Gen. Weaver Speaks

Yesterday was Farmers' Day. The worthy tillers of the soil of the counties of Wayne, Oakland, Livingston and Washtenaw gathercd at the i'air grounds ia this city and celebrated their 15th annual harvest festival. It is on Farmers' Day that the farmer lays aside nis tools and farming implements for a day and joins his neighbor and together they, with their wives and sons and daughters, go to the farmers' picnic, held at some point in the four counties named above, and spend the day with other farmers in the good old farmer fashion. They converse with one another on the harvests of the past and of the present and draw conclusians on the prospects of the harvests of the future. They compare prices of farm producís and farming machinery of years ago with the present time. They speak of the fertility of the soil in their respective neighborhoods, of the soil whieh is most productive for one kind of products and what is best for another. They throw away all the cares and trials of the farm for a day and enjoy themselves as much as possible. They attempt to forget even the mortgage that is hanging over the liitle farm like a devouring drago--, which hard times and low prices for farm products make so diflïcult to pay off. They also exchange opinions on the tariff, finances and other great questions of the day and usually secure some prominent man to speak to theni on these issues. This is Farmers' Day. This year the farmers were successful in securing as their speaker one who is considered by nis party as the grandest and ablest men in the naUod, Gen. J. B. Weaver, who spoke to the large concourse of farmers principally on the silver question. The older farmers were highly elated at having the pleasure of listening to the able Iowaian. One enthusiastic farmer said to the Register reporter: "Ha, there! Why don't some of you newspaper fellows teil us farmers and the public in general abcut Gen. Weaver, instead of fllling the columns of your sheets with a lot of rot about the two old widows, the Democratie and Republican parties? They are rotten-" "Are you acquainted with Gen. Weaver?" interrupted the reporter. "Yes, sir, I am," he quickly replied, "and I'm proud of it, too." "Do you know his history?" "I know it by heart," he replied. "Let's hear it, please." '1 es, sir. Gen. James 15. Weaver is alawyer and statesman by profession. He graduated at a law school down in Ohio in 1854. He was bom in Dayton, Ohio, in 1833, near the same place where I was bom. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 2d Iowa infantry, was elected a lieutenant, rose to be major in 1861 and after the senior üeld officers had fallen at the great battle of Corinth was commissioned colonel. For great gallantry in action he was brevetted brigadier-general in 1865. After the war Gen. Weaver resumed his legal practice, was elected district attorney of the 2d judicial district of Iowa and was appointed assessor of intemal reve nue, serving six years. He afterward was editor for some time of the Iowa Tribune at Des Moines and was elected to Congress. In June, 1880, he was nominated for the presidency by the convention of the National Greenback Labor party. After an interval of four years he was retumed to congress by the united Greenback-Labor and Demo cratic parties in 1885 and was re-elected in 1886. I teil you, Mister, he is one of the greatest men of the age. In my opinión Gen. Weaver is the best debator in the country." "Did you you ever hear him debate?" fcquired the scribe. "Yes, sir, I did." "Where?" "On the floor of the House of Representatives at Washington. I saw him knock down all argument by the force of his logic. I heard him challenge e whole house to open dtfbate. 'You come here, gentlemen', I heard him y out at the to of his voice, 'with your inely-wntten speeches, probably written by another. Some of you have memorized them. I congratúlate you. ■nut they are not your ideas. They are ot your opinions. Throw them aside gentlemen, and meet me in open dibate. i challenge you- yes, the whole lot of you!' "I teil you you never saw suchasight. Men were dumb-founded at the fearJessness of the man. He was great in a great hour, in a great assembly. I teil you I feit proud of the friend of my youth. I could ïiot hold in any longer. I cried for joy. Gen. Weaverisa good, kind, noble man. What makes him such a powerful speaker is his earnestness. He says only what he believes, and believes what he says. Bring us a good report of his speech," eontinued the enthusiastic farmer, "and send me your paper for a year." ïhe weather looked threatening all the morning, but despite this fáct, the farmers turned cut to hear the General. Gus. Peters, our own and only Gus., was the happiest man in 99 counties. "We'vegot 'em right here today, boys!" he called out to a groap of farmers, "and you'll hear the greatest speech of your lives!" It was principally due to Mr. Peters that Gen. Weaver was present. A reception was tendered Gen. Weaver at the Cook House f rom 11 to 12 o'clock. At 1 o'clock Otto's Band stationed ltself at the south-east corner of the court house, and after playing a nuinber of tunes.marched at the head of the procession to the fair ground. At 2 o'clock Gen. Weaver, accompanied by His Honor, the Mayor, and Ilon. Gus Peters, made his appearance on the grand stand. After music by the band, Mayor Thompson was introduce d. Ile gave the farmer a good Ileul of taffy and then introduced the speaker. Gen. Weaver spoke in substance about as follows: "My friends, this is the first time I have been in Ann Arbor. The fame of yourgreat institution has gone abroad to all parts of the world. Whenever I am in Michigan I feel at home. In an early day my father moved to Michigan.-" The rain began to pourdown at this time and Gen. Weaver was compelled to discontinue speaking for about 15 minutes. During the interval Gus Petera kept the crowd in good humor by his w,tticiem8. "We cannot always have two good things at once- a Populist meeting and rainl"cried out Gen. Weaver. "I am glad," began Gen. Weaver again, "to be able to talk to yon. I come here as an American. I come here in the spirit oí patriotisin and not in the spirit of a partisan. Let us inquire into the causes of the present financial stringency. I feel as earnest in tbis movemeiit as I did in my early day when I stepped into the field of honor to lay down my life for the preservation of the unión. There are hundreds of men here who did the same, and there are women here who did more. "Xow, ladies and gentlemen, what is the matter ? Every one wlll concede that there are more people in this country today than there ever were before. There are more laborers in the country today than there ever were before, and there is less employment today than there has been before in 20 years. Xow, gentlemen, what is the matter? Is it because the Democratie party is in power? It is. I can prove it by all the Eepublican editors ia the country. I am now talking to my Eepublican brothers. President Cleveland says it is the Sherman law. I don 't think Grover Cleveland believed that statement when he wrote it. Now gentlemen, how in the name of Ileaven could the Sherman law bring about the present crisis ? How could it? Let us analyze the Sherman bill and see what it has to do with it. He then explained tothe audience the provisions of the Sherman law and demonstrated that the repeal of the act would in no way lighten the financial distress. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, what is the cause? Let me take you back to the bright time of our countay's history, when the armies bade each other good-bye, when the Angel of Peace spread its wings over our land. when you and I- those of you who were there- had passed Shiloh, Vieksburg, Corinth, Antietam, Gettsburgand other fields of blood and carnage and the bright aun was again shining on our land and the cruel war was over. Let us turn back to that time. 20,000,000 peqple were living in the North then and 10,000,000 in the South. When the war closed the nioney was in the North ; there was none in the South. The flnancial condition of the country was remarkably brighter at the elose of the war than it was in 1854, notwithstanding the ravages of the war. People were out of debt and boys had money in the bank. Wheat was $2 a bushei and there was an immense volume of paper money in circulation. John J. Knox, comptroller ot the currency af ter the war, was cited as authority. Four yíars a f ter the war, the public debt was 82,815,907,400. There were $1,707,000,000 of treasury notes, a great deal of state bank paper and $190,000,000 specie. Xo wonder the people were ' prosperóos. Every one had over 885 in different forms of money. But what did the Republican party do ? It burnt np the prosperity of the people. In three years there went out of eirculation over $1,000,000,000 that the people sliould have had the benefit of, and as a result the panic came. It was these things that drove hitn out of the Republican party. Then why did he not join the Democratie party? Because the other party was uoder the control of the same money power. He feit like the darkey who was told by his preacher at a camp meeting that there were two roads- one leading to heil and the other to damnation. "Well," said the darkey, "111 take to the woods!" So he took to the woods and became a Populist. "I want to avoid the abuse of any party. We should always employ honest argument. The situation of our country is to-day mare critical than it has been in twenty-flve years. The republican party has by its laws in the contraction of the currency brought about two panics in 20 years- a panic at each end of the country and hard times in the middle. "Our present banking system is indeed a beautiful one. It ennches king and empoverishes peasants. We, the Populists, have a trinity of finance, a system that is thoroughly American. Kead it, study it and judge for yourselves." The rain again began to pour so that it was impossible for Gen. Weaver to conclude his speech. It was the opinión of many that Gen. Weaver was the most forcible speaker they had ever listened to. He has the power to make the dry subject of iinance interesting. Gen. Weaver is a handsome man ; he has a commanding presence and a f uil, clear voice.