Newspaper Page Text
PEOPLE’S JPAMY PAPER.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE
People’s Paper Publishing Company.
117 1-2 Whitehall. St.
THOS. E. WATSON, - - President.
D. N. SANDERS, - - Sec. & Treas.
R. F. GRAY, - Business Manager.
Thia Paper Is now and will ever be a fearless
advocate of the Jeffersonian Theory of Popu
lar Government, and will oppose io the bitter
end the Hamiltonian Doctrines of Class Rule.
Moneyed Aristocracy, National Banks. Hig '
Tariffs, Standing Armies and Formidable Na
v es: -all of which go together as a system of
oppressing the People.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
TERMS—II.OO per year.
Bend Money by Postal Note or Money Order
DO NOT SEND STAMPS.
CLUBS : In clubi»of 10 wewill send the
Paper at 7fic.
OUR OFFICE
is up stairs in th. elegant new McDonald
cailding 117 1* * aitehaU street, where our
friends will always And the latch string
the outside. f
Get Up Clubs.
We want the Industrial Classes to feel that
this Paper is THEIR FRIEND. It is conduct
ed by men who are intensely interested in the
Reform Movement, and have oeen battling for
it many years. .
The price shows that the Paper is not being
ran lor money. If the People support it lib
erally it will pay expenses. It cannot do
more.
As long as I am President of the Company,
the Paper will never be found on any other
lire of policy than that which I sincerely be
lieve is best for Georgia, best for the South,
fond best for the country at large.
THOS. E. M ATSON,
President People’s Paper Publishing Co.
TO ADVERTISERS.
The circulation of the People’s Party
Paper is now 12,000 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 circulation is steadily increasings
and most advantageous arrangements
can be made for space.
Write for ad. rate card.
M atch the Yellow Label.
Look at the date on your address label.
It tells to what time your subscription is
paid. If there is any error, write ai
once and the correction will be made.
If your subscription has expired,
WHY DON’T YOU RENEW?
And assist in making the People’s
Party Paper the great medium of in
formation for the party in the South
The P. P P. family now numbers lo,ovO
Help swell the number to 25,000.
don’t put it off.
If your time is nearly out send in your
dollar and you will not miss a single
number. It saves time and trouble and
will pay you in the end.
to club getters.
In clubs of ten, the Peoples Part's
\Apek will still be sent for 75 cents per
year. Where it is possible have all sent
to one address, and thus avoid delays.
never forget,
In ordering a change of address, to give
your former address as well as the new
one.
PREMIUMS.
In another column will be found
notice of the handsome premiums we
offer. This generous aid comes to
us through the liberality of the
Cherokee Nursery Company
of Way cross, Georgia. Get up a
club and win a supply of Georgia
grown fruit and ornamental trees.
!he stock is guaranteed to be strict
ly first class.
our washingtonletters.
Mr. Watson’s weekly letter will
regularly give notes from the capital
until the session of Congress ends in
March. No better opportunity can
be had to keep up with the carrent
of political events. Send iu your
subscription at onco.
VALUABLE PREMIUM.
For two yearly subscribers at SI.OO
each, we will send a copy of
“Dunning’s Philosophy of Price.”
This work should be in the hands
of every student. It is one of the
best text-books on Finance and Po
litical Economy ever written.
TO OUR COLORED FRIENDS.
We are glad to see so many of
the intelligent colored people taking
an interest in this paper. It means
well for them, and it means well
for us.
The People’s party is doing a
great work for their race. It says
to the world in the plainest terms
that the time has come to give the
negro fair play. It means to stand
by him in what is just under the law.
It means to appeal to him as a voter
and as a citizen on all public issues.
The question of color will not keep
us from giving him a free ballot and
a fair count, just as we claim it for
ourselves. It was on this line that
Mr. Watson made his campaign. It
was for this policy, of equal political
rights to the negro, that he was most
bitterly opposed. But he stands to
the same position to-day and will
continue to do so.
This paper will make the fight of
the future just as it was made in the
last campaign.
Hence every colored man in Geor
gia should be the friend of this pa
per and should do all in his power to
increase its circulation. He will be
doing good service for himself and
for his race. T. E. W.
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23. 892
OUR MERCHANTS.
There can be no class more deeply
interested in questions of finance than
the And this applies es
pecially to the country merchant.
His business is done largely on credit.
He is the debtor of those from whom
he buys, or of those who supply him
with cash. Exceedingly few of our
country merchants are so well sup
plied with funds that they are excep
tions to the rule I have above stated.
On the other hand, they are cred
itors to the people who buy their
goods. Their profits, to a large ex
tent, are in suspense till the end of
the year. Therefore these merchants
are in position to feel the friction of
any disarrangement of finances. In
spite of themselves the mill will keep
grinding till it gets to them.
Let us illustrate. Suppose a coun
try merchant has to get his money on
hard terms, does not this compel him
to levy that burden on his customers?
When he does so, is he not endanger
ing his success by exhausting the
source from which that success must
come? Clearly so. The merchant,
like everybody else, is entitled to his
legitimate gains. These he can reap
and not hurt his customers. But
when hard terms are imposed on him
by his factor or banker, and he, in
turn, has to impose them (and his
own profits too) on his customers, he
will beggar his patrons and thereby
ruin his own business.
Not only is this the case, but he is
caught between two millstones in
another way. He borrows money in
the spring to buy goods, say in New
York. The price he pays for the
money is of course fixed, and he must
pay it, no matter how prices go. The
prices he paid for his goods are also
fixed, as to him, and, possibly, as
to his “time customers,” but not as
to the cash trade. He lays in a stock
of goods for the season and must
run the risk of any decline m prices.-
Now suppose the finances are out
of joint as we say they are, and that
the price of money steadily advances
while the price of commodities stead
ily retires, will he not feel the press
ure?
He has to sell more of his goods
to get the dollar. After he gets it,
it pays no more of his debt to the
factor or banker than it did before.
Hence he has lost, irretrievably
lost, whatever was the shrinkage in
y alue of his goods.
Not only that. At the end of the
season, the debt he owes the factor
or banker, calls for a larger quantity
of commodities to satisfy it than at
the time the debt was made.
Now, this hurts somebody. Who?
Well, if the merchant has made good
collections from his “time customers,”
he saves his bacon. They get the
hurt. But suppose the burden of
excessive cost of the money and the
corresponding shrinkage of the com
modity has been so heavy and has
been going on so long that the coun
try is impoverished? Then the
“time customer” is not able to pay.
What then? That merchant goes
to the wall. Isn’t it so? And isn’t
that our condition almost univer
sally?
Every'merchant in this land ought
to study these questions seriously
and honestly for himself. We claim
that the financial system of to day is
radically wrong. That money does
not increase as commodities and
trade increases. Therefore that
money obtains the advantage over
commodities. That the dollar con
stantly commands a greater amount
of commodity. That the debt con
tinually grows bigger because it re
quires more produce to pay it. That,
therefore, the capitalist dominates
the worker, and constantly exacts
more of his work.
Few country merchants are mak
ing any money. The fires which
have desolated the country are
swiftly whirling toward the towns.
Only the man who buys on short
time, in small quantities and sells
quickly and for cash, is keeping
ahead.
Ask your stubbornest Democratic
merchant if this isn’t so. Then ask
him why it is so.
That merchant who buys large
stocks of goods, carries them for long
periods and sells them on credit
finds it harder to meet the end of the
year than gver before. Ask him if
this isn’t so, and then ask him why.
The commodity shrinks and the
dollar sw’ells.
That’s what’s the matter, and our
merchants will all see it some of
diese days.
Instead of hating us, abusing us
and ridiculing us, the merchants of
the country ought to bid us God
speed. We are fighting for their
homes and firesides as well as our
own. T. E. W.
THE PANAMA CANAL STENCH AND
THE NICARAGUA CANAL.
The stench in France seems to be
growing worse. The scandal not
only takes in most of the newspa
pers, the speculators, the bankers
and the legislators, but also mem
bers of the president’s cabinet and of
his family.
It seems that everybody was will
ing to take a bribe—little and big,
old and young, high and low.
A most sickening state of things 1
Will anybody be punished for
stealing the money of the people iu
this wholesale manner?
Probably so. They will select a
few of the rascal who have little
money or influence, and pile it on to
them pretty heavy. But the big
bugs will never be touched. Such
men as DeLesseps and Bouvier and
the Carnots are too strong for the
law.
In the meanwhile the honest mer
chants, farmers and laborers who
were defrauded in the great Panama
swindle, have no redress whatever.
The wheels have passed over them,
and they must endure the lot of the
victims as best they can.
At this very moment similar
schemes are being laid in this coun
try. The Nicaragua canal is the
name of the iob. It aims to do on a
t/
water-way what was done on the
Pacific railways. It aims to have
the people (throng I) congressmen)
give sixty millions of dollars to a
monster corporation. In other
words, the Aruerican tax-payers are
to give one dollar per head (count
ing men, women and children) to a
lot of money-kings to enable them to
construct another great line of trans
portation with which they will con
trol commerce, levy tribute upon
labor by unjust freight rates and dic
tate legislation by keeping corrupt
lobyists and newspapers in their pay.
The plans are well under way.
Certain newspapers are booming the
project. Certain public men are ad
vocating it—notably John Sherman
and Senator Morgan. .
Cleveland favors it, and so does
Harrison.
Let the people look out. More
money will be stolen from the treas
ury under this colossal grab than has
been lost since the Pacific railroad
robberies.
It may not be as big a job as that
of the Panama canal, but it is just as
rotten. ‘ T. E. W.
LEGISLATIVE NOTES.
The Georgia Legislature has fin
ished its fifty-day session and ad
journed. The body was overwhelm
ingly Democratic, there being but
fourteen People’s party members
and but tyro Republicans in the
House, and but one People’s party
and no Republican senator. A
larger number of the opposition were
really elected, but the Democrats
controlled the election machinery
and the conscience of the Legisla
ture.
The increase of SIOO,OOO for the
public schools was the most notable
and the best act of the General As
sembly. Though greatly insufficient,
$600,000 per annum, added to the
$420,000 derived from the leese of
the Western & Atlantic railroad, is
supplemented in many parts of the
State until in’ the cities and towns
the sessions embrace several months,
but in many country places the dis
bursement is totally inadequte.
Hence the exodus from country to
town.
The proposition to sell the state’s
bonds for a sufficient sum to pay
teachers was very properly repudi
ated. Any proposition to issue
bonds, on any pretense it
is to be hoped will never materialize
in Georgia. The Assembly neg
lected, however, to abrogate the
teachers’ institute, the greatest drain
upon the childrens’ educational re
sources of the State.
The Assembly could not rise to
the occasion and declare against ap
propriations for the summer en
campments. A slight reduction was
made, however, for which the people
will be duly grateful. Until the sin
ful extravagance of a military estab
lishment is fully comprehended, this
method of expenditure will doubtless
be a favorite method of conferring
administrative favors.
The efforts to in some manner dis
courage railroad combinations all
came to grief. .Not, however, with
out calling to Atlanta a strong lobby
and the attendance of prominent
railway investors and manipulators.
The big guns of plutocracy came,
and they “saw,” and conquered.
The investigation into the charges
against Judge Gober resulted in his
vindication, but it was such a vindi
cation as will not arouse particular
enthusiasm among hi? friends. The
testimony was not made public, and
the pleadings of the attorneys were
not entertained. The chairman* of
the committee in his report to the
House seemed to aim more at leav
ing no scars behind than at a clear
statement of the facts. It is unfor
tunate that the people must get their
information m this cage from ex
parte sources. If it was merely the
work of disgruntled attorneys, it is
important that it should be known.
The abrogations of boards of
equalizers may have an important
effect on the revenues, and hence
upon the rate of taxation. Until
the result is known, however, the
change cannot be fairly condemned
or indorsed.
The refusal of the Legislature to
adopt the Confederate Home has
been widely denounced. In this the
General Assembly showed a credita
ble independence, and a determina
tion to grant whatever relief the old
soldiers receive without classing them
as paupers. Less money will do
more in pensions, expended in sup
porting the recipient in his imme
diate family, than in a poor-house.
Throughout the session there was
evidenced a most unfair intent
toward the People’s party on the
part of the majority. The case of
the contest of the seat occupied by-
Senator Reese is directly iu point.
Mr. Reese was defeated by several
hundred majority. He and his
friends dare not deny the fact that,
had the returns from Lincoln county
been compiled with the rest of the
counties, his opponent would have
been placed on the roster of the Sen
ate. Nor is it contended that there
was any reason to reject the vote of
Lincoln. But the Senate refused to
entertain a contest, and Mr. Reese
masqueraded as Senator in the tog
gery stolen from Mr. Ramsey, -who
faily defeated him. As a man and
a gentleman, how he could do it, is
incomprehensible. As a thimble-rig
Democrat, it was the most natural
thing in the world.
Echoes From the Eighth.
Bowman, Ga., Dec. 19th 1891.
The People’s Party is not such a
will o’ the wisp, as the joree class of
politicians said it was. We ar a not
dead yet by a full yard. Notwith
standing we have been defeated
twice, we are stronger in conviction
and in number than we were the
first day of our existence one year
ago.
No amount of Democratic buf
foonery will be sufficient to drive
the People’s party from Elbert coun
ty. The pop-gun and peanut politi
cians may run their slander mills,
malign our leaders, troduce our plat
form and vent their nefarious spleen
at the party in general, but we are
here, solid as Gibralta.
The People’s party of the two
hundred and first district of Elbert
county has nominated a candidate
for justice of the peace and two
bailiffs, which will surely be elected,
notwithstanding the fact Democrats
killed one man and shot two others
for the unpardonable crime of voting
the People’s party ticket. This will
give you some idea of the scathing
ordeal which we have passed through
in the recent elections. But we are
more bouyant, more hopeful, more
determined than ever.
W e will have a grand People’s
Party rally at the Butler academy
on Friday, December the 30th. The
Goshen String band will furnish
music for the occasion. Every man,
woman and child is cordially invited
to come. The meeting will be ad
dressed by Mr. J. S. Thos.
House, Esq., and Colonels Lonk and
W. M. Hairston. These are speak
ers of marked ability, and a breezy
time is in store for the people of this
section. At this meeting there will
be a large club raised for the Peo
ple’s Party Paper. We are just
spitting on our hands now for the
next fight.
At every step of progress some
iron-hearted monster has been ready
to shout “treason.”
No good man ever espoused the
cause of the plain people but that
some Nero stood ready to send a
bullet through his heart for wishing
to better the condition of the com
mon country. Gen. Weaver was
hung in effigy in our county and
shot into doll rags. We do not sym
pathize with Gen. Weaver, for he
doesn’t need it; but we do most
deeply sympathize with the poor
boobies who are so blinded by
prejudice as to thus forget their own
interests.
Nearly every little tooth - pick
weekly newspaper we pick up has
some fallacious charge against Mr.
Watson, the object of which is to
prejudice the minds of the people
against the People’s party. We
know Mr. M’atson. We have tried
him and he has proved true. In
honor he is rich. In integrity and
in brains he is a millionaire. When
these little natrow-gauged defamers
are lost in the dust of oblivion all
Americans will honor the name of
*Tom Watson.
M. C. Rankin, of Terre Haute,
Ind., writes. “I would advise our
people everywhere if they want to
help the cause and get the worth of
their money besides, to take the
People’s Party Paper.”
Married, on Dec. 20, Mr. C. W.
Cousins to Miss Mamie A. Guilfoyle,
both of this city, Father Shadwell
officiating. May peace, prosperity
and happiness attend the lives linked
together by the silken bonds.
NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.
Washington, Dec. 12,1892.
Yes, siree; there is quite a flutter
among us big bugs! We are mad,
and we don’t care who knows it!
I’ll tell you how it happened.
A short while ago we had an elec
tion, and Grover Cleveland came in
ahead at a high, stick-necked, duck
shooter trot.
Well, ever since that time the
country has been suffering from the
delirious ravings of one million men,
each of whom was the cause of the
glorious Democratic victory.
In Georgia, as is well known, that
irritating question has been settled.
Everybody knows that Mr. B. Al.
Blackburn is the man who did it. It
is true that Mr. Smith, of the Atlanta
Journal, denies this, but the denial is
not worth a cent to anyone who has
ever seen Air. Blackburn.
In New York, however, the ques
tion is still unsettled.
And that’s .why we big bugs are
all in a stew.
You see, they have over there a
thing they call the tariff reform
club. It is composed of some of
the most prineipallest men in the
town. They are the gold-plated re
formers. They believe that the sal
vation of this people must come by
way of the banquet hall. Their
creed is that the swallow-tail coat,
the dainty eye-glass, the terrapin
stew, the sparkling champagne and
the elegant, well-rounded after-din
ner speech are the indispensables of
true governmental reform.
This is all right, maybe, but at the
same time that’s what got us big
bugs into hot water.
For it came to pass that this tariff
reform club decided to have a great
banquet in New York; to have Air.
Cleveland as guest of the evening,
and to invite some of the very big
gest of us big bugs to be present
and hear Mr. Cleveland deliver one
of those dull, ponderous and non
committal ‘ speeches which contrib
uted so much to his election.
As compensation for having to
listen to Air. Cleveland, a certain
number of us big bugs were to be
allowed to speak also.
So the evening came, the banquet
was duly cooked, the hall lighted,
and’ we big bugs assembled. It is
hardly necessary to say that each
at the table was the identical
man who had elected Cleveland, and
felt able to prove it. Nvb only
that, but he was anxious to get the
chance to do so.
Among the big bugs who were
duly bidden to this royal feast was
the Hon. Chas. F. Crisp, speaker of
the House. He loves terrapin and
wine and eloqusnce (especially his
own eloquence), and therefore went.
He just knew he would be called on
for a speech. Hence he wrote it out.
He just knew it would be a good
thing to have puffed in the news
papers, so he carried along his regu
lar puffer, Air. E. W. Barrett.
There’s nothing like having your
puff ready; and how can you have
your puff ready unless you carry
your puffer ?
A happier man never left Wash
ington for New York. He and Bar
rett rubbed their legs the whole
way. Air. Crisp, in his fancy, could
already hear his eloquent voice,
slowly delivering a speech almost as
dull, ponderous and non-committal
as Air. Cleveland’s. He could hear
the plaudits of ardent terrapin
eaters- He could see the speech
itself in the newspapers next morn
ing—accompanied by the very best
puff of his professional puffer.
So certain was he that this speech
would be made that he sent it out to
the press, and before the cook had
selected his terrapins, Air. Crisp’s
speech was in type in a hundred
newspaper offices.
Now it came to pass that in the
great number of very distinguished
men at this banquet, Air. Crisp
seemed to dwindle and fade away.
Like the negro’s catfish, he “swunk.”
He was pained and astonished to
find that in the midst of so very
many big bugs he was likely to get
lost. The thing was so different
from what he thought it would be
that he hardly knew where he was
at. He had to listen to Cleveland’s
speech. He had to listen to Mills’
speech. He had to listen to Carl
Schurz, Tom Johnson, Gov. Stone
and a whole lot of one-gallus fel
lows, and yet no mortal man ever
seemed to be craving for a speech
from him—the said Crisp.
To give them a hint that he.
Crisp, was there in the flesh, he got
up and walked about, ostensibly
looking for his overcoat check. It
seems he not only got lost himself,
but that his own overcoat deliber
ately rambled off and went home
k with somebody else.
Such as this always makes us big
bugs mad. We can stand a good
deal, but not everything. And above
all things we like to know where we
are at.
By this time, Air. Crisp had made
up his mind that he was not in it at
all. The sufferings of a man who
has come to make a speech, and who
is not asked to make it, are not to be
treated with levity. It is a serious
situation. It requires fortitude like
unto that of the ancient Spartans.
Alore especially when the speech
has been sent to all the newspapers,
and has been beautifully puffed in
advance by our own pet and peculiar •
puffer.
Well, as Air. Crisp did not seem to
attract any notice by walking around
and hunting his overcoat, he finally
came back to the table and gloomily
listened to the balance of the
speeches.
Then the thing broke up. Even,
terrapin stews can’t last forever. He
sent Barrett out to stop the newspa
pers from printing his eloquent
speech. He countermanded the puff.
Too late. The speech came out next
morning and flew ail over the land !
Just think of it! A brilliant speech
at the great terrapin stew by Mr.
Crisp, when in fact Air. Crisp was
not asked to speak at all. Not even
given a chance to show how he
‘‘could have font.”
The orator who was to be puffed,
and the puffer who was carried along
to do the job, left New York next
morning, bright and early. Moder
ately bright and exceedingly early!
They were mad. They were in a
hurry. They wanted fresh air and
more elbow room. They wanted
time to lean on one another and re
flect.
Yesterday the dreadful news got
all over Washington, and, I tell you,
we big bugs were excited. We felt
that things were taking such a turn
that no man could safely say where
he was at.
So this morning, when Air. Crisp
ascended to the Speaker’s chair, we
decided Jo locate ourselves and get
our moorings by clapping hands and
cheering. This we did. It cleared
the atmosphere considerably. It did
us good. It was one of the cheap
est of remedies we could prescribe
for the agonies of a man who suffers
from an undelivered speech. Sup
pressed eloquence is sometimes dan
gerous. So is a suppressed puff. In
tnis case we big bugs aro all hoping
that our clapping of hands will bring
to speedy convalescence the orator
who got no chance to orate and. the
puffer who did not puff.
In the mean time, us big bugs are
in a frame of mind which will not
tolerate any nonsense. If anybody
should crook the irreverent finger at
us and break out into a mere disre
spectful, aggravating and premedi
tated laugh, we would hurt him.
We would indeed.
Us big bugs can’t be expected to
stand everything.
The man who allowed Air. Crisp’s
overcoat to go home with him, had
better look out for himself.
Crisp and Barrett, the puffee and
the puffer, are mad about this thing
and they have already said that
enough of a thing is enough.
* # *
A great many people are blaming
me for not making a speech at the
Tariff Reform Banquet in New York.
They should not do so.
In the first place, I was afraid I
would lose my overcoat.
In the second place, the other fel
lows had hired all the puffers and I
couldn’t engage one.
In the third place, I was afraid
that after publishing mv speech in
the newspapers as actually delivered,
I might not be invited to make it.
I felt that this would cause me to
look ridiculous to the eyes of all hu
man beings.
In the fourth place, even if I had
succeeded in securing the services of
one of the very best of professional
puffers, and got him to travel all the
way to New York with his puff kept
on the fire, all warm and ready, there
might not be anything to puff. I
knew that this would harrow my
feelings and mortify my puffer.
In the fifth place, I was not in
vited. By jsome strange oversight
they invited Tom Johnson, when I
just as good as kn)w they meant me.
This was a stupid blunder and
brought its own punishment. Tom
Johnson made a speech which has
stirred up strife. It has well nigh
arrayed one class against another.
It has inherent tendencies to excite
the country against the towns. It
will perhaps keep our people from
coming together again.
This is bad. Plague take it all!
Somehow, it looks like somebody is
always doing something, in some
place or other, which ought to be
done somewhere else!
Had the invitation come straight
along to me, as was intended, this
trouble would not have come upon
us. I can prove this by Pleas Sto
vall. T. E. W.