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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
A FINANCIAL PLAN WORTHY OF CARE
FUL CONSIDERATION.
Mr. Isidor Gelders, of Fitzgerald, Ga., has
thought out a plan to get government money
into circulation. It is the best plan that has
yet been suggested. It is as follows:
A Bill to Provide a Scientific Money System.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of Amer
ica in Congress assembled. That the Secre
tary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, au
thorized to issue currency in such denomina
tions as desired by the applicant, State, coun
ty, or municipality, authorized in this Act to
deposit their bonds with the Secretary of the
Treasury.
Sec. 2. That any State of the United
States desiring to make such public improve
ments as erecting public buildings, building
public roads, and for the improvement of its
waterways, within the State, shall be author
ized to issue bonds, not to exceed seven per
centum of the taxable value of the property
within the State, and which the Secretary of
the Treasury shall exchange for currency as
hereinafter provided.
Sec. 3. That counties in any State desiring
to erect public buildings, schoolhouses, or to
improve public roads are authorized to de
posit bonds not to exceed seven per centum
of the taxable property in said county and to
receive currency for same as hereinafter pro
vided.
Sec. 4. That municipalities desiring to erect
public buildings, schoolhouses, improve streets,
or build sewerage systems are authorized to
issue bonds for same, not to exceed seven
per centum of the taxable property of said
municipality, and to exchange them for cur
rency as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 5. That in no instance shall cur
rency be issued on such bonds when said
municipality has been organized less than ten
years or has less than five thousand popula
tion, or when the interest on their present
bonded indebtedness has been defaulted with
in five years preceding such application.
Sec. 6. That the interest on such bonds
shall be four per centum and is payable in
gold or silver coins semi-annually.
Sec. 7. That the Treasurer of the United
States shall keep a separate account of such
transactions, and when the interest accrued
is equal to the par value of the bonds plus two
per centum he shall cancel said bonds and re
turn them to the authorities who issued them.
Sec. 8. That all Acts or parts of Acts not
consistent with the provisions of this Act are
hereby repealed.
TEXAS PROHIBITIONISTS PUT ISSUE
UP TO DEMOCRATS.
BRYAN’S ATTITUDE ON PROHIBITION.
In regard to Bryan’s attitude toward pro
hibition, Chairman Jones was informed that
a large number of prohibition Democrats in
Texas and elsewhere throughout the South
had recently been writing personal inquiries
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
to the 11 peerless leader,” requesting a definite
statement from him on this all-important
question, and that in no reply received by
any one did he intimate that he himself, nor
the party so far as he was concerned, would
consider the prohibition question as a sub
ject for consideration by the next national
Democratic council at Denver. In fact, it is
stated, on good authority, that Mr. Bryan has
even gone farther than this and declared that
he will have nothing to do with the prohibi
tion question as a national issue, nor would
he favor such a plan if presented at the Den
ver convention.
This news is, of course, of considerable
interest to prohibitionists, irrespective of
party lines.
In view of these facts, it is of special
interest to note that in an extensive interview,
covering nearly two columns of space in the
leading Southern papers of March 22, Mr.
Bryan outlines “his ideas for the party plat
form,” which covers nearly every one of his
already well-known views, but entirely ignores
the one great issue of the liquor traffic.
Chairman Jones returns to headquarters
much encouraged over the outlook for the pro
hibition party’s national campaign in the
great Southwest.
There is no question that prohibition is
the one absorbing issue of the hour in all
this section, even such an exciting local ques
tion as the Bailey issue in Texas being over
shadowed by the great topic of the proposed
State constitutional amendment in the “Lone
Star” commonwealth.
THE BIGGEST TRUST.
The biggest saloon-keeper and liquor-seller
in the world is the Czar of the Russias. He
is proprietor of all the saloons in his vast
domain, and thus owns the biggest trust on
earth, with competition totally barred and
with profits increasing enormously every year.
The Great White Czar’s Government encourag
ed drink to such a degree last year that the
income derived from the sale of vodka exceed
ed $390,000,000. Every year the Russian
peasants and workmen are said to get drunker
and dirtier, more miserable and more brutal.
The imperial grogshops are small and un
clean, with a counter at one end and rows of
bottles of various sizes all around the walls
from floor to ceiling. The people are not
allowed to drink on the premises, so they go
to the doorstep, break off the neck of their
uottle and, after swallowing its contents, fling
it into the street. The bottle holds about a
wineglass of the imperial drug and coats five
cents. The daily wage of a workman in the
fields is from ten to fifteen cents. Tehelyseff
is a member of the third duma who declared
drink kills Russia, and that neither a con
stitution nor a revolution is so much needed
as temperance. He says that the Government
budget is made up of poison.—The Chicago
Tribune.
OKLAHOMA HAS NOT ADOPTED THE
“SOUTH CAROLINA DISPEN
SARY” SYSTEM.
In discussing the features of the new
enforcement law, Governor Haskbll indig
nantly denied the statements widely made in
the daily press that Oklahoma was including
a “dispensary system” in its new enforce
ment law, which could bear the slightest re
semblance to the corrupt and now defunct
South Carolina institution. On the contrary,
he pointed out that the only use of the agen
cies which are proposed in certain towns
throughout the State, to be called dispensaries,
under the new law, will be for the distribu
tion of alcohol and liquors for purely scien
tific and medicinal purposes, as is the case
in Maine. There is in this plan absolutely no
likeness to the scheme under which South
Carolina suffered for more than a decade and
a half. The most careful restrictions have
been placed about these proposed dispen
saries, and the governor himself will have
direct supervision of every dispensary in the
State.
Prohibition is already succeeding to a re
markable extent in Oklahoma, despite the
handicap of interstate commerce violations
and the bands of outlaws which still infest
parts of Indian Territory, now that the
strong arm of the federal government has
been withdrawn. In Oklahoma City, the
metropolis of the State, prohibition is work
ing splendidly.
TO BE INCREASED.
Freight rates will be increased all along the
line as a result of a meeting of railroad presi
dents of all the Eastern trunk lines held yes
terday afternoon at the offices of the Trunk
Line Association, No. 143 Liberty street.
George F. Baer, president of the Reading
Railroad Company, presided. The conference
lasted several hours, and every phase of the
freight problem was discussed. It was not
decided when the increased rates shall go into
effect. The following statement was given
out:
“The present business situation, as it par
ticularly affects railroads, was discussed.
There was a strong feeling that, while the
rigid economies which have been introduced
should be continued and the expense of oper
ation should be curtailed, so far as it is con
sistent with safety and proper maintenance,
still the roads must increase their revenues
if there is to be a sufficient margin of profit
to make possible the obtaining of moneys
needed for extensions and improvements to
the service.
“The traffic officials of the different rail
roads have been for some time engaged in
making a study of freight rates, and are in
favor of an increase varying with the different
classes and commodities. It is generally be
lieved by those attending the meeting that
present conditions required that an increase
be made, and the meeting adjourned for each
road to give further consideration.”