Newspaper Page Text
THE JEFFERSONI
.re
Vol. 111. No. 2.
< Jj
v
i a /
y\ i iT7T —
_ m-
\ GET OUT!
TOM WATSON WRITES AGAIN
Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, has written
this letter to The Post:
“I have been so very much crowded with
work that I look into the statements
made by you in reply to my card on the green
backs until now.
“You fell into error when you said that
the amount of Treasury notes first issued was
$60,000,000, instead of $50,000,000, as I had
stated. Examine the acts and you will find
that I was right. The act of July 17, 18.61,
limited the issue of notes to $50,000,000.
These were issued in August, 1861.
“By the act of February 12, 1862, an ad
ditional $10,000,000 of the notes were author
ized, thus bringing the total to $60,000,000.
“By the act of February 25, 1862, the $150,-
000,000 of Treasury notes, to be issued under
that act, were made I lawful money.’ The only
exception was in the payment of interest on
the public debt and customs duties. By this
act, also, the $50,000,000 of notes first is
sued and which, as you say, were generally
called demand notes, were to be absorbed by
an equal amount of the new notes, which, as
you say, were generally called 1 greenbacks.’
“This left outstanding the second issue of
demand notes—slo,ooo,ooo—and these rose
with coin, while the greenbacks depreciated.
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, January 9, 1908.
“Now, you contend that the exception
clause, which maimed the greenbacks, did not
impair its value. Whatever impairs useful
ness generally impairs value; and as the
greenbacks could not pay the enormous sums
due for customs duties and interest on the pub
lic debt, while the demand notes could, the
demand notes were more useful and more val
uable than the greenback.
“You say that the demand note entitled its
holder to coin, and that it was, for that reason,
as valuable as coin.
“But did the demand note entitle its holder
to coin?
“By the act of February, 1862, the green
back was made ‘lawful money,’ excepting in
the two cases above specified. There was no
exception in favor of the demand note. There
fore, ‘the promise to pay’ which was on the
face of the demand note entitled it to no
more than the ‘promise to pay’ which was on
the face of the greenback.
“Not a word was said in the act of Con
gress about the payment of demand notes, or
greenbacks, in coin.
“Therefore, your premise being erroneous,
your conclusion is wrong.
“You say that the interest on the bonds was
made payable in coin for the purpose of ad-
ding to the value of the bonds. Are you quite
sure of that? Why, then, was not the prin
cipal, as well as the interest, made payable in
coin? Why make the interest payable in one
kind of money and the principal in another?
“The truth is that the whole thing was a
money changers’conspiracy to create two kinds
of currency, a cheap one and a dear one. The
dear one they meant to control; the cheap one
the people might have for a season. Then
when the money kings had exchanged cheap
paper money for bonds —dollar for dollar—
and had raked in most of the coin, through the
operation of the exception clause, they meant
to have the terms of the contract changed, so
that the bonds, which they had bought with de
preciated paper, should be paid in coin.
1 ‘ I his scheme was successful, and the spoil
of the money changers was prodigious.
“The bonds, bought with paper which they
had designedly depreciated, were paid for in
coin, whose value they had relatively and enor
mously increased. Then the scheme was
pushed to its full development by the destruc
tion of the cheap money. The dear money
was left in the hands of the money changers,
and by means of it they became supreme. They
have brought on the panic—willfully, designed
ly ior the sinister purpose of compelling the
government to yield to their demand for asset
currency.
“If they don’t mind, they will get a fight
on their hands, such as the bankers have not
known since the of Andrew Jackson.
“THOS. E. WATSON.”
WALL STREET’S NEW SCARE.
The “captains of finance” on Wail Street
are addicted to the habit of “seeing things.”
A few weeks ago they saw a money scar-city
and started a flurry that came very nearly
causing a great deal of trouble. Now they
have another “vision.” They see an inflated
currency, too much money, the danger of our
arteries of trade being gorged with too much
circulating medium. Some of the “captains”
are falling over each other to buy stocks be
fore the “inflation” causes an ascent in prices.
Our present financial system needs correct
ing in several places, but one of the things that
needs attention first is “Wall Street” itself.
Out here in Kansas when a man gets into the
habit of “seeing things” to the extent that he
causes his fellows trouble, he is called before
the insane commission and put where he will
do the least harm. When Wall Street “sees
things to the extent that it can cause a panic
oi a needless advance in the prices of stocks,
some kind of commission should be created
that will hold it within the bounds of reason
or put the* ‘ ‘ captains ’ ’ where they • will be
harmless to society and our financial interests.
The last “scare,” however, insures that the
panic is over and from this time forward the
money in hiding will return to circulation.
Farmers’ Advocate.
Price five Cents.