The Southern Mercury, Texas Farmers' Alliance Advocate. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 14, 1890 Page: 3 of 8
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THE SOUTHERN MKKOJBY: PA1XAB, TÜIXA8, THDB8DAT, AUGUST 14, 1890.
H066 AND COMMISSION.
HON. J. O. HUTCHESON ON THE
HXJSTINÓ3 AT HUNT SVILLE.
An Unequaled and Unansw rabie
Oratorical and Philosoph'CHl
Arraignment of Corpo ate
Greed and Monopolistic
Avarice.
[Special to Houston He aM. ]
Huntsville June 14 — Hon J. C.
Hutcheson, of Houston, addressed a
large and enthusiisti<: audience at the
opera house this tvening. The speech
was an oration by an orator. It was
a masterpiece of rhetoric, logic and
law. The converts to Hogg and the
commission are reckoned by the score,
Hogg and commission men are wild
with en husiasm and claim every pre
cinctin this county and tvery county
in this section. Capt. Hutcheson
spoke two and a quarter hours, and
just such ano her speech was never
heard in Huntsville. The speech was
substantially as follows:
Fellow Citizens of Walker County
It affords me great gratification to
meet so many familiir faces as com
pose this audience, and to recognize
so many warm personal friends as 1
see before me to day. I have come
before you, my fiiends, in a canvass in
which, contrary to the usual experience
of your state, presents a living issue as
well as the personal claims of the as
pirants lo governor of your state.
I welcome the change from personal
advocacy of individuals without regard
to political tenets, and hail with pleas
ure the day when the citizens of this
country d> mand, first, to hear the issue
upon which they are expected to act
and then consider the men in whose
hands they are willing to entrust the
execution of their wishes. I feel that
I would not do justice to myself or to
the many democrats whom I believe
to be in accord with my views, if I did
not, before entering a consideraron o(
the merits of this issue, eliminate from
it one of the charges brought against
its advocates by our opponents. I al-
lude, my countrymen, to the charge
made by some leading men in this
state, that the issue upon which I pro-
pose to address you to-day is undemo-
cratic and that those who advocate it
are in antagonism and are wanting in
fidelity to the democratic party.
IS THE AMENDMENT DEMOCRATIC?
Recognizing the force in my own
heart and in the hearts of all true men
of the sense of allegiance to creed and
party, especially when that creed and
that party has been long loved and
cherished, I feel that I cannot ask an
audience of democrats with the same
freedom to enter into a calm consider-
ation of this question until I relieve
them and myself from the embarrass-
ment of this false charge No man
who has worked in the harness of the
democratic party, who cherishes its
past, and who rejoices in the hope of
its prrpitious future, can cheerfully es-
pouse any cause which he believes to
be in antagonism to the cherished
doctrines of his party on which he
founds the principles of government
and from which he foretells its future
glory and greatness.
Let us, therefore, meet the charge
as it becomes meo conscious of their
own rectitude and willing to stand to
the end with the great party which we
have served so long and loved so well.
The charge assumes the form, my
countrymen, of ascribing to those who
advocate the amendment an advocacy
of paternal government, and of unusu-
al interference by government in the
private affair of its citizens. In the
support of th:s charge they appeal to
the doctrine so often and so justly
taught by Jefferson, that: "That gov-
emment was best which governed
least, and that the government should
not unnecessarily interfere with the
private affairs of its individual citizens,
but should leave the individual to work
out his own salvation, only protecting
him against the outrage and vrrong of
his fellow men."
It must be admitted • by all honest
minded and well informed men that
statesmanship is nothing but ,the sci-
ence of circumstances, the result of
experience, and that political questions
are incapable of final solution. Could
we drain the learning and the genius
of this continent and of the universe,
after all its illuminations were exhaust-
ed, many polemic questions must be
eft in the shadow of darkness to be
brought to light and solved by agen-
cies and exigencies, which experience,
however extended, or genius, however
great, cou'd neithir foretell or control.
No wise man will claim that the au-
thority of any man, however great,
rou d so finally determine the fixed
I'm ts o< law as that future generations
could not control great, overgrown and
unanticipated offsprings of govern-
mental license by suitable and ju-t en-
actments of law. Neither can any
man apply to the complications of
polemics any one maxim, however
broad or w:s\
Conceding to our opponents this
Jefftrsonian doctrine, let us test it and
apply it to the proposed amendment,
but let us cluster around it oiher tenets
equally as well recognized and as sa-
cred to this immortal statesman,
Tqomas Jefferson.
Let us remember that he likewise
maintained "equal rights to all men
and special privileges to none;" that
he damned with all the force of his
genius the erection of monopoly, or
the suffering of perpetuities; that his
soul was the temple in which individ-
ual manhood was worshipped withoui
regard to station or fortune, and that
his intellect was the fountain from
which flowed the well-springing waters
of unalloyed libeity.
If, my countrymen, I could by some
magic power invoke the spirit of that
immortal man, and ask it to stand by
the side of us upon this occasion and
lift before his eyes the curtain and let
his vision rest upon the stage on which
five railroad kings were actors in this
country, in the hollow of whose hands
there was clasped three billion of dol-
lars, and in whose hands were the
reins that controlled the commerce
that girdled this continent, and im-
parted to his ear the startling informa-
tion that these barons of wealth and
power had amassed that wealth and
achieved that power out of and from
the people of this land of liberty, and
upon the other side should reflect the
people represented by millions of arms
outstretched in rags, millions of feet
unclad by shoes, millions of mouths
hungering for bread, thousands cf
farms mortgaged for debt, and I should
bring before him the issue which those
people bring against those barons, in
which they cry for protection against
such sudden and to em unseemly
wealth and such great and to them
dangerous power, and ask him if in
the simplicity of his nature, in the love
of his fellowmen, he could deny to
them the petition for
A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY,
and if the commission found wrong for
a commission of relief, where, my
countrymen, do you suppose that spir-
it would cast his eyes, and against
whom would he raise his hands and
command silence? Would he who
was able to perceive, fearless to
point out the distinction between the
individual and the aggregate power of
men, he who was willing to trust the
tide of human affairs to the feeble
power of one man for the short span
of one life,—would he trust the liberty
of mankind and the destiny of gov-
ernment to the licensed and unre-
strained power centered in an aggre-
gation of men armed with wealth and
stimulated by greed, enjoying that
perpetuity and succession which ex-
ceeds the span of many lives, and the
divided force of many fortunes, and
stay the hand of law which circum
scribes their powet and limits their
greed? Would he not proclaim my
countrymen, that these institutions and
those who control them were the
agencies of paternal government, and
and were the children of pernicious
laws and methods, which had thus de-
parted from the simplicity of his dem-
ocratic faith, and recognize in them
monopoly, perpetuities and aggregated
power, endangering the liberty of the
citizens and the safety of the govern-
ment, and that the paternalitories of
which they complained was typified
in and represented by its child, the
overgrown corporate power of
this lacd ? Would that I could by en-
chantment draw those guilty souls be-
fore his great and shining face, and
let this pour the contumely and the
scorn of his great heart upon men >0
couched and imbedded in forbidden
law, seeking to shelter themselver un-
der the simple tenets of the govern-
ment proclaimed by him, which never
contemplated the possibility of their
existence. Would that I could see
their cheeks blanch and their coward-'
ly frames shrink away from so great1
I and just and so simple and pure a
presence
PARTY PLATFORM.
Let us come down to our own day
and heed to the voice of that party
which has evir cherishec his teachings
and maintained his institutions, and
drir>k the inspirition fresh from the
living hands of to day, and from them
learn what their interpretations are of
the great heritage they received at his
hands Let me read you, my coun-
trymen, from the platform of our party,
its promises and pledges the lesson of
the democratic party, as interpreted by
the greatest living men of our day and
our state.
COKE AND REAGAN.
Let us hen take council of those
two men seated in the senate of the
United States, who reflect the glory
and eminent ability of this great party.
Where stand Coke and Reagan on this
queston? My countrymen, they s'and
fully committed to the advocacy of the
cause in which we find ourselves en-
flirted.
OUR CONSITUTION.
Let us next consult the constitution
of our State, built like the Hebrew
temples, by those who were the truest
in the faith and worthiest to approach
the altars from which its incense should
ascend. That constitution proclaims
that railroad companies, heretofore or
hereafter constructed, are public high-
ways, and railroad companies them-
selves common carriers. The legisla-
ture shall pass laws from time to time
to prevent abuses, etc., and shall from
time to time pass laws establishing
reasonable maximum rates of charges
for transportation of freight and pas-
sengers. It likewise prescribes that
they shall not issue stock or bonds,
except up m actual equivalent in mon-
ey, material or labor, that they should
not consolidate with competing lines,
and they should not pass within three
miles of a county seat without enter-
ing it; that they shall annually report
to the legislature, etc.
My countrymen, how in the face of
these provisions can our opponents
claim for these companies, born under
and founded by these provisions, any
immunity from regulation by law on
the pretense that they are private in
stitutions ?
THE LEGISLATURE C F 1889!
We further find that our legislature,
supposed by all of us to be thoroughly
democratic, has passed this proposed
amendment, and our governor sup-
posed by all of us to be eminently
democratic has sanctioned it with his
approval, and they have submitted to
us an amendment to these provisions,
which I here recite, in which they pro
pose to give more unquestioned au-
thority to the legislature of this state in
regard to the machinery and agencies
through which these regulations shall
be more successfully executed.
Armed with these precedents of our
party and the position of such authori-
ty, can we not claim, as democrats,
with full fealty to our party that we
can discuss and advocate this measure
without being expelled from its pre
cincts and proclaimed traitors in coun-
sel and assassins in debate ?
Standing here to-day as a democrat,
looking back to its cradle rocked by
Jefferson, and its mannood as nursed
and supported by Cok and Reagan
and ot the democratic cohorts who
have marshaled in conventions and as-
sembled in legislative counsels, as-
cribing to its tenets the highest gover-
mental principles and not willing to
depart therefrom, inspired by its past
career and by its auspicious future and
willing to pledge my life to uphold and
to not destroy it, I confidently invite
your attention to this subje:t. I claim
to be in the ranks of the people and
arrayed against the ranks of monopoly,
perpetuities and licensed but unhal-
lowed. power. I do not mean to
characterize all our opponents in this
way; there are a host of conscient ous
following in their ranks.
Understand me, my fiiends, I am
not here to invoke an unjust or un-
righteous cruBide, or to lead any army
with transient energy to unholy spoi',
but I ask you with a steady purpose
and a firm resolve to come to this con-
flict with a holy desire to regulate and
not destroy, to curb but not to dispoil;
let us go to neither extreme, seeking
on the one hand corporate favor or 011
the other popular clamor, but let us
stand where justice and moderation
dictate and defy the thunderings of
the one and the blandisments and cor-
rupt influences of the other, and in 1
regulating their rights let us unite cir-
cumspection with vigor, deal justly
from the sense of what is due to our-
selves and from the further sense; then
we may, like Sampson, pull down the
pillars of their power, but if we do it
we may be buried in the dust of their
crumbling edifice.
THE NECESSITY FOR THE COMMISSION.
Actuated by such a purpose and
restrained by such cosidt ration, let us
consider what propriety or necessity
there is for the adoption of this amend-
ment. We have but to cast our eyes
over the past fifteeti years of our his-
tory to see there has existed in this
state a growing agitation upon this
question, which has not existed be-
fore and that distinct factions ate
threatening to sever even the lines o'
of our own organization. And while 1
believe, my countrymen, that th<
adoption of this amendment and the
selection of the commission thereunder
armed with statuatory limited, circum
scribed and regulating powtrs, will ac-
complish great good and bring practi
cal remidas to existing tvi's yet il 1
did not believe and could not demon-
strate to you that such will be the con-
sequences, I would still maintain the
property of this commission, because I
believe it will neccessarily determine
that the evils complained of do exist
and bring to them the remedies re-
quired; or if they do not, they will de
clare unjust the complaint which has
excited this agitation, and with autho<-
ity of good and true men will bring to
this land of our a cessation of this agi-
tation and the peace which has not in
habited i s boundary in a great period
of time.
I learn with gratification that such
has been the effect in the state 0
Georgia and others states where a com
mission has been adopted. I have
seen legislative reports from that s aie
by the commission and supported b>
the railroads in substantiation of m>
claim.
Much time and more money has
been frittered away in the legisla urt
of our state dividing on the que tion
of the method of dealing wiih these
roads, coupled with the limit of coi.sti-
tutional authority, wh'ch has embar-
rassed legislation. Let us carry this
amendment and let us pass law.s so
ttmpered with justice that no good
man can oppose them and no honeit
man can tear them.
Without some such provisions by
our legislature you might as well ex-
pect the arm of finite man to measure
its strength agiinst the aim of omnip
otence as to expect individual enter
prise to cope and contend with capita)
a thousand times multiplied, armed
with governmental function of eminen
domain, licensed and unlimited tax;ng
capacity, having eternal fpice for its
field and perpetual time for i s m 1-
chination and employment.
But I feel well convinced thit I
shall demonstra'e to you that thib :>g -
tation against the railroad compinu >
is founded upon well grounded com
plaints of violated law, which have
aroused public resentment against in-
stitutions encouraged and fostered by
rich legacies from a generous state for
which they have unblushiogly defied
and violated those most righteous en-
actments and restraints which that
state felt necessary to throw around
them.
THE RAILROAD? DTFY ALL L*WS.
I may not be able to give you in-
stances of transgression by sins of
omission and commission, which will
show defiance to all the decalogue of
legislation, but I will show so many in-
stances manifesting the utter disre-
gard in which legislation is held that
the people are excusable for charging
that other rights more difficult to
guard, and which enter into the field
of speculation, are as much trans-
gressed and violated, though their vio-
lation is not easily ascertained or de-
tected.
I believe it to be the law that the
presumption of innocence which clothes
every man and everything is shifted to
a presumption of guilt and suspicion
whenever it is shown that a party is a
great criminal against innumerable
laws which he has set at defiance, and
for that reason he has asctibcd to him,
as a general outlaw, crimes of which
he may be innocent, but against which
suspicion is directed to him, and he
has no one to blame but his own reck
less course of crime. It is legitimate
evidence to allow the good or bad
reputation of a citizen to stand his de-
fender or accuser and I ask no more
-I W-P
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2*5.2 *2-5 2
NAZARETH ACADEMY. KENTUCKY.
A Hibt*clahb Hoarding Sc hool for yountr Indies. A 1 modern convcnlf*noes, with Ample
opportunity for out-duor exereil . Terms modorate. Address, Mothvr 8up« rior, Naza-
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H. H- HAMILTON,
Wall Paper, Window Glass, Paints, Oils.
▲.rtiats' Materials, Fhoturo Frame*, Bto.
747 Him street DitUaa, TezM.
TheBEST on Earth y|
for the Money.
¿CUPPER TRICYCLE
is constructed entirely of 8teel,wrought
and malleable Iron. NO WOOD. NO
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without ruining out of llx-((round, Hun more modern
linprovemontH tliuuuny mow mude. It In not u cheap
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liny where to reNpoiiNlhle men to operute uKiilnst all
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truted (JutuloKiiu with (cNiluiohtulH free. Address
the Manufacturera,
PARUNiORENDORFPCO.,Dallas,Tex.
Holstien-Fresian Stock Firm,
FERRIS, ELLIS CO., TEX.
IIreaders of Thoroughbred and Graded
Holetien-Frcsian Cattle.
ALBO
Houdan and Plymouth Rock Chickens
Eggs, $1.00 for 13.
Pat tie for sale on this farm are fully atoll-
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jar w« re er to the editor of The Mernury. Ferris, Tel.
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'Manufacturers of
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Qen'i Managers.
'¿0:1 and 2 'ft Main Street, Dalli a, Texas.
The Unsolicited Endorsements!
HEC'KIVJil) 13V
SeatH WEST TEXAS
O.N TI1IÍ LIN Id OF TUB
Stamps this Section as the Finest Agricultural Country in the World.
Fruits, Grapes and Vtgt tables of all kinds ripen and are ready for market
weeks in advance of any other section. Lands cheap. Climate healthy.
IVFor Information, address or call on It. W. ANDKKW8,
A. 0. P. A., Bar, Antonio, Texas.
TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY,
THE GREAT POPULAR ROUTE BETWEEN
AND TIIE SHORT LINE TO
New Orleans, and all points in Colorado, Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico;
Old Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon, via El Paso.
Pullman Pataco Bleeping Oars dally lietween St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, HI Paao
and New Orleans, without change.
Doable Line of Sleeping Gars dally, through to St. Louis, via Texarkanaand tbe
Iron Mountain Houte.
Only Line offering Choice of Koutes to Point* In the Southeast via either Texark-
ana, Bhreveport or New Orloans.
For maps, time-tables, ticket rates, and any desired Information, call on any of the tloket
agents, or address
La X"a M MtITAHi JTBVOl II1IT I'MBUIIV ^ ^
Passerger and Tloket Ag't, Dallas, Tasaa.
C, P.MBAN, Traveling Passenger Agent, Dallas, Texas.
A. W. MoCt'LLOUGH, General Passerger and Tloket * '
JOHN A. GRANT. :ird Vice-President, Dallas, Texas.
cc
The International Route
X dto Or. N. FL. R.
99
(0>n laacd on prgsl.)
Houston, Galveston, Austin, San Antonio, Laredo, ánd all points South and
Southwest Tevas. •
■HORT Xiimo TO TBB
REPUBLIC OF MEXICO, via San Antonio and Laredo.
BCl 1EPUL.E1 If EFFIflCT M Alt. , IS^Q
Lv
K35 pm
11:36 pm
vL
7'80 I
0:40 l
South Dally
1:80 a lq
4:80 a m
1:20 a m
7:48 a m
4:00 p m
7:10 p m
1:10 p m
217 p m
4:10 p m
•00 p m
UkOO p m
Pullman
raatfdtui J
Buffet 8ii
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Mexico
North
7:4r> a m
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Dally
11:4# pm
10:40 pm
11:00 pm
7:30 pi
9:80 (a.
7;oo am
1:40 pm
1240 pm
11:00 am
230 am
8:46 am
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1:40am
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Ar
4¡a i
ft 001
yooo, Tr.Tellng Passenger Agent, Palestine, Texas.
. ADAJH, Commercial Agent, Dallas Texas.
•i. .i . ..** ..LkW
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Dixon, Sam H. The Southern Mercury, Texas Farmers' Alliance Advocate. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 14, 1890, newspaper, August 14, 1890; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth186151/m1/3/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .