December 6, 1892 — Opera House, Leavenworth KS

[She began her speech by saying she was proud that she is a member of the greatest of all organizations, the Knights of Labor for that was the organization that first recognized that woman is a human being. It is an organization where what is the interest of one is the interest of all. She was at loss as to what to talk about, no subject being given her when she came. The election is over and campaign speeches cannot be made. As there is to be a woman suffrage meeting at Enterprise this evening, she would have to save her suffrage speech for that. She had discovered that it is no use to talk prohibition in Leavenworth, and about the only thing left is to look over the battlefield.]

What is the result? It it a victory? Yes, when we look over the field we find an overwhelming Democratic victory, not so much a Democratic victory as a victory for the money power. Frankly say have we bettered our condition? For thirty years the two political parties have ruled the people and we behold an appalling state of affairs. Millions of mortgaged homes and a suffering people with wasted lives and we see monumental pillars of robbery all along the way; large lands increasing, small lands decreasing, industry dying out and robbery legalized. We see unrest among the people and that unrest crystallizing into a great organization, clamoring for relief or reform, which cannot come from either of the two political powers. They are corrupt and under the thumbs of the money power. Now that the election is over we look to see if this Democratic reform party has striven to shake off the shackles and to be free men. We see one of the old parties in supremacy. They have no place to hide and say “we wanted to help the people but were prevented by the Republican house or senate.” The people look to the Democratic government for relief and reform.

The party is placed where the sinner was placed under the old plan of foreordination. They are pledged to wipe out war taxes. If they reduce the tariff it will be disastrous. They cannot keep a single pledge. There is no way except by free coinage of silver or an inflated currency. They triumph is a triumph of the money power. They tried to capture the money power and the money power has captured them.

Referring to the south she said: Say what you will the solid south has been broken. There are tens of thousands in the south who will not get what they expect from the Democrats and be found on the mourners bench in the People’s party.

Now that the Republican party has received its death blow, the grave is being dug deep and wide for the Democracy in ’96. The did worse than ignore the money platform. They favored a “monetary conference” and we notice a conference dictated by Rothschilds. The old world robbers are dictating to the American people what kind and how much money we shall have. We wonder at the moderation of the American people; that they have submitted to these outrages so long. The Democrats are not so much a party as a protest against progression or anything that is good. Without their help we could not have carried the state. Those who supported the Omaha platform have made it possible to defeat the detestable vilest of the vile — George T. Anthony. To those we are thankful. To-night many a prayer goes up from a mortgaged home and many a prayer of heartfelt thanks, that Kansas has been redeemed. We look for a state administration, as it will be in ’96, of, for and by the people.

I have been asked twice since I have been here “Are you a single taxer?” I would say if single tax means the abolition of monopoly and landlordism, homes for the homeless, freedom for man and woman, ten with all my heart I am a single taxer; but I am a student patiently, slowly seeking the truth. I do not believe there is any universal remedy for all the ills that afflict mankind. Reforms are varied and infinite. There is no party who can succeed who excludes the best half of American citizens.

We are in an age of thought, it is searching the hearts of the people from center to circumference. The time is coming when the government must be based on the golden rule and American principles. The United States constitution is finding an echo in every heart. A great tidal wave of discontent is in the minds of the people of the whole world. In Europe cries of unrest are heard from one end of the country to the other. They ask why it is that a privileged few should life at the expense of the many. The tidal wave of unrest has reached American shores and to-day we find a mighty organization going on, a conflict between organized labor and organized capital. It has reached such magnitude it has been said that we can never reach the solution fo this problem peaceably.

Believe it not my friends. We can and will settle all problems in this country with the white bloodless ballot but it will never be done until a mother’s ballot goes with that of the father. Even you, lords of creation, have had control of affairs for 100 years and you must admit that you have made a lamentable failure. Well you may say, “we might just as well had a lot of old women up there. They would have done better and could not have made a more gigantic muddle.” No, there is to be no more blood. We are too far advanced in science and in Christianity to yield to the use of bullets to solve our problems.

We have registered a vow never again to sacrifice our loved ones for the benefit of others.

We are nearing the Sabbatical time in the world where prosperity and plenty will reign. The people will live at peace. The twentieth century will see us with one people, one world all united and happy.

We have made greater advancement in a quarter of a century than in the hundred years before that. We have broken away from the past. There are no hereditary socialisms, no law of entail and no feudalisms. We have become wise, we have our common schools and high schools, universities and colleges, we have developed the Morse system of the telegraph with wonderful rapidity, yet we have come down carrying in our arms the household idols of a darker past. Through the gold system of money we have let England have a stronghold stronger than that gained by bloodshed. England to-day owns our coal bed; silver and gold mines; our factories; our bays are full of English ships to carry away cotton at starvation prices, also wheat, because England controls them through the demonetization of silver. Will the people remain apathetic under this system? It will be unsuccessful for any party to right our wrongs unless guided by one word, Justice.

People that ignore Justice cannot long survive. There is a feeling growing that will not rest until all have equal and exact justice for woman and for man, and then all the problems will be settled by an educated ballot, never again shall brothers take brothers’ blood in the twentieth century. There has never been such manifestations as now to make a better world. The speaker exhorted the Knights of Labor and Farmers’ and Citizens’ Alliance to forget party, organization, race church or society and unite to-day for the cause of human liberty. It must be a gospel of love and not one of hate. To those who are opposed to use we must say we cannot afford to be enemies. We must be a people for the fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.

Source: The Leavenworth Times, (Leavenworth, KS) December 7, 1892, p. 4.