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f” The People’s Party Paper /QP To Jan. 1, 1898. <*SEND TO-DAY.-* DOLLAR "°"i VOL. VII. NUMBER 1. MCLAURINS VICTORY. New Senator Will Be a Political Power. THE SOUTH CAROLINA SITUATION. A Man of Convictions, Ability and Force- How He Came to the Front and What He Will do in the Future. There is a new power in the politics of the Palmetto State and hq is the curly-haired child of destiny from up i near the border. From a congressman serene in the possession of the confi dence of bis constituents, and caring for little outside of that, he suddenly 1 found himself cast into the whirl of I state politics with a title to preserve | and an ambition to gratify; and now, after one of those bitter and exciting contests which characterize politics in ' this state, he has the gratification of I the indorsement of his people and is ( tasting the sweets which come to him , who finds ambition gratified. Another thing he finds—or will find ‘ when occasion presents : That''s pow- ( er is no longer confined his sixth ( district, which gave him four commis / sions to serve as its representative in . congress, but that from now on he will ’ be a potent factor in the affairs of the 1 state at large. ( It is true of every man elevated to I the United States senate; it is doubly , true of John L. McLaurin because of ’ the conditions and circumstances out ’ of which this power comes to him. { For some months McLaurin has held f a seat in the senate through appoint- j ment at the hands of his friend, the governor, but it was the indorsement - by the people in Tuesday’s primary E which lifted him from uncertainty to j the plane of certain political power. It i was the indorsement which gave him t something to stand on. With the ap- t proval of the people he rests on even i firmer ground than he would with only i the backing of the legislature, for pop- j ular approval means more for the sue ture. t THE OCCASION AND THE MAN. ] Then this particular approval at this 1 particular time counts for much. The ] vote he received demonstrated very ] clearly that he is strong not only with s the reformers, with whom his fortunes had been cast in the past, but also E with the conservatives, who have not \ heretofore cut much figure in politics r at least not for several years; it de- t monstrated, in other words, that the - man for breaking down the factional r occasion foi this breaking j down had met. and that McLaurin was j the man. i And why should not the factional t lines be broken ? Why should there < be factional lines among Democrats ? t No reason why they should not be I broken do wn after they have ceased to i be useful; no good reason why there i should be such lines when the man, in j himself and the principles he stands e for, is all right. i That’s the whole thing. When dem- < ocrats can meet on the common ground ] of supporting a man who has proved - true to democratic principles there 1 should be no divisions. If, to illustrate, i the gold democrats of Georgia care to ( unite with the silver democrats in sup- , port of a man who is truly a democrat i and whose fealty to the great demo 1 cratic doctrine of free silver coinage has never been questioned, would the silver men be wise or sensible or any- , thing else but most injudicious in re- ] fusng the votes of their ’‘gold” breth- j ren ? Os course there’s the record of ] the man to be considered —it's all in - that. And here in South Carolina— • would there have been any wisdom , here in keeping up sectional lines when the conservatives wanted to vote for McLaurin, a pioneer silver man, a , man who has stood true to every demo- , cratic principle? So the lines have been eliminated be cause, above all things, he was the right sort of a man. He benefits by it, the party benefits by it, the state ben efits by it A DIVISION ON LOCAL LINES. It must be borne in mind that the "cipsjjsion which has existed in South Carolina has been one of factions and on purely local issues. That is, speak ing broadly. Back of the reform move ment in its inception there were real issues because there were real wrongs to be righted. The great mass of the people took the side of reform because they believed that corruption had crept into high places and the time for a change had come. They turned down men whom they believed to be unworthy. For a time the distinc tions between the two factions were rigidly maintained—partly because from a reform standpoint there was need for it and partly because shrewd politicians worked the dominant fac tion to their own ends. In the contest just ended the Evans-Irby combination endeavored, with all the desperation of politicians in the death struggles, to fan the fires of factional prejudice and induce reformers to vote against Mc- Laurin because he was being supported by conservatives. Time was when the appeal would not have been in vain, but that time has passed. Just as the masses of the reform faction turned down the old regime when they thought it unworthy, so they hastened to turn down others whom they deem ed unworthy, even though these others had been prominent in the early fights for reform and had then enjoyed the full confidence of the men who now combined in their repudiation. It all goes to demonstrate that men count for something in South Carolina. And the particular man whose candi dacy has wrought the change—he counts for a good deal. SOMETHING OF THE MAN. McLaurin is an earnest, brainy young man. Blue eyes that are unmistaka bly honest; curly hair that is worn a little too long perhaps; a fraction be low medium height, stocky frame, THE PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER SHALL THE POPULISTS CARRY GEORGIA We Put that Question to YOU not the Other Fellow, but YOU—Fair and Square. All Great Reforms are Successful only by Individuals Working in Concert to the Same End. All political success comes the same wrfy except when delayed by fusion schemes which must first be stamped out. lhe State Campaign of Georgia is just 5° weeks off. Weeks roll by quickly and before you realize it the fight will be on —then it is too late to build and prepare for the enemy s attacks. W — JTTTTC A TIT ! ED UC ATE ! I EDUCATE !! U There are 50,000 Populists of Georgia who are not reading Your Paper—lots of them in your community. How can they convert intelligent voters-unless they read keep up to date with the party? We must build to-day, not to-morrow. Delays are NOW is the time to lay good foundations. The harvest is ripe, the peo ple are suffering and are already with us in spirit, bring them into the fold before they are WW by false prophets and scheming demagogues. Put into EVERY house a reform paper. It works for the cause night and day and hammers into the head of the IfindWlrtisan the great truth? which you already accept. Open his eyes with sledge hammer arguments. WEen you leave him, the paper is still at work, convincing and verting. 25 CENTS TO JANUARY 1, 1898- By special arrangement, we have secured for campaign purposes a limited number of subscriptions to the People s Party I aper, commencing now and ending Jan. 1, 1898. We will send you one copy every issue for the term for 25 cents; 4 copies, One Dollar; Bo copies, $2.50; 20 copies, $5. Every day you wait you lose YOUR Opportunity. Take 20 copies and Plant them in your own district. See every Pop you can and Walk to him, show him that success is assured the party in Georgia if we can but reach Every Populist in the State every week and encourage each to action. A quarter is aßsmall amount, and before January he will be able to renew foi a year and send an extra copy to a neighbor. If EVERY reader, if YOU will see to it that every one of ‘Aie boys” knows of this offer, the ball will start to rolling. A quarter from each subscriber for another fellow who is not able to pay for the paper, or for the fellow, who>s not yet ready to join us will put the People’s Party Paper into 50,000 homes. Send to-day. Delays and indifference always lose the fight. Campaign Department. J PEOPLIE’S JPARTY IPJY.IPIEIR, ATLANTA, GEORGIA. small brown mustache —these are phys- i leal characteristics. In conversation : you are impressed by a certain intensi ty which is strongly emphasized when : any matter of issues or principles is ; under discussion. Now and then there is a peculiar catch in his voice indicat- < ing that at one time he must have stammered, but bas since overcome ' that tendency. This catch disappears ; he makes a public speech. Then he is forceful, earnest, intense, throwing his entire self into the business in hand and exerting real power over his • audiences. From the first he has bad this power, j and this was one of the two influences which induced him to make his per- i manent home at Bennettsville. When 1 the hardy clan McLaurin betook itself ■ —body and kilts —from Scotland as < result of the edicts of the conquering . English that tney must forswear alle- 1 giance to the clan of their fathers and 1 must give up their native fathers and I must give up their native dress, those J of the McLaurins who were left came i to this country. There were several ; brothers and cousins in the party of ; immigrants which reached the Caroli- 1 nas, and now many of their descend- 1 ants are to be found in those two states. One family made its way up into the Pee Dee valley, and the pres- 1 ent senator still owns the land which , his forefathers settled. He was a youth i when his father died and his mother 1 took hirrfto the north for his 7 early ed- i ucation. That was, I believe, at - Swathmore college. From there he j went to the University of Virginia, < where he completed his legal educa- < tion. TWO INFLUENCES ON IIIS CAREER. < McLaurin was just of age when, ] after finishing up the school part of 1 his education, he went back to Ben nettsville to have a settlement with his guardian. He was undecided i whether he would settle permanently there or would go to Charleston, Col- i umbia or some other part of the south. : It was at this stage of his career that the two influences to which I’ve refer ed settled the question for him. One of these is now the very charming Mrs. McLaurin, for he met the young lady whom he was destined to marry. There is a pretty romance in it, but that be longs to him, not to the public. The other influence was more prosa ic. A famous road case, the exact na ture of which I do not know, was at tracting the attention of the county that summer when “Johny” McLau rin’s thoughts were of anything but the law. There were a number of de fendants in a series of cases identically alike, and the prosecution had absorb ed all the legal talent in the county. McLaurin was known to be a youth ful lawyer and the defendants consult ed him probably because there was nobody else to be had. An eminent attorney from down in the state had been sent for by the defense and he, after investigating, very wisely inform ed them that, the law was against them and they had better get out of their troubles the best way they could —which was by entering pleas of - guilty. McLaurin said no. With the enthu siasm of youth he declared that he be lieved he could win if he could get the , cases before a jury—and at any rate they had everything to gain and noth ing to lose by trying. [ It was in the trial of these cases that . the young man demonstrated the pow ers as a speaker which gained him later . great reputation as a criminal lawyer I and which were largely instrumental ■ in winning for him the political prow l ess that has since come. Case after - case was tried and although the law i seemed to the opposing lawyers clearly i against him, the 'ury didn’t agree with » them and acquittal followed. Then r the prosecution threw up its hands in despair and nol prossed the remaining i cases. NOT ON THE MAI’. - McLaurin’s success here and his suc -3 cess at Cupid’s court settled the little matter of residence for him, and his legal shingle was soon swinging in the ? breezes that blow through Bennetts- - ville. If you try to reach that tewn a. by rail you will find yourself wonrler i- ing how anybody ever had the courage i, to get into that country; as you pro- ceed the thought comes that the early settlers went there before the days of the railroads, and you forgive, them— it must have been easier then; after you reach the pretty little town in the Pee Dee valley, after you have gazed out upon the prosperous farms which surround the town on all sides and view the many evidences of peace and prosperity, you wonder why a man would give this up even for life at Washington. A member of the Georgia legislature who spent a day or two at Marietta last year came back to Atlanta and gave utterance to the remark: “No wonder those Cobb county fellows go into politics; the land’s so poor up there that nobody could make a living farming and they have to do something else.” To square myself with Chuck Anderson, Dick Dobbs, Charley Wil lingham and tne rest the boys, I want to declare right here that I never have agreed with that member of the legislature ; I regard Marietta as the most delightful place to live in in Geor gia and 1 believe that fellow was only jealous. The story is not new, but I tell it here because my impressions of Bennettsville were so different. CRIMINAL LAW AND POLITICS. By December of that year Johnny McLaurin had as much practice as any of the older lawyers. He was known as “Johnny” then, and he is known as “Johnny” or “John L.” all over the sixth congressional district now. He was successful in all branches of his profession, but made a specialty of criminal law, and there was not a case of note in that section of the state in which he did not figure. Seven or eight years ago—l haven’t the date— he was elected attorney general by the legislature and had held that office but a short time when he was given the nomination fcr congress in his district. McLaurin’s entrance into politics came as a result of his study of econom ic questions. He is a man who loves his library and one who uses it to good purpose. I have had many talks with him in Washington and from the first he impressed me as being the possessor of a greater fund of information than most men many years older. There is something in his head. At a time when the younger men in public life were devoting their study to the tariff question, he had seen that the cause of depression lay deeper—that the blow which has been given industry by the demonetization of silver was just be ginning to bring its harvest. Things were getting hot in the Palmetto State. The reform movement was on and the lawyers from the cities were rushing to the front condemning it. McLaurin saw that there was much of right and justice in the movement, and that the restoration of the free coinage of silver which the farmers were demanding was true democratic doctrine. And he said so. It was one of the first speeches on that line which had been made in South Carolina. Opposition papers jumped him, opposition critics called him “populist” and all that, and you know now a Scot will fight for his con victions. The criticisms drove him to the defense of his convictions, and that means politics. THE SUCCESS THAT DELIGHTS HIM MOST. McLaurin has had uniform success in the field of politics. He has grown stronger and stronger, not only in his district, but throughout the state. Not only has he looked after the welfare of the people of his district, but many have been the requests made of him by people of other districts, and with the courtesy that is natural to the man,’ these have always met prompt atten tion. Men who have “had no use” for others who supported the reform move ment have felt that McLaurin, though perhaps disagreeing with them wi.tti i regard to policies and politics, would ’ represent their interests at Washing ton. This he has done. He is broad, brainy and a gentleman. Strangely enough, though be has s had success enough in his profession s and in politics to turn the head of any j young man, it is not of this success ■ that he talks with greater pride. He i is prouder far of bis success as a far - mer. He has a couple of large planta s tions in Marlsboro couniy, one of them • the place of his McLaurin ancestors, *EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL; SPECIAL PRIVILEGES TO NONE” ATLANTA, GEORGIA: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 1897. and he makes them pay. “There nev er has been a time when I did not make them pay,” he told me the other day. “And the life of a successful far mer,” he added, with conviction, is the most compensating life in the world.” In what I have written of South Car olina’s new senator I have tried to avoid everything that would sound like fulsome flattery. He is all that I have said of him—a man of breadth and brain, a student, a fair man in all his dealings and a successful one ; no mere politician, but a democrat whose beliefs in his party's principles are con victions and who is ever ready to stand or fall by his convictions. He is to the front in South Carolina politics to stay ; and South Carolina is the gainer thereby.—J. K. Ohl in At lanta Constitution. POPULIST “TURNED DOWN.” Farmers’ National Congress Rejects a Free Silver and other Populistic Resolutions. St Paul, Minn , Sept 3.—The Popu lists in the Farmers’ National Congress were badly defeated during its sessions. “Calamity” Weller, of lowa, yesterday introduced a resolution lor a restora tion of free coinage of silver. This was reported unfavorably and rejected without permitting the minority to debate. Then came a resolution favoring the prohibition of “private monopoly in public necessities,” even to the extent of the exercise of the right of eminent domain and the acquirement of such necessities by the State. Again discus sion was denied, and on a call of States a three-to-one majority against the resolution was developed. Another financial resolution was similarly disposed of after a short dis cussion to avoid filibustering, which had been resorted to by the Populists. Later in the day the Populists were again “turned down” on the final re port of the Committee on Resolutions. Resolutions were adopted commending the Secretary of Agriculture for his efforts in behalf of the dairy industry; favoring Government inspection and gradirg of butter for export, and the reduction of official salaries; providing for a committee to report a plan for co operation between the States for the prevention of the spread of contagious diseases among domestic animals. Resolutions introduced by Mr. Loucks favoring the income tax, Government control of telegraph and telephone, the prohibition of corporate ownership of land for speculative purposes and the init'ative and referendum had been turned' down in committee, and Mr. Loucks had made a minority report in each case. He was allowed to speak in support of each of the resolutions, and then the congress overwhelmingly sus tained its committee. The congress by unanimous vote de clared for Government action to reha bilitate our merchant marine and devel op our carrying trade by putting differ ential rates on merchandise imported in foreign bottoms and permitting Americans to buy foreign ships and ob tain American registry under an agree ment that within two years they shall construct a like amount of tonnage in this country for the foreign trade; also for liberal appropriations for the im provement of lake, river and coast routes. A resolution favoring Government ownership of railroads, championed by Weller and Loucks, was overwhelm ingly defeated, and a resolution barring questions which have become political ( issues was adopted. y Small Pox Scare Dead. The small pox s,qj£e bas died out at Montgomery, The disease bas been effectually stamped out and the danger is over, if there ever was any. The Yellow Jack Scare. The scar«r>ver the report of.GOO cases of yellow at Ocean Springs, Miss, a resort much patronized by New Or leans and Mobile has subsided. There were 60 cases in all and 12 deaths. One death occurred in New Orleans. It is claimed the fever came in through the quarantine station at Ship Island. Quarantine restrictions are being with . drawn against other places on the coast. GOOD GOVEJNMENT. Experience is By fir the best Teacherß WHAT BRITISH CITIES lUvE DONE, Greater New York Interested in the Expe rience of Other Municipalities— An Amazing and Instructive Contract. Greater New York is about to organ ize a vast new municipal government. In this as in other matters experience is the best teacher —comparison and contrast are the best object lessons. Therefore the people of Greater New and the achievements of the other great municipalities of civilization. The easiest source of this informa tion is Dr. Albert Shaw’s two books on the governments of European cities. His assembly of facts excites the inter est, the amazement and the envy of every American reader. The book de voted to British cities is especially in teresting to us because the British peo ple have met and are meeting the same problems that now disturb us, and have solved and are solving them in ways that are open to us. Let us look at a few of the facts about the three chief British municipal or ganizations—Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham. Let us see how their governments respond to Mr. Bryce’s test of municipal government —“What does it provide for the people and what does it cost the people ? ” * * * Glasgow contains about 750,000 peo pie. Manchester’s population is 520,- 000, but its municipal government di rectly benefits 3,000,000. Birmingham has about 440,000 within its corporate limits. All these cities are newer than any of the great American cities. All have had their real growth in the last twenty five years. All their plans for good government began about the time of the close of our civil war— exactly the period when New York and the other American cities fell into the hands of bosses and rings of corrup tionists. They are governed by an electorate that in no essential respect differs from ours. The masses of the people vote and have absolute power over their public servants, the officials They select a municipal council that administers the city’s affairs by divid ing itself into executive committees, one committee at the head of each de partment of the public service. These councillors serve without pay and, al though elections are frequent, changes in the council from causes other than death are comparatively raae. In their municipal campaigns the questions of national or other than city politics are never discussed. Local affairs only are issues. Party lines do not exist. Nominations for office can be made and are made by a petition signed by ten names—a proposer of the candidate, a seconder and eight others Yet there are few candidates, and even few contests. An official who serves the city well is practically never oppo sed for re-election. All this is the result of a single came —the complete divorce of politics from city affairs. “There ought to be no more sentiment about running a city than there is about running a dry goods store,” said Richard Croker in an inter view in The World the other day. In these cities this ‘ought to be” is a fact, and has been brought about by the driving from municipal campaigns of such distinctions as Conservative and Liberal, the English parallel of Demo crat and Republican, high-tariff man and the tariff reformer. In these three cities, and in scores of smaller Eng ish cities, the cnief source of revenue is not by direct taxation of the people, as it is in New York and Brooklyn. The most of the expenses of government are paid out of the in come from public works —water, gas, electricity, street railways, &e. The most of the municipal depart ments are almost or quite self-support- ing. Many of them pay a large profit that goes to decrease the taxes for such necessarily unprofitable departments as police, fire, sanity and sewerage. The municipal bonded debts are large—almost as large in proportion as those of New York and Brooklyn. But the interest charge is paid for the most part out of the profits of municipal enterprises, and is not collected in taxes as it is here. Year by year the taxes there are growing smaller. In Glasgow there are now practically no general taxes. In Manchester and Birmingham the general rates are small. And the prin cipal of the debt is constantly decreas ing. In New York the debt is growing year by year. Now a Tweed adds 840,- 000,000 to it in two years. Now aTam- Tnanv Ha.ll. to “keen down the tax rat.’* and make a good showing,” jumps it up 810,000,000 or so in four or five years. Even a multi-partisan reform administration has added several mil lions to the city’s debt. And the inter est charge falls heavily upon the peo ple, already burdened by the current expenses of the government, which are raised almost entirely by direct taxes that swell rents and reduce wages. # • ♦ In Glasgow the street railways are now owned and run by the city at a large profit Yet the average fare is about two cents, and there are work ingmen’s trains morning and evening on which the charge is only one cent Until two years ago the street rail ways, which were built by the city, were leased to a private company which paid its stockholders 10 per cent dividends after paying the city annual ly: (1) The total interest charge on the city’s investment; (2) enough to accumulate into a sinking fund big enough to pay off the total first cost of the roads at the end of the lease ; (3) enough to reimburse the city for all repairs and renewals, and (4) an annu al rental of 8750 a mile. And they were allowed to charge on the average about two and a half eents as a fare ! Manchester built its street railways and leased them to a company which nays the city interest on the cost and a net divide ad of 10 per cent per annum. Yet this company may charge only about three cents, and must run two cent workingmen’s trains morning and evening. In Birmingham the private company which has leased the street-car lines built by the city pays all the interest charges, is paying off the first cost of the roads, pays the city in full for keeping the lines in perfect repair, and charges about the same fares as those in Manchester. At the expiration of the lease Birmingham, like Manches ter, will own the lines outright, free from all encumbrances and in perfect condition. In New York the street-railway franchises have been either sold for a song or given away outright The street railways charge five-cent fares, pay the smallest possible heed to pub lie convenience and comfort, and altogether bring into the city treasury about 8352,000 a year. And $200,000 of of this sum comes from the Broadway road, which, under the system of the British cities, would be paying upward of 83,000,000! * * • In Glasgow the gas and electric light plants are owned and operated by the city. It has built new works. It paid off half original debt. Has accumulated a large sinking fund. Yet it has re duced the price of gas to 60 cents per thousand feet, and that too in the face of the fact that the price of gas-making coal has greatly advanced. To prevent the electric lighting from making seri ous inroads on the use of gas it has started a system of renting gas-stoves The cost to the taxpayer of street light ing in Glasgow is less than 8100,000, and that sum is constantly reducing. Like the gas works, the electric-light plant is on a business basis and will soon be paying for itself, with no cost to the taxpayer. In Manchester the city supplies gas at 60 cents the thousand feet, and the gas works earn for the city, over and above all expenses, 8500,000 a year, 8200,000 of which goes to pay interest on the gas debt and 8300,000 of which is paid into the city treasury to reduce general taxes. Birmingham bought out the private gas companies at a huge rate Yet it at once reduced gas to 75 cents, making even on that basis a profit of 1170,000. Gas is now 50 cents the thousand feet. New York gets nothing from its gaa companies but a rather inferior quality of gafc. It pays them and the electric lighting companies about $1,000,000 a year for public lighting And citizens of New York have to pay 81 20 the thousand feet and are charged for leak age under the extortionate system of the Gas Trust. • * * Glasgow has a perfect supply of ab solutely pure water at a pressure so high that the efficiency of the Fire De partment is greatly increased. The <• 'st pf w-ter is a.b'nnt a nnurtpr n-f n I cent a day for each inhabitant. At this price the debt of the water works is being rapidly paid. Manchester had to go ninety-five miles for its water supply, and Birm ingham had to go eighty miles. In both cities the water works are more than self-sustaining, although the water rents are not much higher than those of Glasgow. New York, which had to go only four miles further than Glasgow for its water supply, will not pay off its water debt for at least forty years Yet water rents in New York are more than four times as high on the most favor able average as those of Glasgow, And New York’s system cost far more than even the Manchester system with its ninety-five miles of aqueduct. To check the evils of overcrowding Glasgow condemned and bought about one hundred acres of tenements. It opened twenty-nine new streets, it widened twenty-five old streets, it erected model tenements that bring in SIOO,OOO in rents annually, it laid out a superb park, and altogether so ad mirably administered the enterprise that it is now practically self-sustain ing. The death rate has been lowered, the poor people are more comfortably housed and the city has been greatly beautified. Birmingham has imitated Glasgow’s example with even better results. The finest street in Birmingham runs through the land bought for the great “improvement scheme,” in what was a few years ago the heart of the slums In fifty years Birmingham will have paid for the ninety acres it bought and will have a clear income from rentals of about $1,000,000, besides the new streets and parks. The only attempts New York has made in this direction have been the opening of small parks. And it took seven years to get title and possession of Mulberry Bend. Os course under the New York system all these enter prises are paid for by the taxpayer. » # * Glasgow changed itself from an in land town to a great seaport by under taking the improvements of the Clyde which have cost the city $100,000,000 and the taxpayers almost nothing. A harbor was dug, splendid docks were constructed and all the facilities of a great seaport were provided. Yet by business administration < ach enterprise was made self-sustaining or more than self-sustaining. The city’s credit was used, the city was made great and prosperous, and there is a net income over all expenses of about 82,000,000 a year. Manchester, to save itself from Liv erpool competition, made a private effort to build a shipcanal into a public enterprise and expendi d more than 825,000,000 of the SIOO,OOO 000 it has cost. The success of the canal bas come slowly, but already the results justify the expenditure, and the Man chester taxpayers have not had their rates raised to any great extent. » » * Glasgow has seven great model lodg ing-houses where the homeless poor are accommodated at trifling rates. It has a “family home” where widows or widowers with children can live until they can arrange for the care of their children while they are at work. It has public wash-houses where all the (Continued on 3rd Page.) F" lhe People’s Party Paper /_t)C To Jan ' 1- 1898 ' *-SEND TO-DAY.** ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. WHOLE NUMBER 365. HAVE PLENTY MONEY. Such is the Boast of Our Na tional Banks. SECURED BY THE CLEVELAND BONDS. Ready to Handle the Wheat and Grain Crops on Money Practically Given Them by the Government. Our National Peril. The Comptroller of the Currency’s compiled report of the national banks was out July 23 and George M. Coffin, assistant comptroller, to a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter August 25, said: “The figures showing total resources and liabilities of all the national banks on July 23, 1897, just compiled, are full of strength and promise. They show to! al resources amounting to 83,568,- 408,053, the greatest amount ever reached in the history of the system, the nearest approach to this condition being a total of 83,510.094.897 on Sept. 30, 1892. . ,1 “The item largely contributing to the grand aggregate of their liabilities is that of individual deposits, which on July 23, 1897, stood at 81,770,450,563, the highest point ever touched by this ’tern, the next highest having been sl,- 766 422 983 on September, 30, 1892. “This showing is all the more strik ing because it is made after the severe liquidation of the past four years, which has reduced the number of na tional banks from 3,830, high watjir mark on May 4, 1883, to 3,610 on July 23, 1897. - “In the item of loans and discounts ' ‘ the highest point ever touched wi-.s $2,161,401,858 on May 4, 1893, just pre ceding the panic of that year. Against this loans and discounts on July 23, 1897, were 81,977,553,710, but actual cash in bank on July 23, 1897, was $418,518,621, against but $322,£63,304 0.1 May 4, 1893, when loans were most greatly extended. “As to the loans of the national banks expanded about 843,000,000 between May 14 and July 23, 1897, it is nearly certain that this movement has con tinued during the past month. “But the meaning of the figure? la that the national banks, as a whole, were never stronger and better pre pared in cash resources to furnish all facilities for moving wheat and cotton crops that are Xlow/"<pming to the markets of the world.” f ' June 26 Comptroller Eeklesj in a ter to the editor of this paper-, showed that the national banks ba c ! alre-x’j - taken out $53,690,330 on the ne.. Cleve land borfds. When it*is known that this money is given to them by the government at a a annual tax of only 1 per cent, it is easy to discover the source of their boasted “power” and financial strength No wonder they are ready to handle the great wheat and cotton crop. The national banks now are practically the government. They make and unmake prosperity, control both dominant par ties and make and unmake presidents and elect both houses of congress Previous to the beginning of the panic in 1890 and 1893 they had with drawn 8200.000,000 of their currency from circulation (see Comptroller Lacy’s report, 1891 P. 44 & 45) prepar atory to changing the large volume of nearly matured bonds for new ones and a 20 year lease of new banking life. These 8262,000,000 new bonds they obtained from the administration of Cleveland by as corrupt and traitor ous a deal as ever the enemies of a gov ernment were guilty. The total bonded debt now is 5847,- 000,000 and these bonds are practically all in the control of the national bank ing conspiracy and are available for an increase of bank currency. This gives the national banks direct control if necessary by issue of about 8800,000,000 or one-half of the volume of the na tion’s money, and with their deposits added they control perhaps two-thirds of the whole volume of the nation’s money. Now here is a self-evident truth that it is high time our business men were learning. The whole volume of a na tion’s money, gold, silver or paper money, because it affords the pricing opportunity to sell property on the markets, is the standard of value. Let it be remembered that national bank paper money will inflate the currency as well as free coinage of silver, and doit much quicker. Os what use is all this talk of a sin gle gold standard or a double standard when we really have a national bank paper standard. Do you realize our national peril under such conditions? —Referendum. , Gas Well Blows Up. Nitro Glycerine was let down in a gas well at Cysnet, Ohio, on Tuesday to shoot it. The nitro glycerine ex ploded igniting the gas. The drillers failed to shut off the gas and another supply of nitro glycerine in a wagon near by exploded. Six men were kil led, houses destroyed and many by standers injured. A Negro Almost Beheaded. Dan Johnson, a negro porter in the hotel at Clinton, Laurens county, had his head almost severed from his body by John Johnson. The weapen used was a razor. Johnson escaped to a swamp, but was later captured and sent to jail. The People's Party. The People’s Party is stronger today than ever before. It grows and waxes stronger as the cause it represents grows. Henry County Beformer. Mail Ilog’s Work. At Candler, Ga., 5 people have been bitten by a mad dog. People are going armed and schools are closed. « Yellow Fever in Nicaragua. Yellow fever has appeared at Leon in western Nicaragua. Several natives died of the disease recently and it is spreading.