The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 39, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 27, 1895 Page: 1 of 8
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HkitoHB the law was written dowu with
ix rohmentor with |w u;
lief ore the law made citiieus, the moral
law made men.
Law ktaud* for human rightn. but when
it fail** those ritfhu to c ve.
Then let law die. my brother, but let hu-
man beiuir* live.
ilhc peoples
DKt.
"Our Republic can only exist
so Long as its citizens respect
and obey their self ioi[>osed laws."
4 Labor Ts The Parent Of Capital, Encourage Labor. and Yon Build Up Capital
VOL. 3.
NORMAN, CLEVELAND COUNTY OKLAHOMA. SATURDAY, APRIL 27. 18V
NO 39
SAVED THE
REPUBLIC.
The Soldier and the Greenback
Together.
GOLD IS A COWARD IN WAR.
An Enemy l« Peace. The Greenback a Sign
of **tional Sovereignty.
In 1862, when Liberty was assail-
ed by grim-visaged war, Gold, as
ever a coward, retreated to vaults
and to Europe. Then as Minerva
sprung full armed and ready for vic-
torious combat from the brain of her
parent, so sprang from the brains of
wise statesmen the millions of green-
backs ready to save the menaced na-
tionality. They sheltered, fed,
clothed and armed the soldier; build
ironclads and manned them. With
aid of boys in blue they conquered.
Peace once here, the coward Gold,
whose emissaries had traitorously
crippled the nation by crippling the
A crank is a man with an idea. City Ordinances.
Men without an idea are always j The bill the People's Voice put
jealous of the men, who have ideas, in for printing 500 copies of the city
This explains how it is that so many
men are crying "crank" at the other
fellow.
Twenty-five years ago, Wendell
Phillips said: '"The great question
of the future is money against legis-
lation. My friends, you and I shall
be in our graves long before that
battle is ended, and unless our chil-
dren have more patience and cour-
age than saved this country from
slavery, republican institutions will
go down before moneyed corpora-
tions. Rich men die, but banks are
immortal, and railroad corporations
never have any disease. In the long
run with legislatures they are sure to
win."
The above utterance of Wendell
Phillips was deemed a stretch of his
imagination when he made it and
but few realized the full force of it.
The prophecy he then made is rap-
idly proving true and the people are
beginning to foresee the condition
Phillips foresaw twenty-five years
ago.
Meaningless Platitudes.
In 1852 the republican party,
which had swotn to wipe out Afri-
can chattel slavery, cast 156,000
greenback, returned and "has been votes for i,s Presidential candidate,
for thirty years waging subtle and ! ' 'le °'(' l,artles did not take very
.. , | much notice of it then. In 1856 it
insidious war upon the national life [ . J
by seeking to destroy the savior of
cast 1,300,000 votes for Fremont,
, ,, . . KT ,, Then eminent leaders of the old par-
of 65—tne greenback. Now the ,r.
ties, fearing its power and admiring
its courage, began to talk in inean-
warfare is open and avowed. The
battle is on, it is Gold vs. Greenback.
Will the American patriots stand
firm? Will the G. A. R. see its
comrade defeated? Will the son of
the veteran see the power that saved,
through his father, liberty for him,
destroyed? Traitors they who cry
out against the greenback! It is as
much a sign of nationality and sov-
ereignty as is the flag. "Shoot him
on the spot who hauls down one" is
the cry. Of the two the greenback
has most power, and he who decrys
that should be exported with gold to
to some country where liberty is not.
Beware of any cry that does not in-
clude all the Omaha platform. Let
not our ranks bedivided by the silver
issue. The whole includes all its
parts. The People's party includes
free silver and more. Encourage
the free silver discussion in the old
parties, but shoulder to shoulder for-
ward under the banner on which is
Money, Land and Transporatation.
To that banner all shall yet rally,
and the first battleground-—the silver
dollar—only prepares the way for
the victory for the legal tender pa-
per. Let dissension rage and disrupt
the old. All fragmen ts thrown off
by schism will unite with this large
young party that has no leveller and
acknowledges no authority but truth
and justice. As well curtail the de-
claration of 1776 as that at Omaha.
Rejoice in the new parties and stand
firm on the platform now builded
and onto which they shall step.
After taking the first silver step the
other two will be easy. The dawn-
ing light ot victory is in these signs
disintegration in the old.
•'Every crumbling nltar stone
That falls upon the ways of time,
Eternal wisdom has o'erthrown
To build a temple more sublime."
—Sentinel.
It is rumored that Cleveland and
his Cabinet are going to take the
stump in the political contest this
year in order that the position of
the administration may be placed
before the country in a more forcible
light. This will be a very couragous
thing for the President, and his Cab-
inet to do. It may help to streng-
then up a few of the others, Demo-
cratic stump speakers who are
afraid to take a stand in favor of the
gold standard. The fact that the
present administration will take a
stand anywhere insures its defeat.
All the American people want is a
fair whack at the present Demo-
cratic administration and there
won't be enough of them left to
swear b y.
ingless platitudes about universal
freedom. But the republican party
kept in the middle of the road and
in i860 elected Abraham Lincoln
president.
In 1890 the People's party was or-
ganized. In 1892 it gave Weaver
1,054,000 votes. No" eminent lead-
ers of the old parties in meaningless
platitudes talk about bimetallism.
Other great men talk about a new
silver party. But the People's party
has sworn to wipe out industrial sla-
very both black and white, and in
1896 it will sweep the country for
the grandest principle ever fought
in a political carrtpaign.
It begins to look as though every
political party in America will be ad-
vocating bimettalism in 1896. This
is one of the things the People's
Party has advocated since its forma-
tion. In view of the attitude the
old parties are taking it was not such
a wild eyed heresy as they deemed
it four years ago. The other meas-
ures advocated by the Populist party
will, in time, be advocated in a like
manner. Lack of information is
the tap root furnishing nourishment
to those who oppose the principles
of the Omaha Platform. Educa-
tion will sever this tap root. "Coin's
Financial School" is playing dread-
ful havoc with it at the present time.
Many of the old party fellows who
have read Coin are acting a good
deal like a newly converted sinner,
who had received the Light during
a Methodist Revival.
The editor of the State Democrat
is belly-aching about the respective
price of city warrants now and one
year ago. Of course he does not
remember the conversation he and
J. A. Hullum had at the Citizen's
Bank corner just the day after the
city election last year. The two
gentleman were talking this matter
over and saying that warrants were
worth so and so now, let us see what
they will be worth in one year. Hul-
lum remarked that they were worth
about 95 cents, but when Sykes
stepped up to him and offered him a
warrant he refused to purchase,
Sykes telling him that he had been
trying to sell it at 80 cents but
could only get an offer of 75 cents.
The $73,000 worth of additional as-
sessable property, Assessor Rice has
put on the assessment rolls will likely
bring warrants to
long.
ordinances has been the hue and cry
of the Transcript and State Demo-
crat have been using to try and gain
votes for their city ticket. It was
the only thing out of which they
hoped to be able to raise a campaign
issue in the city election. They
thought they saw in it an opportunity
of prejudicing the voters of Norman
against the ticket supported by the
People's Voice by attempting to
prey on their ignorance of the value
of printing, so when our bill of $04.-
00 for printing the ordinances came
up, seemingly, Blake and Kelley were
astounded at its proportions and had
it referred. Then Kelley's man Fri-
day (Meacham) came out in the
Transcript with his previously pre-
pared howl at the manner in which
the People's Voice was attempting
to fleece the tax-payers of Norman
and alleging a sum for which the
Transcript would have been anxious
to do the job which was $24.00 less
than our bill, and which sum with
the discount on the script would
scarcely have set the type in the job
at the low rate of 25 cents per thou-
sand ems and the State-Democrat
chimed in also but carefully avoided
stating how much the city was being
attempted to be robbed by the Peo-
ple's Voice.
The Voice was not at all alarmed
at the 2 by 4 politicians howl,
neither did it suspect that the tax-
payers of Norman would feel
robbed simply because Bixler and
Mecham said so. The reputation of
the People's voice—for honesty
truth and fair dealing is above the
possibility of tarnishment by such
scurrilous quill drivers as Meacham
and the Editor of the State Demo-
crat.
Last Monday at the regular meet-
ing of the City Council, we went
before the Council to explain our
bill: but who should we find their
but Kelley's man Friday. He had
no business of his own to look after;
but his great heart was bleeding pro-
fusely for the tax-payers of Norman,
hence his presence. His anxious
desire to save the poor tax ridden,
though he was not one of the suffers,
from the avarice, rapacity, and greed
of the People's voice was doubt-
less attributable for his presence;
certainly (?) nothing else would have
called him away from his home and
fireside.
When the bill came up for con-
sideration, Blake objected to its al-
lowance stating as a ground for his
objection that he had been inform
ed by printers (?) of this city that
it was too high. He said, and Kelly
also that they were not familiar
with printers prices but that if they
could be assured that the bill was a
reasonable one, that they would
be willing to allow it.
We arose to explain the matter to
them, but had scarely begun when
Mecham chimed in. We demurred
to his talking until he was called
upon, but Chairman Kelley inform-
ed us that our demurrer was not
good. We tried by exhibiting like
work done at other offices to show
them the reasonableness of our bill:
but found it a difficult task to con-
vince Blake and Kelley whose eyes we
believe were shut to being convinced;
Finally seeing that it was impossible
to satisfy Kelley and Blake, Mr.
Berry moved that the matter be re-
ferred to three printers, of Oklaho-
ma City or Guthrie and what they
said the work was worth the council
would pay, one to be selected by
the city council and one by the Peo-
ple's Voice; the two thus chosen to
select the third. To this proposi-
tion we quickly consented. Blake
objected a little to having the mat-
ter submitted to parties out of Nor-
man, for the reason we presume that
it would prevent Meacham and Bix-
ler from acting and Kelley was un-
willing to allow us more than our
bill called for even if the committee
be precluded by our bill from ac-
cepting what tne committee said the |
work was worth provided it was j
more than our bill. The fairness of j
this was quickly assailed by other
COMMANDER VANDERVOORT
lie Declare. KmplialIcally 1 or the Omaha
I'lalform ami TrlU Whj.
Tim People Party is the only straight
silver party in existence. Hail it unl
been for the devoted, unselfish labors of
members of the council and Kelley] 2,000 newspapers, 10,000 orators and
subsided and put the motion and it j 2,000,000 voters, the causo ol silver
carried. Kelley was designated on ! would have been forever lost. During
the part of the council to select a a" tl10 timo tl,at we h ve mado this
man. The nex' morning we request-
ed Kelley to select his man he refus-
ed to do it at that time but said he
would later. We again called upon
him in the evening; but instead of se-
lecting a man he flew into a rage and
informed us that he would select that
man when he got ready and not be-
fore. At this writing he has
not reported himself ready.
How the other members of the
Council will feel towards Mr. Kelly
for his disregard of their wishes we
are unable to state. Feeling certain
that Mr. Kelley never intended to
select a man unless he was thorough-
ly convinced that the committee
would not raise the bill and think-
ing that the other members of the
Council would want the information
they ask for, we secured the figures
for like work from every office in
Oklahoma city, that done job work,
and we find that the lowest cash
estimate was $68.00 and the highest
$81.00 averaging the four bids we
find that $75.00 is the cash price
they estimated the job worth. Now
adding the discount on the city
scrip at about 25 per cent and you
will have Stoo—$64.00, the bill we
submitted, $36.00, the sum we bilked
ourselves out of and for which we
expect the city to reimburse us in
order to protect us from self impos-
ed bankruptcy. It is needless to
say that we are downright glad for
Kelley, Blake, Meacham and
Bixler's interference in our behalf.
There kindness will not soon be
forgotten. They are truly some of
nature's noblemen. Such rare gems
of nature are scarce in this neck
" o'-the-woods." We advise that
they be cooped and filed away in
the archives of the Historical
Society for safe keeping.
J. J. Burke, of the Oklahoman;
Marsh Blackwell, of the Times-Jour-
nal; Evan McMaster, of McMaster's
Printing Company and L. G. Hicks,
of the Hicks Publishing Company
were the printers that furnished us
our estimates with their names at-
tached which we will produce on re-
quest.
For sometime after Cleveland's
election the democrats in this part
of the country were very enthusias-
tic. The work of the extra session
of congress rather dampened their
tight without a dollar of aid froui any
source, except the contribution ot the
people, we havo been constantly op-
posed, ridiculed and vilified by some of
tho men aud organizations claiming to
represent the very osseuee of tho silver
cause. Thorn is no hope from either of
the old parties. The People's Party
polled the second highest vote in TI
statos. Tho Democratic party is dead 111
tho west It is reeking with fraud anil
odious with ballot box stutling, and if
we had an honest election it could not
carry a southern state.
It deserves to die, and both it and the
Republican party as represented by
their leaders are in the grnsp of the
tnouoy power, and each wants to preserve
the clutch of the banks over the nation.
If 4,000 national banks wero uot light-
ing silver, the battle would soon tie
won. Their power to issue money must
be destroyed, and 011 this line, that the
government shall issue the mouey, wo
will wage the battlo, inviting all the
forces who favor this doctrine to unite
with us.
All the attempts to change our plat
form are premature and unwisa No
new or old party was ever called on to
change its platform betweon conven-
tions. Each state at its convention can
formulate their idoaR, and when we
meet in 18HB Uod will give us wisdom
to unite on some sound principles that
will unite all tho reform forces and lead
tho people to victory No conference, 110
Belf constituted dictators, or imaginary
statesmen, or would bo political bosses
have any right to assume the power to
j obliterate tho grand document that has
marshaled 2,000,000 voters in line, aud
I resent the dictum that because a man
stands by the platform he is a traitor to
tho People's Party
Every plan submitted in congress by
the money power is ton times more dan-
gerous to the pooplo than contagious
disease. Every one of them has all the
vital principles denounced and ridiculed
in the subtreasury plan. Every one of
them is class legislation of the vilest
kind, and tho loaders of tho Republican
party have indorsed tho fraudulent issue
of bonds, and both the old parties seek
to load tho nation with bonded indebt-
edness payable in gold for a generation
to come. Cleveland and Carlisle should
bo impeached and hurled from power
No more rotten and corrupt men ever
rulod over a nation. They usurp more
power than any king or czar. They over-
ride congress, defy the people aud tram-
ple law and constitution underfoot Tho
Rothschilds' bond transaction is tho
most shameful page of our history
General Banks once said, "The treasury
department is British ground. " So it is
today, and under this administration tho
pawnbroker's sign should bo added.—
Kansas City Speech of Paul Vauder-
voort
IIKICK'S ASTATKOF THINGS
Thinks We are GoIhk to Parallel
the French Revolution.
COST 000,000,000 BUSHELS.
In the administrat ion ofFranlv-
Ii 11 Pierce—and it certainly never
was accused of severe economy
—the total cost of tho national
enthusiasm and they kept very quiet government was not quite 40,-
. ,. ' , I 000,000 bushels of wheat per year.
for a time and we really thought
1 \ For the fiscal year 1M . , during
some of them were sick. For a dern- j w|,jcj, the government expended
ocrat to be quiet and not sick is a ' much more than in any other
phenomenon we could not under- j year of the war, the tolal cost
stand; but since the adjournment of was not quite 700,000,000 husliels
the last session it is plain to be seen wheat
the cause of their meekness. They [
are simply disappointed and disgust- j
ed with the work of the extra session I
Last year it was more
than 800,000,000 bushels, and
what it will be for this fiscal
year God alone knows, for on
the day I write this the export
and were attempting to conceal the m.,cc of wllcat in Kew York is
I > rice
56 cents, aud the market is noted
as "dull." It cannot fall below
000,000,000 bushels in any event,
or 30 per cent more than in the
most expensive year of the civil
war. H. BROWNING.
fact in the hope that the regular ses-
sioh might do something for which
they might be proud to be called
democrats; but when the regular ses-
sion adjourned with even a worse
record than the one made by the
previous session they were unable to
contain themselves longer and to-day
the Populists are not in it when it
comes to harpooning Cleveland and
his administration. Some of them
like Congressman Allen, of Missis-
sippi, still insist that they are dem- j the financial system of the work,
ocrats. but cannot give the reasons, (Q rest on eh? 1)o you wonder at
why, while others say they are dem ; the tottering comiitio„ ()f the coun-
If all the gold of the world used
for monetary purposes was cast
into a solid mass it would make a
| lump 22 feet high, 22 feet wide and
[22 feet long, including plenty of
| space for boxing. Great basis for
ocrats, but not Cleveland democrats
try, and the ragged condition of its
par before very | siiot!ld say the work was worth more.
j In other words he thought we should
and so it goes. Taking it all around jie0pje
they are the maddest and worst bam- '
boozled set of fellows we have ever j The little 2x4 politicians that at-
seen. Like the statesman from Ala- 1 tempted to make politics out of the
bama they can't tell "where they are city ordinance matter have under-
at." When they get over their mid- ; taken a job too much for their heft,
summer madness, a gteat number They have only succeeded in blight-
of them will be full fledged populists. ! ing the possibility of the election of
Ihey are simply going tip to the pen- , a single candidate on the ticket they
itent bench now. j are supporting.
Under ordinary conditions, one of
the greatest questions before us in
America is capital and labor which
is being hastened and intensified by
the pernicious policy of the govern-
ment on the currency question. The
persistent ignoring of bi-metallism
means continuous low prices for com-
modities and that in turn, notwith-
standing labor organizations, inevi-
tably means lower wages. Are the
wage earners and producers of Amer-
ica to-day, in spite of the tens of
thousauds of free public schools,
more ignorant or more patient than
the artisans and peasants of France
110 years ago? How long do the
gold standard plutocrats of to-day
and their creatures in the cabinet
and Congress, the apostles and dis-
ciples of Clevelandism, think that
the toiling and producing masses of
America can quietly stand the pres-
ent fearful strain? Is there no note
of warning in the Coxeyite move-
ment of last year, notwithstanding
its absurd features? Are all the
anarchists and socialists in America
of European origin? Is not the
present course of the president and
his supporters more calculated to
swell the ranks of the anarchists
and socialists than anything that
could be done by the most
fanatical leaders from Europe
of those misguided factions?
Is there no lesson conveyed to the
responsible leaders of the two old
political parties by the wonderful
growth of the populist party during
the last two years? That party is
merely the manifestation of the
widespread discontent of law-abid-
ing and reputable citizens, and, un-
less something satisfactory is accom-
plished in the meantime, the next
election will find the populist party
disencumbered of much of its ob-
jectionable surplusage, tinder more
conservative and creditable leaders,
probably under a new name, but its
ranks will then be augmented by
hundreds of thousands of voters from
the wage-earning class, and from
what (before the final demonetiza-
tion of silver) were the middle or
fairly well-to do classes, but who are
now becoming poorer with each suc-
ceeding month. Men are being
alienated wholesale from the two old
parties by the financial ruin entailed
upon them as individuals by the in-
sane gold basis craze, which has
been and is being foisted by interest-
ed or ill-informed politicians, by in-
sidious and specious methods, on an
increasingly suffering nation, in the
interest of the creditor and money
loaning classes of this and other
countries.—Philadelphia American.
There are many democrats in this
county who only a few years ago we
heard asserting that there was as
much money in this country as there
ever was; that there was plenty of
money, all that you needed was
something to exchange for it. If
you Populist would go home, and
raise something to get the money,
you would have no occassion to
complain of the want of money in
this country etc. The same Demo-
crats today are fairly tearing their
shirts for free silver. The adoption
of such measure a would increase the
money of redemption in this coun-
try fully two-thirds. What surprises
us is that some populist don't raise
the howl on them that they are in-
flationist cranks, fiatist, repudiators,
want to make a silver dollar which
only contains sixty cents worth of
silver worth a dollar, that in order
to be worth a dollar it must contain
intrinisic value to the extent of 100
cents, that we can't make money out
of anything that is not recognized by
other nations, that it will ruin the
bond-holders just in order to hear
them explain themselves.
Get the common, honest people
together and there will be an end of
the era of public plundering.
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 39, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 27, 1895, newspaper, April 27, 1895; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc116692/m1/1/: accessed March 28, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.