Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 7, 1900 Page: 1 of 16
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VoLXX Na 23-
DALLAS. TEXAS, THURSDAY, JUNE 7,1900.
SI Per Annum
BARKER ACCEPTS.
Issues a Very Able Letter Defining His
Position.—Direct Legislation the
First of Reform.—For Compul-
sory Arbitration Labor Dis-
putes, Philippine Inde-
pendence.
LETTER OF NOTIFICATION.
Hon. Wharton Barker, Phila., Pa.:
Dear Sir—The undersigned, appoint-
ed by the People's party National Con-
vention at Cincinnati, O., May 10, as a
committee to notify you of your nonilr
nation by that body as the candidate
of the People's party for President of
the United States, take great pleasure
in giving you this formal notification,
and hope that you will accept the trust
reposed in you by the representatives
of the Populist masses of our country,
as their leader in this great campaign
against the plutocracy for the restora-
tion of the lost rights of the people.
With oUr personal regards, we beg
to remain,
Yours Very Respectfully,
M. W. Howard,
J. M. Mallett,
W. S. Morgan.
May 15th, 1900.
LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.
Messrs M. W. Howard, J. M. Mallett
and W. S. Morgan, Members of Com-
mittee of Notification:
Gentlemen—As it is my duty, so it
is my pleasure to accept the nomina-
tion tendered me by the People's par-
ty National Convention, and in doifig
so I assure you gentlemen that, stand
ing upon the platform adopted at Cin-
cinnati, my unceasing effort will be to
so comport myself during this cam
paign, and so act if elected President
that I may not be judged unworthy of
the trust repos«d in me. And, as is
meet, I make this an occasion to de-
clare my beliefs, my aims, my purpos-
es, without reservation and with such
explicitness as I may. For it is not
only eminently fitting but it is the du-
ty of a candidate for the Presidency to
present his views of questions of pub-
lic concern in such shape that the great
public whose suffrages he seeks may
be able to learn beyond question what
views he entertains, what policies if
entrusted with office he would lend
himself to carrying out and so judge
for themselves, not in blindness but
with full understanding of what he
represents, of his claims for their suf
(rages. So do I present this exposition
my political faith, sure that Popu-
lists hold it in common with me, sure
that it will find acceptance with the
great body of American people, sure
that when it does this will be a better
and happier land to lixzfiflfffflfflffiffi;
measures we urge are conceived with
the purpose of establishing on this
earth a rule of justice and love in
place of a rule of greed, conceived in
the spirit breathed by Him who preach-
ed the Sermon on the Mount, con-
ceived in the spirit on which democ-
racy is founded, may be assured by the
test of brotherhood, of justice, of fair-
ness and not be found wanting. If
it can be proved that anything we ad-
vocate does not stand this test we will
abandon its advocacy; anything propos-
ed to better the lot of mankind, tried
by this test and not found wanting we
will not hesitate to advocate. For we
stand for earneist and sincere devotion
for the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man, in real spirit and
truth, and in accordance with the great
mandate: "Seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness."
And now to come to that explicit and
direct declaration of miy views which is
demanded by the occasion, of views so
equally shared and upheld by Populists
that I feel that one great heart-beat
common to lis all must be the impulse
to their advocacy, views so held in com-
mon that it is only in keeping with
the spirit of truth that in now address-
ing the American public I should speak
of them as our views,-rather than as
my views,impersonally rather than per-
sonally, I proclaim this declaration of
Populist faith, which is my faith: —
DIRECT LEGISLATION.
That our democracy may be a democ-
racy in fact as well as in name we hold
that the principles of direct legislation,
the initiative and referendum, must be
extended in our system of government
and in party management to the end
that the people shall govern them-
selves, veto the acts of their representa-
tives who may prove unfaithful to
their trust, become their own legisla-
tors if their representatives refuse to
obey their commands, carry out their
will. Thus would the people ever hold
the supreme power in their own hands,
thus would they hold a decisive check
over their servants, thus would they
put those servants in a great measure
beyond the reach of temptation by put-
ting it beyond the power of those ser-
vants to sell out the interests of their
masters, thus would a government of
by and for the people become a fact on
the heart, thus would the power of cor-
rupt bosses be destroyed.
This demand we have placed foremost
as the fundamental step to the preser-
vation of our endangered liberties and
the regaining of our rights,for we must
make the vote of a citizen superior to
the will of the representative, so des-
troy the power of the corruptionist to
steal the people's rights by corrupting
their representatives, ere the fruits of
victory, when the people triumph over
the hireling and deceived hosts of plu-
tocracy, can be adequately safeguarded.
The system of direct legislation adopt-
ted would remove our legislators from
temptation and raise barriers to the
arts of the lobbyist. Unless we raise
these barriers we will have no certainty
when victory crowns the people's ban-
ners, when a majority vote for the re-
form we advocate, that the fruits of
,.victory will not be stolen from us by
the acts of our legislators, subjected
to temptation, and proving recreant to
their trust.
CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH.
We see in this nation, dedicated to
the working out on earth and in hu-
man government of the principles of
the Brotherhood of Man,a vast concern-
tration of wealth in the hands of those
who bend their energies to despoiling
their fellow men. We see a rule of
selfishness and greed .supplanting a rule
of love and brotherhood, we see money
exalted above man. We see a vast
production of wealth and a few who
toil not, save to despoil, gathering a
greater and greater share of that which
is produced. Actually the toiler maj
reap more than a score of years ago;
relatively to that which his labor pro-
duces he reaps less. For the speculative
cliques who wax fat by living upon oth-
ers are managing to reap iai larger
share. And so we have an ever widen-
ing gulf separating the few from the
many, have an ever widening separa-
tion of our people into a House-of-Have
and a House-of-Want,—have that grow-
ing contrast of riches and poverty, that
growth of an oligarchy out of touch,
out of sympathy with the people, that
is the entering wedge destructive of
democratic government.
FINANCE AND TRANSPORTATION.
It is chiefly through the instrumental-
ity of our banks that give the speculat-
ive cliques a certain control over the
value of anoney and enable them to
command general fluctuation of prices,
and through the instrumentality of our
railroads by which they confer pros-
perity and adversity when and where
they see fit, building up enterprises
and destroying enterprises, causing one
locality to flourish and another to lan-
one to be chilled with stagnation, that
said cliques operate. If we would then
take away their power to despoil we
must loosen their grip upon the instru-
ments through which they act, we
mmst establish a monetary system and
a transportation system that they can
not monopolize, can not grasp to the
exclusion of all others; systemar that
will serve not peculiarly the speculative
cliques but equally all the people.
So do we proclaim that there are
two great domestic questions of infi-
nite concern to the material interests
and moral welfare of our people that
press for solution, (1) the money ques-
tion, and (2) the railroad question,
which involves the trust question. And
these questions we would solve by the
issue of paper money by the govern-
ment irredeemable in coin and by the
nationalization of the railroads. We
must establish a monetary system and
take away their power to despoil, we
must loosen their grasp upon the ins-
truments through which they act, we
know that the Democratic and Republi-
can parties do not advocate these meas-
ures. We know that they stand in the
way of solving these questions and we
can not prostitute our principles by
supporting the candidates of either of
such parties. While we believe in the
free coinage of silver along with gold,
as a temporary measure, holding that
a doilar based on the two metals is
more likely to be stable than a dollar
based on one, it must be remembered
that the Populist does not want a gold
dollar or a silver dollar, but a paper
dollar that will be an honest dollar,
something that gold knd silver dollars,
the volume of which can not be regu-
lated at will by the government and in
response to the demands of trade, can
not be; and he does not want the rail-
roads to continue to be operated by
corporations as preferential carriers,
but by the government as common car-
riers.
MONEY.
Our money has not maintained a sta-
ble value but has fluctuated constantly
to the loss of producers and profit of
speculators. We have a monetary ba-
rometer, to take license with a wortt,
in which the mercury, the measure of
values, has not kept the same height
in the tube. For a quarter of a century
prior to midsummer three years ago it
crawled higher and higher, with slight
drops now and then, until it was a hun-
dred per cent higher at the end than
at the beginning of the period. So debt
burden produces sweat more and more.
During the last two years the value ot
gold, as shown by the price barometer,
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Park, Milton. Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 7, 1900, newspaper, June 7, 1900; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185854/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .