Confiscation | Page 5

to so
soon come to the Chinese halt that has overtaken it, until we now find
ourselves floating on an ebbing sea back to the shores we thought we
had forever left behind.
The founders of the republic met the needs of their hour, and expelled
the foreigner. We have failed to meet the need of our hour in not
discarding the economic laws that were of that foreigner's bringing; the
economic laws of the monarchist and despotic forms of government,
that is making this republic a republic only in name: the economic laws
of the monarchist and despotic forms of government that has built up
an aristocracy of wealth here as they have there, that must of necessity
depend here for its existence as it does there, on the enslavement of the
people. Do not let a mere word further deceive you. The word republic
means a free people - we are slaves. For great revenue, be it of king or
millionaire, has the same magician's wand - the overladen back of the
enslaved toiler.
In the face of our boasted intelligence what an appalling sight does this
country offer to the All-seeing Eye. An abundance of everything and
people starving by the thousands. When our lawmakers in Washington
learned that the death penalty was to be inflicted on those who were
convicted of treason for trying to overthrow the established government
in Hawaii, they said it must not be done, and busied themselves to save
those people's lives. And during all their agitation to save these men

who were to suffer a punishment that is meted out to such by all
governments, thousands of their own people were perishing for the
want of something to eat - not inhuman or hard-hearted, but simply do
not see how they can prevent it. There is no law by which they can stop
starvation. The legislator in a monarchy knows that poverty is
inseparable from that form of government and are reconciled to it.
Our legislators are reconciled to the same conditions. They do not see
the incongruity of conforming the legislation of a republic to the
economic laws of a monarchy. They do not know what a government
by the people and for the people means. If they did, they would know
that there was something wrong when one man has $50,000,00 while
another has not enough to get his shoes cobbled: and another has
50,000 acres of land, while others must be buried four in a grave.
And none of the political parties shows a way of escape out of this
miserable state of affairs, as a brief review of their positions will show.
We once had the Free States and the Slave States, and these two terms
were designative of two sections into which the country was then
divided on the question of slavery. To-day we have "Free Coinage of
Silver," "Protection," and "Free Trade." These three terms, Free
Coinage of Silver, Protection, and Free Trade, are as truly designative
of three different sections into which the country is divided to-day on
economic or industrial questions as were the terms Free States and
Slave States designative of two sections in the past. Thus the
preponderating interest in one section is the mining of silver, and this
interest is represented by the Populist Party, who demands the coinage
of more Silver. The preponderating interest of the second section, or
East, is manufactures, and is represented by the Republican Party, who
demands protection. The preponderating interest of the third section, or
South, is agriculture, and is represented by the Democratic Party, who
demands free trade. This is substantially correct, although the Populists
seem to be as strong in the agricultural South as in the silver-producing
West. The Populist Party, indeed, originated among, the agriculturists
of the South, and was the outgrowth of discontent among the farmers;
and in saying that Populism has its stronghold in the West, or
silver-producing section, we simply mean that the farmers' organization
has been captured by the silver interest. They seem to think that their
own prosperity is linked with that of the silver producers, and that the

free coinage of silver means the salvation of both. With this political
manoeuvering, however, we have nothing to do. There are three
political parties in the field, each with the preponderating interest of
some section in charge, which it is bound to see through regardless of
the interests of the other two. The industrial rivalry that is going on
throughout the whole world has entered these United States, and each
of the three different sections are struggling to obtain legislation
favorable to itself, with the same indifference to the interests of the
others that is shown by France to England or by England to the United
States. Even the