USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 58
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Whereas, Agriculture in its various departments is the basis of all material prosperity ; and
Whereas, The burdens and impositions under which it lies having become intolerable, therefore the farmers of Kansas in convention assembled, do put forth this declaration of our desires and purposes and state :
Farmers desire to unite in clubs, unions or stock associations for the purpose of controlling the prices of their products through their own boards of trade or appointed agents, so that nothing need be thrown upon the market for less than the cost of production and a reasonable profit. They desire to unite for the purpose of getting their supplies at cost with a reasonable percent added for collecting and distributing, and the use of capital ; for the purpose of securing a reduction in freights, and breaking the blockade between the different parts of the country, by argument, by legislative enaetment, and by means of the courts. They desire tax reforms, the abolition of sinecure offices, reduction in freights, and breaking the blockade between the different parts of the country, by argument, by legislative enactment, and by means of the courts. They desire tax reform, the abolition of sinecure offices, reduction of salaries, rigid economy in public expenditures, the repeal of our present iniquitous tax-penalties, home manufactories to keep our money in the state, and that the public domain should be kept forever sacred to actual settlement ; therefore be it resolved :
That we recommend every farmer in the State to become a member of some farmer's club.
That the taxes assessed and charged upon the people by both national, State and local governments are oppressive and unjust, and vast sums of money are collected far beyond the needs of an economical administration of government.
That we earnestly request the legislature of our State at its next session to enact a law regulating freights and fares on our railroads upon a basis of justice, and that we further request our members of Congress to urge the favorable aetion of that body to the same end, and if need be to con- struct national highways at the expense of the Government.
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That the act passed by the legislature exempting bonds, notes, mort- gages and judgments from taxation is unjust, oppressive and a palpable violation of our State Constitution, and we call upon all assessors and the county boards to see that said securities are taxed at their fair value.
That the practice of voting municipal bond is pernicious in its effect, and will inevitably bring bankruptcy and ruin on the people, and we therefore are opposed to all laws allowing the issuance of such bonds.
That giving banks a monopoly of the national currency, thereby com- pelling the people to pay them such interest therefor as they may choose to impose, seven-tenths of which interest we believe is collected from the farmers, is but little less than legalized robbery of the agricultural classes.
This document set forth clearly the "cause of action" which was behind the agricultural organizations which were beginning to be formed all over the country. The largest of these at this time was the Patrons of Husbandry, popularly known as the Grange. It originated in Wash- ington, D. C., in 1867, and was brought to Kansas in 1872, the first organization being formed at Hiawatha in April of that year. It had a very rapid growth. The order favored railroad legislation, opposed the mortgage system and had as its object the promotion of co-operative buying and selling. It was soon discovered, however, that the mortgage system had been forced upon the farmers by law, the railroad and manufacturing monopolies were entrenched behind the same bulwark, and that they elected men who favored them and secured laws in their own interests. The farmers concluded that their interests had been overlooked by the statesmen and the Granger movement issued in polit- ical action all over the West. In Minnesota the Granger party was known as Anti-Monopoly. Its platform was not broad in the sense that those of later parties were. It declared against free passes, pool- ing, and discrimination in freights, and bribery and extravagance in public office, and favored laws governing freight rates. All the planks referred to one subject, monopoly and corporations. The same move- ment was called the Reform party in Wisconsin, where the main issue was railroads. In Kansas the party was called Independent Reform, following the lead of Illinois where the Farmers' Declaration of Inde- pendence created a sensation at a large gathering on July 4, 1873. There was no State ticket of the Independent Reform party in Kansas that vear, but by means of local efforts enough members were elected to the lower House of the Legislature to give the opposition twenty votes more than the Republicans had, and ex-Governor James M. Harvey, a farmer and an Independent, was elected to the Senate.
With this much to the good, the farmers went on enthusiastically with their organization. In the year 1874, Grange lodges were char- tered in the State at the rate of two or three thousand per month. Every school district was organized, and these lodges went over in a body to the Independent Party, which gradually came to be known as the Greenback Party because it was opposed to doing away with this form of currency. It made the money question the main issue, and advocated an adequate national medium of exchange. The Kansas State
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Convention of this party was held at Topeka, August 5th. In their plat- form they asked for the payment of the public debt according to the terms under which it was contracted, for the repeal of the tariff on necessities (mentioning lumber specifically, probably because there were no forests in Kansas), and for the restoration of income taxes. They demanded state and national legislation to protect the industrial and producing interests of the country against all forms of corporate monop- oly and extortion, and declared that the railroads should be made subservient to the public good. The act of the Legislature, of March 1, 1866, dividing 500,000 acres of the school lands among four railroad companies was condemned, and some measure for the recovery of this property was advocated. Sympathy was extended to the settlers on the Osage lands, whose titles to their homes were being contested by the railroad corporations, and every honest means of aid was pledged. James C. Cusey was nominated for Governor, E. Harrington for Lieu- tenant-Governor, George P. Smith for Auditor, Nelson Abbott for Sec- retary of State, James E. Watson for State Treasurer, J. R. Hallo- well for Attorney General, W. P. Douthitt for Associate Justice, and Marcus J. Parrott for Congressman from the first distriet.
The first mention of the People's Party was in the Kansas press of that year. The ticket put up by the Independent Party was referred to as the People's ticket, and was printed under that heading by some of the newspapers. It was also called the Grange ticket in some locali- ties. After the fall election it was found to be the second party instead of the third, having polled about 30,000 votes in the State.
Centennial year was one of great political excitement in Kansas. Resumption of specie payments was worrying the farmers, and the attitude of the farmers was worrying the Republican leaders. The Reformers began their campaign early with a meeting of the State Central Committee at Topeka, February 25th. The committee refused an offer of co-operation extended by the Democratic State Committee, and issued a call for a Greenback Convention May 4, showing that they were becoming reconciled to the use of that name.
The convention of May 4 was held at Topeka. Delegates were sent to the National Convention to be held at Indianapolis and the following resolution passed :
Resolved that we earnestly recommend to the friends of the Inde- pendent movement to take immediate, prompt and efficient measures for the organization of the party in their several counties and townships by forming Greenback clubs and circulating documents, books and newspapers, in the full conviction that the truth once fairly presented to the minds of the people will become invincible.
The platforms, both State and National, were rather narrow, refer- ring exclusively to the money question, and especially to the resump- tion of specie payments. The Kansas platform was adopted at the State nominating convention held in Topeka, July 27th. It opposed all banks of issue and demanded that the act of Congress creating the
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National Banking System be repealed, and that the paper currency of the Government of the United States be substituted for the national bank notes, such paper currency to be made legal tender for the pay- ment of all debts including duties on imports. The unconditional repeal of the resumption act was demanded, the immediate restoration of silver as a standard of value and a legal tender, and a tax on incomes of more than $1,500 per year. The retirement of the legal tender greenback and the substitution of the inferior currency of the national banks was declared to be a fraud and an outrage, as was also the demonetization of silver, which, they claimed, had added twenty per cent to the aggregate of public and private indebtedness.
The State ticket was headed by M. E. Hudson, of Bourbon County. J. K. Hudson, editor of the Topcka Daily Capital, and Samuel J. Crawford, its owner, were among the leaders of reform at this time, but they bitterly opposed the same principles later in the Populist move- ment. Owing to the fact that the Democratie State Convention took exactly the same stand that the Greenback party did on the money question, and that the Republicans took up the public land plank, the Greenback vote in Kansas in 1876 was very small. Many of the reform adherents had gone back to the Republican party to do missionary work. Among these was Col. S. N. Wood. Ile was among the forty- two farmers who were elected to the Legislature that fall. That he had not lost sight of reform principles is shown by the following let- ter dated January 22, 1877, signed by S. N. Wood and Welcome Wells, and sent to James M. Ilarvey, W. A. Phillips. Thomas A. Osborn, T. C. Sears and Preston B. Plumb, candidates for United States Senate. The letter read :
Honorable Sir: If you are elected to the United States Senate will you vote to repeal the resumption act? Will you vote to repeal the national banking law? Will you favor a law providing that all paper money shall be issued directly by the Government, based on Government credit? Will yon, if elected, vote to build up the productive interests of the West and against the money power of the East ?
Every one of the five gentlemen declared themselves in favor of the principles embodied in the letter. Preston B. Plumb was the sue- cessful candidate and proved a worthy champion of the cause of the people of his State. The national ticket headed by Peter Cooper polled 81,740 votes.
The platform of the Kansas Greenback party was somewhat broad- ened in 1877. It made the startling revelation that the laws of Kansas required the collection of 50% interest on delinquent taxes, and asked that the rate be lowered to 25%. It advocated a money deposit sys- tem in connection with the Postoffices, on the order of our present postal savings banks. It demanded a law of Congress providing for the arbitration of labor difficulties, and a law making the issuing of "watered stock" a penal offense. A protest was registered against the Government granting any further subsidies to corporations in bonds
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or lands. The money question was covered in the same way as in the platform of the previous years. Only a few offices were voted for and no important results were achieved.
The climax of the Greenback movement was in 1878 when it fused with the Labor Reform movement all over the country and polled an aggregate of 1,000,365 votes in the different states. The leader of the tieket in Kansas was D. P. Mitchell, who polled 27,057 votes. The platform of the State Convention held at Emporia was very compre- hensive in its delineation of the conditions and needs of the country. It was briefly as follows:
Whereas, The Republican and Democratic parties have squandered the public money, impoverished the country, and neglected national legislation for the purpose of investigating their own corruption and per- petuating their power and party organizations, destroying industry, paralyzing trade, inflicting on the poor and industrial elasses bankruptcy, suffering and erime; who have shrunk agricultural and meehanical values by the contraetion of currency ; who have changed a non-interest into an interest bearing debt; who have increased their own salaries, ineomes and purchasing power of money; and,
Whereas, The administration of national, state, county and city gov- ernments have been so extravagant, expensive and corrupt as to destroy the profits and value of frugal industry ; therefore,
Resolved, That we heartily endorse the union between the Greenbaek party and the labor organizations, and cordially invite all patriotic citi- zens to abandon the old parties and unite with us in the National Green- back-Labor party-the party of the people-to deliver this country from slavery to money and corporate despotism, revive industry, restore pros- perity, reward labor, remove the burdens of excessive taxation, inaugu- rate a system of American absolute money, and secure the people the blessings of a free government. We proclaim the following platform of principles :
1. Money is a creation of law, a convenience of trade and commerce, and it is the duty of the Government to provide all the money needed by the people-a full legal tender paper money, based on the power, per- petuity and credit of the Government, needing no other redemption than that it be received by the Government in full payment for all debts and taxes, including duties on imports.
2. All expenses and debts of the Government should be paid in green- baeks, made a full legal tender, and the Government, national and state, should be forever prohibited from issuing interest bearing bonds.
3. As usury is the means whereby aecumulated wealth robs industry, it should be prohibited by law, and the government should issue money directly to the people.
4. The elaims of humanity should be considered first, and the claims of property second: labor is the aetive and productive capital of the country and should be protected and fostered rather than idle money.
5. We condemn the unfair diserimination between the wages of labor- ing men and the fees and salaries of office holders and professional men.
6. We are opposed to selling the homes of the people or dooming them to perpetual serfdom for the purpose of securing the payment of fraudu- lent municipal bonds.
7. We demand laws such as will permit a reasonable time for the redemption of property sold nnder execution.
8. That each sex shall receive equal pay for equal work.
9. Tax on all incomes exceeding $1,000 per year.
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10. Tax on government bonds.
11. Repeal of the specie-resumption act, the national banking law and increase instead of contraction of currency.
12. Improvement of navigable rivers, government control of the chan- nels of commerce in order to prevent the robbery of the people by transportations and corporations.
13. We are opposed to granting our public lands to corporations, and any further subsidies of money or public credit.
14. Equivalent for equivalent is the natural law of exchange, and we are hostile to any form of communism which seeks to appropriate the wealth of others withont giving an equivalent, whether it be at once and with violence, or gradually at a rate of ten to twenty percent a year- both modes are violations of natural and moral law.
Such was the platform of the party of the people in 1878, and it so remained in all its essential particulars as long as the movement lasted -- until the defeat of Populism in 1894. It was often elaborated upon and new features were added, or new methods of obtaining a desired end were advanced, but this platform was the groundwork of the people's movement as regards both laboring and farming classes. That it did not draw a larger vote may have been due to the fact that the masses had not entirely lost hope in the Republican party. The plat- form drawn up by the Kansas Republicans in the same year is worthy of meditative perusal, as are also the public utterances of John J. Ingalls, in the light of what these people had to say about the same principles a few years later. The Republican platform contained the following sentences :
Experience has shown the greenback currency to be admirably adapted to the wants of trade, and we favor the withdrawal of the national bank notes, substituting therefor greenback currency issued directly by the Government. We demand that it be issued in sufficient volume to fully meet the wants of business without depreciating its value; and that it shall be received in payment of all debts and dues, public and private.
We believe a double standard of values is preferable to a single standard, and are in favor of placing the coinage of gold and silver on an equality.
Railways are creatures, and exist by the breath of legislative enact- ment. As servants of the people they should be compelled to do their bidding, and obey the wholesome requirements and restrictions of law; and we demand of the Legislature the establishment of such passenger and freight tariffs as shall advance the interests and promote the indus- tries of the people.
We condemn the policy of granting subsidies at the public expense to either individuals or corporations for their private use.
Other planks in the platform covered economy in public office and the election of honest men. It will be noticed that the Republican party saw the necessity of trying to catch up with the procession. These planks were a superficial endorsement of the Greenback articles of faith. The speech of Ingalls referred to was made February 15, 1878, and contained the following summary of the economic and political situation :
JOHN J. INGALLS, FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS, U. S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS [Copy by Willard. Topeka ]
[Of Ingalls it was said : "He knew language as the devout Moslem knows his Koran. All the deeps and shallows of the sea of words were sounded and surveyed by him and duly marked upon the chart of his great mentality. In the presence of an audience he was a magician ; under the power of his magie, syllables became scorpions-an inflection became an indictment. And with words he builded temples of thought that excited at first the wonder and at all times the admiration of the world of literature and statesmanship. He was emperor in the realm of expression."]
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The people are arraying themselves on one side or the other of a portentous contest. On one side is capital, formidably entrenched in privilege, arrogant from continued triumph, conservative, tenacious of old theories, demanding new concessions, enriched by domestic levy and foreign commerce, and struggling to adjust all values to its own standard. On the other hand is labor, asking for employment, striving to develop domestic industries, battling with the forces of nature, and subduing the wilderness ; labor, striving and sullen in the cities, resolutely determined to overthrow a system under which the rich are growing richer and the poor are growing poorer ; a system which has given Vanderbilt the posses- sion of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and condemns the poor to poverty which has no refuge from starvation except the prison or the grave.
Thirteen years later, after having been elected twice to the Senate, Mr. Ingalls said: "So it happens, Mr. President. that our society is becoming rapidly stratified, almost hopelessly stratified, into a condi- tion of superfluously rich and hopelessly poor. We are accustomed to speak of this as the land of the free and the home of the brave. It will soon be the home of the rich and land of the slave." Ingalls was a Republican, he went down with the Republican ship in 1892 and lived and died a Republican, yet his utterances concerning conditions of the country and in condemnation of the policy of the Government have never been outdone by the most fanatical of reformers.
The Republican party having become Greenback, that party began to subside after 1878. In the national election of 1880 the ticket was led by James G. Weaver, the great Populist who became the presiden- tial candidate of that party in 1892. He received 308,578 votes, of which Kansas cast 19,581. The new planks in the State platform con- demned the action of the Legislature in abolishing the one mill school tax as a blow struck at the people's colleges; favored the taxing of the mortgages of non-residents and the lowering of the legal rate of interest and declared for woman suffrage. The State ticket was led by H. P. Vrooman, of Greenwood County.
In 1882 Charles Robinson was the candidate of the Greenback party for Governor and polled 20,933 votes. The Democratie platform was very extensive, covering practically all the principles advanced by the Greenback party, and some of those later incorporated by the Popu- lists, including the election of President, Vice-President, United States Senators and Postmasters by direct vote of the people. The ticket was headed by George W. Glick who was elected. Two years later these doctrines permeated the Democratic national platform. and Grover Cleveland was elected President on the strength of them. The State Democratie platform in 1884 called attention to the things accom- plished by the Glick administration, which we may justly credit to the political action of the third party. They were in brief:
One million two hundred and fifty-nine thousand acres of land have been reclaimed to the State and are now open for settlement. Large amounts of railroad lands which have hitherto eseaped county and state taxation, have been placed upon the tax rolls of the various counties. The rates of fare and freight have been reduced on all lines of railroads within our State. The cattle disease which threatened to paralyze the
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stock industry of our State was promptly checked. The stream of immi- gration which had been turned from our borders during a former admin- istration has again been restored, and two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants added to our population.
However, the Democrats made the blunder of opposing prohibi- tion and the Republicans elected their ticket. The Greenback party was headed by H. L. Phillips for Governor and John W. Breidenthal, later a prominent Populist, for Lieutenant Governor. Breidenthal led his ticket in the election, polling 14,325 votes.
In 1886, the force of the Independent or Greenback movement was practically spent. No new issnes were raised and no state ticket was placed in the field, and there was a lull in the activity of the third party forces.
V
THE POLITICAL ACTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR
After the decline of the Greenback movement, and while the forces for a larger effort in the same line were working under the ground, the field of the Third Party was occupied for a short time by organized labor. The disintegration of the Greenback-Labor combination left the forces of the farmers and laboring people divided up into varions camps. There was the Union Labor Party, the United Labor Party, the Pro- gressive Labor Party and the American Reform Party among the labor- ers. Among the farmers were the Tax Reformers, the Anti-Monopolists, the Grange, which was going down, and the Farmers' Alliance, which . was rapidly gaining strength. The labor forces combined first and formed the Union Labor Party of 1886, absorbing the farmer vote. Two years later the farmers had effected a powerful organization and absorbed the labor vote in the Alliance or People's Party.
Although by a few palliating measures the old parties had for the time being defeated the Third Party, the necessity for independent polit- ical action had not diminished. The condition of the two producing classes, wage laborers and agriculturists in 1887 was most deplorable.
Through the scarcity of money, the combination of middlemen and railroads, the inability of the farmer to sell his product for what it cost to raise it, and the inability of the laborer to sell his labor for what it cost him to live, the avarice of the money lender into whose clutches the people were doomed to fall, and from whose toils there was no escape, the people were rapidly being reduced to peonage.
The United States Commissioner of Labor in his report for 1885 de- clared that "The prime cause of the industrial conditions which prevail among the manufacturing nations is due to labor not receiving an equit- able share of the product." Although wages had doubled between 1828 and 1880, yet production had increased many fold, and the surplus produet would not he bought by the people, hence it was stored up and caused a glut in the market, and, eventually, industrial depression and panics. As expressed by the Labor Commissioner, "The consuming power of the larger part of the population of the United States had been
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