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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.