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THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER.
Established October 15, 1891.
ATLANTA, - ■ GEORGIA.
OUR PUBLISHING COMPANY.
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Our neighbor, The
THE MACON Telegraph, did us
the honor to repro
■pELECRAPH *luCe tn its uoluuoxu.
the article we pub
lished last week, and
AGAIN. ~
the reply to it in the
editorial which will
be found elsewhere in this paper.
It must be confessed that our neigh
bor deals very gingerly with the issues
involved. It scouts the paper money
doctrine, but declines to furnish rea
sons. It hoots at John Law, but knows
nothing against his theories of finance
except that he was a gambler.
The Telegraph evidently is making
an earnest effort to think well of us,
but our defense of John Law seems to
put the camel’s back to a severe strian.
Come now, let us be fair. What can
The Telegraph say against the posi
tions we hold ?
1. We say that the Government, and
not the banks, should t create and regu
late our paper money.
2. That the Supreme Court has deci
ded that Congress can create money
out of paper.
3. That the paper money issued by
the Government will be based upon the
credit of the Government—-the same
foundation the bonded debt rests upon:
4. That the Government car. as safely
be entrusted with the responsibility of
deciding the number of our dollars as
of deciding the number of our battle
ships, military reservations, ports of
entry, office-holders, or soldiers of the
army.
5. We say that as long as the banks
are allowed to usurp the governmental
power of issuing money, and of expand
ing and contracting the volume of cur
rency, they hold all values at their
mercy, and are tyrants of the markets,
interfering arbitrarily with the natural
law of Supply and Demand.
Has The Telegraph met any of these
propositions ? Not one. It contents
itself by saying that the “lessons of
history” are all against us.
What lessons ? Name tons the coun
try which, with a stable government,
ever issued paper money to its hurt.
Paper money, based upon the credit
of the government fails when the gov
ernment fails, just as the notes of a
merchant fall when the maker falls.
When the Government fails its paper
money would fail, of course ; but the
bonds of the Government would also
fall.
Our contention is that the paper dol
lar ought to have as good a chance as
the paper bond. Yet the land is full
of doctrinaries who dote on the policy
of issuing bonds, while shivering at the
idea of issuing paper dollars.
The lessons of history, so far as we
know them, tend to quite a different
conclusion from that reached by the
Telegraph.
The histories we have read tell us of
the wonderful invigorating influence
cf paper money on trade, industry and
national prosperity. The crash comes
not from the paper money but from the
destruction of it
Historians tell us of England’s mar
velous advance during the Napoleonic
wars, when paper money was abund
ant.
They tell us of the crash and the
panic and the misery which came upon
the people, when the hoarders of gold
and silver compelled the Government
to call in the paper money, and burn it
up, after Napoleon had been securely
caged at St. Helena.
If the paper money answered all the
purposes of England’s commerce dur
ing the time of war why would it not
have continued to answer those pur
poses in times of peace ?
- We have read the most glowing ac
counts of the splendid effects which
the Greenbacks issued by our Govern
ment, during the late Civil War, had
upon every department of trade and
industry. This people never experi
enced a fruitfuller season in every
field of human effort than in the years
1865, 1866, 1867 and 1868. Paper money
was plentiful Business was good,
labor was employed, wages were fine,
prices marched upward. Every mill
was running on full time, every mer
chant was expanding his trade, new
fields of enterprise were being explor
ed and developed.
The commercial body was full of life,
because it was full of life-blood —
money!
The paper money wasn’t hurting a
soul. It was doing good everywhere.
It was saying “Forward March” to
every soldier of the grand army of toil.
But the paper money interfered with
the hoarders of gold and silver. It was
a lion in the path of those who wanted
to get a mortgage on the Government
in the purchase of bonds.
Greenbacks, issued by Uncle Sam,
were hateful to those bankers who
wished to issue paper money, signed
by themselves. The credit of the Gov
ernment was good enough to support
paper dollars in time of war, but was
not good enough to do it in time of—
peace. So the Government was ousted
—from its sovereign power of creating
paper money, and the National Banks
seized it, the Greenbacks were called
in and burnt up, and in lieu of nation
al notes costing the people no interest
and doing them immense good, the
Government was compelled to issue
national bonds, costing heavy interest
and doing the people enormous harm.
The notes of the Banker took the place
of the notes of the Government The
Greenback paper money did not hurt
this people; the destruction of it was
what hurt.
The Telegraph mistakes our position
when it says that we believe that the
fiat of the Government can fill every
body’s pocket with money.
We did not say that; nor do we mean
anything of that kind.
We believe that every citizen should
rely upon his labor or his produce, or
his property, to get money. We do
not want the Government to give us a
cent. All we ask is that the Govern
ment should create enough money to
supply the necessities of the country,
so that when a man wants work there
is money ip the country to employ
him. There should be enough money
in circulation to stop the stampede of
prices, the paralysis of trade, and the
pitiable idloixoxx of those who seek
markets for their labor. A system in
which a dollar of debts or of tax de
vours a larger quantity of produce
every year, is not a just system. In
such a system the dollar constantly
rises, and the man. constantly sinks.
We would like to see the system so
changed that if any sinking has to be
done, it will be the dollar which lowers
its crest—not the man.
This change will never come as long
as the banks are allowed to usurp
governmental functions, and to use
them for private speculative purposes.
The capitalists represented by the
banks will always prefer a small vol
ume of currency which they ean con
trol,—well knowing that those who
control the currency control prices,
almost without limit.
The Telegraph, as we rathe.- sus
pected, knows little of John Law. It
says he was a gambler. We regret to
say the accusation is true; but what
has that got to do with his financial
theories ?
Henry Clay championed national
banks and Protective Tariff, just as
The Telegraph does : would it be fair
to damn the Tariff system because
Henry Clay was ravenously fond of
poker ?
The great English statesman, Charles
Fox, championed the abolition of the
Slave Trade: would it be fair to meet
his arguments against the traffic in
human beings by saying that from his
boyhood to his death he was the most
reckless and continuous gambler in
Europe ?
What has a man’s private character
got to do with his economic theories ?
Mirabeau might be a monster of vice
in private life, (as he was) and yet even
a sour dyspeptic moralist, like Carlyle,
might love him for his splendid services
in the cause of political reform, while
Roberspierre might be a pattern of
good behavior in private life (as he
was) yet excite unbounded loathing in
that same moralist, Thomas Carlyle,
because of the crimes of the Reign of
Terror.
John Law was born in Edinburgh of
respectable parents. His father was a
gold-smith and banker. The son was
well educated, and inherited a good
estate.
He went up to London entered fash
ionable society, and sowed a heavy
crop of wild oats. Kept it up several
years. Wasted his substance in riot
ous living. Killed a fellow citizen in a
duel, and had to leave. Went to Eu
rope. Devoted a great deal of time to
the study of the Bank of Amsterdam,
and other banks —including Faro
banks. Was an expert in mathemat
ics, and an enthusiast in finance. Be
lieved be had penetrated the mystery
of the Money Question. Believed that
the circulation should be increased,
and that the true basis of money was
the credit of the nation.
He formulated his plan of a Bank,
and bored people by talking about it.
Became almost as much of a nuisance
as Columbus did when he went mean
dering around Europe begging stupid
Kings to lend him the money to find a
New World with.
The inventors of new things are ter
ribly tiresome creatures. Had Napo
leon Bonaparte listened more patiently
to Robert Fulton, he might have real
ized that Fulton’s steam-boat idea,
properly applied, would have swept the
wooden sailing ships of England off
the seas, and sent the British Empire
to wreck and ruin.
But these pioneers of new ideas are
fearfully persistent mortals, and they
generally effect a landing.
Thus, John Law finally secured the
countenance of the Duke of Orleans,
then Regent of France, and his Bank
was established.
We have already explained how for
many years it prospered, and how it
was then looted and ruined by Law’s
noble associates.
We are not ashamed to defend any
THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER: ATLANTA, GEORGIA: FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1897.
man who has been misrepresented, and
we are not ashamed to defend John
Law. The Telegraph can say nothing
against him save that he gambled.
In those days everybody gambled.
The Kings gambled : the Queens gam
bled : the nobles gambled: the priests
gambled: the commons gambled. There
are well authenticated instances in
which the mourners played cards on
the coffin of the deceased on the way
to the cemetery.
Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch, who
was reigning when Law first appeared
at the Court of France; not only gam
bled himself, but insisted upon it among
his courtiers, and encouraged his chil
dren and grand children to bet heavily.
Gaming tables were kept ready in
the palace, and the King loved to pass
among the high-born lords and ladies
who were gambling, and exchange
courteous nothings with them while
the games were going on. Several
times he appropriated huge sums of
public money to defray the gambling
debts of his family and his favorites.
The same fashion of universal gaming
continued under the Regency of Or
leans, and continued during the long
reign of Louis XV.
When John Law was in London.
Charles 11, and all the Court, and all
the fashionable world, gambled. When
he went to Europe he found the same
fever raging there. Being a high-flyer
himself, John Law followed the fash
ion. In Rome he did as the Romans
did. Associating with kings, queens,
princes, dukes and other sad trash of
similar sort, he lost the simple ways of
his Scotch ancestors, and became “a
man of the world.” He could not hope
to surpass the immoralities of the
French Court, but he kept in sight.
Good manners required it He could
not bet as heavily as King Louis, or
the prince of the Blood, because he had
no tax-money of the people out of
which to recoup his losses. He could
not drink as much and be drunk as
often as the Duke of Orleans, because
he was a foreigner and had a charac
ter to sustain. He could not keep as
many fine horses as the Duke of Bour
bon, because he was not the heir of a
family which had been looting the
national treasury of France for two
hundred years. He could not afford a
seraglio of as many fine women, as the
Duke of Richelieu, because he had to
pass at least part of the day in attend-
ing to business.
But while Law was not so bad as any
of these highborn rascals, we admit
that he followed, humbly, at a distance,
and became as loose in his morals as
royal etiquette demanded.
If governmental theories are to be
upset because their authors were sinful
men, we shall find it difficult to defend
any system. Thomas Jefferson was no
saint, nor was Alexander Hamilton,
nor was George Washington. The
Father of his Country loved a quiet
game of cards, enjoyed the excitement
of moderate bets, and kept a faithful
record of his winnings and his losses.
The Telegraph should reconsider.
To assail fiat money because John Law
bet on cards, or at the Faro table, is
not good logic.
Gold standard editors should remem
ber that their own leaders may be hu
man and frail; and before a worship
per at the shrine of Grover Cleveland’s
theory of finance ventures to assail the
private morals of John Law, he should
remember that Grover Cleveland’s pri
vate character cannot be called im
maculate.
T. E. W.
In reply to an arti-
THE IOWA cle which appeared
in this paper some
TRIBUNE. me a &°> lowa
Tribune has publish
a scurrilous attack
upon us.
Our readers will remember that The
lowa Tribune opened fire upon us soon
after the Pritchard election in North
Carolina, accusing us of sending to
Pritchard a telegram of congratulation.
We answered this by denying that
any such telegram was sent, and by
suggesting to The lowa Tribune that
it was thinking of Mr. Bryan, proba
bly—he being the gentleman of Free-
Silver proclivities who had rushed a
telegram of congratulation to a Repub
lican gold-bug, to-wit, Wm. McKinley.
With this reply The lowa Tribune
had to rest content for a while.
When the Dingley bill was put upon
its passage in the House, and its abom
inable features exposed themselves one
by one, we began to explain it and de
nounce it.
The lowa Tribune promptly fired
into us again, and intimated that we
were a fool for talking Tariff at all.
We responded to the attack by show
ing the vast importance of the subject
of national taxation, and by showing
the manner in which the Dingley bill
legislated the money out of the pock
ets of the toiling millions into the
swollen purses of the Privileged few.
We further showed that our position
could not be so far wrong for The lowa
Tribune had itself assailed the Dingley
bill in another part of the same issue
which criticised us for attacking it
We courteously excused the editor
from intentional donkeyism by sup
posing that when sober he attacked the
Dingley bill, and that when tipsy he
assailed others who attacked it.
Instead of feeling flattered at the
manner in which we sought to pull
him out of the hole, the Editor seems
to be mad about it. He has churned
his genius once more, and has brought
forth a two column reply which is a
curiosity of inconsistency and spite
Forced to admit that he had criticised
us for assailing the Dingley bill which
he himself, had also assailed, the dis
tressed editor screens himself behind
the excuse that when he assails the
Dingley bill he does it for purely edu
cational purposes.
This weird attitude of imbecility on
the part of our fusion brother prompt”
us to suggest to him tli»t. nereafter
when he assails the Dingley bill he
label his article “Educational,” and
that when he assails us for assailing
the Dingley bill he label his article,
“Spiteful and Inconsistent.”
The lowa Tribune complains that we
have not answered its argument. Its
“argument” is that no matter whether
the national tax is high or low the
trusts and corporations will get all that
the producers make.
This “argument” we did not try to
answer. We were too much inclined,
perhaps, to consider it a joke. We
could hardly believe that the Editor
was in earnest; but since we find him
assailing the Dingley bill in one part
of his paper, and assailing the Dingley
bill assailants in another, we have
come to the conclusion that the editor
really advanced the proposition seri
ously. That it does not matter to the
people whether they pay high taxes or
low ones I
Think of it 1 Here’s a man so wrap
ped up in fusion entanglements, his
wide-stretched eyes so glued to that
prospect of Bryan money which Allen
holds, that he actually commits him
self, deliberately to the statement that
it does not matter to the people wheth
er national taxes are high or low !
According to this apostle of fusion,
it is all the same to the people whether
they pay tax on salt or not: all the
same whether they pay tax on cotton
bagging and ties or not; all the same
whether they pay tax on binding twine,
clothing and farm tools or not.
According to this wonderful editor
and thinker, Congress can’t hurt us or
help us except by legislation upon that
one specific subject which the Fusion
Pop is paid to agitate—Silver I
If the Fusion Pop talks anything but
silver he loses all claim to a share in
that slush fund which Allen so persua
sively fingers.
In no other way can you account for
the astonishing doctrine of our Tri
bune friend that it does’nt matter
whether national taxes are high or
low—the corporations will get all the
money anyhow.
Touching this “argument” which
The lowa Tribune complains we have
not answered, we beg to ask it a ques
tion or two.
(1) If it does not matter to the peo
ple whether national taxes are high or
low, does it matter whether state and
county taxes are high or low ?
(2) If the money question gets set
tled right, will it make any difference
to the people whether the national
taxes are high or low ?
(3) Is national taxation now framed
with the view of enriching certain
classes and of legislating the money
out of the pockets of the many into the
coffers of the few ?
(4) If our national taxation is fram
ed on that plan, and operates to enrich
the Carnegies, Hannas, Rockefellers
and Havemeyers at the expense of the
masses of the people, will the adjust
ment of the money question relieve the
victims of the tax system ?
(5) Ought not the Dingley bill to be
defeated, and can it be defeated unless
it is opposed ?
(6) Why do you question our motive
in attacking the Dingley bill when
you have not questioned the motives of
the Populist and Democratic Congress
men who have opposed it ?
The lowa Tribune is so completely
blinded by its malice that it accuses us
of attacking the Dingley bill for the
purpose of taking the eyes of the peo
ple off the dearly beloved silver ques
tion. The editor actually says that
our purpose is to keep the Republicans
in power I
He says that all the gold standard
folks are talking tariff, and the fact
that we talk tariff also, proves that we
want the Republicans to stay on top.
Tried by the same rule, The New
York Journal, the leading Democratic
Silver daily of the world, wants the
Republican gold standard to prevail
for the Journal has been talking tariff
by the cart load ever since the infa
mous Dingley bill was proposed.
The best weekly paper devoted to
free silver is Wharton Barker’s “Amer
ican,” published in Philadelphia. For
several years it has been a standard
authority on the money question, and
it is dead against the gold standard of
the two old parties. Yet The American
has been shelling the woods on the
tariff question ever since the Dingley
bill showed its head.
Is The American false to the cause of
reform because it, also, recognizes oth
er issues besides silver ?
The lowa Tribune has lost its head
It does not know how silly it is making
itself appear. The glare of that Bryan
money has hypnotized it. There really
is something else on the earth besides
the silver question, and the Tribune
will so discover in good time.
Those who really wish to “down” the
Republicans in 1898, and 1900, might do
well to remember that the very worst
whipping the Republicans ever got was
on this question of the national taxes —
The McKinley Bill.
The Dingley bill is vastly more vul
nerable than that upon which the Re
publicans met their Waterloo in 1890.
Instead of shirking the issue, those
opposed to the Republican system of
legislating money from the masses to
the classes should boldly accept the
challenge, and show to the people
what a monstrous outrage this new
federal tax is.
The Tribune concludes its tirade by
repeating the worn out charges that
we helped to elect McKinley and
Pritchard. Neither of these did we
help elect and neither of them did we
congratulate after his election. Our
great regret during the last campaign
was that Mr. Bryan would not allow us
to aid him, as fully as we might have
done had he been governed by wiser
counsels.
The fusion policy of Butler and the
Tribune has just about made a poliii
cal prostitute out of that wing of our
party. Populism as thus represented
is a common street walker whose only
search is for a customer. Anybody
who will pay her price can enjoy her
favors. , . .
p nr .-iL.m ot that sort is almost too
contemptible to denounce.
T. E. W.
A New Destruction of Jerusalem.
Medieval Jerusalem is being rapidly
destroyed, not this time by Roman
legions, but by the march of progress.
The railroad that now enters the sacred
city has been the precursor of a new
development, and the description of
travelers who go there nowadays have
about them a modernness that is ap
palling, especially when they tell of
the rival hackmen at the railway sta
tion. Dr. Henry A. Harper, author of
“The Bible and Modern Discoveries,”
writes in Sunday at Home of his new
experience in entering Jerusalem by
railway and describes the altered ap
pearance given to it by the busy col
onists :
‘ That we were arriving at a season
of drought was shown by seeing in
middle distance carriages driving along
the Bethlehem road enveloped in dust.
Away on the left stretched the German
colony, ‘The Temple’ colonists. This
had such a strange out-of-place look—
its neat houses with red roofs, the lines
of streets quite straight, the well-kept
gardens, tall cypress-trees, its trim
church, schoolhouse —so tidy, so well
kept, such an object-lesson to all
around, a lesson not learnt by either
Arab or Jew. It seems impossible for
an Eastern to be ‘tidy’; the Jewish
colony hard by is a living example of
how not to be tidy. Yet—strange con
tradiction—one almost resented the
clean look; long years of Eastern travel
have made me so accustomed to-dirt
and disorder, that, much as one loves
cleanliness at home, here it looked out
of place. It looked like a ‘model’ vil
lage, with ‘model’ people; and had too
much of the ‘martinet’ about it all.
Ah, well! we shall have enough and to
spare of dirt and foulness ere long,
“Os all the wildest drives I ever took
that from the station to the hotel sur
passed them all. The carriage—made
when or where? —at least had strong
springs; the horses were three abreast
—one was literally tied on to the other
two by strange straps, chains, bits of
rope, string. These horses were
‘screws,’ but, like all Arabs, full of go?
Go they did. With yells, lashes of the
whips, all the Jehus set off, each try
ing to get in front of his neighbor,
width of road or other traffic quite ig
nored. Had one horse gone down
every other must have gone over him—
or over the wall! One looked round in
astonishment at not finding—as yet—
the pole of the following carriage in
the small of one’s back. Then, the
dust! A sand storm in the desert was
the only thing I could think of; but
there, one was not going headlong.
Up the hill, down tho hill, faint forms
of horses galloping; of trees white,
houses white, valley of Hinnom full of
white dust! By dint of hammering my
driver I persuaded him to drive slowly,
threatening him in the strongest
Arabic all the time. Covered with dust,
our throats lined with strange geologi
cal formations, a few miles of such a
road and we should have become fos
sils! —buried in dust!
“Outside the walls, the medieval
character of Jerusalem is gone forever;
on the northwest side a huge quarter
or suburb exists, a modern city of
Greeks, Levantines, a few rich Jews;
hotels, shops, huge convents—French
and Russian; built or building; the
English bishop’s ‘palace,’ as the na
tives call it‘ ‘college’ say some, rivals
that of other denominations. Where
buildings do not as yet exist the ground
is littered with masses of stone fresh
from the quarry, heaps of lime, heaps
of rubbish: while, thronging every
track or road, are herds of camels, car
rying stones, morter, or timber. These
animals seem to resent their loads.
They, the Old-World carriers, made to
bear modern rubbish! Their haughty
heads and scornful eyes resented the
degradation.
“Again, hurrying past, were some
of the most ramshackle ‘things on
wheels’ ever seen, ‘carriages,’ full of
Moslems or Jews, bringing produce
from the outlying villages. All the
charm of the olive groves on that side
is gone. The ‘Golgotha,’ ‘Gordon’s
tomb,’ are equally the scene of the
builder’s activity; great walls are be
ing constructed to mark the division of
properties, or to make gardens for
houses which are being erected ; close
by, a puffing factory! All poetry of
the past is gone. Much, also, has been
done to disfigure the Mount of Olives —
on its summit is a tall lookout tower,
built by Russia ! On the slope a hide
ous church, built by the late Russian
Emperor to the memory of his mother,
a building of considerable size, with
ugly towers like the Kremlin at Mos
cow, utterly out of keeping with the
landscape. Then, on the slope toward
the wilderness, stand huge convents
of various monks. Even on the ‘Beth
any’ road houses disfigure the view;
•Scopus’ is being dotted with ‘villas’!
“Everywhere there is the same fever
ish activity in building. If you cross
‘Hinnom,’ houses and walls are being
erected by the Franciscans ; down in
the valley, near ‘Absalom’s Tomb,’
high walls are being erected, marking
off land bought either by Greek monks
or Roman Catholics. Money for build
ing is evidently furnished without
stint, but by strangers, remember; not
by Arabs or by Jews. The chief build
ers are Russian or French. The
‘alliance’ will some day have a
rude shock whenever the question of
the possession of Palestine becomes a
question of the day.”
Referring to the work of the Pales
tine Fund exploring party, Dr. Harper
tells us that it has demonstrated that all
existing maps of Jerusalem are wrong
as to the extent of the old city on its
southern side. The city extended
seven hundred yards beyond the south
east angle of the Haram wall. Both
the pools of Siloam were included in
the ancient city, and a flight of broad
steps has been found leading down to
the pools, reminding Bible students of
Nehemiah iii. 15, where stairs “which
go down from the city of David” are
mentioned, and Nehemiah xii. 37 where
mention is made of a procession which
“went up by the stairs of the city of
David.”—Liteary Digest.
The man who waits to advocate re
form until it becomes popular, may not
really think that he is a coward and
probably imagines that it is diplomacy,
but if the world was entirely made up
of such men and always had been, the
present race of tailless monkeys would
be living in bark houses and caves in
the ground, while the civilization of
ten thousand years ago would just
about equal the barbarism that would
exist today and ten thousand years
hence. The world is not indebted to
pelitical cowards for the advancement
marked by civilization. —Chicago Ex
press.
Baller Exposes Himself.
Senator Marion Butler is out in a
four column article in his paper, the
Caucasian, doing bis very best to jus
tify himself and cast odium on Mr.
Watson. For his text he takes two
questions he culls from a recent ar
ticle in the People’s Party Paper. In
this article were a number of other
questions, and while Mr. Butler at
tempts to reply to two of them, he ig
nores the others without stating why.
However, he takes nearly four columns
to reply to two, which would seem to
indicate that he found them very diffi
cult to answer.
We deprecate this crimination and
recrimination between these two Pop
ulist leaders. While we have the ut
most confidence in Mr. Watson and be
lieve he did right in the course he pur
sued during the last campaign as the
candidate of his party, and while we
are further convinced that he was
treated shamefully by those who were
in honor bound to stand by him as true
friends, still we have not endorsed Mr.
Watson’s course since the election in
his fight on Mr. Butler. We believe
that for the sake of harmonizing the
party Mr. Watson should have been
willing to bury the past. We believed
that Mr. Butler really thought the in
terests of the people would be best
served by leading the party, boots and
breeches, into the camp of its enemies.
While this did not raise Mr. Butler in
our estimation as an executive officer
of a great party, still we conceded him
honesty of purpose and ascribed his
mistake an error of the head and not
of the heart. We were the readier to
do this because so far as his record
was known to us, he had been a con
sistent Populist, working zealously for
the success of Populist principles in his
position of U. S. Senator.
We have noted the many little flings
which constantly appeared in his pa
per against Mr. Watson, and have tried
to palliate them on the ground of irra
tation because of the unforgiving atti
tude of Mr, Watson. It was not until
Mr. Butler’s article this week that the
conviction has come to us that it were
better for Mr. Butler to be relieved of
his office of party chairman, and that
he is not east in the proper mould to
make a chairman who can build up the
party.
Mr. Butler calls those Populists who
favor the holding of the national con
ference Coxeyites. Why? To bring
reproach upon them. Coxeyite has be
come a term of reproach. To call a
man a Coxeyite is equivalent to stig
matizing him as a crank of the first
water among the mossbacks, and even
Populists have so come to regard it
without troubling themselves with
finding a good reason therefor. Though
we do not agree with Mr. Coxey in
some of his views, and think some
things he has done are fantastic and
absurd, yet Mr. Coxey has never in
sisted on extreme measures and always
has readily and cheerfully subordinated
his plans to those of the party when
authoritatively expressed. In this
Mr. Coxey was a good Populist, and it
was manifest injustice to regard him
as a crazy and impracticable crank.
Yet when Mr. Coxey came to Georgia,
having been misled by a few over
zealous admirers to believe that he
would meet a cordial reception, he was
ignored by the state convention. The
use of the hall was denied him to make
a speech. He was positively snubbed
by Mr. Watson and so chilly was his
reception that the Atlanta Constitu
tion, in big headlines, said Coxey had
been given the marble heart.
These things Mr. Butler knows, and
when, knowing this, he terms Mr.
Watson and the Georgia Populists
“Coxeyites,’“simply to make them odi
ous, it is clear to us that he isjunfit to
be the national chairman.
Mr. Butler asserts that in justice to
the Populist party the Democrats
should have withdrawn Mr. Sewall,
but he explains that he made no earn
est effort to compel the Democrats to
act justly. By his letter it appears
that all -his efforts were directed to
force Mr. Watson to accept the fusion
policy and support Mr. Sewall. Mr.
Butler says that this course was the
proper one for Populists to pursue, for
to have voted the Populist ticket would
have been to help elect McKinley out
of spite, and to abandon the Populist
candidates after having nominated
them and in doing so pledged to support
them, would rescue a suffering people
from the clutches of the gold and mo
nopoly ring. So far as Mr. Butler was
able to force it, the Populist ticket was
abandoned* yet McKinley was elected.
And even if Bryan and Sewall should
have been elected, the gold and monop
oly rings would have continued as they
are. They have got nothing which
they did not get through the aid of the
Democratic party, and the insincerity
of the party is attested by the fact
they never keep a single campaign
pledge. Though they pretend to favor
a double standard, since the election
a number of states, our own Demo
cratic free silver state among them,
have voted to legalize gold contracts,
thus repudiating, as far as they were
able, their platform professions in fa
vor of silver.
As a reason for suppressing Mr. Wat
son’s letter of acceptance Senator But
ler says it was done because its publi
cation would have helped elect McKin
ley We distinctly remember how at
the time Mr. Butler protested that he
had never received the letter. The
adm’ssion he now makes of having de
liberately told an untruth does not ex
alt Mr. Butler in our estimation. It
may be diplomacy, but it is not what
we expect of the official head of the
People’ party.
If Mr. Butler had employed his ene
my to write a book he could not have
damaged him worse than the Senator
has done for himself by [writing that
long article on “Two Queries and Two
Answers.”—The Augusta, Ga , Tribune.
There is about as much sense in leg
islating against child labor as there
would be in passing a law punishing
people for getting hungry. Remove
the cause and child labor will cease.
Children do not work because they
want to, nor do parents force them to
do so as a matter of choice, but of ne
cessity. It would not only be foolish,
but it would be inhuman as well, to
deny a child the right to work for its
own sustenance or that of its poor
parents because it happened to be born
a year or two too late. Give the peo
ple the opportunity that by nature and
justice belongs to them and child labor
would disappear at once, and with it
would disappear about nine-tenths of
the drudgery of their parents. --Living
Issues.
A Sensational Speech.
At the meeting of the Georgia Bar
Association at Warm Springs, last
week. Chief Justice Baldwin, of Con
necticut, delivered an address on the
subject, “Absolute Power and Ameri
can Institutions.” He began by saying:
“Os the great nations of the world,
two only in our time represent the
principle of political absolutism and
enforce it by one man’s hand. They
are Russia and the United States. The
czar of Russia, indeed, stands for Rus
sia in a broader sense than that in
which we can say that the president of
the United States stands for them.
“The people of the United States have
not put all their power in the keeping
of all or any of their temporary rulers.
They are the sleeping giant, that sleep
ing or waking is a giant still, Their
ward is still the ultimate rule of con
duct, their written word, but when
they gave their assent to the constitu
tion of the United States they created
in it the office of a king without the
name.”
president's absolute power.
He illustrated that the president of
the United States had absolute power
by the following:
“First—The president’s power in re
moval from office.
“Second —His power to receive or
refuse to receive ministers from foreign
countries.
“Third —His power to call the militia
out in the different states of the Union.
“Fourth—His power to determine
when it is proper to call out the mili
tia.”
He declared that the power of the
president of the United States was
practically unlimited in war, that his
command of the army and navy was
absolute. In this connection, he said
the emancipation proclamation was an
imperial decree. He said the Monroe
act was the single act of an executive.
He might have added that in addi
tion to the immense power granted by
the constitution the president during
the. last administration had usurped
the further power of nullifying the law
and mortgaging the future labor of the
people to the money power, while the
Speaker of the House had arrogated to
himself the right to determine what
Congress should not do. The address
created a sensation. D. N. S.
Foreign Telephone Rates.
While in America the telephone ser
vice is still in the hands of private cor
porations, in foreign countries there is
a growing tendency to place the tele
phones under public control. Where
this has been done it has usually re
sulted in the lowering of rates. In
Switzerland, for instance, the charge
for service is 824 the first year, S2O the
second, and 816 thereafter. In New
Zealand the rate is 824 a year ; but in
England $35.70, and in Germany $36.
But in Sweden above all countries, the
cost of telephoning is brought down to
a point that excites the wonder and
envy of Americans. The population of
Stockholm is 205,000, and everybody in
moderately good circumstances appears
to have an instrument. The telephone
is not used for business purposes only,
but is found pretty generally in private
houses, in the smallest cigar stores and
newspaper shops, and in all sale rooms.
In the houses of well-to-do families
the rooms are connected by telephone,
and the cook in the kitchen announces
by telephone to the lady of the house
in the drawing room that dinner is
ready. The steamboats on the canals
are connected to the telephonic net
work on land. The central telephone
exchange is a great tower of three
stories, in which 259 girls are busily
employed connecting up subscribers.
The average number of conversations
per week is 100,000. The time to con
nect up two subscribers averages
from eight to nine seconds. The length
of the conductors connected to the cen
tral station is 10,200 miles. The chief
cause of the enormous spread of the
telephone in Sweden is the low tariff.
The cost to a subscriber for one tele
phone is $22 50 per annum. In Stock
holm the tariff is still lower, if 400 con
versations per annum is not exceeded.
In this case it is $15.75 per annum, 2,76 c
being charged for every additional con
versation. On the trunk lines the
rates are equally reasonable, For five
minutes’ conversation on a sixty-mile
line, the cost is 4c; from 60 to 150 miles,
it is 8c; from 150 to 360 miles it is 13 l-5c
for a greater distance 27C. The instal
lation of the telephone in Stockholm
was started by a private company. In
recent years the state has been con
structing trunk lines and has already
about 4,000 subscribers.—St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
The workingmen in the rubber and
silk factories on Long Island voted for
McKinley and “prosperity” last fall
and now are on strike against reduced
’wages.—-Civic Review.
There’s a Difference.
We notice that many populists seem
to admit that the only difference be
tween the populist and democratic
platforms on the money question is the
metal redemption feature. While this
is surely enough, it is not all by any
means. There is nothing in the dem
ocratic platform inconsistent with the
retirement of the greenbacks ; there is
nothing in it that ean be construed as
opposed to state bank money; in fact
it was purposely worded at the sugges
tion of Bailey,of Texas,so that it would
not declare against state banks. The
democratic money plank, when read
between the lines, and with a knowl
edge of how the sub-committee, and a
knowledge of a strong desire to return
to state bank money by many demo
cratic free silver leaders, means this :
State bank money, retirement of green
backs and national bank money ; free
coinage of silver. In the East the dem
ocrats rather prefer the national banks
to state banks of issue, but would pre
fer state bank money to greenbacks.
In the South they are decidedly in
favor of state bank money, and opposed
to greenbacks ; in the West they are,
as a rule, in favor of greenbacks. Upon
the whole, the democratic party is op
posed to greenbacks, don’t believe the
government ought to issue the paper
money, that in so doing it is encroach
ing upon the field of private enterprise;
that the issuance of paper money
properly belongs to the banking insti
tutions of the country. We do not be
lieve there is a genuine populist in the
United States who would give his vote
in aid of reinstating the democratic
party in power if he thoroughly under
stood the true position of the democrat
ic leaders on the money question—
those whom the rank and file of the
democratic party cheerfully support.—
Missouri World.
PROFESSIONAL LOBBYISTS, fl
Ex-Senators to be Debarred from the UyS.
Senate Floor.
Senator Hale’s amendment to the U.
S. Senate rules designed to take from
lobbying ex-senators the privileges of
the floor which are now extended to
former members of that body, has
called very pointed attention to one of
the glaring abuses which has grown'up
around the national capitol.
It has become notorious that certain
ex-senators have been able, through
the possession of this privilege of the
floor, to carry on a more or less vigor
ous lobbying in favor of either some
thing in which they have special inter
est as lawyers.
The Hale resolution has resulted In
temporarily clearing the atmosphere,
if it does nothing else. It has gone to
the committee on rules and will be
heard from later.
As for the men at whom it is aimed,
only one paper that I have seen has
undertaken to specify, though all have
done so as well as it could be done
without naming names. The Journal
goes the whole length, however, and
cites the following bill of
Ex-Senator Felton, of California,
agent for the opposition to the annexa
tion of Hawaii.
Ex-Senator Gibson, of Maryland,
agent of steamship companies and
against restriction in immigration
laws.
Ex-Senator Farwell, of Illinois, act
ing for those opposed to the passage of
a bankruptcy law. Also agent for a
scheme to purchase the mouth of the
Brazos river.
Ex-Senator Paddock, of Nebraska,
agent of the Sabine Pass scheme.
Ex-Senator Brown, of Utah, agent
for the opening of the Uncompahgre
reservation and the Gilsonite deposits.
Ex-Senator Eppa Hutton, of Virgin
ia, agent for private claims.
Fx-Senator Butler, of South Carolina,
agent for the Cramps.
Ex-Senator Higgins, of Delaware,
agent for paper manufacturers.
Os course this may be wrong in some
particulars, but it is not so very far
wrong. The presence of these ex-sen
ators about the halls of congress has
led to this talk and the reasons for
their presence will need very vigorous
explaining before people will be con
vinced that they are here simply as
patriots.
John law Financiering.
We print today the rejoinder of Hon.
Thomas E. Watson, late candidate for
vice president on the Populist ticket,
to the arguments submitted by The
Macon Telegraph against the free coin
age of silver at 16 to 1 and against the
fiat money issues proposed by Mr.
Watson. After reading his disserta
tion, we have only to remark that the
lessons of history are all against him.
Would they were not so ! If it were
only possible for the government to
make money out of paper and to
make it circulate at its imprinted value,
there would be no more poverty, no
more hunger, no more wolves at the
door of the poor. Would that the gov
ernment could do this ; for if it could
there would indeed be plenty of money
for everybody, and toil would become
a question of physical exercise instead
of an obligation put upon us by the
Almighty; Blessed is the state of that -
man who can dream as Mr. Watson
dreams, who can build glorious castles
in the air and be sure that they may
be obtainable, who believes that the
good day is at hand when the fiat of
the government shall fill the purses of
everybody. It is most refreshing, as
one goes down the dusty road of life to
have the way cheered by the presence
of men like Watson, who. in the most
altruistic spirit is preaching the doc
trine that by a mere change in the fi
nancial sys:em of our government the
sky will rain larks. The manifestation
of such sublime faith must win respect
for him who has it, much as we may
believe his trust is misplaced. Perhaps
that man is, after all, the richest man
who is convinced that he is about to
seize the philosopher’s stone, and with
it to turn the leaves on the trees into
the currency of the realm. From that
view-point Thomas E. Watson is richer »
far than any Croesus who has ever
lived. We may further observe that
Mr. Watson’s article has a special in
terest from the fact that he defends
the memory of John Law. In this
respect Mr. Watson may lay claim to
especial distinction, for he is about the
first since Law ceased to vex the earth
who has undertaken to be the apolo
gist of the man who developed a sys
tem of national finance on the “Missis
sippi bubble.” History tells that Law
was a professional gambler, and -the— —
only difference between him and other
gamblers was that he played a limit
less game. Mr. Watson says that Law
went to France a rich man. That is
true, but his wealth was due to his
success at the gaming table. When
the leader of the Populist party, con
fessedly the ablest and most courage
ous of them all, deliberately sets up
John Law as an authority for a mod
ern financial propaganda, further ar
gument would seem to be unnecessary.
The reductio ad absurdum is complete.
—Macon Telegraph.
Political Catechism. -
If special class legislation is paternal
ism what is more paternalistic than a
protective tariff ?
If a government can loan money to a
banker with bonds, why can’t it loan
money to a farmer with lands ? -JI
If other governments own their rail- S|
roads and telegraphs why can’t ours'JH
do the same ? < j
If the democrats are in favor of I
silver why did they vote for Cleveland
three times—twice after it was known
he was opposed to it?
If greenbacks are not money why
have the United States Supreme Court
and fifteen State Supreme Courts deci- —-
ded that they are ?
It the government can take 50 cents
worth of silver and make out of it 100
cents worth of money why can’t it do
so with ten cents worth of silver ? If
it can make a dollar out of ten cents
worth of silver why can’t it make it out
of one-tenth of cent’s worth of pftP er ?
If the greenbacks are not money>how
did the soldiers get pay for theiis" sac
rifices and services during the warj?
If the government can eontroTarmie.frJqgj
and navies and the postal service wligg§
can’t it operate a railroad?—MorgaTgEsjS '
Buzz Saw. jgpggjqg
The Albany Penny Press very pJgs
edly remarks that the want
pie is the principal want
many people.—Griffin News.