Newspaper Page Text
IN NORTH CAROLINA.
Things are considerably mixed in
the Old North State, and it seems
that a People’s Party flavor is given
to the mixture. Last week when the
regular Democratic nominating con
vention of the Third Congressional
district met, the present member, Mr.
Grady, was renominated without op
position. Mr. Grady is a member of
the Alliance, a school master and
farmer, and recognized as a believer
in the Ocala demands, which were
made an issue in the last election. A
motion to indorse the Chicago plat
form was voted down, and when it
was proposed to nominate an elector
for the district an amendment was
adopted that he be instructed to vote
for Weaver and Field. The minori
ty withdrew and reorganized, nam
ing their elector for Cleveland, and
by every precedent the regular Dem
ocracy of the Third North Carolina
district is instructed for Weaver and
Field.
The Republicans do not seem to be
in better shape. While the politi
cians and officeholders favor a State
ticket, the rank and file have gone
largely over the People’s Party, and
the old party seems to be all leaders
and no followers. In a recent num
ber of the Progressive Farmer, Dr-
Mott, a leader and a man of great
force, advised the Republicans to vote
for the People’s Party State ticket,
and while the committeemen seem to
generally oppose the proposition,
their protests are receiving little
consideration outside the Democratic
newspapers.
It is within the easy range of prob
abilities that the vote for the Peo
ple’s Party in North Carolina will ex
ceed that of both old parties com
bined.
A DISCREPANCY.
Tuesday in the primary election in
Fulton county, but 1,990 voters put
themselves on record as Democrats
on State issue, and 2,076 as desiring
to put out a candidate for Congress.
The total vote of Fulton county is
not less than 12,000, and at the pro
hibition election two years ago over
• 1,000 votes were actually cast. The
lail\ papers of Atlanta constantly
laim that there are no People’s party
heretics here, and the vote for Har
ison four years ago was but 2,164 in
Fulton county. All things consid
ered, there is a discrepancy in Demo-
Tati c calculations.
EVERY WORD FALSE.
The Augusta Chronicle says :
• The Third Party seems to be on the
trade and ready to fuse with any party
that promises additional votes for their
candidates. They are fusing with Dem
ocrats in the West, playing with the
Republicans in the South, and in Geor
gia trying to make a dicker also with
the Prohibitionists.”
Does not the editor of the Chron
icle know that there is no truth in
any statement contained in its para
graph ? The People’s Party is evi
dently meant by its term, Third
Party, and the People’s Party has
everywhere refused to fuse or to
turn to the right or the left to dicker
with any party in any State.
The Constitution has not disavow
ed its lately expressed opinion that
Cleveland need not look for recruits
in the East. Harrison will lose the
West. How then, Mr. Constitu
tion ?
When the Young Men’s Demo
cratic Club ratified they almost filled
the Hall of Representatives with
voters of all parties, ladies and a
brass band. Last Tuesday the club
. seems to have sort of “swunk.”
I Such members as Hooper Alexander,
I the talented young man who knows
I everything about silver, should study
. this intricate problem. Hoke Smith,
too, should come in out of the wet
and explain how the fumes of the
dead force bill tarnish the tinsel of
Democracy.
The gubernatorial election in Ala
bama next week will be a settlement
of scores between two Democratic
factions. No other party has nomi
nees.
The Populist, a spick span brand
new People’s ,Party paper comes to
' our table from the neighborhood of
Senator Gordon’s ranch in Taylor
county. We are not sure that a man
whose time is so fully occupied in
giving advice to other people cares to
pause long enough to listen to a sug-
gestion ; but we would whisper m
the General’s ear that he is very
likely to lose his own home county
while he is striving in vain to break
Tom Watson’s hold on the Tenth
District. Better be looking after
your own beat, Senator.
J. L. Gibson writes: “Put Pike
county down as solid for the Peo
ple’s Party.”
Sam Small is being so roundly
abused by the daily papers that the
people will soon -want to know why ?
Then Rev. Sam’s innings will come,
for few men have a better knack of
telling why than he.
Now that Judge Ilillyer has car
ried Fulton, do his 1,100 supporters
know whether he really desires a
free coinage of cart-wheel silver, or
of mieroscopic gold dollars ?
The People’s Party does not fuse.
It don’t have to. The best element
of all other parties come to it and
give it their support because it is
right and makes no compromises.
The People’s Party convention of
the Eighth district, assembled at
Athens, July 26th, nominated Dr. J.
R. Robins, of Greene county, for
Congress.
Macon County.
A mass meeting of the People’s
Party was held in the Alliance ware
house in the town of Montezuma on
Saturday, July 23, for thej purpose
of electing delegates to the congres
sional convention for the third dis
trict, to be held at Americus, Tues
day, the 2d day of Augast next.
Also, to elect delegates to the sena
torial convention which meets at the
same time and place. The following
were elected delegates to the con
gressional convention : J. W. Souter,
W. 11. Hall, W. D. L. Duncan, J.
M. Walters, J. H. Claxton.
Delegates to the senatorial conven
tion : J. C. Tarrer, B. C. Brooks, W.
11. Killebrew, J. F. Souter, T. S.
Brooks.
A resolution was offered by J. W.
Souter, and unanimously adopted,
that the People’s Party of Macon
county aid the colored people all they
can by spreading reform literature
into their hands, and assist them in
organizing themselves into People’s
Party clubs; also that we have a
basket dinner at the Miona Springs
on Flint River, near*Montezuma, and
invite the people of Taylor county
to take part with us ; and we invite
Hon. W. L. Peek, of Rockdale coun
ty, Hon. Thomas E. Watson, and
others, to address the people on that
day. The day to be set by the com
mittee on arrangements in the near
future. Everybody is invited to
come, and bring baskets well filled.
Hurrah! for the People’s Party Pa
per, Thomas E. Watson, and W. L.
Peek, our next Governor.
W. D. D. Duncan,
Sec’y of Ex. Com.
Colored Organization in Macon County.
The colored farmers of the Grange
ville district met, July 4, with wives,
and children, and baskets well filled
with refreshments, at Sutton’s School
House. After a good dinner, John
Crittenden, of Schley county, made
a ringing speech on the principles of
the People’s Party. He proved, be
yond a doubt, that the contraction of
the currency, and the establishment
of national banks, were working de
struction to agriculture and impover
ishing labor, and the bosses of the
Republican party, who freed us, and
the bosses of the Democratic party
have combined together and sold to
Wall street and England the agri
cultural, and laboring people of
America, and today we are all, both
white and colored, financially slaves
for the old parties.
He said that the poor people who
fought to save us when we were
bodily slaves, and the agricultural
and laboring people of the South
are calling upon us to unite with
them and again throw off the shack
les of slavery and restore the gov
ernment back to all the people.
His speech was good, and had the
effect of converting the already con
victed, and of convicting those who
never had thought of the condition
of our government and the reason
that they were unable to make a
living for themselves and families.
After the speech, Rev. Mr. Bass
was called upon to speak for the
Republican party, whereupon Mr.
Crittenden soon seated him by ask
ing him why the people who do all
the work were so poor ?
The meeting then organized by
electing Thomas Collins chairman
and J. E. Duncan secretary, with a
membership of 23 names.
We believe the only relief for the
laboring people of America is to come
together on the St Louis platform,
and we are going with the People’s
Party, for we believe it to be the
only party of the people, by the peo
ple, and for the people.
J. E. Duncan, Secretary.
Legal Tenders.
National Watchman.
The following resolutions were in
troduced by Senator Morgan:
Whereas, Under the existing laws gold
coin of the United States is the only full
legal-tender money which cannot be dis
pensed with by contract, and under the
influence of that legislation the private
indebtedness of the people to each other
and to foreigners is being rapidly con •
verted into contracts payable in gold;
and,
Whereas, The bonded debt of the
United States is being paid, as to interest
and principal, only in gold coin, and
amounts to more than a thousand mil
lion dollars ; and,
Whereas, The Uni ed States is bound
for the ultimate redemption in gold coin
of gold certificates amounting to $156,-
598,929, and of United States notes
amounting to $346,681,016, and of na
tional bank notes amounting to $172,-
682 850, and of currency certificates
amounting to $30,320,000 ; in all to $706,-
283,745 ; and,
Whereas, There is in addition to these
liabilities the sum of $101,712,071 of
treasury notes issued under the act of
July 14, 1890, for which the Secretary of
the Treasury has failed to provide the
means of redemption in silver dollars
and treats the same as a gold debt; and,
Whereas, The entire gold debt of the
United States, as it is considered and
treated by the government, amounts to
more than $2,000,000,000, more than half
of which is due on demand ; and,
Whereas, The private debts of the
people can all be converted into gold
debts on the demand of the creditor
classes, and amount to more than two
thousand million dollars ; and,
Whereas, According to the statement
of the Treasurer of the United States,
made on July 1, 1892, the whole amount
of the general stock of gold coined or
issued in the United States was $589,-
509,061; and,
Whereas, The disparity between the
amount of gold in the United States,
now or prospectively, and the amount of
debts, public and private debts, that rest
upon gold coin for ultimate redemption
is so great as to create distrust in the
soundness of our paper money system,
and to place the debtor class and their
property in dangerous subordination to
the power of those who have money and
credit to loan or sell. Be it
Resolved by the Senate, That the com
mittee on finance be, and are hereby, di
rected to report a bill to the Senate, with
all convenient dispatch, to give to all the
paper money issued directly by the
United States as a legal tender for debts,
public or private, and to all standard
silver dollars of the United States, the
full legal tender effect that is given by
law to the coins of gold issued from the
mints of the United States, so that the
same shall be a full legal tender for all
debts, public and private, without excep
tion or restriction.
During the discussion Senator Mor
gan said:
A legal-tender law is a law which com
pels a creditor to accept the money of
the United States in payment of his
debts at the end of the judgment. No
body administers legal tender laws in
this country but judges ; it is not within
the power of the executive or the parties
to the contract or of any other personal
tribunal except the courts; but when a
contract is made payable in gold and
you sue upon it and you recover a
judgment for so many dollars, then it is
the right of a citizen of the United
States ; if we have got the rights of any
of the civilized or semi-civilized powers
of this world, to pay that debt in the
money which the lawful authority of
the United States declares to be legal
tender money, and that the sheriff or
the marshal or the party himself is
bound to receive in liquidation of the
debt.
The Senator from Ohio, by the legisla
tion for which he has been more respon
sible than anybody else, has struck the
legal tender law to death until you come
to gold coin and abraded gold coin. He
has left no legal tender in the statute
book except gold coin coined by the
United States, and he makes that a legal
tender, if not upon its face, yet by
weight. He can weigh it out, and make
a legal tender of it to his creditor. That
is the situation of our legal tender law.
Based upon that are a half dozen false
or hypocritical pretenses expressed in
the statute that greenbacks, coin certifi
cates, gold certificates, silver certificates,
silver dollars, demand notes and cur
rency notes shall be a legal tender.
Every pretense of that kind is a false
hood, for the reason that they are not a
legal tender, and for the reason that the
courts cannot, under the existing state
of the law, compel the creditor to re
ceive in satisfaction of his execution
that sort ot money.
It is good between the common peo
ple ; it is good between innocent men ; it
passes current from hand to hand ; but
when it comes to the satisfaction of a
judgment of the law, the creditor, the
plaintiff in execution, can put up his
debtors’s property and sell as much of it
as he chooses to buy in satisfaction of
his debt, unless that debtor can go and
afford to pay a premium for gold. That
is our situation.
The above clearly discloses the
helpless condition of the people, and
the urgent necessity for an imme
diate change.
The Atlanta Journal is prone to
quote General Weaver’s speeches in
his first campaign for Congress, when
he was running as a Republican
against an lowa Democrat. There
is no doubt Weaver did abuse the
Democrats soundly, but there is no
evidence that he abused the Southern
people, as the Journal charges.
Horace Greeley said that though
every Democrat was not a horse thief,
every horse thief was a Democrat,
and the Democrats ran him for Pres
ident. A good brother in this reform
movement says he remembers help
ing to hang Abe Lincoln in etigy,
and now he considers Lincoln as
entitled to a top place in the niche
of fame. Really, the people are not
bothered about how Gen. Weaver
abused the lowa Democracy twenty
years ago.
Senator Stewart’s Speech.
[CONTINUED FROM IST PAGE.]
of protest, is death. The condition of
the laboring man in Europe is fast be
coming what it was in the dark ages,
and in this country the same iron hand
of contraction is being laid upon him.
He is the only one who stands to resist
it, and he is denounced by the law
abiding citizens of this great Republic
for protesting against the falling prices
of his wages, and he must ultimately
be subdued if this goes on.
Ah, the evil lies deeper than the
mere dealing in futures, speculation in
futures, and business transactions. It
is brought about by the destruction of
half of the money of the world and by
the impossibility of increasing the
other half. All the gold that is pro
duced is consumed without making any
appreciable increase in the gold coin
of the world. It is estimated by stat
isticians that the gold coin of the world
is no greater in amount than it was
eighteen years ago. Nearly $40,000,000
of the annual product goes to Asia,
never to return, because their exports
always exceed their imports. The bal
ance is used in the arts. Still, the gold
kings insist that those who are at
tempting to use any other kind of
money shall be forced to buy gold in
order to increase the value of gold, the
property they own, to make bonds
more valuable. That is what is being
done.
We passed a bill of relief here, to
supplement gold coin with silver coin.
But the edict of the gold kings went
forth operating upon parties, upon
men, and upon conventions, to make
them forget their constituents, to make
them forget the sufferings of the peo
ple whom they had robbod. How long
this will continue is a question for the
future; but if it is not stopped we shall
have a money famine the like of which
the world has never seen.
Between 1810 and 1840 when a money
famine was created by the Spanish-
American wars the production of golc
and silver was between $30,000,000 and
$40,000,000 per annum, and some of that
could be put into new money. From
1840 to 1850 little was added to it, about
$10,000,000 from the gold mines of Rus
sia. From 1850 to 1875 the world’s pro
duct of gold and silver was more than
$200,000,000 per annum. We had then
rising prices, and business was con
ducted on the basis of high prices.
Since 1875 no addition has been made
to the gold coin of the world, and we
are marching more rapidly to decline
than we were in money
famine in the early part of this centu
ry. Still we are here proposing relief
to the people, getting patriotic over
side issues, and allowing the evil to go
on increasing
Much has been said about the reasons
for the fall of silver. Silver has not
fallen. It will buy as much of all the
commodities produced by man as it
ever would. It is gold which has gone
up. The average price of a bushel of
wheat has been an ounce of silver in
Liverpool every year for the last twen
ty years. The Indian farmer will take
his bushel of wheat to Liverpool, sells
it for an ounce of silver, take his silver
home and coin it into $1.37. That sil
ver has for the farmer of India the
same purchasing power it ever had.
The American farmer, on the other
hand, takes his bushel of wheat to Liv
erpool, takes his ounce of silver for it,
and brings it here and sells it for 87
cents. He is put in competition with
the farmer of India, and in that way
we are driven out of the foreign mar
ket. Russia is similarly situated in
this respect to India.
So we go on putting up the price of
gold and putting down the price of
property, and the gold men say what
a terrible thing it would be for some
of this gold to go out of the country.
If we had this gold in Europe, where
we sell our products, the price might
be higher there and we would be ben
efited. There is no place on earth
where our gold would do us so much
good as in Europe, where we sell our
commodities. It is the falling of prices
that casts such a financial gloom that
no business man can contend against
it.
From Washington County.
We are thoroughly organized. Out
of about 1,600 white voters we will
give the People’s Party 1,200, and
all the colored voters, about 900
strong, will vote the People’s Party
ticket.
We demand reform in our county
and we will have it. We have been
controlled by that Sandersville clique
and ring as long as we will stand it.
We are going to down them at the
polls in October and November.
I notice that the little Thomson
convention has nominated Maj. Black
to run against our Tom Watson. I
hate to see as good a man as Black
get beaten. He ought to make the
race for some office he could get. We
are going to nominate our Senator,
Representatives and county officers
on the 28th. We expect Tom Wat
son to be here. Col. Post is also ex
pected. It will be a grand rally for
the People’s Party of Washington
county. We would like to have
Northen, Black, Gordon and Atkin
son come down and speak for us;
they have done good for the Peo
ple’s Party wherever they have been.
Hurry them, up and send them down
here, and Washington county will be
more solid than ever. There are
some men in our midst who, I am
sorry to say, are controlled by friends
or men with whom they trade. We
are met by a few enemies—of the
old mossback variety—who are using
every means, however low, to beat
us. They spent $1,200 dollars and
four barrels of whisky in Glascock
county, and then got defeated the
worst you ever heard of, except when
Washington county’s time comes for
action. I understand that there is a
corruption fund of $3,000 or $4,000
made up in this county to defeat our
Tom, but it, like all the rest, will be
spent in vain.
I see from returns of the meeting
at Thomson that the delegates pledg-
ed every county for Black except lit
tle Glasscock, and would have done
that had it not given the Peo
ple’s Party a big majority. Our
noted lawyer and fellow-countryman,
Col. Geo. C. Evans, of Tom Webb
notoriety, pledged old Washington,
but he will not live long enough to
see the day that he will carry it. It
seems to be their sole aim to defeat
Tom by any means, fair or foul.
It seems that Gordon and Bob
Lewis have about gone by the board.
I havn’t heard Gordon brag since
Watson reflected to his Gibson war
whoop. I reckon he is still saying,
“Hear that, Third Party men! Hear
that!” while Northen reads for him.
I havn’t heard of Bob Lewis until the
Thomson harangue in a good while;
guess he’s had some tongue affection.
He generally talks lots and does lit
tle. What has become of Sid Lewis ?
Is he dead or sleeping? I reckon he
is doing both. Well, just tell them
all to come down as soon as possible
and give us a few rounds of good old
time Democracy, it will help us.
Third Partyite.
Pulaski County.
The People’s Party convention
met this day in the courthouse, called
to order by J. G. Wright, chairman
executive committee. On motion
elected T. C. Allen chairman, and
W. C. Solomon secretary. After a
few pertinent and pointed remarks
by the chairman it was resolved that
we proceed to nominate candidates
for the legislature and county officers.
Nominated James Coody and J. D.
Pearce as representatives to Georgia
Legislature.
Nominated the following ticket for
county officers:
Ordinary, M. T. Sikes; clerk
superior court, W. M. Wynne; sheriff,
C. C. Portar; tax receiver, W. G.
Barbar; treasurer, S. D. Stephens;
county surveyor, S. C. Carroll; Cor
oner, D. J. Skipper.
On motion, should any of the above
gentlemen not present refuse to
accept, the executive committee was
given power to make nominations in
their place.
Adopted the following resolutions
offered by F. D. Wimberly :
1. That we ratify in its entirety
the platform adopted by the People’s
Party in convention at Omaha, on
the 4th day of July 1892, and hereby
pledge an unremitting effort in behalf
of the national ticket, J. B. Weaver
for President and J. G. Field for
Vice President.
2. That we ratify the platform
adopted in State Convention at At
lanta July 20th, and proudly hail our
state ticket with W. L. Peek as the
head.
3. That we demand of the next
Legislature, to abolish the county
court and board of county commis
sioners and to place the duties dis
charged by them in the justices of the
peace and of the ordinary; to change
the law as to jury commissioners so
that each militia district shall elect
one commissioner and the whole of
them shall compose the jury commis
sioners; to have the new road law
abolished and the old law established
again; to have all county officers
elected by the people; to keep in
mind in all legislation a government
of the people by the people and for
the people.
Elected as delegates to the Third
congressional convention to meet in
Americus, August 2, 1892, the
following gentlemen: Dr. J. B.
Carroll, T. C. Allen, Ed. Pearce and
S, D. Stephens.
The executive committee of Pu
laski county instructed to confer with
the different county executive com
mittees of the 14th Senatorial dis
trict in reference to a candidate for
the Georgia Senate from said dis
trict. T. C. Allen, Chairman.
W. C. Solomon, Secretary.
Democratic Free Wool.
An honest Georgia farmer stated
to us last week, that he had recently
carried his wool to a certain factory
and was told that the price of wool
had fallen six cents a pound since
Congress had passed the Free
Wool Bill. There is no law mak
ing wool free, nor is there likely to
be. The House did vote to take the
tariff off the wool which the farmers
have to sell, but to leave a tariff of
40 per cent on the jeans and blankets
which the farmers and laboring men
have to buy, but the miserable fraud
has not become a law nor will it be
come a law.
The Democrats are always ready
to give the people taffy, but never
ready to give them relief.
Among the recent accessions to
the People’s Party reported in the
West, Hon. George L. Yalple, of
Michigan, is notable. He has served
in Congress, and was the last Demo
cratic candidate for Governor of his
State. Like Governor Pennoyer, he
finds the surrender of the party to
Wall street too rancid for his con
science, andaligns himself on the
People’s side.
Mr. Cooper, of Indiana, July 16,
in a discussion of the sundry civil
appropriation bill, made the following
statement :
Mr. Cooper. If the gentleman will
allow me a moment, I wish to say
that I hold in my hand the report cf
the Senate Committee on Apjpropria
tions upon this bill; and I refer to
this document to show the importance
and the urgency of this amendment.
By this report (page 19) it appears
that at the Presidential inauguration
March 4, 1889, there w r ere here on
the public grounds under the pay of
the Govenment, a number of these
Pinkerton men. I read :
15 Pinkerton men, 3 days, at $lO, $450
10 Pinkerton men, 1 day, at $lO 100
15 Pinkerton men, expenses, 3
days, at $5, 225
10 Pinkerton men, expenses, 1
day, at- $5, 50
These men were brought here
from distant places ; and if they were
thus brought here to attend npon the
inauguration ceremonies, it is more
than likely that unless some expres
sion be made by the House against
such a proceeding, it may be adopted
on the occasion for which we are
providing. I have thought it impor
tant in this connection to call atten
tion to what has been done in the
past.
All arrangements for the inaugu
ration of Harrison were made by the
Cleveland administration, and the
Democratic party is responsible.
Debate in Johnson County.
The voters of Johnson county
assembled in mass, about six hun
dred strong, in the town of Wright
ville, at the Nannie Lou Worthen
Institute, and heard one of the most
interesting debates that ever took
place between our home people.
The discussion was upon the plat
form of the People, and that of the
Democratic party. The speakers that
represented the People were Dr.
Ivey, Mr. Helton and Mr. Snider.
Those that represented the Demo
cratic party were Col. Daly, Col.
Robinson and Dr. Flanders. When
the boys began to shell down the
clean cannon in defense of the Peo
ple’s platform the lawyers on the
other side, through excitement or
mistake, would address the people as
“gentlemen of the jury,” forgetting
that they were not in a justice court
but confronted by a jury of about
five hundred voters, who were ready
to convict the Democratic party, as
its foul deeds were uncovered ; they
would also drift into the unreason
able attitude of construing the land
plank in the People’s platform to
mean a division of the land belong
ing to the private citizens as much
so as the land owned by the rail
road corporations and alien men, but
in all of this they were met to the
fullest, and on the part of the Peo
ple it was a grand success, for in the
conclusion Dr. Ivey asked all who
were in favor of the People’s Party
to rise and it appeared that there
was an upward tendency of a level
headed assembly. A Citizen.
A. C. Jackson, of Watkinsville,
Ga., tells how the workers for the
cause make hay when the sun does
not shine:
On the Bth inst. the writer had the
pleasure of being at a gathering
which was to have been a sunday
school celebration, but on account
of the rain the piogramme of the
sunday-scliool was called in, and the
day spent in working for a cause next
to that of sunday-school and church,
viz: That of the People’s Party.
There was fully three hundred pres
ent despite the unceasing rain, and
after several speeches, Uncle George
E. Griffeth, a tried and true man,
requested the audience all to be seat
ed, then he requested all who favor
ed this move known as the People’s
Party to rise, and the entire audience
rose*, with the exception of about
half dozen who refused to vote eith
er for or against.
Attention.
Voters of the People’s Party of
Berrien county are hereby respect
fully requested to meet in mass meet
ing in the court house at Nashville
on Aug. 27, by 10 o’clock, for the
purpose of electing delegates to the
Congressional and Senatorial conven
tions, also to nominate a man for
legislative honor, and attend to other
matters of importance.
N. E. Patterson,
County Chairman.
NOT A REVOLT;
IT IS A REVOLUTION.
Tom Watson’s Book
Now on hand.
For sale at the
Office of the
Peoples Party Paper.
A campaign terror.
Everybody needs it.
Speakers must have it.
Price, One Dollar.