This government is not a republic. It is a government of landlords and tenants, of millionaires and paupers, of masters and slaves. It is a government of golden splendor, of pomp and display, and of miserable obscurity; of purple and fine linen, and debasing rags; of crime and misery in high places, and misery and crime in low places; with prisons filled and lunatic asylums overflowing, crime, insanity, and suicide increasing, drunkenness and debauchery sapping the fountain of moral purity, and threatening the overthrow of society and domestic institutions; these are the inevitable results of inordinate wealth in the hands of the few.

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And the people, with the ballot in their hands, suffer such things to be!

It may be objected that the people, or at least a great portion of them, are comparatively free and independent. Grant this. The vital question is not what we are, but whither are we tending. Twenty years ago our millionaires could be counted not to exceed a score. To-day their enumeration would carry us into thousands. Since the new system of robbery has been perfected, half a million of people have come into the possession and control of more wealth than the balance of the entire nation. In other words, two per cent of the population hold and control

more wealth than the remaining ninety-eight per cent, and the ratio of disproportion is increasing. It is the tendency to absolute despotism that gives character and importance to this subject.

This is the result of corporate power. A corporation is a "body politic," organized for the purpose of exercising certain powers not exercisable by individuals or voluntary associations; a legal entity separate from personal entity, exercising such powers as interfere with and override natural rights. It is a petty kingdom, endowed with perpetuity, created by law for its own aggrandizement; a usurpation of power for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. They increase and multiply all over the land, absorbing and controlling all the elements of politi cal power, whereby the well-being of the people is involved. These combine, confederate, and by utilizing labor-saving machinery in the production and transportation of wealth, raise up a corporate empire, ruling with an iron hand the toiling, struggling masses of the impoverished and enslaved multitude.

And this is our "republic"! What mockery! Why do not the people rise in their might and hurl with contempt and loathing such despotism from its usurped power, and assert their rights as freemen ?

A LITTLE more than forty years ago the first line of telegraphic communication was set in operation between Baltimore and Washington. Since then such lines have formed a network of communication throughout the civilized world, and connected continents thousands of miles, apart.

The means by which these grand results are accomplished have been wrought out by the busy brain of the scientist, from the great storehouse of Nature, evoked from her hidden and hitherto mysterious recesses.

The value to mankind of the application of the electro-magnet in telegraphy is beyond all computation. As civilization advances, its necessities

increase, so that rapid and extended communication becomes indispensable.

This value belongs to all alike. The force by which this needful work is accomplished is given by the Creator. He has made it necessary to the higher and more advanced condition in the moral, intellectual, social, and political world, and given to his creatures the capacity to develop and appropriate it to their use."

This God-given means, this inestimable value, this imperative necessity in advancing civilization, is appropriated by corporate power, and controlled and used for corporate benefit, not only compelling exorbitant rates for its service to the many, but controlling intelligence, thereby directing national affairs and monopolizing the interests of all.

By it political movements are conducted, conventions manipulated, nominations dictated, and elections carried. By it the markets are regulated in the interests of capitalists, and prices determined. In short, it controls the political, financial, and industrial interests of the country..

And yet these arrogant usurpers have the effrontery to set themselves up as the benefactors of the land. They declare that these beneficent enterprises could not be carried on without their aid; that all the intelligence and enterprise is

confined to their narrow limits; that the people are incapable of conducting great enterprises, and should be grateful for their arduous and selfsacrificing efforts to extend the blessings ofmonopoly. Moreover, they contend that those who take the world are entitled to it. They say the race is fair and open to all, and those who win are the heroes, and entitled to the spoils of their victory. It is by such sophistries as these, thrust upon the people by a subsidized press, and silenced by a refusal to give room for a discussion of the subject, that this illusion is kept up.

Now what are the facts? To begin with, our government is based upon the doctrine of vested powers and kingly prerogatives. The race is not open and fair. These usurpers are endowed by the government with rights and privileges not accorded to the people. The aristocratic party did this in fastening upon the people a government to all intents and purposes English in its character and tendency, and managed to get themselves elected so as to set it in operation under its newly prescribed form, with the name of a republic, but the nature of an oligarchy. With these advantages to start with, they have sought in every way to improve them. With a land-tenure system that secures millions of acres to single in