms ruined by it are still be-
lieving that their congressman is en-
gaged in saving the country by demo-
cratic methods. The present way in
which democratic and republican
congressmen are saving the country
is very much like the doctor who was
called into the labor case; when ask-
ed how he came out with it he said:
'Pretty well; I lost the old woman
and the baby, but pulled the old man
through.' The statesmen at Wash-
ington have busted the country and
hung $300,000,000 of interest bonds on
the naval cord of posterity, but we
still have contingent funds and gar-
den seeds as an inducement to vote
the straight ticket.
"If the mudsiller keeps on swallow-
ing all the chaff the politician? give
him, of course these wise men never
will believe that the common people
have sense enough to vote directly on
an important issue as they do in oth-
er countries. About the only business
of great importance left to individual
enterprise is the tramp ships on the
high seas. The commerce and agri-
culture of Texas will drag until our
products can reach those ships on a
reasonable basis of freight. The ca-
nalization of the Trinity river by the
federal government and the building
of a state road from the gulf to Red
river will do this and save our farm-
ers and merchants twice the cost
each year. The $5,000,000 library be-
ing built at Washington is absorbing
four times as much as the cost of the
Trinity. The ornamental work in
our state capitol or two years of the
excel* of Offlotai fee woutt be a*
wucft c* h uiU ItfttoUKJTtxu
would need to build the road, as she
owns ties, iron, labor and feed enough
lor the work. The surplus left over
from this year's tax raise would fur-
nish cash enough. The trouble is,
the political parties have settled
down into a rut and have concluded
that free government was only insti-
tuted to furnish official salaries and
pensions and build houses for courts
and officers and issue bonds and grant
franchises. The parties give us del-
phic platforms and if anybody ques-
tions their wisdom he is told to get
into the republican party, where he
will find the same thing with a differ-
ent colored dress on. Before this ses-
sion is over some democrat will get
some republican to introduce a bill in
congress to be used as a stuffed club.
Years of political training in one di-
rection makes the people slow to re-
volt. Able men all over Russia be-
lieve that the little father, as they
call the czar, is the only possible re-
pository of good government. It has
been drilled into them until they are
afraid'-tiVreason in any other line.
We have just as bad a superstitition
in Texas, where we are told that we
must support a political party,wheth-
er it is alive or not, in its policies. A
political party is like a tree when it
is dying; it must be cut down close to
the roots.
The theory of free government is
all wrong, and it will result in utter
failure unless the mudsill people give
more attention to its administration.
Pope said:
" 'The proper study of mankind is
man.'
"If he had written after the study
of republican goverument he would
have said, like Jefferson:
"'Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty.'
And he would have added:
"The average citizen is too lazy, too
apathetic to exercise any vigilance,
even spasmodic vigilance.' The ex-
penses of the national government
have gone from less than $75,000,000
in 185 to about $500,000,000 per annum
in 1893. These people who are sup-
posed to have something to do with
the admininistration of its affairs
don't know anything about what be-
comes of the money, and if Jthey are
told about it one day they forget it
the next. An extravagant corrupt
and indifferent people make a bad
government, and every politician
knows that a few men in each local-
ity manipulate and vote the balance
of them. In many localities more
votes can be had for a drink of liquor
than by any discussion of political
questions.
The United States, the states, the
counties and cities have been bonded
and t^zed until very few men without
Coo tinned on page Q.
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 12, 1896, newspaper, March 12, 1896; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185650/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .