The People's party paper. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, March 17, 1893, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

'IAE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER VOLUME IL A DEMOCRATIC SENATE. WHO WILL REPRESENT THE DEM- OCRATS ON THE COMMITTEES. Republicans Given Chairmanships on About the Same Committees Given the Democrats Last Session. Washington, March 14. The Democratic caucus has finished its labors so far as the reorganization of the committees of the Senate are concerned. There was a prevailing sentiment in favor of a speedy re organization of the clerical and ex ecutive forces of the Senate. Up to this time the committee has been so busily engaged with the re vision of the committee lists that the other matter has been referred to only in an informal manner. This important branch of the work of the majority is now, however, well un der way, and it is possible that by this time next week, if not earlier, the elective officers of the Senate will have been changed. It will be seen that the committee provided chairmanships for Senators Peffer and Kyle, the Populists mem bers, and permitted Mr. Stewart to retain the chairmanship of the com mittee of mines and mining, which he has held under the Republican organization. There was some de bate over this action and some oppo sition, but the influence of the com mittee prevailed and the silver Senator from Nevada will not be disturbed. Either upon the stand ing or on the select committees were found positions as chairman for all the new Democratic senators. The Republicans are given eleven com mittees, just the number they gave the Democrats. The official list as given out by Mr. Gorman is as fol lows : Agriculture—For chairman Bate, Ransom, Peffer, Roach, (Repub licans, 2.) Appi\»p-iations'-Cockerell, chair man ; Call, Gorman, Blackburn, girice; (Republicans, 4.) Contingent Expenses—White of Louisiana, chairman ; Camden, (Re publicans, 1.) Census —Turpie, chairman; Berry, White of California, Murphy, Peffer, (Republicans, 4.) Civil Service Call, chairman; Walthal, Gordon, Irby, (Repub licans, 4.) Claims—Pasco, chairman; Daniel, Berry, Calfery, Allen of Nebraska, (Republicans, 4.) Coast Defense Gordon, chair man ; Irby, Mills, White of Califor nia, (Republicans, 4.) Commerce Ransom, chairman ; Coke, Vest, Gorman, White of Lou isiana, White of California, Murphy, (Republicans, 6.) District of Columbia Harris, chairman; Faulkner, Gibson, Hun ter, Smith, Martin, (Republicans, 1.) Education and Labor—Kyle, chair man ; George, Hunton, Caffery, Murphy, (Republicans, 4.) Engrossing Bills—Mr. , chair- man ; Cockerell, Martin,(Republicans 1, chairman.) Enrolling Bills Caffery, chair man ; Mitchell of Wisconsin, (Re publican, 1.) Epidemic Diseases Mr. , chairman; Harris, White of Lou isiana, (Republicans, 4; chairman.) To Examine the Several Branches of the Civil Service—Peffer, chair man ; Vilas, Gray, (Republicans, 2.) Finance Voorhees, chairman ; McPherson, Harris, Vance, Vest, Jones of Arkansas, (Republicans, 5.) | Fisheries Coke, chairman ; Call, Gibson, Hill, Mitchell of Wisconsin, (Republicans, 4.) Foreign Relations—Morgan, chair man ; Butler, Gray, Turpie, Daniel, (Republicans, 4.) Immigration Hill, chairman ; Voorhees, McPherson, Faulkner, Peffer, (Republicans, 3.) Improvement of Mississippi River —Bate, chairman ; Walthal, Palmer, Peffer, (Republicans, 3.) Affairs—Jones of Arkansas, chairman; Morgan, Smith, Roach, Allen of Nebraska, (Republicans, 4.) Interstate Commerce Butler, chairman ; Gorman, Brice, White of Louisiana, Camden, Lindsay, (Re publicans, 5.) Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands—White of California, chair man ; Jones of Arkansas, Kyle, Roach, (Republicans, 5.) Judiciary—Pugh, chairman ; Coke, George, Vilas, Hill, Lindsay, (Re publicans, 5.) Library—Mills, chairman; Voor hees, (Republican, 1.) Manufacturers Gibson, chair man ; Smith, Cafferey, (Republi cans, 2.) Military Affairs—Walthal, chair man; Cockerell, Bate,Palmer, Mitchell Wisconsin, (Republicans, 3.) ' All Special Privileges to None.” Mines—Stewart, chairman ; Bate, Call, Irby, Mills, (Republicans, 4.) Naval Affairs—McPherson, chair man ; Butler, Blackburn, Gibson, Camden, (Republicans, 4.) Expenditures of Executive Depart ment—Smith, chairman; Cockerell, Hill, Walthal, Cafferey, (Republic ans. 4.) Patents—Gray, chairman; Kyle, Mills, Berry, (Republicans, 4.) Pensions Palmer, chairman ; Vilas, Camden, Cafferey, (Repub licans, 4.) Postoffices and Postroads—Col quitt, chairman; Daniel, Pasco, Gor don, Brice, (Republicans, 5). Printing—Gorman, chairman; Ran scm (Republican, 1). Private Lands—Ransom, Colquitt, Pasco, Berry, (Republicans, 3; chair man). Privileges and Elections—Vance, chairman; Gray, Pugh, Turpie, Pal mer, (Republicans, 4). Public Buildings and Grounds— Vest, chairman; Daniel, Pasco, Brice, Gordon, (Republicans, 4). Public Lands—Berry, chairman; Walthal, Pasco, Vilas, Martin, Allen of Nebraska, (Republicans, 5). Railroads—Camden, chairman; Ber ry, Gordon, Palmer, Martin, (Repub licans, 5). Relations with Canada—Murphy, chairman; Pugh, Colquitt, Hunton, Mitchell of Wisconsin, (Republicans, Revision of the Laws—Daniel, chairman; Call, Lindsay, (Republi cans, 2). Revolutionary Claims—Mr. , chairman; Coke, Pugh, (Republicans, 3; chairman). Rules—Blackburn, chairman; Har ris, Gorman, (Republicans, 2). Territories—Faulkner, chairman; Hall, Blackburn, Bate, Call, White of California, (Republicans, 5). Transportation Routes to the Sea board—lrby, chairman; George, Tur pie, Gordon, (Republicans, 4). Pacific Railroads—Brice, chair man; Morgan, Faulkner, White of Louisiana, Murphy, (Republicans, 4). Indian Depredations Lindsay, chairman; Faulkner, Kyle, White of Louisiana, Cockerell, (Republicans, Select Committee to Investigate Potomac River Front—McPherson, Ransom, Hunton, (Republicans, 3; chairman). To Inquire into Claims Against Nicaragua—Morgan, Phlmer, (Re publicans, 3; chairman). Additional Accommodations for Library of Congress—Voorhees, But ler, Pugh, (Republicans, 2; chair man). The Five Civilized Tribes of Indi ans—Butler, Pasco, Roach, (Republi cans, 2; chairman). On Transportation and Sale of Meat Products—Vest, Coke, Allen of Nebraska, (Republicans, 2; chair man). To Establish the University of the United States Hunton, chairman; Kyle, Vance, Jones of Arkansas, Turpie, (Republicans, 4). Quadro-Centennial —Vilas, chair man; Colquitt, Vest, Gray, Daniel, Gibson, Voorhees, Lindsay, (Repub licans, 6). To investigate the Geological Sur vey—Martin, chairman; Jones of Arkansas, (Republicans, 2). On National Banks—Mitchell of Wisconsin, chairman; Vance, Col quitt, (Republican, 1). On Foreign Reservations—Allen of Nebraska, chairman ; Kyle, Mor gan, (Republican, 1). On Corporations in the District of Columbia—Gorman, Brice, Harris, (Republicans, 2, chairman). To Investigate Tresspassers upon Indian Lands—Roach, chairman; Butler (Republican, 1). This is the list complete with the exception of the assignment of the Senator of Wyoming, and that place has been left vacant until the mem ber is sworn in. At the conclusion of the caucus Mr. Foreman sent a copy of the list to the Republican committee which was in session. It is said that there has been quite a pressure brought to bear upon the committee to remove Mr. Stewart from Republican repre sentation on the Committee on Ap propriations and it is not unlikely that it will be done in view of the fact that he had been kept by the Democrats as chairman of the Com mittee on Mines and Miners. The Northwestern Senators are urging that that section of the country is en titled to representation upon this im portant committee, and will insist that some one of their number be given the place. Mr. Dawe’s retire ment from the Senate leaves the minority representation as it would be under the reorganization, but if Mr. Stewart is removed there will be a vacancy, and it is this probable va cancy that the men from the North west are demanding should be given them. The committee changes will probably receive the sanction of the Senate to-morrow by a resolution, and the old chairmen will then give up the rooms they have occupied and the Democrats will be in posses sion of that important branch of the Senate. Nominations will then be received and promptly acted upon. ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY MARCH 17, 1893. BATTLES WITH AFRICANS. The British and Germans Both Have Engagements with the Natives. Calcutta, March 14.—The Brit ish have had a severe battle with the tribe beyond Chatrel, where the British have for some time been en deavoring to strengthen the Indian frontier against the possibility of Russian encroachment. The British recently occupied Chilas, beyond Chatrel, with a garrison and fortified the place with the intention of hold ing it permanently. The mountain tribes took offense and made an at tack on the front, which was bravely defended by the British. The con flict was desperate and sanguinary, and the natives were at length driven off, with a loss of 200 men. The British were then aggressive, and marched against the entrenched vil lages and the hostile tribes. Owing to the mountainous character of the country, this expedition was ex tremely hazardous, but the British troops acquitted themselves valiantly, storming village after village, under the command of Major Daniele, who was shot through the heart while leading his men in an assault on one of the villages. He carried every point occupied by the hostile natives, the British leaving twenty-three killed and 330 wounded in the fight ing. The result of the struggle greatly strengthened the British po sition by what was considered the weakest point in the vicinity of the Hindu Kush. One Kind of Expansion. St. Louis Republic. It is claimed by some that there is half a billion dnllars ($500,000,000) in gold in the country. This is prob ably an overtimate, but conceding that there is fully this much, it is in adequate to do the business of half a dozen States, much less of the entire country. Compared with the amount of tokens of value demanded to do the business of labor and commodity exchange, the gold supply is a mere nothing. Last year the banks in the clear ing-house cities of the United States handled sixty-one billion dollars of private paper (private money or to kens of value issued by private par ties) and less than five billions of cash (gold, silver and government papei j. With every fivi dollars in government tokens of value they “cleared” over sixty-one dollars of private paper. Here the private currency of credit is twelve dollars for every dollar of cash handled in “clearing it. But if we make all of this credit paper call for gold the banks in the clearing house cities alone would handle over $l2O of private paper for every dol lar in gold in the country available to redeem it. This shows how little gold has to do in reality with business, and it also shows the folly of attempting to restrict business to the gold supply. If that could be done, the business of the country would be best repre sented by a vast inverted pyramid, resting on its apex. Students of the phenomena of panics are familiar witn the results of contracting the cash currency greatly below the demands of ex change. It is undoubtedly so con tracted in the United States at pres ent. There is not cash enough to do in ten per cent of the business, but business men eke it out by money of private issue which circulates for a short time only and is then re deemed or “ cleased.” This currency of credit is ordina rily capable of expansion without much regard to the very limited amount of cash on which it is sup posed to be based. Business men do not, therefore, feel the need of a cash currency, increasing with the increase of population and the exten sion of business, as they would with out this system that so greatly re lieves the demand for cash to be act ually handled in each transportation. .Undoubtedly this system of private paper, which is in reality money of limited existence, is one of the great est inventions of modern times, but it depends a great deal more on faith than it does on an actual “cash basis.” It may be well enough for one dol lar in gold to stand for and redeem twenty dollars in paper as long as there is no impatience among the holders of the paper. When those who have to wait the longest to have the cash come their way will wait, there is no trouble, but when they will not, there is immediate dan ger of a collapse of the whole vast system. At such times gold is worse needed than at any other, but it is apt to disappear at once, and for the time being it becomes impossible to carry on the business of commod ity exchange, because the credit cur rency has mostly disappeared and because the cash, always inadequate, has been locked up. It thus appears that an undue con traction of the supply of cash is cer tain to result first in an undue ex pansion of the currency of private paper, in which most of the business of civilized countries is done, and that this undue expansion is likely to result in collapse. A very small sponge soaked in al cohol will fill a large balloon with hot air. It is on this principle that some people who have reasons of their (<wn for their views would like to construct the currency. They want th a actual supply of cash to correspond with the sponge; and of the sponge they demand control, so that it will depend on thenji to say to what extent the balloon of credit may be'inflated. But it must be ap parent to every business man en gaged either in producing commodi ties or in distributing them through trade that an undue restriction of the supply c* actual cash is an undue re striction of the possibilities of trade extension The Plutocrats and the Homeless. A census bulletin of farm and home own ership in Massachusetts has just been issued, and it shows that in spite of the enormous wealth con gested in that State the common people are almost if not quite as badly os~there as in some of the States from which the Massachusetts Plutocracy draws its income. “Among the 479,490 families of the State,” says the bulletin, “ there are 304,737 or 63.51 per cent which hire their farms and homes, and 175,053 or 36.49 per cent which own them. Os the families which own, 66,149 or 37.85 per cent have farm or home incumbrance, and 108,804 or 62.15 per cent are free of incum brance. I>?rso families, on an av erage, 68.51 hire their farms and homes, 13.81 own with incumbrance and 22.68 own without incum brance.” “ Farm and home ” as here used means a habitation of any kind, whether in city or country. It is a most surprising fact that in Massa chusetts, the richest State in the Union, where there are probably more millionaires m proportion to the population than there are any where else on the continent, over sixty-five families in every hundred are landless and houseless tenants, who have no bc-mes of their own and keep a roof over their heads only at the pleasure of landlo v ds. In Bostor. fess tliau nineteen fami- Ises in every huadrq $ own their own nmes. , The rest U ndoubtedly thu- Js laigeiy due to the abuse of the national taxing power and to the methods by which the national currency has been con trolled for class benefit, but it is also due to some extent to local taxation, as the increased ratio of homeless ness in the cities shows. Whether the tax is national or local; whether it is a tariff tax or a municipal tax for improvements, its inevitable effect is to centralize the control of property. Under high taxation the wealth in land and houses as well as in money is soon collected into the hands of the few. The time has come when the majority of the people in the United States are homeless and landless, and under the present sys tem it must soon come when, taking the country through, 90 per cent of its wealth in real estate as well as in personal property will be owned by less than 10 per cent of its popula tion. We already see in our leading cities a three-fourths majority of the people who are too poor to own their own homes, and seeing it see the plutocratic majority still as fierce as ever in demanding what it conceives to be its rights—the right to control the money and the wealth of the country and to take toll from every grist that is ground. It is a compli cated problem we are creating for posterity in America, but it will work itself out in time. When it does the country will find away to discourage plutocracy. More Offers of Gold. Washington, March 14.—The free gold in the treasury has been built up until it aggregates more than $5,000,000. Several offers were re ceived today from western points, ag gregating $35,000. Secretary Car lisle is accepting these offers as fast as he can supply the small treasury notes for them. Only the most ad vantageous offers are now accepted. The names of the banks that make the offers, and the cities in which they are located are not now given to the press for publication. This change in practice is said to have been suggested by President Cleve land, as some banks had an idea that to have the fact stated that they were parting with gold might have the effect of weakening the confidence felt in them. The treasury depart ment is also accumulating gold in the ordinary course of business, though no offers of gold in any considerable amount have been received by the treasury from eastern bankers. An Iridescent Failure. The Kansas Trust and Banking Company, of Atchison, of which ex- Senator J. J. Ingalls, of Kansas, was president and a large stockholder, was put in the hands of a receiver by the Federal court Tuesday. ANALYSIS OF APPROPRIATIONS. A Statement Made by Representative Henderson, of lowa. Mr. Henderson, of lowa, eight years a member of the House Com mittee on Appropriations, has made a careful analysis of the work of the Fifty-second Congress. He gives the total appropriations, including permanent appropriations, at $1,026,822,049.72, exceeding the Fifty-first Congress by $38,404,866,- 38, an increase of $115,707.42 for each Congressional district in the United States. He notices the charge that the Senate makes the large appropria tions and calls attention to the fact that the House, at the session just closed, sent their bills to the Senate for $513,687,242.02, or at the rate of over $1,027,000,000 per annum. The House is a “ Billion Dollar House,” for its bills for the Fifty second Congress aggregated $1,004,- 178,614.79 before they reached the Senate. He shows that in addition to ap propriations actually made by the Fifty-second Congress, it authorized contracts mortgaging future reve nues in the sum of $58,526,621. He says that if the Fifty-second Congress seeks to excuse itself by charging its extravagance to the leg - islation of the Fifty-first Congress, then the latter Congress can make similar claims against its Democratic predecessor and the Fifty-second Congress, aggregating over $91,000,- 000. To guard against a deficit, Mr. Henderson warns this administration to give closer attention to “moon shiners” and the “whisky ring” in collecting internal revenue than it did from 1885 to 1889, when it col lected $51,095,682.04 less than Pres ident Arthur and $115,385,524.73 less than President Harrison. He shows that the retiring admin istration paid $296,316,931.20 on the public debt, saving in interest $55,- 352,493.51 annually. He touches on pensions, showing from the bureau report that the rolls will reach their highest point on De cember 31, 1894, with 1,171,918 on the rolls, including invalids, widows, orphans, and dependent parents, the annual value of the rolls at that date being $155,865,094, and that in 1895 will be dropped from the rolls 44,932 pensioners, with an incre<* o mg ratio thereafter. Referring to the complaint against widows’ pensions he shows that if all widows’ claims yet undisposed of are allowed, there would be 709,834 dead soldiers un represented on the rolls by a widow, an orphan, or a dependent parent. He also points out the danger to the Treasury from war claims, and says that Congress has now the data to show that about $600,000,000 may yet be drawn from it to satisfy their demands. Mr. Henderson refers to the defeat of the bankrupt bill in the House, the burial of the pure food bill, the slaughter of the anti-option bill, its inability to grapple with the money question, its silent admiration of the McKinley bill, and predicts that the Fifty-second Congress will go down to history as “The Know Nothing” and “The Do Nothing Congress.” A STINGING ARGUMENT. Hon. Abner Taylor, of Illinois, a Republican, made a short speech during the last hours of the dead Congress, of which the following is the closing part: Several persons, in criticising the act of 1890 have said that if the cer tificates that were being issued under that act had behind them a dollar’s worth of silver that there was no se rious objection to it. That is exactly what they have behind them. The certificates are issued for the pur chase of this silver at the market price as fixed by the world’s market, and the certificates are issued on that market price so, as I said, each one has a dollar’s worth of silver, as esti mated by the market world, behind. The Secretary of the Treasury has ample authority to sell bonds if nec essary now. It is true they would be four per cent bonds, but they would bring a premium that would bring them to less than three per cent. I notice by the papers that one Walter Q. Gresham has been selected by Mr. Cleveland as his Secretary of w State. Mr. Gresham within the las sixty days has said that he was a good Republican, except that he was in harmony with Mr. Cleveland on the tariff question, and as he was se lected simply because he was in har mony with him on that question, I have been very much surprised that the author of this amendment (Sena tor Sherman) was not selected for a Cabinet position. He is entirely in harmony with the President-elect on a greater question than that—finance. I do not think that Mr. Gresham has ever had any expOience in revising a tariff, nor do I believe he is a great tariff student, while the gentle man who is the author of this amend ment has had great experience. NUMBER 2 6 No man knows better how to make money scarce and interest high than he. No man knows better what the Wall street money owners want and is more ready to co-operate with them m obtaining it than he. There fore I can not understand why he was overlooked in forming the Cabi net, as the financial question is greater than the tariff. The President-elect has had his office for the last four years on Wall street, been breathing the air, sur rounded by the men who own money and who gamble with it, and comes into power fully impregnated with their views, and, I have no doubt, will do everything he can to carry out their views. But I wish to say to him and the country that the time for money owners controlling the legislation of this country has passed. A great empire has grown up in the West, of which they have but little knowledge. The line between the two great parties has become somewhat dim. Men are crossing and recrossing from one party to the other, and this is owing to the fact that the two great issues which divide the parties are the tariff and the financial ques tion, and there is high tariff and low tariff men in both parties and men in favor of contraction and expansion in both, and K a fight is forced upon the West by the incoming adminis tration for a contraction of the cur rency, which will have the purpose of making money, scarcer and higher, the President will find himself with out a following in the West. The dividing line between the two parties will be broken down and the parties in the West—both North and South —will unite in a common cause against the administration and the money owners of the East. Humbug Investigations. St. Louis Republic. Not long ago The Republic had the misfortune to excite the wrath of Congressman Bynum of Indiana by an incidental comment on the ex treme courtesy and tenderness with which the President of the Whisky Trust was treated while on the stand as a witness before the special com mittee of the House of Representa tives to investigate the trust. Now we. wish to state, not iicidentaiff, hu/F jlirectly, and saftor careful deliberation, that Mr.' By num’s Whisky Trtist “investigation” was probably only one of a number of fraudulent humbugs which were not intended to find out anything. We have learned from the Bynum investigation that the Whisky Trust is now incorporated under the laws governing corporations in general. This and some other information of a like nature everybody who reads the newspapers knew beforehand, and Mr. Bynum might have learned it by investing 5 cents in a copy of The Republic. Bad as that humbug was, the com mittee investigation of the Panama Canal swindle was no better. The Canal Company spent some $4,000,- 000 in this country, and it is presum able that some of it was spent in bribing members of Congress, but the only conclusion reached by the committee is that “ it may be that no investigation, however prolonged, could be efficient, after this lapse of time, in making the discovery, even if there were such corrupt use of money, but on this point the com mittee does not desire to express the opinion that further investigation would be entirely fruitless.” In view of the fact that Banker Seligman handled the funds; that he admitted on the stand that his books would show who got the money, and that the committee entirely failed to examine the books, this humbug is, if anything, a little more transparent than the Whisky Trust whitewash. We are afraid that the time has come to confess that in at least nine cases out of ten the legislative “ in vestigation ” is inaugurated with the intention of preventing anything from being found out. This is not due to “partisanship,” as is some times wrongly supposed. The inves tigating committee is almost if not quite as unwilling to detect and ex pose members of the other party as of its own. The “courtesy of the Senate ” or of the House, or of the office-holding fraternity in general, is far stronger than partisanship, and partisan advantage is continually sacrificed rather than take the risk of exposure which might become mutual. Negroes Preferred to Slavs. Pittsburg, Pa., March 14. About 250 negroes from the South arrived at Brinton Station yesterday afternoon. The colored laborers will be given first a chance by the Carne gie Company at all its works in pref erence to foreigners who apply for work. James Galey, general manager of the plant, expects nearly 1,000 others in a month. This will nnean that as soon as possible all the Slavs will be dismissed. There are about 3,000 foreigners altogether.