Custer Weekly Chronicle

In a communication the Equality, a paper published in Deadwood by the late Freeman Knowles, for which he charges $1.50 a year in advance, is an article in the issue of May 9th., commenting upon a little talk made by the undersigned to the Republican Club of Deadwood, in which communication the writer of this article is advised to drop the prefix "Honorable." Now I would say in reply, that I am not looking after prefixes; but rather after an honorable future for the Republic in which I live and the preservation of the political institutions of the country that I love, and I hope that I never more shall occupy the position of the scorner and Pharisee at the feast, snarling, criticizing and waiting for an opportunity to betray unto death the advocate of a principal and policy intended for my great good and for the good of my country.

The communication states that my change only shows what a poor democrat I have been. I wish this were true but alas, my friend is not justified in the assertion. for I do not think that a blinder or more unreasonable or stronger prejudiced or in other words, a democrat, not even excepting my friend, could be found on earth than I was, and that is one of the greatest consolations I have, knowing as I do that the position of even my friend who wrote the article in Equality, is not entirely hopeless and I think that we were blinded in part and made mad in order that the republican party, with its policy of advancement might carry the Republic through and over the dangerous period of our existence. He talks about the sanction of the wanton waste of human life for trade, I presume he means the little trouble we are having in the Philippine Islands; now I say to my friend that there never has been one moment since the Spanish war broke out, in which this country could have honorably adopted a different policy or different method in dealing with that question. Any other policy would have brought us the scorn of all the world and would have been an action of perfidy and cowardice, impossible for a true citizen to be guilty of, and advocating a different policy would be directly advising the citizenship of this Republic to act the part of the coward, in fearing to defend a defenseless people from whom we have wrested every vestige of law and protection which they had and leaving them to the tender mercy of ruthless and professional murderers and robbers. Outside of the trade question and on principles of pure ethics, this country has a duty to perform and it will perform it. The jeers and howls of a blinded minority to the contrary.

As to the feature of the article in regard to trusts I wish briefly to say, that I admit that the democratic and populist parties have a complete remedy and that is the election of Bryan or any other democrat, for I have never known in times past of there being money enough in the country at any time during the prevalence of democratic or populist policy to warrant the forming of a trust. but I have noticed, come to think, that when the party of progress was in power and when everybody was at work making money, and when money was plenty that trusts, combinations of capital will form occasionally; they seem to be creatures of prosperous times, and of course if Bryan or any other democrat should be elected there would not be an able-bodied trust left in twenty-four hours, but around the decaying body of the octopus would lay dead and dying every other industry in the country, together with the hopes of our citizens. Coin could write another book; Bryan would have time to make another cross of gold and everybody in the country could array himself in the proper ghost shirt: and another campaign like '96 would be possible. I can guarantee this remedy.

This I know that if there is anything on earth that makes a democrat and populist angry it is to talk about civilization; they immediately revert back to the stone age, grab their war clubs and declare that one life is worth more than all the advancement, and by their arguments convince any observer that the grey matter in their brain instead of being in convolutions is in slight waves, and an almighty thin layer, showing that the laws of natural selection have been much retarded in their wholesome work by the coming in of ethics, natural selection only working through death. We all believe that God created man, and that through the principle of evolution and natural laws, he is leading him higher and higher, in the scale of advancement and civilization, and that as the roaring loom of time weaves its endless web of events we can more and more clearly see the living garments of the Creator. That some political parties, like some men, advance much faster than others, and a living example of this is now before our eyes in the political field. This is the reason, my friend why I cannot be a democrat, it is on the account of the narrowness of the party; on account of its opposition to advancement; on account of its blind and hopeless resistance to the elevation of man, and to the consummation of higher and better government and more enlightened times, for remember that the animal and the plant is not the only phenomena, subject to the laws of evolution, but political parties may be included as well as all other institutions among men, and if the democratic party of to-day with its present policy had stood back in the scale of creation beyond the interposition of ethics it certainly would have perished, but through the present protection and tolerance of the advanced human thought it may possibly struggle along and after a while get some sense. This is to be ardently hoped, and there is no man on this earth that would rejoice more than the writer of this article at such a result. This kind of talk may possibly hurt but it is not so intended and I hope may do some good in bringing the democratic party back from absolute ancestor worship to the stern realisation that the eyes of all mankind are fastened upon this Republic and that we must advance, thus demonstrating that representative government is the highest type of government yet known among men.

I think the republican party is the logical party to administer the affairs of government. This from a thousand reasons, and I shall vote for McKinley and work for McKinley because I love this country and not out of any hatred for democrats, and I will conclude this article by saying "Hurrah for McKinley."

Buel R. Wood