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PAGE EIGHT
THE JEFFERSONIAN
PUBLISHED BY
THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON
Editors and Proprietors
Trmple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: - SI.OO PER TEAR
Advertising Rates Furnished on Application.
Entfrtd at P»ct»fitf, Atlanta, Ga,, January 11, IQO7, at ttctnd
clan mail matttr
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday January 16, 1908
«»
Why the Panic Came.
At the close of the Civil War, we had
upwards of $2,200,000,000 of paper cur
rency. This currency was based on the
wealth and strength of the entire nation.
As population and business increased
this volume of currency should have been
increased. Gold and silver being uncer
tain, the Government of all countries
should see to it that the amount of mon
ey in circulation bears some reasonable
proportion to the population and the com
merce.
The chief function of money is to re
place the old and clumsy system of bar7
tering one commodity for another. With
money, we measure values, for exchange
purposes and for the payment of debts.
Consequently, it follows that money
is a commercial instrument whose dutv
it is to enable the commercial and indus
trial world to transact business. Logic
ally, therefore, the amount of money in
circulation should bear some relation to
the amount of work which it is intended
to do. That is, the volume of money in
actual circulation should bear some pro-'
portion to the volume of commerce.
Now, when the Civil War was over
Just the reverse was done.
As population increased, the supply of
money was diminished. As commerce ex
panded, the tool of exchange —money —
was shortened.
As the demand for money became great
er the supply was made smaller.
Incredible to relate, the Government
had no sooner conquered the seceding
states and forced them back into the Un
ion than it began to wage deadly war
upon the producers of the entire repub
lic. . ‘
The Government went into the money
burning business.
It supplied itself with the necessary
the armies disbanded, and the industries
of the country taking their first great leap
upward, it is obvious that the Govern
ment should have kept its eye on the vast
increase of production and of commerce
and should have proportionately increas
ed the volume of currency, from year to
year. . . .
TfflS JEFFERSONIAN.
furnaces and, in Washington City, the
currency of the country to the extent of
eighteen hundred millions of dollars was
' deliberately, designedly, wickedly burnt.
Why was this done?
Because the bankers of New York, Bos
ton and Philadelphia demanded it?
And why did they demand it?
Because they had cornered the coin of
the country, by means of the Exception
Clause, and because they had got all the'
bonds by means of the greenbacks which
the Exception Clause had depreciated,
and now they wanted all other kinds of
paper currency destroyed, in order that
coin and bank paper might rule.
And they had their way. __
Both the old parties actively aided thq
bankers in consummating their conspir
acy against the legitimate industries of
the country.
The paper currency of the Government
was almost entirely destroyed, and as
the volume of currency shrank, through
the burning process, prices fell, business
failures multiplied, and the republic went
through an era of Hard Times.
At first the obligations of the Govern
ment, which the bankers had increased
as much as possible, were payable in law
ful money.
Then they forced Congress to change
it to coin.
Then they changed it again, and made
it payable in gold.
They got the bonds with greenbacks
which they had purposely depreciated,
with the Exception Clause.
Then they more than doubled their
money on the bonds by compelling Con
gress to change the money of payment.
And at every step in this series of atro
cious crimes against the people, both the
old parties were the pliant tools of the
conspirators.
In reaching their goal, the bankers and
speculators not only dragged the country
through several periods of depression and
stringency, but brought upon it the Pan
ics of 1873 and 1893.
Having contracted the money of final
payment to gold, and having cornered
the gold, the remorseless Money-Kings
worked so triumphanly upon a servile
Congress that the Secretary of the Treas
ury was ordered to deliver over to these
favored rascals the revenues which the
Government raises by taxation.
All the Custom house receipts must
go directly to these national bankers. The
Internal Revenue taxes find their way to
the same vaults. The net result is that
the conspiritators are compelling the Gov
ernment to overtax the people in order
that a lot of New York rascals may have
money to gamble on!
The Government has a surplus —on pa
per. And it has a deficit —in reality.
Why has it a surplus?
Because it over-taxes the people.
And why has it a deficit?
Because it has loaned the money td
those New York rascals, and cannot get
it back!
At this very moment, the national
banks have more than two hundred and
fifty million dollars of public money, rais
ed by taxation, and the Government is in
desperate need of it to pay operating ex
penses !
Yet, when Mr. Cortelyou calls for the
ten millions which those rascals promised
to pay on the first of January, he cannot
get a dollar!
Why did the panic come?
(1) Because the volume of real money
was being decreased during a long period
in which population and commerce in
creased.
(2) Because Government currency had
been destroyed, and bank paper put in its
place.
(3) Because a law of “Reserves” had
been sneaked through Congress, by the
aid of both the old parties, by means of.-
which the money of the country had first
been drawn into the big cities, and then
by another twist of the reserve law
drawn chiefly to New York.
(This will be explained in detail in an
other editorial.)
Now consider the situation which the
politicians of the two dominant parties
have aided the New York thieves to bring
about:
First, they bum the Government’s own
currency.
Second, they abdicate in favor of the
national banks the sovereign function of
supplying the country with money.
Third, they change the contract made
with the bondholders and allow those
speculators on the necessities of their
country to more than double the value
of their investment.
Fourth, they violate the Constitution
and establish the Single Gold Standard,
thus narrowing the basis upon which all
credit currency must necessarily rest.
Sixth, they not only allow the national'
bankers to use free of charge the credit
of the Government in their business, but
practically all of its surplus cash, as well.
Seventh, they pass laws which draw all
the loanable funds of the country into
New York.
Eighth, they permit the bankers to in
flate the currency with various kinds of
bank paper, until the financial system
looks like a church turned bottom-up
wards and resting on the steeple.
Ninth, they have so little real money
afloat that less than one billion dollars is
available for the business transactions
of 85,000,000 people, worth at least $120,-
000,000, and doing a yearly business
which is so vast that the human mind can
hardly grasp it.
Then, one day, somebody demanded
actual cash —and the church, which had
been nicely balanced on the tip of the