The Rome weekly courier. (Rome, Ga.) 1860-1887, November 28, 1877, Image 1

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oL , dA TED APRIL to, 1870. ^jTES 1 FOl fOB THE TRI-WEEKLY. :11 advance, the price of tlic n i„1 strictly in . . - y conri. r will 're 52 50 a year, and ;;^livc moro ' one eopy wiU b0 fur M. DWINELL, PROPRIETOR. “W IS DOM; JUSTICE- AND MODERATION.” i —4.' TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM. VOLUME XXXII. ROME, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY ■ MORNING, NOVEMBER 28, 1877. ; . . * ; /' .5 . .. I; 15/ * • : * \KW SERIES--N0. 13 IVE SS if bis rpee -ELTON’S SPEECH. ,;jsii to-day the speech of our te representative in Congress question of resumption of cjnents by the Federal Gov- ' j[r, Felton is a man of ur.- ability and power as a.speak- \ ■" , the end he aims at, that is, J.W*of the present resumption re? hM rily concur with him. While Vi, we must be allowed to enter to the tone and character of , Mr. Felton has waited it i, weii known that the anti-re- uvo a eoiisiderable mnjor- iS^eofwhieiilieisamem- : r , r <l r.iwaoiusi-- 1 :h' - House for an , '"a-illi a speech fill of the tropes /’faur/ of rhetoric, and breathing • 3< fc‘ive ocainsl men of all political w ho happen to disagree with lip n a mere business matter, to ff t |. f , easiest and most convenient !,v of honestly paying a debt. In his „f the iiuestion of the rela- of capital and labor he is singu- Llv unfortunate, and leaves himself ! j=8 a common phrase, on the fence, p-eoiieuing paragraphs of his speech «ebrimful of platitudes and truisms, "hesays, for instance: ‘’The forma . f' c j a ^ e = is to be deprecated;” .j'" fcor r.n right to make war upon capital, because capital is as necessary "reductive industry as labor:" “It ram'and criminal for productive fjorjn eonspirt- against corporations, „: a5t bonaiholders, against capital. equally wrong and criminal for (Jjol to combine and conspire against 1 • Having said so much, and 3r h mori > of similar import, the announces that he “is not sur- gsol that men who are dependent 1. )n t j lt .j r ii- for bread,” etc., etc., Should occasionally take counsel of aeirpassions, and, in a word, resist the trol of capital. Now, we ask, where a-,, t,, p! Mr. Felton ? Does he riml upon the broad generalities that to furor the right of capital to 1 labor, or shall we place him as a apologist for strikers? We regret, hr the sake of the cause Mr. Felton was advocating, that he has laid himself open to the charge of demagogism, which the enemies of the measure will ■•'tret,i hurl at him. A few years ago the financial meas- sre; that are now pnpularnearly all over •ie Union bad but few advocates in the krh.but time and the “sober, second fey's" have wrought a wonderful !l»ge in the popular mind ; and with fe-.fetnge the Democratic party is yotvinjin gib, so that very soon it will levolve upon that party to shape sit measures of economy and reform. Its Tth lie people are looking to the Democratic party for relief, and as a wseqaence expect much of the wis dom and state smanship of the South. Then, when it is known that there are w's, have always been active Dem- in the North, who are hard- iwntn, what is the use in,or what .''•’icm Ii» accomplished by antagon- g:-’them upon a simple question of -gi fe.ncy ? The same desirable re- '!•':s sun-to come whether Mr. Fel- "'■ggiks or holds his peace. • ■ reported from Constantinople, I ” t'Jtiiority to which good informa- •aec'-ssiiue, that His Majesty the | "tw mil his Ministers are of opinion ■ time for endeavoring to put I i-bi to the war has arrived,” says •'few York Herald. His Majesty ■hesultan dues not want to inflict any r mis ry on the Russian Empire, | y ,r - ave any more inflicted on his own. -fh! not be easy for people generally White the Sultan’s benevolent '•’v;toward the Russian Empire from 'Wmple te overthrow of Moukhtar h: Asia, the critical position of army in Bulgaria, and the -Ktsii success of the Montenegrins in “"toil* Antivari. Either of these | flcl: - might incline a rational Govern 'd peace, but the three to- -’ ■at will leave Turkey, if not in a -’’t-Hkss, at least in a te r ribly crip- Condition, and that naturally in- -p r = the Sultan to reflect upon the "■'’"ts ami horrors of war. England M a,, e invited to assist in the efforts ; Si; !t> peace, and will, doubtless, -“•! tan.e-tly. now that the fortune of ' ; against the Moslem. But we ■ 11 peace will he made just yet, " “ issia has gained success enough v '"tag" her to insist upon her "■"S terms, and Turkey has not ful- ■ ’-Merieneed calamities enough tc ' ' ' her to accept them. ■ o t ms to he no prospect of a .-^promise between the warring Van- “ The contest promises to be a , “ r, J scandalous one. The spectacle refusing to divide any portion . ^-‘tty-five millions of dollars with ■ r titers and sisters is about as .j ami edifying as the other . -safe of said brothers and sisters out ihe skeletons from the closet, because their father left a ° r: ‘. v one fortune apiece. dltt.-siaiis have captured Kart I,';’ carried it by storm Saturday night, -r f’cclve hours of hard fighting, the 'Urrendered the city Sunday morn- It j 7‘ 'C-A ease in the Senate, on the 22, w '“ a o to contested seats in that body, ’■ 1 atterson a .id Conover voted with : “cwocrats. (v-™™ ^ e, lrci has given to the Messrs. Tuihv'’ <J " Philadelphia, a contract for ' " " railroad 1-S0 miles long. Borne and the Surrounding Country. To the Editor of The Courier: Rome may be proud of its future prospects as a commercial and manu facturing city. It cannot be otherwise, surrounded as it is by so large an area of country noted for the fertility of its lands, besides rich in mineral wealth. Some seven or eight cbuuties, perhaps more, do their trading with Rome. There is no inland town or city in Georgia that has so rich a country in material wealth to support it as Rome has. Its agricultural products are va ried, comprising cotton, the cereals, and the grasses. Its mineral wealth is in iron, coal, slate and lime. Railroad facilities are already established with all parts of • the country, and three steamboats navigating the Coosa and (fetanaula rivers, which extendthrough as fine and fertile a firming country as can be found elsewhere. These are advantages that must build up Rome, and in time make it a large commer cial city. It is already manufacturing largely of iron-ware, also of flour, and several other factories in the wood line. As yet there has been no efforts made for a cotton factory; but the t : me is not far distant when that enterprise will be undertaken, if not in Rome, it will be on some of the fine water powers con venient te Rome, fi'r immediately’ at Rome water power is lacking for large manufacturing purposes; should a cot ton factory be built there they must de pend cn steam. Fourteen miles south of Rome, on Big Cedar creek, in two miles of the beautiful village of Cave Spring, is that splendid water power, known as the John Baker mill proper ty, through which the Selma, Rome and Dalton railroad passes. A more eligi ble site cannot be selected for a cotton factory, being in the midst of a fine farming country, water power in abun dance, and a railroad at hand for ship ping conveniences. One of these days a cotton factory will be bnilt on that site, as it affords superior advantages hard to find elsewhere. And as regards this whole up country contiguous to Rome, as a farming country, it cannot be surpassed. The error now existing with the farmers is in planting too largely of cotton. If farming was more diversified it could be made one of the most self-sustaining and prosper ous countries south of the Ohio river. But, uuforrunately, grain, grasses, fruits, and stock are too much neg lected for cotton. Let us argue once more this subject with the farmers. All HMistt iL-t fanning, lu lie success ful, must be self-sustaining. To make it so, the farmer must raise all his food supplies at home for his household and farm use; if not, himself and his farm will be the sufferers. Making so much cotton and so little provisions benefits Rome, the railroads and the steam boats; each have two licks at the farm ers; first, in handling the cotton, and next in having to sell you your bread and meat, and the railroads and steam boats are paid freight for the same. Your cotton money is thus paid out in exchange for food supplies, leaving you but little, if any; whilst if you raised your own food supplies what cotton you made, if but little, would be yours, and the money it brought would go in your own pockets. Another great error is in buying so largely of commercial fertilizers. Cot ton is also the result of such. It is re ported that 2,000 bales of cotton has already been delivered in Rome this season to pay 7 for commercial fertilizers, that is one hundred thousand dollars expended fer bought manures. But some will contend that commercial fer tilizers pay; if so, the S100,000 has been well invested, so far as there are profits derived from the money 7 paid for it. But as a general thing we contend it don’t pay: in the first place it is too expensive, and in the next, there is t that difference in the Crops where used and where not used, that is where .lie lands are equal in their natural fertility, to pay the cost of these fertil izers. And, again, it has been the cause of increasing the production of cotton at the sacrifice of food supplying crops Taking all in all, it don’t pay, and the. farmer that diversifies his crops, makes his own food supplies, rotate? his crops, and plows under cloveT, peas and weeds, and raises his own stock, will make more money and own a more produc tive farm than any 7 man that plants mo3t cotton and purchases fertilizers. Try it, who will, and the self-sustaining farmer is the man that will come out best. D. The Springfield Republican of the 15th instant editorially says: There seems no reason to doubt that Mr. Blaine is in a very critical condi tion. He has grown worse since he went to his Augusta home a fortnight ago, has been confined to his bed, de nied to callers and finally attacked with dysentery, which left him so weak a few nights ago that it was feared he was going to die. The last two years have proved a terrible strain on both his mind and body, and there are abundant signs, how 7 ever completely he may seem to recover from his present attack, the days of his old activity are over, or if they are resumed, are liable to be end ed very suddenly and finally. Some miscreants, who, it is supnosed, wished to rob the pay train of the Wil mington, Columbia and Augusta Rail road, placed obstructions on the track, Friday night, and succeeded in throwing off the night freight train and killing a fireman named Ira Wood. Mr. H. Cal- vo, the engineer, was slightly .injured. No material damage was done to the train.—Columbia Phasnii. SPEECH of Hon- William H. Felton, In the House of Representatives, November 11,18TT. The House having under considera tion the bill (H. R. No. 805) to repeal the third section of the act entitled “An act for the resumption of specie pay ments”— Mr. Felton said: Mr. Speaker—I have but few finan cial figures. Indeed, I only profess to be able to see and appreciate results, effects. A6 in nature there are effects that are apparent to the most casual observer, while all the secret springs which produced these effects may not be known. In disease the physician has little to do with names—with the technical descriptions that fill up his bookB as so much waste lumber. He sees before him only symptoms, and his duty is to battle with those symp toms by all the -appliances within his reach. In the financial policy of this country I see and appreciate results, the effects, the symptoms—all indica tive of a fatal termination, and de manding the most prompt and efficient remedies. Class legislation is destruc tive to civil liberty. It engenders re sistance, it estranges the class antag onized from the Government, for men cease to respect the laws which oppress them. The Government which enacts and euforces discriminating measures must soon expect to find among its cit izens one class who are its hereditary friends, and another class who are its hereditary enemies. This friendship and this enmity must continue until one becomes the only pillar upon which the Government rests, or until the other culminates in rebellion or slavery. Every monarchy in Europe and in Asia, whether limited by constitutional law or having no limitations thrown around the will of the ruler, hod its origin in personal and class preferences and is maintained by legal favoritism. Divide into classes and then sustain the favored class by every act of the Government is the maxim of despotic rulers. They have in general so insid iously accomplished their purpose that the enslaved class did not suspect en croachments upon their political, so cial, and industrial rights until they were powerless for averting the evil. In this republican Government we have always resisted the formation of “classes.” “Equality before the law” has been the recognized position of every American citizen. We have ap- pliea this principle not only to men, but theoretically we have applied it to occupations and pursuits in life. An open path, unhedged by law, has been supposed to open invitingly be fore every occupation, every species of labor; and the man who had no en dowment but his capacity for work— who was willing to work—who remem bered that all legitimate wealth was the resultant of work, has been taught by the theory o.f our Govern- -.—.t undents lostermg care the highest re wards were attainable. Instead of seek ing his impoverishment and degrada tion, the law was ever supposed to be on his side, kindly in sympathy with his necessities, and disposed to stimu late rather than retard his efforts in bet tering his condition. The good report of our Government in this particular lias gone throughout the world. The thousands of emi grants who have built up the West, and who are an important factor in the future of our country, have been at tracted here by our supposed equal laws, unhedged paths of industry, our respect for labor, and the absence of all class distinctions. I repeat this has been the theory of our Government, and whenever the people become convinced of a departure or a proposed departure from this prin ciple of “equal and exact justice to all men,” they will resist it by all the means at their command. The people are not yet prepared'to surrender their rights into the hands of the few. They are not willing that monopolists, corporationists, national bondholders, and the money-changers of this country shall become the un challenged lords of the country, hold ing the soil and its productions, the manufacturing and mining interests, as tributaries to their wealth. The formation of classes is to be de precated. Even the organization of parties in the interest of special indus tries is to be censured and condemned. Labor or working-men’s parties are all wrong, because they are based upon one idea, upon personal advancement, individual gain, to the exclusion of, or even iD opposition to, other interests and occupations entitled to Government sympathy and protection equally with themselves. LaboHaas no right to make war upon capital, because capital is as necessary to productive industry as labor. Labor strikes and combinations on the part ef employes against capital are unwise and destructive to the interests of capi tal and labor. When these combina tions resort to violence they are crimin al, and are deserving the condemnation of every good citizen, though we are not surprised that men who are de pendent upon their labor for bread, whose families have no security against starvation but their daily wages, who have not always the safeguards of in telligence and virtue thrown around them, should occasionally take counsel of their passions and foolishly and criminally resist the colossal combina tion which has for the last few years waged an exterminating war upon the labor of this country. It is wrong and criminal for produc tive labor to conspire against corpora tions, against bondholders, against cap ital. It is equally wrong and criminal for capital to combine and to conspire against labor, and by its superior pow er make labor a mere serf to minister to its exorbitant demands; to seek by unhallowed and fraudulent combina tions to rob'agricultural, manufactur ing, mining, and all the wealth-making industries of their legitimate rewards./ I submit that the financial legisla tion of this country since 1870 has been the result of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the creditor class to rob, de fraud, and impoverish the debtor class, I submit that the act forcing resump tion of specie payments in 1879, by contracting the circulation of legal ten der notes, and the act of 1873, demon etizing the silver dollar, were as unjnst and wicked as the labor strikes which have recently startled and alarmed all good citizens. The only difference was, the last was illegal and violent; the other sought jjp- cover the outrage they perpetrated by the forms and sanctions of law. The only difference was, one was speedily and justly suppressed; the oth er, panoplied in gold and protected by political influence, smiles in its bloated security upon the wrecks of fortune— the blasted hopes and the suffering' just when our industries most needed poverty it has created. The act demonetizing silver, in my opinion, was the most deliberate and inexcusable fraud upon labor known in the legislative history of the world; The scheme for demonetizing one of the metals throughout the Westerri world originated soon after the discov ery of gold in California and Australia. It was supposed that the production of gold -would be enormous, and the Gov ernments of the world were invoked to prevent the anticipated decline in thtj, value of gold by its demonetization: have followed their lead but for the re-j sistance of France. It was changed Taj 1865 into a movement for the docc v the stimulant should be applied. The physician who suspends his remedies just as the paroxysm passes off, either ignorantly or criminally, delivers up his patient to death. When the nation al life demanded a continuance of the Etimulant- which had borne it through the crisis, just as the wild delirium of war was about to subside into reason, help—just then all encouragements were withdrawn and financial ruin ensued. Like the poor maniac we read of, who was wild with rage, the evil Spirit was rebuked and its departure left him as “one dead but fortunately there was “power and goodness” at hand. He was commanded to nries, and he spraDg into life, health and happiness. Alas! alas! when our industries were left as “one dead” there was no states manship with capacity to say, “Arise.” There they lay in their helpless ex- Germany and Austria did in 1857 dev .haustion, and their dying condition monetize gold, and other nations would, was seized upon by interested parties to rob and despoil them Sir, it seems to me we should learn 'something from history, for history is tization of silver. This moveiswkins^ Philosophy teaching by example, likewise resisted by France. -JauSSB In England, it is said, the years from may remark that France has a ,.v?l797 to 1815 were the most prosperous, times managed her finances with an ability unequaled among the nations- known. Agriculture, commerce, and of Europe. Her war with Germany increased her debt §2,000,000,000, be sides the loss of two of her finest prov inces. She appeared to be wrecked. Germany, her conqueror, looked on ex- ultingly; believed she was crippled for a half centery; but France has taught her that well-managed finances are more powerful than well-managed armies. To-day, while Germany, crazy about a single metallic standard and the resumption of specie payments, sits shivering on the verge of national bank ruptcy, France, with every dollar of her war fine canceled, with all her in dustries prosperous, is now, seven years after her crushing defeat, the superior of her conqueror. The French Government made paper money a legal-tender for all debts, pub lic and private—honored its own mon ey. The banking establishments of the country loaned to the people mon ey in sufficient quantity to carry on their industries, and the people were so prosperous that they in turn tendered to their Government the loan of four times the amount of money necessary to pay their war debt. Such is France, that resisted the one- metallic-standard folly; such is the nation that inflates rather than con tracts her currency, that never worrits about resumption, and at the same time has in the vaults of her banks more gold and sr»ver than there is in the combined banks of England and Germany. Germany and the United States de monetized silver in 1873, both Govern ments being influenced by one motive, namely: to protect and enrich the cred itor class and those having fixed in comes against a fall in the value of money. -rms ia lire bturti tn i :ns nne-meiamc- standard movement. They feared a decline in the purchasing value of sil ver. They knew if they could shelve one of our metallic standards it would quadruple the value of the remaining standard. * Enjoying “fixed incomes,” which are never affected in volume by the uncer tainties of trade, by fickle and unrelia ble seasons, by sickness and the amount of work performed, they knew they would thereby quadruple their wealth; that it was the certain means of making the rich richer and the poor poorer; it would send down the wages of labor and the prices of commodities. So then, silver, the money of the Constitution, the coin which had been a legal-tender for all due?, public and private, from the origin of the Govern ment, was deliberately set aside, re tired from circulation, practically driv en out of the country. The chances for resumption lessened; indeed, m -de impossible; debts contracted when gold and silver were both legal tenders, now to be paid only in gold; all for what? To benefit that “small part of capital which has ceased to labor and is at rest, in the form of fixed and permanent in vestments.” But, sir, this “money power” was not content with the demonetization of sil ver. This did not contract the currency sufficiently. This did not shrink val ues ia proportion to their greed. This 'id not quite transfer all the property of the country into their hands. This did not quite make New York and commercial New England the owners in fee simple of the cotton-fields of the South and the grain-fields of the West Ever on the alert, in 1875 they devise and consummate the grandest scheme of contraction known to the history of Governments, at a time when the pub lic and private indebtedness of this country was apalling; for there was the- national debt, upon which the Govern ment has paid interest, alone, since the war, amounting to 81,422,057,577; there was the railroad debt, amounting, at the time this iniquitous law was en acted, to about, 85,000,000,000, upon which the labor of the country was pay ing interest; to which must be added the State and municipal indebtedness of the country, swelling the eDtire in debtedness of the country to about S10.- 000,000,000, upon which labor is pay ing interest. Then, there is the pri vate indebtedness of the country, abso lutely incalulable. Tnen, there was the southern section of our conntry laid waste by war, with her former immense wealth—about §7,- 000,000,000—blotted out; her fields un cultivated; her once happy homes, many of them, in ashes; her farmers without implements of husbandry, without stock, and without credit; all her enterprises prostrate—widowhood and orphanage throughout the land. Just at this time the Government re solves to contract the currency, bring ing every commodity and every species of labor down to a gold basis, and un questionably reducing the debtor class to penury and want. It has been said that the issuing of our greenback currency was a war ne cessity. It was intended to sustain the country during the exhausting strug gle in which it was engaged. It was successful in doing this; and I submit that a currency which was essential du ring that period of waste and destruc tion—the stimulant that preserved the vital forces of the nation daring the war—is more necessary at the close than it was during the excitement of that struggle; that, so long as the se quences ot that war continued, so long industriously and commercially, ever manufactures had greatly augmented. The landed proprietors were in afflu ence. Wealth to’ an unheard-of extent had been created among the farmers. Exports, imports, and tonnage had more than doubled since the war be- gan. These eighteen years of prosperity were years of suspension of specie pay ments by the Bank of England. There was no abatement in this prosperity until the moneyed nobility, led on by Sir Robert Peel, began to clamor for resumption. Then all this prosperity of labor, this universal and unheard-of prosperity, ceased. As socn as contraction commenced prices fell to a ruinous extent. Wages fell with the prices of commodities, and It is said that before the close of the year 1816 panic, bankruptcy, riot, bloodshed, and starvation spread through the land, i. The 1st of May,1823,had been fixed upon by law whpn the baDks should resume,and they contracted their circulation rapidly io meet the gold and silver standards of value. The result was that from 1815 tp 1S23 more than four-fifths of the land- owners of England lost their estates. The number of land-owners was reduced from one hundred and sixty thousand o thirty thousand, and, in the language >f Wendell Phillips, “bankruptcy, the rery history of which makes the blood t 'ld to-day, blighted the empire.” W b J l 1 this suffering ? Why all these ibara? -Why all this desolation ? It was brought about by men who had deter mined to drive paper moaey from eircu- ration, had determined to bring down f rices and wages, and had especially de termined to bring all the real estate of J tie kingdom within their possession, ihey triumphed. To-day the immense tftaJSpgiisgh Jorda and™the vassalage or the English peasantry are attributable to the villainies of England’s resumption laws. In every panic with which England has been afflicted—in the one just referred to, and also in 1836 and 1839, in 1847 and of 1857, and especial ly in 1866, relief was only obtained by the repeal of the resumption laws and by inflating the paper currency of the conn- try. What a striking contrast between England at the close of her Napoleonic war and France at the close of her war with Germany. The latter power, instead of contracting her currency ex pands it; makes her notes a legal tender, pays her debts, sends thrift and prosperi ty through all her provinces, abolishes the empire, and establishes a Republican form of government. The finances are managed in the interest of the people and not in the interest of an aristocracy, and the result is, monarchy gives place to a government by the people and for the people. While the difference between England and France is striking, the resemblance between the financial policy of this Gov ernment and that of England is also im pressive. During our late civil war the people of the North aud Wes 7 were never more prosperous in all of their industrial pursuits. Every department of industry was stimulated to the utmost capacity ; farmers and manufacturers, merchants and bankers, all were richly rewarded for their labor and investment?. In 1865, at the close of the war, this pros perity was still in existence. This prosperity extended in part to the devastated South and enabled her for a brief period to restore her waste places and gather supplies to feed her houseless population. The circulation of money among the people at this time amounted to 858 per capita. The facts assure us that if this volume of currency had been continued until this time the burdens of taxation would have been well-nigh re moved, the debts of tho nation, of States, of corporations, and especially of indi viduals, would have been well-nigh can celed, “tramps'' would never have been heard of, riot3 would never have dis graced Pennsylvania and other northern States, all sectional strife and class su premacy would long since have been sub merged under a tide of unrivaled public and private prosperity. Alas! as in England, so in this coun try, during the war the commercial cen ters, notably New York and New Eng land, from their superior advantages, gathered in the “bonds" of the Govern ment: the crystallized tears, blood, losses, and poverty of the nation—these expo nent’s of a nation’s travail. Every dollar that the speculators and bankers of New York and Boston could accumulate in this time of prosperity, aDd which was not expended in hiring sub stitutes to take their places in the field, where brave men were battling for the Union, every dollar that the carap-fol lowers and bomb-proof office-holders could command, wa3 invested in Govern ment securities at about fifty cents on the dollar. Europe with its unemployed capital bought up the bonds—men who had no sympathy with the labor aud strnggle3 of this country, antiquated Shylocks, who stood sharpening their knives and solilo quizing with themselves: I’ll have the heart aa forfeit of the bond. I’ll cut near the heart. “I’ll have my bond. I will not hear thee speak. I’ll have my bond; and therefore speak no more. . I’fl sot be made a soft and dal 1-eyed fool, To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield To Christian intercessors. Follow not I’ll have no speaking; I'll have my bond!” At the close of the war, these Ameri can and European Shylocks, as they did in England, became clamorous for con traction! They cared nothing for specie payments. This was a mere pretense to accomplish their ultimatum, contraction. . Specie was a mere “decoy” to lead the unsuspecting, productive classes into their meshes. Their capital was fixed, and they desired to convert it into products of labor, and they must first shrink the value of those products to bankrupt rates. They have triumphed! The agitation of the question sent labor down, sent real estate down. Then, through their influ ence, came the demonetization of silver; then the' resumption law; each with a view to contraction ; and as the coils of the anaconda tightened a wail went up throughout the land—a wail rivaling the wail that went np throughout England, and which is described as making the “blood run cold.” The failures in business have been in numerable; ths loss from shrinkage in values has been incalculable; the suffer ing from reduced wages has been appall ing. Homes, comforts, and even the nec essities of life, have passed forever from once happy families. Hard and grind ing poverty is pressing our citizens in every section of the country; in every avenue of trade and production. Rail roads and banks are being would up by receivers; savings institutions ate dis appearing; furnaces and factories are suspended; mining property is a burden to the owners; merchants are being driven, by the thousand, into voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy; employes are standing “all the day idle,” because no man is able to hire them. The far mers—the strength of the country, the primary source of all wealth—have been reduced to the greatest straits. The farmers of the South are not reali zing from the sales of their cotton the co3t of production In many of the States after paying for labor and fertil izers and other expenses, they find themselves inextricably in debt. Geor gia, the leading southern State in all the elements of agricultural and manu facturing weath, and whose citizens, in every industry and enterprise, are with out a superior, decreased in taxable property last year S15,902,134. Ten nessee decreased over 831,000,000; and these are the most prosperous in their materiel industries of all the Southern States Texas alone excepted. It is much worse among the productive classes in the West and in the North. The shrink age there has been greater and the suf fering more intense. For while the South is not accumulating, and cannot until contraction is arrested or until it touches its lowest depths, yet there is no one starving there as in the North. There are no riots there; there are no striki s tlier™; every man, white or black, can, if he will, have “food and raiment;” but there is financial distress there, and as in tin- North and West, this distress must continue while contraction of the currency continues. Why all this dis tress ? Why all this forced proverty ? Simply to enrich the fete. It is said-by the friends of resump- *itwri*hpt the-panic, of 1873 came barore the resumption act passed, but uiese special pleaders must remember that during the Forty-first Congress, in March, 1S69, an act was passed in these words: “And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make pro visions at the earliest practicable period for the resumption of the United States notes in coin,” and aiso all other obliga tions of the United States except where it is expressly provided to be paid in lawfuly^money or other currency. Here was an assurance of soeedy re sumption which distroyed confidence in the paper money of the country, and the contraction which had been going on sinc3 1S69, now went on more rapid ly until ail confidence was lost in the panic of 1873. Here was a pepudiation by the Government of its own lawful money; and can we be surprised that all men discredited that money ? Confidence! We hear continually about the restoration of confidence. Confidence in a ship while the scuttlers are at work to send it to the bottom 1 Confidence in a promise to pay.” while the sappers and miners are removing the foundations of value upon which that promise is made! The following extract from the report of the “silver commission” should be remembered: It is maintained by many that exist ing evils are the tesults of a loss and lack of confidence and that the sufficient remedy would be found in its restoration On all occasions they portray in glow ing phrase the .abounding prosperity which would follow if moneyed anb other capitalists would freely exhibit confidence by inaugurating industrial and commercial enterprises. But it is to be observed that they content them selves with recommending confidence to othera while they are careful not to make a practical exhibition of any on their own part. They seem to be un consciously influenced by the view, that while they might profit by the con fidence of others confidence on their own part might involve them in losses. The real mischief is not the lack of confidence, but the lack of any legiti mate grounds for confidence; and there neither will be nor ought to be any revi val or extension of confidence so long as the volume of money continues to shrink and prices continue to fall. The gentleman from New York [Mr. Chittenden] on yesterday from his perch [Mr. Chittenden stood at the Clerk’s desk while speaking] announced to the country that loafers, gamblers, and bank rupts, the worst elements of society, favored the repeal of the resumption law. Is the gentleman already designating the classes cf society which favor or oppose this repeal, putting the rich on one side and the poor on the other side ? I know not whether these characters advocate or oppose repeal. One thing I do know, every millionarie, evrey man who owns two or three hundred thou sand dollars in Government securities is opposed to repeal and advocates a system of hard and grinding poverty for the debtor. I suppose the gentleman means by “bankrupt” a man who is nnahle to pay his debts, which inability has bees brought about by this system of contrac tion which he advocates. Still the ruin ous work of contraction goes on and mil lions of “greenbacks” are being retired and destroyed by the Government month ly'and the national banks are likewise re tiring their circulation by millions, in pre paration for the proposed day of resump tion. Still the ruinous work must go on nntill 1879; and false comforters assure us that ‘Tight it ahead,” that the margin between greenbacks aud gold iu very small, that the chasm is almost filled up, and that all these things will “right themselves.” .Yes! I know these things will right themselves. Look at that storm-driven ocean. Darkness and hurricane are upon the deep. Signal-guns of distress are heard through the gloom. Ships ai% going down by the hundred, and thousands of precious lives are being ingnlfed. In the midst of this ruin^there stand the “wreckers” [pointing to Mr. Chitten den, who was standing near] awaiting their prey and comforting themselves with the words: “these thirgs will right themselves.” Yes, sir; I know that the morning son will rise brightly upon a calm sea. Every wave shall have subsided. The fragments shall have floated off to some neighboring shore and the dead will have been forgotten. Things have righted themselves on that sea. Watteraon’s Flan. Mr. Henry Watterson, editof of the Louisville Courier-Journal, was the re cipient of a dinner at the Lotos Clab in New York on Saturday evening. In response to the toast in his honor, Mr. Watterson made a highly characteristic little speech, from which we make an extract: “To allay needless excitement I wish to say in the beginning of the few re marks which I propose to make on this occasion—and I take leave to add that, having been preprred by a friend, who has spared neither pains nor expense, they should commend themselves and need no prefatory eulogy from me—I wish to say at the outset that if any one has come here with the expectation of receiving instruction on financial topics I am not responsible for his coming, and shall decline to hold my self answerable for his disappointment It is not my purpose to speak of re sumption or the remonetization of sil ver. In my part of the country we have an impression that the Govern ment should give us what money we want and ask no questions. Daring the flush times of ’37 an old North Georgia farmer went down to Angnsta, entered the State Bank and said to the cashier: “Bob, we must have more cir culatin’medium—bound to have 7 it— can’t get on without it” “Well,” said the cashier, “how are you going to get it?” “Why, stomp it.” “Suppose we stomp it, as you say, how are we to re deem it?” “Why, Bob, that’s what I’m coming to. You see, in North Georgy we are agin redemption.” It seems to me that the Btory illustrates the finan cial situation in Washington at least, and, promising that, if the Government can stand it we can, I turn at once to a question upon which I would dwell for a moment and to .which I would call your serious attention. * * Shall Ingersoll go to Berlin ? TTCtJJk. OUU nm The minniui eveut the jok9 of the present national admin istration is the appointment by Presi dent Hayes of Colonel Ingersoll as Minister to Germany, the birth-place of modem infidelity. Col. Ingersoll has been filling the land with blatant infidelity, and has re cently been mak ing an assault in behalf of the memory of Tom Paine and against the Rev. Dr. Prime, the nestor of religious journal ism, and on the stage of onr own Acad emy of Music took the liberty of giving the opinion that God was a great ghost; and in addition to his book derisive of Chr3tianity, has been delivering his lecture entitled “An honest God the Noblest work of Man.” President Hayes is a Methodist, and cf course accepts jin their heartiest meanings the troths of Christianity, and now he sends Inger soll to Germany, ths nest of modern skepticism—a nomination so fit to be made that it has kept me smiling all the week. I do not know any other land to which Ingersoll could be sent appropriately unless to the Fejee Islands or the Kingdom of Dahoney. [Laught er.] We hope he will accept the nomi nation, a3 our own country can stand it, and Germany will feel no shock. O! shades of Richter and Schiller and Strauss come out and meet him on the gangway—the steamer before he touches the wharf. Let him be sworn in,not on the Bible ho, does not believe a word of it —but on the back of a brand new copy of ‘‘Faust” or some German fairy tale. We are disposed to think that the Pres ident intended the nomination as a long stroke of humor, at any rate so we ac cept it The Marietta, Ga., Journal says: We learn from Mr. Pitts that Mr. Cicero Emory eloped with Miss Julia Shad- ner, his wife’s youngest sister, last Sun day evening, taking the 4 o’clock at this place, going toward Chattanooga. The writer was at the train and noticed that the couple were apparently uneasy, but thought nothing of the matter after they boarded the train. They both live some eight miles above Marietta, and were of respectable families. Emory left a young and handsome wife and a prattling child behind. Miss Shadner was about sixteen years old, and had been living with her sister, Mrs. Emory, and her husband for some time, and it seems Emory became enamored of the “sweet sixteen,” which being mutually shared by her, they departed to a land of strangers to enjoy there what blind love prompted. Sixty-six female convicts sailed down the Hudson a few days ago. The World says: “Half the women, at least, smoked. Five minutes after the boat started twenty clay pipes were out, and the smoke rolled in clouds between the neigh borly decks. The younger ones liked a cigar, and managed to get it frequently ; but as there were not enongh for all, one cigar was made to do for two or three, a smoker stopping kindly midway and handing it over. There was one young girl who got three cigars, perhaps because she was pretty.” The sheriff of Philadelphia on Mon day sold under the hammer the largest nnmherof properties of unfortunate debt ors ever pnt np at one sale in that city. Th« sale comprised four hundred and thirty-nine pieces of real estate, com-’ prising over fifteen hundred different properties. Of these about seventy-five were sales made on foreclosed mort- [es of building associations. Many nahle dwellings were sold. Swinging is said by the doctors to be good exercise for health, but many a poor wretch has come to his death by it to CONTRACT RATES OF ADVERTISING. One square one month * -1 0® One square three months - — 8 One square six months —.. 12 00 One square twelve months. 20 00 One-fonrth column one month .rr-—™ — 10 00 One-fourth column three months ............ 2D CD One-fonrth column six months 30 00 One-fourth column twelve montlw— GO 00 One-half column one month 20 00 One-half column three months 32 00 One-half column six months.- 60 00 One-half column twelve months^ —-- 1W 00 One column one month— 30 00 One column three months— 00 00 One column six months 101 00 One column twelvemonths.......-..! — 160 00 _ foregoing rates are for either Weekly or Tri-Weekly. When published in both papers, 50 per cent, additional upon table rates. Suicide. A Farce Jn two Seines. From the Eoroi* (Har.) Sentinel, Nor 4. There are various ways of getting ont of this troublesome w rid, and some of those who shuffle off the mortal coil, with a view of making their exit from this sphere the work of their own hands, adopt novel expedients. Take the care of the San Francisco washerwoman, fur instance, who, while reflecting on the ilia that she bore in this world aud the griev ous burdens of the daily straggle for ex istence, stuck .her head in the suds and held it there until she was defunct pars ing over the border damp and soapy. A Eureka woman, who had brooded over her toils and tribulations until she was in that nnhappy state of mind when suicide seemed to offer her the only relief, made a miserable fiasco, and now lives to still endure, notwithstanding her attempt v at self-murder. Her husband would stay ont at night, play pedro, and other wise conduct himself in a very undntifnl manner, and, to cap the climax of his cruelties, refused to purchase her one of those sweet hats jnsl imported by Meyers & Franklin. W hen he left the residence to go down town to see a man she deter mined on death, and took for that pur pose a bottle of corrosive sublimate from the closet, where the family drags were kept Composing herself carefully on the bed, and as gracefully" as if she had been a California actress, she-drained at one gulp a huge goblet foil, dropped the glass to the floor, folded her hands on her breast and calmly awaited death. She had anticipated the most excruciating pain, as the terrible corrosive substance should act on her inwards, and marvelled greatly to find instead a sensation of de licious bliss stealing over her whole sys tem. Her spirit was wonderfully exalt’ ed, her vision rose and roamed at will through all the gladsome memories of her happy past. “I had not dreamed,” she said, speaking with difficulty, for her voice was failing fast and her ntterances clogged. “I had hot dreamed that death was so easy. I would have done it often had I known this. O, death! where is thy sting? O, grave! where is thy vic tory? At this juncture her husband entered. “What in dentation are you doing Molly ? What makes your face so red!” “Goo’ by, John; goin’ die. Taken croshive subl’ate. Forgive yer ever’- thing.” “Corrosive 1 Why, that’s ten-dollar brandy that I brought down to Clark & Botto’s. I pnt that label on it so that yon wouldn’t drop on the contents.” The New Coachman. The boy shonld have known better at his age than to let ont family secrets, but he felt grateful to the other boy for the use of bis stilts, and he softly remarked: “Father wasn’t home all last night, and he hasn’t come home yet” “Gone off?— queried the owner of the JtiHj- ■ : - pect, and ma says she ain’t going to ran after him if he don’t come home for a month. “Did they have a foss?” “Kinder. You see we had to let the coachman go, ’cause its hard times. Yes terday afternoon ma wanted pa to black up and drive her ont in style. He kick ed at first, bnt when she got mad he caved in and fixed so yon couldn’t toll him from a regular darkey. When he drove aronnd ma called him Peter, and ordered him to back np and go ahead and haw and gee around, and he got op on his ear and drove back to the barn. Them duds came ofFn him like lightning, and he was so mad that he didn’t stay long enough to wash the black off his ears.” “And what did your mother say ?” asked the other. “Nothing. She looked a little sad aronnd the month, but she’ll fetch him to it if it takes all winter. He might as well come home and begin to learn how to burn corkDetroit Free. Press. London, Nov. 21.—The Times’ Erz- eroum correspondent, in a letter dated October 25th, says: “If winter breaks upon us shortly, and Kara bolds out we may keep Erzeroum; but if the weath er continues fine and Kars falls, this place cannot repel the Russians. The Manchester Guardian’s Pera cor respondent telegraphs as follows : We have just heard of the capture of Kars. The fall of Erzeronm is expected to fol low. The Porte now appears desirous of entertaining peace propasals. Server Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mahmoud Damad, are said to be more favorable to peace. A special to the Standard from Ver- dan Kaleh contains the following: Seven teen thousand men from the army will be detached to assist at the siege of Plevna. Mr. W. H. Harris, of Tilton, was kill ed by the shifting engine of the E. T. V. & G. R. R. on the track of the S. R. & D. R. R , on last Thursday morning. The engine was minus a head-light. st>H it it thought the unfortunate mm, di.l «->t hear tkerumbleof its wheels, < r imagined it was nn Ihe W.& A. R. R- track, which was parallel with it. Pool- man 1 be was taken without a moment’s wa tiing. Let os hope that he is in a better world.— Dalton Citizen. A ed be lives, dred place, of the nate two the diate at feared terrible mining accident is report- i Scranton, Pa, by which, it is to ed, several persons will lose their At the depth of several bun- feet a fire damp explosion took i, which shattered a large portion te mine, burying many unfortu- » men under the ruins. There were hundred persons in the works at ‘-‘me, and their escape from imme- death was almost miraculous. A band of robbers, lying in wait in Nevada for a stage in which a -large amonnt of treasure was to be shipped, were informed of the departure of the vehicle from Enreka by a confederate’s signal fire on the top of a mountain near ly thirty miles distant. This fire excited suspicion, and a guard was sent to protect the stage. A desperate encounter was the result, and the robbers were all killed captured. The editor of a SL Louis paper re cently insisted that poets must be brief. The next day he received the following, entitled: “The ballad of the merchant:” “Trust- Bust!’ People who affect a shortness of sight most think it the height of good fortune be bora blind.