Newspaper Page Text
SOME PAGES PROM MY SCRAP ROOK
BONDS VS. GREENBACKS.
What is a bond?
It is a Contract entered into by the govern
ment to pay a certain sum of money by a
certain time. It is a “promise to pay,” just
as a promissory note is. The government must
meet its note, when due, and is therefore
clothed by law with the power to tax all the
property in the Union in order to raise the
money to meet its note.
Hence every bond issued by the government
is backed by all the power of the government,
and by the value of all the possessions of the
people. Consequently a bond is a lien, a sta
tutory mortgage, on every acre of land, every
bale of cotton, every bushel of wheat, every
ship, every car, every dollar’s worth of prod
uce. These bonds are issued, as a rule, in
large denominations, and only the rich can
buy them. The money invested in them pays
no tax.
Why should Wall Street be so greedy for
bonds?
Simply because they are the highest and
best securities known to the law; because
they override all other securities of whatever
kind; because they pack the idle millions of
the millionaire away in a bomb proof which
no risks of business can penetrate; because
it removes huge fortunes out of the reach
of the tax collector; because it lifts the colos
sal wealth of the favored few high above the
reach of competition; because it keeps the
ill gotten spoils of special privilege more se
curely locked up in the family than ever the
law of “Entails’ did in England; because it
inevitably tends to build up Class Rule, and
a reign of the moneyed aristocracy; and,
above all, because the bond is a device by
which the fortunes of a few are placed where
they bear none of the burdens of the fluctua
tions, and the losses, incident to all govern
ments, but, in the other, derive a profit byway
of interest, from the taxes paid by those who
support the government.
A “bond” is a promise to pay; it is printed
on paper; and it is stamped, by the govern
ment.
A “Greenback” is a promise to pay; it is
printed on paper; and it is stamped by the
government.
Wall Street loves bonds, but hates Green
backs.
The cuckoo editors all gloat over bonds, but
shriek at Greenbacks.
Yet there is no difference in principle be
tween bonds and Greenbacks.
In a bond the government pledges itself
to pay a large sum of money, ten or twenty
years from date, while in a Greenback the
government pledges itself to pay a small sum
of money whenever it is called for.
Then why should the millionaires love bonds
and hate Greenbacks?
Because the Greenbacks are issued in small
notes which even a poor man can get hold of;
because the Greenbacks bear no interest; be
cause they are government money, and com
pete with bank money; because they are not
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
so good to hoard up and hide away; because
they have no inherent tendency to keep big
fortunes out of the ordinary risks and fluc
tuations of business; because they have no
inherent tendency to build up an untaxed
aristocracy; and, more than all else, because
Greenbacks swell the volume of the circulat
ing medium, called money, and thus add to the
stock of the nation’s currency, and render it
impossible for the Wall Streeters to “corner”
the money market and run down the price of
everything except money.
Bonds do not take from the power of mon
ey; they add to it.
No amount of bonds would add one dollar
to the money supply of the business world.
Every enterprise in the Union might be per
ishing for lack of sufficient volume of curren
cy to fill the shrunken channels of trade, but
an issue of bonds would not bring the slightest
relief.
On the other hand, every “Greenback” note
made and issued, adds directly that much
money to the world’s supply, quickens enter
prise, and fills the parched channels of com
merce.
With more Greenbacks issued to the people
by the government, the money monopoly
would break, the price of money would fall,
and the price of produce would rise.
The men who get the bonds are the men
who are reaping the fruits of the horrible
money monopoly which now crushes us by forc
ing up the price of the dollar, and forcing
downwards the price of produce.
Therefore these men do not want their mo
nopoly interfered with, and Cleveland says
it shall not be done.
In the vaults of the men who buy the
bonds lie many millions of the tax money of
the people.
In New York alone these national banker
friends of Cleveland have $14,000,000 of our
money, using it in their business free of
charge.
What a neat thing it is to have the peo
ple’s money to buy the people’s bonds with!
—T. E. W.
THE HERMIT OF DISMAL SWAMP.
Traveling a few miles southwest from
Portsmouth, Virginia, you come upon what is
known as the borders of Dismal Swamp, a
place made known to many people by the
Irish poet, Tom Moore, who visited it just a
little over one hundred years ago
Though time has made many changes since
then, the waters still retain their hue of green,
and the fire-fly beacon light perhaps still
shapes the course of the phantom-like canoe
as she glides softly over the lake at night, but
the»print of the moccasin covered foot on the
soft morass is seen no more, and the Autumn
winds sign in vain for the Indian lass who,
with heart ever true, waited at eventide for
the home coming of her dusky lover. In
stead you find these borders tilled and botch
ed over generally by a thriftless class of ne
grol. who live happy and satisfied, free from
the cares and responsibilities of civilized life.
Near one of these small settlements, there
lives a mysterious human being who arouses
all our dormant pity, fear, and curiosity. The
more you learn of his present habits and mode
of life, the greater grows the mystery which
clouds his past in utter darkness. Coming to
Portsmouth in May, 1898, I heard this man
spoken of as a hermit. Naturally of an in
vestigative mind, I at once determined to
visit him alone. So on the following Sunday
morning, after a few miles’ travel, I had his
place of abode pointed out to me by one of
the nearby negroes. To my surprise I found
no house whatever, but only a few poles set
in the ground to serve as posts, having the
prongs left, on which other poles could be laid
crosswise, thus making a kind of flooring on
tops of which were a few old rags and some
rubbish. This constituted his lair, with no
roof to shelter him from rain or sunshine.
Nearby was a hole or well which supplied him
with water, there were also several old tin
cans that served as cooking utensils. Luckily
I found him perched apparently asleep on top
of his scaffold. A slight noise from me quick
ly brought him down, and for a moment I
feared lest I should be harmed as an intruder,
but a friendly gesture put me at ease. I came
near him and offered my hand, which he re
fused aftef showing that his was dirty,
whereupon I pointed to my heart and prof
fered my hand again which this time he
heartily shook and commenced to speak a
dialect not one word of which I understood.
He then showed me his possessions, which con
sisted of a few old bones, stale potatoes, bread
and a dead chicken or two that he had picked
up on the streets of Portsmouth which he
visited each day to secure these poor sup
plies upon which he subsists.
The hermit is apparently about forty-five
years old, five feet, eight inches in height,
weighs about one hundred and fifty pounds,
has piercing steel gray eyes under well-shaped
brows, Grecian nose, high forehead, clean cut
mouth, and rather square chin. Face to face
with this man, whose sanity I could not doubt,
and close scrutiny was enough almost to con
found me, I was lost in wonderment. In
spite of his apparent intelligence, he lives as
a wild animal. There alone destitute, but
seemingly happy, he asks aid from none, but
refuses all proffered gifts except a small
piece of tobacco or perhaps a bit of money
which he occasionally accepts.
After leaving him, I determined to find out,
if possible, who he was and why he lived in
this wretched way.
That has been nine years ago. Beginning
with local inquiry I learned that he lived in
or near this place for more than twenty years,
but beyond this fact I could ascertain noth
ing. Then I commenced to peruse many mag
azines and in the “Wide World” I found an
article about him. I visited the author of
this article and found that he could
not add to my knowledge of the sub
ject. I then took interpreters—ltalian, Ger
(Continued on Page Fifteen.)
PAGE THREE