Newspaper Page Text
did series of newspaper articles, and we have
not heard of anybody disputing Mac’s fig
ures. Has any of the water been squeezed
out of the stock and bonds of the Central? Os
the Southern? Os Uncle Jake’s Georgia?
If so, when and where was it done?
As a matter of fact each of these roads is
robbing the people by compelling them to pay
rates which are fixed with a view to getting
dividends on this fictitious capitalization.
j ' ik rnal knows this —° r at least, did
*
W wrong for the people to be
stock last year, why isn’t
it wrong
And if it is the reformers
stop their work bes ore^WhKpon g is righted?
Th's is a fair question, ana the Jeffersonian
will thank the Journal for an answer.
Another thing: The Journal appears to com
mit itself to the proposition that if the Central
cannot earn dividends upon its capitalization,
then the rate fixed by the Commission is con
fiscatoty and must be raised.
Docs the Journal mean to go over to the
corporations in that matter of contending that
their property is confiscated, when they cannot
earn net profits?
Does the Journal mean to contend that
property is confiscated when the owner is still
in possession, with title unimpaired?
The Tariff laws, banking laws, and corpor
ation laws have knocked the profits out of
farming, for the last forty years—but no farm
er has resisted - these unjust laws upon the
ground that they confiscated his farm.
The freight charges levied by the railroads
and express companies have often knocked the
profits out of orchards, truck farms, orange
groves, and melon patches, but no victimized
shipper has resisted the corporation statutes
upon the ground that they confiscated his
land.
Does the Journal want to help the Corpor
ations create holy ground, to be occupied by
themselves, only? Shall money invested in
railway securities be given an advantage not
claimed by nKfriey invested elswhere?
Does the Journal not realize that such a con
cession to the public service corporations puts
all other property on a lower plane—and at
their mercy?
The Journal can take its own course, but
the Jeffersonian will hew to the line. Last
year we thought we were together. It would
seem that we were not.
Laws and rates which do not give to ev
ery citizen a chance to make reasonable prof
its are unjust, and ought to be changed; but
the Jeffersonian contends that such a law or
rate, is not confiscatory. There can be no con
fiscation where neither the possession nor the
title is disturbed.
The Jeffersonian stands by what all the
Hoke Smith supporters were saying last year
—that the fixing of rates so that dividends
shall be earned upon dishonest issues of stocks
and bonds is robbery.
The amount of it was beautifully figured
out by the Hon. S. G. McLendon, and his fig
ures were accepted as demonstrating the facts.
The Jeffersonian has no idea that the Hon.
S. G. McLendon has changed his opinions,
since he was appointed a member of the Com
mission.
This being so, Mr. McLendon must now be
exactly where the Jeffersonian is—against al
lowing the railroads to tax the people to earn
dividends on dishonest capitalization.
P. S. Hon. S. G. McLendon:
Dear Guyt: Take a seat and hand out the
names of those fellows who are riding on Free
Passes. We want to know who they are.
k n n
You will miss it if you don’t read
Premium Offers, which appear on
another page.
WAWTS WEEKLY JKEFEKSONIAN.
Daily Paper Finance.
Our jovial neighbor, the Washington, D.
C., Herald, says,
“Why should Mr. Thomas E. Watson ad
vocate the issuing of a measly billion dol
lars in gieenbacks? That would" be only some
ten or eleven dollars for each inhabitant of
the country. Why not give us enough to
have a good time, while the government is
about it?”
That’s the way a daily paper editor dis
poses of public questions of vast importance.
“Mr. Watson advises one billion dollars in
treasury rotes —Why not ten billions?”
That settles it.
Ask a question that may cause a smile, and
thus depose of your adversary.
Could not any proposition be reduced to the
absurd in the same way?
J. P. Morgan advises the President to is
sue $150,000,000 in bonds.
Why not $15,000,000,000,000,000?
Mr. Roosevelt recommends an army com
posed of 100,000 men. Why not a million?
Hobson clamors for several hundred war
vessels.
Why not several thousands or several mil
lions?
The Gold Standard lunatics demand a gold
reserve of at least $100,000,000.
Why not ten times that amount?
At the close of the Civil War, nearly two
billions of our national paper currency were
destroyed.
Why not restore to circulation the SIBO,-
000,000 which Hugh McCullough and other
Secretaries of the Treasury burned?
If tile country was prosperous, just after
the war, on more than two billions of paper
currency, why would one billion not be a
good thing now?
Population has more than doubled, business
has quadrupled, the necessity for an abun
dant currency is greater than ever before. Why
not let the Supply meet the Demand?
Increase of real money never caused a pan
ic, or a failure. Never. Contraction is what
causes panics. Public Confidence, so neces
sary to the bogus money which the Na
tional bankers have increased by the billion,
is not a: all necessary to sustain real money.
IT IS THE LEGAL TENDER QUALITY
WHICH SUSTAINS REAL MONEY.
Gold was worth nothing during the great
crash in India, in 1864, because silver and not
gold, was the legal tender. Silver is worth
nothing in a panic w r here gold is the legal
tender. This was demonstrated in London in
the crash of 1847. Neither gold nor silver
would be worth having, in a bank where paper
only was legal tender.
In Holland silver was made legal tender
in 1855. Gold was also coined as money but
was not made legal tender. The gold money
did not ciiculate at all. .Silver, alone, carried
on business.
Yet duiing the panic in London, in 1847,
Thomas Barring had 60,000 pounds sterling
of silver money and could not raise a loan
on it because its legal tender quality was
limited to twenty shillings.
Haven’t we got a billion dollars of bank
notes and bank credits constantly afloat, do
ing business as money?
Why not call in this bogus currency, and
put out a billion of real legal tender money?
There is one reason—only one.
The National bankers want to keep for
themselves the enormous power and profit
of compelling the country to use their notes
as money.
The gist of the matter is this: the Nation
al bankers get the use of the national credit
for their own personal gain; and we contend
that the national credit should be used by
the Government for the benefit of the whole
Nation. ,
JVr. Stockton 9 s Proposition.
Our friend, Mr. J. N. C. Stockton, of Jack
sonville, Fla., is out in an open letter to the
President of the United States recommend
ing a plan of banking and of loans which re
sembles broadly, the Sub-Treasury plan of
the Farmers’ Alliance. Mr. Stockton is him
self a retired banker. It is said that he while
in business was the most successful banker in
Florida. We know him personally and regard
him as a man of fine ability.
In brief, his plan is to have established in
each state of the Union a Sub-Treasury or
National Bank. These Sub-Treasuries or
banks located in the leading cities of the states
are to be given available funds in accordance
with the population and commerce and needs
of the people of the state. They are to have
power to lend money on absolutely good se
curity to banks, corporations, and individuals,
at 6 per cent interest, with power to increase
the rate of interest on the order of the Sec
retary of the Treasury if it be found necessary
to curtail loans. The interest over payment of
the expenses is to accumulate as a guarantee
fund in case of any loss. The loans are to be
restricted as sums not to exceed S4O on each
SIOO of gilt-edge commercial paper issued
against actual value; not to exceed SSO on each
SIOO worth of imperishable merchandise in
warehouse, or in actual transit against bill of
lading, insured against loss by fire or other
wise ; not to exceed SSO on each SIOO worth of
improved real estate, insured against fire or
ligktning, and producing an income of 6 per
cent; not to exceed SSO on each SIOO worth
of actual value of first class Railroad bonds is
sued not in excess of actual cost of constitu
tion and equipment, provided said Railroad
is earning operating maintenance, renewal, and
interest, not to exceed 80 per cent market val
ue of any state and county and a first class
state bond, paying interest promptly.
The law should absolutely prohibit banks,
corporations, or individuals from receiving this
relief for the purpose of loaning directly or in
directly on the stock of any bank ®r corpora
tion. The present trouble can be traced to this
unsound method of banking.
This plan proposed by our friend Mr. Stock
ton is not the ideal of the Jeffersonian, but
it would work a vast improvement over the
present system and would be of immense bene
fit to the whole country. The Jeffersonian
does not believe that any Government has a
right to tax the money out of the pockets of
one man for the purpose of leading it to anoth
er. We believe that, if we had a volume of cur
rency of SSO per capita, issued directly by the
Government without the intervention of banks,
every dollar being the equal of every other dol
lar and full legal tender in payment of all debts
and dues public or private, private indi
viduals and corporations needing to borrow
money would find it easy enough to borrow
from other private citizens and corporations.
With the plentiful supply of money, and the
present system which allows the metropolitan
banks to concentrate into great cities destroy
ed, the law to supply the demands would soon
restore healthy conditions, and everyone who
is able to furnish the collateral required by Mr.
Stockton’s plan could get all the money he
needed without paying a higher rate of inter
est than Mr. Stockton proposes.
n h m
As To Uncle Jake's Railroad.
What is the truth about the Georgia Rail
road?
The Augusta Herald and the weekly Jeffer
sonian persistently charged that the physical
condition of this public highway was a dis
grace to Col. Scott’s management, and a grave
public peril. t
Col. Scott and Maj. Cumming bitterly de
nied these statements—stoutly declaring that
the road was in good condition.
(Continued on Page Twelve.)
PAGE NINE