San Antonio Daily Light

How to Free the Country From Ring Rule.

To the Daily Light.

It strikes me, that by putting a county ticket in the field, the Populists will be merely playing into the hand of the big four, and will help to perpetuate them in office. I am quite positive that the Populists will not poll as many votes in Bexar as they polled in 1892, and they were in a most pitiful minority that year. The working men will hardly vote in a body with the Populists, and even should they do so, their vote would not be large enough to crown the Populists with a victory in Bexar.

Where is the good sense and the sound judgment, then, in the Populists in nominating a county ticket in Bexar? They are in a woful minority, and without a ghost of a shadow of a chance of electing their county ticket.

The rescue of the county from the grip of the syndicate of the office holders, known as the "big four" appeals to the self-respect and patriotism of every voter in the county, whose soul is imbued with a spark of manhood and love of liberty, and should never be subordinated to partizan feelings and considerations. The Syndicate of office holders abrogates to itself the right to name all the county officers without so much as going through the empty form of consulting the people, and the voters have submitted to this autocracy too long already for their own manhood. Is not this statement literally true?

The yoke of the "big four" must be cast off with indignation and contempt. We are not worthy of the name of free men, in case we shall wear this galling yoke any longer. County voters and city voters must unite and act together in this effort to emancipate the people from the yoke of a ring, which sits on the county like a huge nightmare.

We must strike for the emancipation of the people from thraldom to a ring. It vitally concerns every citizen to smash this ring. It rises far above party and party considerations, as well as mere personal ambitions. It overshadows all other issues and dwarfs into insignificance all other considerations.

Are we free men, in case we tamely suffer the big four to select all our county officers, and are content to ratify their autocratic doings?

Most certainly not. The big four claims the right to name our county judge, our district attorney and our district judge, and if the men alleged to have been picked out for these offices, are really the choice of the big four, it is high time the people were in open revolt. None of them are fit for the offices.

Now, to smash the combined county and city syndicate of office holders demands a cordial union of the real Democrats, the Republicans and the Populists, on a common ticket. The people must choose such a ticket. The Lopez plan will not work. It ignores the people.

B. J. F.