USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 62
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The editors of the reform press had been invited as delegates, and it was learned when the Reform Press Association met in Topeka in February that there were 150 newspapers in Kansas supporting the People's Party and entitled to representation in the national meeting. This, together with the fact that Kansas had all the reform organizations mentioned and some others, each one of them entitled to send delegates, made the Cincinnati Convention a Kansas affair. Five hundred people from this state met in Kansas City and went on a special train.
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An enterprising reporter made an attempt to catalogue the names of the reform organizations represented at this meeting. He mentioned the following and then gave it up: The Farmers' Alliance, the National Workers' Alliance, the Citizens' Alliance, Independent Alliance, Indus- trial Union, Knights of Labor, Knights of Reciprocity, Knights of Union, Knights of Reform, Knights of Fairplay, Knights of Industry, Knights of Universal Equality, Municipal Congress, Municipal Re- formers, Wage Earners Solidarity, Laborers' Union, Industrial Benevo- lent Association, National Finance Club, Indian Rights Association, Dollar of the Dads Advocates, Woman's Suffrage Association, Universal Order of Free Men and Free Women, and the Followers of Henry George. The states represented were: Arkansas, California, Conneeti- cut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Maine, Ne- braska, New York, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. There were 1,400 delegates in all.
Kansas was looked upon for leadership and took immediate charge of the proceedings. The meeting was called to order by Judge W. F. Rightmire, a prominent Allianee and People's Party man of Kansas. The opening speech was made by Judge Peffer, United States Senator from Kansas. As this speech caused Populism to be referred to in other states as Pefferism a summary of the speech is here given:
This movement is not one for destruction; it is one for creation. It is not for the purpose of tearing down, but for the purpose of building up; not to destroy the wealth of the rich, but to restore to labor its just reward.
What influence lies behind this majestic moving of the masses? Is this the work of men demented? If so, then indeed is half the world gone mad. Two hundred and seventy years we have toiled in this country. We have conquered the wilderness. peopled the solitudes and encompassed a continent. We have removed forests, opened highways, established commerce and builded a nation that leads all the rest in agriculture and in manufactories, with half the railroad mileage of the world, and with an internal trade, which measured by either dollars or tons, exceeds the foreign commerce of any half dozen countries. Yet, with all we have done, with all the glorious records of these American workers, we find that today our profits are diminished ; we find that our wants are multiplying and our incomes divided. Our ancient peroga- tives have been wrested from us.
In the beginning 95% of the people owned 95% of the land. Now only 45% of the people live on farms, half of them mortgaged for more than they would bring under the hammer, and less than 250,000 people own 50% of the property in the country. There are 9,000,000 mort- gaged homes in this country. The men and women who have builded this country, the men and women who in justice own this country, are under a weight of debt that is absolutely impossible for them to pay under ordinary conditions.
There are townships and even counties where every foot of ground in town or country is mortgaged. Formerly the man who lost his farm could go west. Now there is no longer any west to go to. Now they have to fight for their homes instead of making new. When the Santa
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Fe got into trouble financially, they reorganized, scaled down their interest from 7% to +% and saved their property. This is what the farmers are trying to do, scale down their interest from 10% to 40% to 4%, and get out of debt. The whole trouble with the people is debt. Then you understand that this movement among the people means the saving of their homes. It does not mean repudiation. It means pay- ment. The average profit made by the farmers on their labor is from 1% to 3%. Ilow then can they pay interest at 10% to 40%.
The platform adopted at the Cincinnati Convention was based upon the Alliance declaration of principles in the three National Conventions : St. Louis in 1889, Ocala in 1890, and Omaha in 1891. The preamble was as follows :
In view of the great social, industrial and economical revolution now dawning on the civilized world, and the new and living issues confronting the American people, we believe that the time has arrived for a crystallization of the political reform forces of our country, and the formation of what should be known as the People's Party of the United States of America.
There was nothing new to be advanced. The Sub-treasury plank led in the platform, followed by free silver, alien ownership of land, equality in taxation, economy in government, graduated income tax, gov- ernment control or government ownership of means of transportation and communication, election of United States Senators, President and Vice-President by direct vote of the people, universal suffrage by states, payment of soldiers in the same coin the bankers were paid, eight hour law.
The following men were elected to the National Central Committee : Chairman, H. E. Taubeneck, Marshall, Ill .; Treasurer, M. C. Rankin, Terre Haute, Ind .; Secretary, Robert Schilling, Milwaukee, Wis. The members from Kansas on the committee were P. P. Elder, Levi Dum- bauld and R. S. Osborn. The committee met almost immediately in St. Louis and planned for the presidential campaign of the next year. The nominating convention was set for June 14, 1892. It was later postponed and held at Omaha, July 2, 1892.
XIV
CAMPAIGN OF 1892
Preparatory to the big campaign of 1892 in which the Populists hoped to win the National election, the State Central Committee of that party met in the Dutton house in Topeka, November 24, 1891, to review the situation and lay their plans. The economic condition of the country was set forth as follows:
Every branch of business is depressed. The merchant fails for want of trade and the banker from depreciation of values. Labor is
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unemployed and inadequately paid. Our cities are the abode of poverty and want and consequent crime, while the country is overrun with tramps. Starvation stalks abroad amid an over-production of food and illy elad men and women and helpless children are freezing amid an over-production of elothing. We hold these conditions are the legi- timate result of vieious legislation in the interests of the favored classes and adverse to the masses of American eitizens, and we appeal to the great body of the people, irrespective of occupation or calling, to rise above the partisan prejudices engendered by political contests, and calmly and dispassionately examine the facts which we are prepared to submit in support of our claims. We appeal to reason and not to prejudice, and if the facts and arguments we present can be refuted we neither ask nor expect your support.
The National Committee met about the same time, and in its delibera- tions mentioned that less than fifty people controlled the currency and commerce of the nation, and ealled attention to the fact that as iron has more intrinsie value than gold. that money has no value in itself, but takes on a value only by virtue of representing either labor or the product of labor. This idea originally came from Kansas, where an Alliance dollar bill was printed with the following inscription: "This is to certify that the bearer has produced to the amount of a dollar and is therefor entitled to an equivalent."
A Conference of Confederated Organizations was held in St. Louis, February 22, 1892. It was attended by the same organizations men- tioned in connection with the C'ineinnati Convention. In their resolu- tions there was nothing new. They began by saying :
We declare the union of labor forces of the I'nited States this day accomplished, permanent and perpetual.
Wealth belongs to him who ereates it. The interests of rural and urban labor are the same; the enemies are identical.
Then followed the platform which was endorsed by both State and national conventions of the People's Party and on which the campaign was made. It declared for the sub-treasury, elimination of National Banks, flexible eurreney, an increase of circulating medium to $50 per capita ; for Postal Savings Banks, free coinage of silver, public revenues limited to necessary outlay, graduated income tax, reclaiming of railroad and other corporation lands for the people, government ownership of railroad and telegraph. They also passed resolutions against dealing in options, futures and all manner of grain gambling, and in favor of paying the soldiers of the union the money they had lost through the depreciation of the greenback.
Joint committees of this conference and of the People's Party called a delegate convention of the People's Party to meet at Omaha July 2, 1892.
The months of May and June were filled with county and district conventions.
The first state convention was that of the People's Party. It was held June 5. at Wichita. The platform of the St. Louis conference was
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adopted with the following additions: All monopolies of products and of the elements of nature were denounced. The railroad assessors were condemned for reducing the taxes on railroad property. The Populist Congressmen were commended for their fight for the interests of the people and against the monopolies, and the legislation of the Kansas House of Representatives was approved, and the Senate censured for not co-operating to pass the various measures in the interests of the people. Pensions for railroad employees, and indemnity for the injured was favored and the abolition of passes. The identity of interest with urban labor was recognized and after some debate equal suffrage was endorsed. One resolution declared that publie needs should be served by public agencies, and said it was the duty of the government to provide public telephones, telegraph lines and free mail delivery to all homes.
This convention was a very enthusiastic one, and a very dramatic incident occurred when Fred J. Close, a Union soldier who had lost an arm in the war, in a brief and eloquent address placed the name of Col. W. A. Harris, an ex-Confederate, in nomination for Congressman- at-large. The assembly went wild and the nomination was made unani- mous by a rising vote. Men stood on chairs and tables and cheered themselves hoarse, and it was many moments before the tumult could be quieted. The People's Party was healing the wounds which both old parties for selfish reasons were trying to keep bleeding. The nomina- tions of the convention were as follows :
Governor, L. D. Lewelling ; Attorney General, John T. Little; Lieu- tenant Governor, Percy Daniels; Secretary of State, R. S. Osborne ; Auditor, Van B. Prather; State Superintendent, H. N. Gaines; Asso- ciate Justice, Stephen II. Allen ; Treasurer, W. H. Biddle. The Congres- sional nominees in the order of their districts were : F. J. Close, of Troy : H. L. Moore, of Lawrence ; T. J. Hudson, Fredonia; E. V. Wharton, of Yates Center; John Davis, of Junetion City ; William Baker, and Jerry Simpson. One delegate for each district was sent to Omaha, as follows: S. R. F. Roberts, A. F. Allen, William Cook, Frank Doster, H. N. Boyd, J. W. Murphy and John Hall. Delegates at large were Mrs. Mary E. Lease, James T. Beck, W. L. Brown, S. MeLallin. and George Wagner.
The Republican State Convention was held June 30, and a struggle took place between the stand-pat and the reform elements within the party, the latter succeeding in forcing an unwilling endorsement of some of the planks in the Wichita platform. The success of Plumb in 1891 in cutting down the Populist vote in Kansas by about 30,000, and in electing the Republicans in nearly every local contest, had made the Republicans chesty again, and forgetting that this was the work of Plumb and not of themselves, they thought they had come back for an indefinite stay and a desperate struggle ensued over the nominations, the nomination being considered equivalent to election.
The Democratic convention endorsed the state and electoral tickets of the People's Party. John Martin was the hero of the convention and led the fight in favor of this action. A few of the delegates, mostly corporation tools, withdrew and held a convention under the name
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"Stalwart Democrats." The tenor of the speeches was a bitter denun- eiation of the action of their party and a declaration to help the Repub- lieans, which they did.
The Omaha convention was attended by a large body of men and women beside the regular delegates. The entire number of delegates from all states was 1,652, but hundreds who were not entitled to seats went to hear the speaking. The opening address was given by George P. Bemis, Republican Mayor of Omaha, but the objects of the meeting could hardly have been voiced better by any Populist present. He said :
You are here to protest against legislation not in the interests of the people. You are here to protest against the wealth of the nation being absorbed by the few, while thousands are unemployed and many suffering for the necessities of life. You have laid the foundation of a great party. You have broken down the barriers of sectionalism and buried the bitterness of the past, extinguished the glowing embers of the campfires of hate, wiped out the imaginary line that separated the north from the south, and with hearts filled with hope you meet here in convention to nominate candidates who will lead your party in the coming campaign. That great good may result from your deliberations and actions, I sincerely hope. That you will fearlessly face the issues of the day I firmly believe.
The Kansas people who spoke were W. F. Rightmire, L. D. Lewel- ling, Colonel Harris, Mrs. Mary E. Lease, Louise Lease, her daughter, and Mrs. Annie L. Diggs, who much to the discomfiture of Susan B. Anthony, did not insist on the suffrage plank. Mrs. Diggs was a shrewd politician, and was about the only Populist of the original contingency who survived the defeat of 1894 and exerted any great influence after- ward. Miss Anthony was a good suffragist but had a poor understanding of policy. She finally succeeded in foreing Populism and suffrage upon each other, to the great detriment of both.
The platform covered completely the economic questions treated in whole or in part by previous meetings. In the railroad plank was this statement : "We believe that the time has come when the railroad cor- porations will either own the people or the people will own the railroads." The wrongs of the people were stated as follows :
Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished and the land concen- trating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; a hireling standing army is established to shoot them down. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up the colossal fortunes of a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind. The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders. Silver which has been accepted as coin sinee the dawn of civilization has been demonitized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of prop- erty as well as human labor and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise and enslave industry.
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A vast conspiraey against mankind has been organized on two con- tinents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world.
General James B. Weaver, the former Iowa Greenbacker, was nomi- nated for President. It had been the intention to nominate R. L. Polk, President of the National Alliance, for Vice-President, but his death occurred shortly before the convention, and General J. G. Field, of Virginia, was nominated.
After the close of the National Convention the campaign began in earnest. As in 1891, the big Kansans spent their time in other states. Mrs. Lease went West and then South with General Weaver. She said if the South could be won the eanse was won, and she was right. But the South refused to accept Populism as a National proposition, and the Weaver party was greeted all over Georgia with bad eggs. In the West this same party had been having better luck. The enthusiasm of the silver states was unbounded, and the progress from town to town was a continuous ovation. In some places there were not enough people left in the old parties to form committees. In Nevada eight speeches were made every day. Mrs. Lease said the spirit of rebellion in the West was like Carlyle's description of the storming of the bastile. One of the California papers in deseribing a meeting addressed by Mrs. Diggs said :
At no time since President Harrison visited San Diego has so large an audience assembled on Horton Plaza. Mrs. Diggs, who has gained a national reputation as an advocate of the principles of the People's Party, is a pleasing and entertaining speaker. Though rather slight in figure her voice is loud, clear and resonant. That she held her immense audience for nearly two and a half hours is a high tribute to her oratory. She arraigned the old parties for offering no adequate solution to the present labor troubles and hard times. She reviewed the actions of Congress in regard to wasteful and dishonest disbursements of the people's money and spoke very elearly regarding the policy and prin- ciples of the new party.
In Kansas the campaign was largely carried on by the candidates for State offiees and for Congress. It was in a large measure a repetition of the Crusade of 1890. Every meeting was a celebration. Parades five miles in length were held, led by the speaker of the day. Nor was Georgia the only place where indignities were suffered. Congressman Otis was rotten-egged at Princeton, in Franklin County. John W. Breidenthal was subjected to false arrest in Wichita, and S. N. Wood was murdered in Hugoton, A plot was unearthed to murder Jerry Simpson.
As in the former State campaign. the school-houses and other build- ings would not begin to hold the multitudes. The meetings lasted hours and hours, and the people cheered and ealled for more. There was plenty of material in the events of the day to talk from. They said that the unfriendly legislation against silver had cost the farmers of this country more than $10,000,000,000, that being the balance of trade
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against us eansed by an unequal exchange of products in the markets of the world, and that this vast sum had been settled hy mortgages on our farms. The silver states had lost $150,000,000 and were still losing $15.000,000 per year on account of this legislation. The cotton states were losing $10 to $12 on every bale of cotton, and the wheat states, 25 to 30 cents per bushel on every bushel of wheat, bringing the annual loss to a figure between $300,000,000 and $400.000,000. on account of demonetization, which compelled the American farmer to compete with India cotton and wheat in the Liverpool market, with an advantage in favor of India of from 40 to 50%. England forced a silver standard upon the gold prodneing countries and a gold standard upon the silver prodneing countries in order that she might buy both metals cheap and make the exchange between the countries at an enormous profit.
It was shown that the national debt of 1865 which was $2,700,000,000, could have been paid at that time with 18,000.000 bales of cotton or 25,000,000 tons of pig iron. But now after paying interest on it for nearly thirty years and paying more than half of the principal, it would take 30,000,000 bales of cotton to pay it, or 32,000,000 tons of lead. Between 1880 and 1884. $750,000,000 was paid, yet measured in terms of products and labor it inereased 50% in that time. In the hundred years of African slavery no slave owner was able to amass as much as $1,000,000, but in 28 years of financial slavery we have made 4.500 millionaires, some of whom are worth $250,000,000.
The Auditor's report of 1890 was a fertile source of campaign propaganda. According to the figures, the assessed valuation of prop- erty in the State was $348.459,943, while the total indebtedness, publie and private, including railroad indebtedness, totaled $706,181,627, about twice as much as the property. This assessed valuation was far below the real value, but probably was not below the figure which could have been realized on a foreed sale. W. F. Rightmire submitted figures show- ing that Kansas raised $39,000,000 worth of wheat and $10,000,000 worth of oats, but paid ont in railroad hauling, taxes and interest, the sum of $59,381,342.
John R. Mulvane attempted to stem the tide with some sage remarks. He advised the farmers that if they did not like to sell their prodnee so cheap they ought to hold it for a higher price, knowing full well that in his own bank he held the mortgages on their farms on which interest had to be paid by a certain date, that the taxes had to be paid at a specified time, and that the merchants who had been grnb-staking the farmers all summer must have their money in order to meet their obligations, and that it was as much ont of the question for the producer to hold his grain without the aid of the sub-treasury as it would have been for the bankers to get rich without the aid of government loans. Mr. Mulvane submitted figures showing that the total value of market- able produee in Kansas in a year was worth $92,500,000, and said there was nothing to complain of. The Populists immediately took the figures of the Secretary of Agriculture on the cost of production and subtracted $178.235,000, the total cost of production from Mr. Mulvane's $92,500,-
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000, leaving a defieit of $85,735,000, to which was added interest, taxes and railroad hauling to the amount of $59,381,342, making a total defieit on the year's business of $145,116,342. And then they asked Mr. Mulvane how they were going to buy the children's shoes.
When the election returns came in the National tieket was found to be badly snowed under. Five states had been carried and the Populist tieket was seeond in four or five others. There were ten national eleetors. In Kansas the entire State ticket was elected, twenty-five sena- tors and fifty-eight members of the House. Colonel W. A. Harris was elected Congressman-at-large; H. L. Moore was elected to Congress from the second district, T. J. Hudson from the Third, John Davis from the Fifth, William Baker from the Sixth and Jerry Simpson from the Seventh.
In regard to the returns on House membership, the Populists elaimed fraud in counting the ballots. They elaimed that the people had elected a majority of Third Party men to the House in spite of the thousands of voters brought into the State by the railroads and in spite of bribery and fraud of every description. One instance was the election of M. B. Chrisman, a citizen of Oklahoma, as representative from Chautauqua County. A transposition of figures in the Haskell County vote gave the election to Joe Rosenthal, the Democrat. Other figures gave it to A. W. Stubbs, the Republican. Rosenthal was later seated, after he had pledged his support to the Republican faction in the House. In Coffey County a tie was declared where the Populists elaimed they had eleeted Riee over Ballinger, the Republican candidate. These three cases with that of E. B. Cabbell, a Populist elector whose name had been printed E. B. Campbell on the ballots, went to the State Canvassing Board. As this board was Republican the cases were decided in favor of the Repub- liean eandidate in each instance. The board was later compelled to reconvene and eertify the election of E. B. Cabbell. The Populists claimed that the proceedings of the Canvassing Board was not in accordance with law in deeiding the other three eases and brought man- damus proceedings in the Supreme Court to eompel the board to reeount the original ballots. The Supreme Court decided it had no authority to compel this action. This decision was handed down January 4. 1893, a few days before the Legislature convened.
XV
THE TRIUMPHIAL, MARCHI
The inauguration of the People's Party administration took place Monday, January 9, 1893, and it was a gala event such as has never been paralleled in Kansas. For the first time in the history of the State the Republicans were compelled to relinquish the reins of government. Their boasted eighty-two thousand majority had been reduced to a minus quantity, and the victorious hosts moved on Topeka. Thousands
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