IS THE UNION A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION? 275 



room for complaint except with the professional 

 politician. But the policy of all has been: 'Give us 

 offices with all the honors and emoluments, and we will 

 distribute the burdens equally among the farmers and 

 laborers and protect the capitalist, the monopolist and 

 the railroad magnate, because these are the elements of 

 power in their organized capacity.' Their system of 

 class legislation has created the breach of which they 

 now complain. They accuse us of arraying one class 

 against another, when the guilt lies at their own door, 

 through broken pledges, forfeited promises and corrupt 

 dealing. 



"Wheelerism means equal burdens, equal taxation, 

 equal rights, equal privileges and equal protection to all 

 classes of citizens, whether laborer, mechanic, banker or 

 speculator, and the party that will purge itself of cor- 

 ruption, and go before the country with these principles 

 and with the assurance of good faith, will receive the 

 co-operation of every tiller of the soil. " 



Similar expressions from many sources might be 

 quoted. They are the honest expressions of sincere hearts. 

 They are the low rumblings in the distance which indicate 

 the coming storm. 



Many of the agricultural, mechanical and other trade 

 organizations have persistently ignored politics and forbid- 

 den the discussion of political questions in their associa- 

 tions, and the result is they have never accomplished a 

 thing for which they have been contending. 



They have met, organized, contributed money, made 

 able speeches and written voluminous documents setting 

 forth their grievances, only to be laughed at by their 

 oppressors, and ridiculed by a subsidized press. They re- 

 gard the issue between themselves and capitalized monop- 

 oly as moral and not political, and they labor for a moral 

 reformation of capital rather than to control it by legisla- 



