Newspaper Page Text
THE
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE
PEOPLE'S PAPER PUBLISING COMPANY.
117 1-2 Whitehall St.
THOS. E. WATSON, - - President.
C. C. POST, - - - Vice-President.
D. N. SANDERS, - - Sec. & Treas.
F. GRAY, - Business Manager.
fitobscniption, One Dollar Per Year, Six
Months 50 cts., Three Months 25.
In Advance.
Advertising Rates made known on appli
cation at the business office.
Money may be sent by bank draft, Post
Office Money Order, Postal Note or
Registered Letter. Orders should be
wi&de payable to
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER.
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT.
W. 11. Lowe, Room 8, 17| Peachtree
Street, is the advertising agent of this
paper.
TO ADVERTISERS.
The circulation of the People’s Party
Paper is now 17,000 copies to actual sub
scribers. No better medium could be
found for reachihg the farmers of Geor
gia and of the South, and advertisers
are requested to consider its merits. The
following certificate of the postmaster at
Atlanta, Ga., the office of publication,
needs only the additional remark that
the paper used in the publication weighs
44 pounds per ream to fully explain
itself:
Atlanta, Ga., July 25, 1892.
This is to certify that The People’s
Party Paper, during the week ending
July 23d, 1802, mailed sixteen hundred
and sixty-three (1,663) pounds at this
office. J. R. Lewis, P. M.
The circulation is steadily* increasing,
and most advantageous arrangements
can be made for space.
FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1892.
SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Mr. Watson will return immediately
upon the adjournment of Congress.
He will be tendered a Public Recep
tion at his home and will make the
Opening Speech of the Campaign.
This will be stenograpbically reported
specially for us and will be published
in full in this paper only.
It will be a most important Cam
paign Document. All who desire it
will do well to subscribe at once.
As soon as Mr. Watson can have a
few days of needed rest he will invite
Mr. Black to a Joint Canvass of the
Tenth District. These debates will
be literally reported for ourpaperand
will be published in full.
If you want to keep up with the
subscribe to
The People’s Party Paper.
Notice To Subscribers and Club
Raisers.
In all instances the casli must ac
company the names sent in. No
paper can be run on credit. In
another column it will be seen that
the 10 cent oiler has been withdrawn,
and no subscriptions for less than 25
cents will be received. Long term
subscriptions are better all around.
The campaign in Virginia is de
scribed as being on the move. Or
ganization is in progress in all parts
of the State, and the average Geor
gian has but to reason from liis sur
roundings to answer for himself what
means. The nomination of Cleve
land, followed by the flank movement
under Tom Reed on silver, lias lent
so much color of purpose to notorious
facts, that the people of Virginia, as
elsewhere, now realize fully that the
Republican and Democratic parties
are but wings of a grand army of con
quest, in the pay of Plutocracy. The
seeming conflict between those wings
is but the rivalry of commands under
identical orders.
The National Watchman notes
that the first consignment of wheat
of this years’ crop in the Baltimore
market brought 85 cents, against
$1.03 last year. This will war
rant a price of 60 cents at the
railroad stations of the great West,
or about $9 per acre for rent, labor
on the farm and hauling to market.
The people should work harder,
economize more closely and leave
politics alone, in order to secure a
better price!
The battle cry of the Democracy
one year ago was, “Czar Reed and
the Billion Dollar Congress.” Now
Reed leads the party in its support
of its platform against silver as mon
ey and the expenditures of the Bil
lion Dollar Congress are exceeded
by the Democratic majority of two
to one in the present House. Oh
Democracy, in thy name the people
are robbed and humbugged beyond
endurance.
FREE SILVER.
As this will be leading issue in the
campaign of the People’s Party, it
demands full and fair consideration.
This can best be had by a division of
the subject under the following
heads :
1. V hat is meant by Demonetiza
tion ?
2. What is meant by Free Coin
age ?
3. How did Demonetization hurt
the Debtor and the Producer ?
4. How would Free Silver help
the Debtor and the Producer ?
To answer the first question we
must understand what purpose mon
ey was established for. There are
numbers of mildly insane people
who seem to think that God made
money at the time and in the sense
that He made light, air, and water.
Immense confusion of thought has
grown out of this silly notion. Men
have accustomed themselves to re
gard money as having the same di
vine origin as the tides and the sea
sons. Greater nonsense never exist
ed. Os course the Creator made
gold, and silver, and copper, just as
he made cows, and rocks, and pearls,
and potatoes. But money He did
not make any more than lie made
brogans, Belgian blocks, necklaces
or puddings. These are purely hu
man creations. Man takes the hide
of the cow and makes for himself a
pair of shoes. lie take the potatoes
and makes for himself a pudding.
This is a somewhat homely way of
getting at it, but being a homely
man I can afford it. Os all things, I
want to be understood.
Now, just as the Creator gave us
the cow out of whose hide we fash
ion shoes, so he gave us gold,silver,
copper and iron, out which we can
make various useful articles. One
of these articles which man has been
in the constant habit of making from
each of the materials I have named,
is Money.
Why did he want to do so ? Sim
ply because he got tired of bartering
one substance for another and need
ed a medium of exchange. In order
to avoid the trouble of carrying his
horse to the factory and swapping it
for goods, he economizes time and
labor by agreeing that Money should
represent the value of his horse,
The man who owns the factory
agrees that his goods shall likewise
be represented by “money.” Thus
the horse is exchanged for “cash,”
and, by means of this cash, the goods
are bought and tlie man who sells
them uses the money to exchange for
such commodities as he may desire,
whether they be lands, houses or
chattels.
Hence money should never have
any pow T er beyond that for which it
was created:—to facilitate ex
changes.
Now, to make these exchanges the
amount of money in use becomes
very important. There should be
enough of it to do the work it was
intended to do :—So that products
may exchange in the markets at their
natural prices. Natural price is the
labor cost, the use to which it can be
put, the demand and the supply.
When there is not enough money to
do this, then products are hampered
in their exchanges And do not fetch
their natural prices.
In other words, Money becomes
absolutely necessary to transact busi
ness on a natural basis. This being
so, it becomes quite clear that shrewd
manipulators, by obtaining control of
the money, can get control of the
markets. This has been done so
notoriously in so many instances of
late years that no argument is needed.
Now how do the speculators get
control of the money? Either by
“cornering” the issues as they are
put forth, or by having laws enacted
which destroy a portion of the issues
already out.
Just after the wnr, money was de
stroyed by the simple process of
burning it up. After awhile the peo
ple caught on to the outrage and had
it stopped. But the flames had al
ready swept away so much of the
medium of exchange that exchanges !
became hampered and prices fell to 1
a tremendous extent. The specula- *
tors and bankers, however, were still
unhappy. They wanted more money ;
destroyed. In 1873 and 1874 their:
wishes were complied with. Silver ’
was “Demonetized.” What does this
mean in plain English ? It means
that silver was no longer Money. It
was a commodity like cotton, or corn,
or wheat. Since 1792 it had been
Money, and had,in conjunction with
gold, measured values and assisted in
making exchanges. After the act of
1874, however, it was no longer a
standard of value; it no longer had
the same usefulness in making ex
changes. Gold won a monopoly.
The men who had raked in all there
was of that metal, became Money
kings in name and in fact. They
ruled the roost. They priced every
man’s product. They mastered la
bor in all its vocations. Cotton,
wheat, corn, lumber, etc., brought
smaller prices. The mortgage on
the farm swallowed a greater amount
of produce every year. The account
at the store demanded more days la
bor every year.
Free coinage of silver means that
silver shall again supply the people
with a medium of exchange equal to
gold; that the monopoly enjoyed by
gold over labor’s products shall be
destroyed ; that the clutch which the
speculators and bankers have on the
markets shall be loosed.
Free coinage would help the farm
er, the debtor and the producer, by
putting more money into circulation ;
by taking away from gold its pres
ent tyranny over all values; by un
fettering the markets from the bank
ers |and speculators; by assuring a
better price for every bale of cotton
and every bushel of grain.
We are told that the silver dollar
should contain a dollar’s worth of
silver. Measured how ? By gold.
This is an insult which the plunderer
throws into the teeth of the man he
has robbed. From 1792 to 1873,
silver more than maintained its equal
ity with gold. Measuredhow? By
both metals : by the “double stand
ard of value” established hy our
fathers. Gold and silver, minted on
equal terms of freedom, constituted
coins of equal value.
Now in 1873 and 1874, the bank
ers gave silver a black eye. They
had the law to put a mark of degra
dation upon it. It was pulled down
from its place as Money and put
among products as a mere article of
bargain and sale. Is it any wonder
its value (as measured by gold) de
clined ? Would not gold have done
the same ? Did not gold decline
when it was demonetized in Europe ?
Our enemies insolently say that we
must make good all the losses silver
sustained by reason of their crime
against it. They say the dspreciation
they brought upon it must remain.
On the other hand, we claim that
silver will go to its old place if the
laws against it be repealed. We say
that we ought to put the two metals
side by side just as they were in
1873 and 1874. If this is not done,
we condone the crime against Free
Silver; we leave gold the superiority
which that crime gave it; we refuse
to put our standard of value where
Jefferson put it; we refuse to lift
our people out of the distress which
the destruction of their currency
brought upon them.
I have never claimed that Free
Silver would remedy all our financial
ills. It would not do so. But it
would add $22,000,000 annually to
our volume of money; it would
loosen the grip of the Money-kings
to a very considerable extent; it
would be a proof that the wrongs of
the past were being considered and
redressed; it would give strength to
the reform movement which seeks
a better currency system; and it
would most assuredly stop the down
ward tendency of prices by affording
the markets of the world a standard
of value and a regulator of prices
more just, and liberal, and flexible
than the arbitrary, exacting and
monopolistic gold standard of today.
T. E. W.
Col. C. C. Post, having declined
to serve as chairman of the State
executive committee, will have more
leisure to devote to the campaign in
Georgia, and perhaps in other States.
In putting M. D. Irwin in charge of
the campaign as chairman, and re
electing Oscar Parker, Esq., as- sec
retary, the executive committee is to
be congratulated on having done the
right thing. The work goes bravely
on, in the lines hitherto so effective.
KODAfcS.
Governor Northen said in his
Sparta hoorangue that “Free Silver”
would only give us 30 cents in ad
ditional currency, and that “you
can step over to Silver’s Bar-room
and drink it up in two drinks.”
The Governor evidently believes
that when money changes hands it is
lost and its effect is gone. This
shows how much a man’s whiskers
may stand in the way of his knowl
edge. If “ignoranee is bliss”—then
the said William J. ought to be hap
lW-
* * * *
Last summer no Democrat thought
the country could be saved without
“Free Silver,” Cleveland was de
nounced without stint because of his
New York letter. Now: why
bless you, the Democrats say that
Free Silver is a “nigger in the wood
pile a cross-eyed nightmare ; a
splay-footed hobgoblin ; a crooked
nosed* catastrophe ; a sway-backed
abomination ; and nothing more nor
less than “a trick of the Republicans
to break up the Democratic party.”
Really it seems that nearly every
man you can come across these days
has got his pockets stuffed with tricks
to “break up the Democratic party.”
There never was a decaying lot of
old moss-back imbeciles more both
ered and harassed by “tricks to
break up the party.”
** * %
If there ever was a party which
was going to pieces fast enough with
out any “tricks” it is the Democrat
ic. Without leadership, or convic
tions, or policy, or plan of action,
it beats helplessly on the reef and
goes apart with every dash of the
waves. True, its ruin was caused
by “tricks,” but they were those
which its leaders tried to play on the
people.
* * * *
The Augusta Chronicle gave a
glowing account of the fancy turn
out which accompanied my brother
Black to Berzelia. There were the
Phinizy’s, Tobin, Mercier and other
gilt-edged securities too numerous to
mention. By some strange oversight
Alfred Baker did not go. This was
unkindin Alfred. But they man
aged to worry along without him.
Milton Reese went down from
Wilkes. Brother Reese wants to go
to the Senate and Columbia is in the
district. See? Brother Wright was
along. Brother Wright has only
been Solicitor twelve years and
hasn’t got near enough ; and if this
People’s Party isn’t squelched John
West will get the place. See? So
it was real nice all around. The
Chronicle says that my brother Black
threw the audience into “convul
sions of applause.” Os course. It
must have been a gay sight to have
seen old man Bill Mercier in “con
vulsions of applause.” And Jake
Phinizy —a photograph of Jacob
undergoing “convulsions of ap
plause,” would fetch big money in
any market where that enthusiastic
citizen is known.
* * * *
Tell Toombs Collars to have my
name put in the pot. I’m a-coming
as sure as the world stands. Shall
spend the night, no matter how the
winds blow. Shall I fetch my fid
dle ?
* * * *
Some how the Force Bill doen't
seem to make the babies squall as it
used to. Isn’t this queer? The
city politicians don’t seem to know
what to make of it. Well, perhaps
its. because we have learned a thing
or two on the subject of “Tricks”
ourselves.
* * * *
So we have I One of of the things
we have learned is “notto bet on the
other fellow’s trick.” Another is,
to have the battle fought out on the
lines we choose and not open the
ground the enemy chooses.
This much we have learned. We
have, indeed. T. E. W.
Who killed Bill Hulsey ?
I, said George Hillyer,
With intrinsic dollar silver,
I killed Bill Hulsey.
Who saw him croak ?
I, said Lon Livingston,
1 and the Constitution,
I saw him croak.
Who mourns his fate?
Deponent knoweth uot,
Or knowing has forgot,
Who mourns his fate.
MOST INFAMOUS.
The Macon Telegraph of July 27
leads its editorial columns with the
following article, reproduced here in
full:
IN ALLIANCE WITH THE NEGROES.
A telegram from Raleigh, N. C.» says
a sensation has been caused by the ap
pearance in the Third Party organ of
that State of a long address to the peo
ple signed by John J. Mott, caairman
of the executive committee of the Third
Party. It is a formal proposition for a
fusion of the Third Party and the Re
publican party. The terms offered are
that the Third Party will support the
Republican candidates for State ollices
if the Republicans will vote for the
Third Party’s candidates for Congress.
The Democratic majority in North
Carolina has been smaller than in any
other Southern State except the two
Virginias, and a trade of the kind sug
gested, if carried out in good faith by
both parties, would undoubtedly result
in the success of the fusion ticket.
In view of this fact, it behooves white
men who feel themselves driven toward
the Third Party by their discontent to
consider exactly what the Third Party
movement means. It is becoming eas
ier every day for them to judge it in
telligently. In North Carolina, as we
see, the Third Party is willing to turn
over the State to the negroes—the ne
grpes are the Republican party —for
the gain of a few votes in Congress.
They are willing that the white prop
erty holders of North Carolina be tax
ed by a negro legislature, that the
school system shall be managed by ne
groes, the election laws made by ne
groes; that all the functions of the
State government, in fact, shall be per
formed or controlled by negroes,if the
negroes will only help them to destroy
the power of the Democratic party.
This is what the proposition of the
chairman of the executive committee
amounts to, and we do not think a poli
tician ever made a more abject surren
der to the base elements of society in an
effort to further his own and his fac
tion’s interests. No sane man can be
lieve that he is acting in the interest of
the white people and from patriotic
motives.
But it may be contended that the dis
position shown by the Third party in
North Carolina to buy the support of the
negroes at such fearful cost is not shared
by the Third party in other States. Such
a contention would not be justified by
the facts The same tendency is ob
served everywhere in the south.
The candidate of the Third party for
vice-president once a lieutenant of the
renegade Mahone, who is now the Re-
publican leader in Virginia, was magnil
oquent in a recent; interview in his
boas f s of what would be accomplished
by his party in the approaching election.
It would elect Weaver in North Carolina
Georgia, Texas and other Southern
States —or, if by any accident it should
fail to do that, it will at least defeat
Cleveland and cause the choice of Har
rison electors. In this interview, Field
made no concealment whatever of his
animus toward the Democratic party. It
is that of implacable hostility. He would
of course prefer to see his own ticket
successful, but, failing that, he will be
pleased if through his party the Repub
licans are continued in power. He
leaves no doubt that his enmity to the
Democratic party is so great that he will
rejoice in a Republican victory.
The third p*rty leader of Georgia, Mr.
Thomas Watson, has intimated plainly
enough that he is animated by the same
feeling A few days ago a resolution
was before the house to print 10.000 cop
ies of the force bill for the use of mem
bers, and Mr. Wat-on fought it with all
his strength. The force bill, he declared,
is a dead issue, though he knows that it
is not a dead issue, but it demands it and
every leading Republican is committed
to its enactment at the earliest opportun
ity. Mr. Watson himself would probably
vote for it. He knows that it is not a
dead issue, but it is an issue which he
wants kept out of the present campaign
as much as possible. It is not yet time
to openly make a proposition of surren
der to the negroes, as has been done in
North Carolina.
The tendency of the Third Party is to
ward the negroes, and the men who
think of going into it should understand
from the first that in the event that they
are successful they must share their
power with the negroes. They will be at
all times at the mercy of their black al
lies, and must grant whatever conces
sions the latter demand. They should
consi J er well before attaching themselves
to the Third Party whether they can re
main patriotic citizens while making the
sacrifices which will be demanded of
them.
Rarely has a more infamous mis
representation been given to the pub
lic. The chairman of the Executive
Committee of the People’s Party of
North Carolina, is not John J. Mott,
but such is the name of a prominent
white Republican who published in
the last issue of the Progressive
Farmer a long letter, conceding that
it was impossible for the Republicans
to carry the State, and advocating
the virtual disbandment of that par
ty and acceptance of the People’s
Party candidates for State officers.
The Telegraph does not publish the
telegram it alludes to, and whether
the misrepresentation is by the editor
or by the Associated Press does not
detract from its infamy.
There is no quotation from any
utterance of Major Field to sustain
the editorial statement in the Tele
graph. It leaves the reader to infer
that the People’s Party in Virginia,
represented by the staunchest ele
ment of Virginia farmers, such as
Mann Page, the Beverleys, Turner,
Jackson, Pierson, Ruffin, Tyler and
others, are in a conspiracy to destroy
a social order in which they stand at
the head. Such men are incapable
of such conspiracy. Is the editor
capable of an untruth? or is he de
ceived by a false report ? In either
case he is unfitted to conduct the
columns of a paper professing to be
fair or clean. The press, immediate
ly after the Omaha convention, con
fused Major Field with another
prominent Virginian of the same
name, and the editor of the Tele
graph should be too honest to make
a charge of Mahonism with that fact
explained.
Mr. Watson has intimated no such
thing as charged by the Telegraph,
either plainly or by inference. When
it was proposed to expend 8294 of
the people’s money in printing a
pamphlet for campaign purposes Mr.
Watson said that the matter was, in
his opinion, not within the rule which
admits publication of matters pend
ing before Congress at public ex
pense. In this contention Mr. Wat
son was logical, and simply stood by
his pledges to economy and strict ob
servance of the law. The objection
was made under a rule of order, and
when ruled out he did not vote
against the proposition.
It now seems certain that the ne
groes of the South will vote for the
People’s Party candidates. This
they have a right to do, and this they
will do because of the splendid plat
form and because they believe the
party intends honestly to carry out
its pledges. The tendency of the
colored voters to the People’s Party
is one of the hopeful signs of the
times, and indicates cledrly that the
cleavage in the South is across the
lines of both the old parties, and will
result in the defeat of both. Wher
ever the issue of fusion has been pre
sented to the People’s Party it has
been voted down, and there is no
more probability of fusion in North
Carolina than in Kansas or lowa.
The fight will be made and won on
principle.
The Atlanta Constitution is look
ing forward to the time when the
people of Georgia will get their eyes
opened. Does that paper think these
people are a big litter of puppies?
The shooting of Frick by a young
man named Bergman has been made
the text for a number of homilies by
the press. The shooting of perhaps
fifty men and women by thugs em
ployed by Frick on several occasions
has also been commented on. Berg
man will probably be justly con
victed tor attempting murder. Frick
will never be tried for murders
actually committed which he
planned and caused.
It is nip and tuck between Hillyer’s
equal intrinsic value dollar and Liv
ingston’s Alliance construction of the
the Chicago platform.
Senator Stewart’s speech in this
issue will bear close study. The
statement that the constant effect of
contraction had, by September, 1881,
overcome the stimulus given by the
McKinley law, is full of food for re
flection. Since that time there is no
doubt that 12 per cent, average de
cline has gone through the entire
list of prices. In wheat and cotton,
it is of course much greater than
that, Can not the ordinary business
man see that success as a merchant
is impossible in the face of a 10 per
cent, annual decline in prices ?
How the Democrats clutch at the
prospect of electing Cleveland in the
House ! But they just would nomi
nate him anyhow.
The workingmen of Atlanta have
opinions, and many of them share
the conviction of the People’s Party,
that a new political organization will
have fewer specks on it than the old
machine. And the workingmen will
prove in October that they know a
good article when they see it by
voting the People’s ticket.
It behooves every man to beware
of debt, as of the devil, in times of
contraction and falling prices.
If the good voters of Fulton county
who did not declare themselves Dem
ocrats last Tuesday want to, they can
emphasize their position in October
by voting for Peek and the People’s
Party. Somebody will be astonished
at the number who do.
In New York it seems to be a
mock battle the combined capital of
the oil magnates and the street rail
ways against the Vanderbilt railroad
system —of Whitney against Depew*
Cleveland and Harrison are but in
cidents.