The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 12, 1897 Page: 4 of 16
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L—
l*enM of subscription, one year $* ee
—PUBLISHBD WEEKLY BY—
SOUTHERN MERCURY PUfe. CO.
[kNCORPORATBD.]
tEXAS POPULIST STATE PUBLICATION
—AND—
Official Orgin Fanners' State Alliance of Texas
Mil ton Park Managing Editor
Momjt can bo receipted for by th* bom* office
atolv.
Entered at tbe Dalla , Texas, postoffice as Mil
•attar of tba second cías .
Scott Parker Traveling Solicitor
Office, 196 Main Street, Opposite Trust building.
DALLAS, TEXAS, AUG. 12, 1897.
Lukewarmness and lethargy are as
reprehensible in politics as in religion.
Honest populists will not walk in the
councils of the free silver ¡tes, stand in
the way of goldbugs nor sit in the seats
of fusionists.
Gov. Culberson failed to find the big
majority at his back when he voted to
compromise the honor of the state which
he had sworn to protect
Pap Reagan's free passes over the rail-
roads will come in very handy when he
begins making his campaign next spring
for United States senator.
If you are a populist, stand by your
colors! Don't be a clam! Give no quar-
ters to fusionists! Let your motto be:
"Populism pure and straight No fusion,
no dickering, no trading!"
Wonder if Pap Reagan is going to re-
sign his position on the state commish
before he enters the race for United
States senate! It does seem that he
should take a little rest before undertak-
ing such a herculean task.
Chauncey Depew, one of the most
loud-mouthed single standard advocates,
now says that if the gold find in Alaska
should throw $100,000,000 of gold on
the market, 16 to 1 will become a verity
without legal enactment Yet gold does
not fluctuate! Oh, no! Gold is as sta-
ble as the stars!
I
The special railroad rate to the State
Alliance meeting at Dallas, August 17,
next Tuesday, is one and a third fare
from stations within 76 miles of Dallas;
#3 from stations between 76 and 100
miles of Dallas and one fare from all
stations over 100 miles. Receipts must
be taken from station agents where tick-
ets are purchased.
If it is economy for the national gov-
ernment to own and operate a telephone
system inWashington, why would it not be
economy to own and operate telephones
and telegraphs throughout the nation?
It is a fact that the system of telephones
in Washington under government
ownership costs only $10.3$ per
phone per year, yet it costs more than
ve times that much everywhere else.
Who gets the profit? Not the people.
Gov. Culberson came all the way from
to Dallas to vote for a meagre
sotrriíMtlí MeHcttby.
that would have been a stain Upon the
fair name of Texas if' carried. Thanks
to the intelligence and love for honor of
the people of the state, the measure was
consigned to the oblivion it so justly
merited. Gov. Culberson and his bjeed
of democrats will yet learn that there is
regard for principle and honor in the av-
erage Texan's heart; eveh if he is so fool-
ish as to vote a democratic ticket
L. D. McEnery, the democratic repre-
sentative of the state of Louisiana in the
United States senate, who voted with the
republicans in the late tariff fight, says
that neither the democratic party nor the
democratic leaders have ever supported
free trade* that a tariff for revenue means
incidentally protection. While it is ad-
mitted that the sugar trust dictated the
sugar schedule in the Dingley tariff bill,
the same power made the schedule in the
Wilson bill, yet the protection to sugar
is 25 to 50 per cent less than under the
Wilson bill. Of the two evils he took
the less.
The Chicago Inter-Ocean* one of the
cleanest, ablest and most pronounced ad-
ministration organs in the country, has
ceased to herald the advent of prosper-
ity It says now prosperity must not be
expected in a day, a week or a year. To
throw up one's hat and cry "the boom is
already here" when the unemployed are
daily pouring their sorrows into the pub-
lic ears is worse than folly, There is
nothing like experience. It trees the
liar and the false prophet every time.
Before the election we were told that if
McKinley was elected the wheels of in-
dustry wouli buzz all over the land im-
mediately on the announcement Mc-
Kinley was elected and inaugurated, but
nary buKZ." Then we were told that
as soon as congress could pass a tariff
bill that prosperity would inundate the
country. The tariff bill has gone onto
the statute books, but "nary inundate."
Now we are assured that when our fi-
nances are adjusted as suggested by Mc-
Kinley'slate message, all of us will be in
clover. Bosh! Rats! Scat! What do
you take us for?
The state of Tennessee has Just tried
the virtues of the Referendum as
taught by Populists. They submitted
the question of a constitutional conven-
tion to the people on the 6th, and thé
people sat down on the proposition
with a thud that made the pie-hunters
tremble. If the people in every state
could have the opportunity of express-
ing themselves on most of the laws
hatched up and foisted on the people
by the present legislative system, there
would not be so much dissatisfaction
and disquietude everywhere manifest.
The great slump in the price of silver
Is causing considerable anxiety among
the government officials in Mexico.
New York brokers are discounting
Mexican paper at 132—the lowest fig-
ures ever reached. Merchants In Mex
ico have cancelled largely their foreign
orders and are anxiously awaiting re-
sults. With the wonderful develop-
ments In the gold fields in Alaska,
Mbx Ico and the United States It Is not
at all improbable that scientific mon-
ey—government fiat—will be adopted
by a)) civilised countries.
ADOSESS.
Headquarters People's Party National Reor-
ganization Committee,
Dallas, Texas, Aug. is. 1897.
To the Populists of the United States:
Since the close of the late national
campaign it has been the constant boast
of both the democratic and the republi-
can parties that the people's party has
ceased to be a force in the great battle
for constitutional government in these
United States; that the people's party is
dead.
The people's party was not born to
die. The principles upon which it is
founded caniiOt die, so long as free gov-
ernment survives. Tfie necessity for its
existence and perpetuity lies in the mani-
fest dishonesty and unpatriotic methods
and policies of the democratic and the
republican parties, who have alternately
administered the affairs of this govern-
ment for the past twenty years. It cannot
die until its noble and patriotic demands
for retrenchment, reform and economy
shall have been satisfied; until the gov-
ernment shall have been rescued from
the blue-bloods and aristocrats and re-
stored to the people. It cannot die Un-
till equal opportunity, equal advan-
tages and equal protection uri der
the law, shall háve beeri secured
to every American citizen; until all class
legislation shall have been expunged from
our statute books, and the power of
money to oppresss shall have been de-
stroyed. It cannot die so long as free men
and women are perishing tor the want of
bread; so long as a half million biave,
industrious honest men are depriv-
ed of the opportunity to earn a support
for themselves and for those whom God
has made dependent upon them.
The trusts, the monopolies, the cor-
porations, the moneyed interests of the
country are organized; their strength is
concreted into the action of one man,
hence their power, their success. If the
people's party would hope to succeed
they must organize, they must unify,
they must concentrate their strength.
We are confronted today by obstacles
and enemies within and without The
hypocritical and transparent pretenses and
promises of the democratic party in
adopting some of our principles have
misled and deceived some honest popu-
lists ; the allurements of success and the
hope for office have corrupted others, and
political cowardice and a yearning to be
with the strong side—the majority—have
warped the judgment and beclouded the
political vision of many.
The principles announced at Omaha
and reiterated at St Louis, are the in-
spiration of oppressed manhood, of de-
bauched industry, of the victims of the
despotic money power of our country.
The platform utterances made at Omaha
and St Louis were not merely "protests"
but affirmative, aggressive declarations
of the inalienable rights of man. The
loyal representatives of the people's
party who met at Nashville did so for the
sole purpose of rescuing the party from
unnatural and premature death; not to
tear down, but to build up; not to weak-
en, but to strengthen ;not to add to the con-
fusion, but to secure harmony and unity.
They met not to promulgate a new polit-
ical faith, bm 19 renew allegriaqce tq the
creed proclaimed at Omaha and reitera-
ted at St Louis. They met to devise,
plans and adopt measures by which the
future actions of the party should not be
dependent upon nor influenced by the
leaders of the democrats or the republi-
cans.
As chairman of your Organization com-
mittee I urge every populist everywhere
to avoid, repudiate and reject all fusion
or alliance with the democratic or the re-
publican party. Repel every overture from
these twin enemies to the common
people.
The Nashville conference by its every
act ahd every resolution counselled peace¿
harmony, and a reunion of all the ele-
ments of reform. Their supreme desire
was to rehabilitate our party, steady our
waveririg ranks and guard against the
recurrence of the mistakes of the past.
I suggest that throughout the entire
country, wherever there are two or more
populists in a ward, precinct or township,
that they go to work at once, persistently,
to perfect a local populist organization
in their midst Invite your neighbors to
meet with you and discuss the principles
of good government. Instruct them in
the principles of populism by addresses)
lectllres áhd the distribution of souhd
populist literature. Press the work till
you shall have secured a compact organ-
isation in every county in your state.
If your state chairman is not in sym-
pathy with the policy declared at Nash-
ville, you should select one who is as
soon as practicable;
In those states where the state chair-
men and national executive committee-
men are in harmony with the policy de-
clared at Nashville, the national organi-
zation committeemen will aid them in
every way possible in strengthening the
party organization. In this way an en-
thusiasm can be developed that will
know no defeat no surrender.
The battallions are gathering, the lines
are forming, the final struggle for home,
for country, for existence is in the near
future.
Populists, acquit yourselves like men!
Prove yourselves worthy descendants of
that ancestry which founded this govern-
ment; that bequeathed to you personal
liberty! Preserve and perpetuate it by
the peaceful use of the ballot
Milton Park,
Chairman National Organization Com-
mittee People's Party.
The coal miners' strike is still on,
with every indication of victory for
the coal miners. The farmers through-
out the country are rendering valuable
assistance to the struggling miners,
and are earnestly laboring for their
success. Through the influence of
Debs, Gompers and Blatchford, the
miners have desisted from any viola-
tions of the laws, notwithstanding
the many provocations and incentives
resorted to by the mine owners.
Is it not~strange that a free country
like the United Staes has more tenant
farmers than England, Ireland, Scot-
land and Wales? Texas alone has 80,-
245, while the remainder of the states
combinad have 6,929,755. Class legis-
lation and the rule of the money power
have produced these results in the past
100 years. How long will It be till
j the people will all be slaves?
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 12, 1897, newspaper, August 12, 1897; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185722/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .