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EXISTING EVILS. !
I
i
OGLESBY DISCUSSES THEIR
CAUSE AND REMEDY.
The Remetlj for Any KvII Is to Remove
It, And the Only Way to Good
Government Is to Render .Justice to
All People.
Everybody ought to understand the
great problem that is being solved by
our government, and every other gov¬
ernment in the world at this momen¬
tous period. I say, being solved. Yes,
the books are up for settlement, and
settlement must be made, and made
right, and made soon, whether the unit
of society or the million understand
these questions.
The problem that agitates society in
every fiber in the civilized world is as
simple as the weaver's shuttle, It is
simply and only “the irrepressible
conflict” between good and evil, right
and wrong, justice and Injustice. That
is all, no more, no less.
If the principle embodied in these
terms, good, right, justice, were applied
to civil governments or civil laws, all
this turmoil, all this wrangling, all this
social war, nearly all poverty, crime,
vice and degradation in society would
gently disappear as snow under a sum
mer sun. But evil, wrong and injustice,
constitute the web and woof of civil
law.
Take the laws of finance of the gov¬
ernments of tjie world. They are so
arranged and so manipulated as to en¬
slave the wealth producers of * he
world. The ingenuity of men and
devils combined could not Invent any¬
thing more effectual In enslaving labor
than a system of money based on in¬
trinsic value, a property money, a
money that breeds debt and usury.
Yet strange to see, our so-called great
statesmen, not only of our nation, but
of all .don’t seefli to understand the sit¬
uation at all. They all want peace,
quietude and prosperity in the nations,
and are worrying and wrangling try¬
ing to calm the troubled waters, blind
to the fact that the system of money so
dear to them, like tho worm at the root
of Jonah’s gourd, is eating tho Ufo and
vitality out of the tree of liberty. It
would be as reasonable to expect that
in mining acids and alkalies no agita¬
tion would be produced, as to expect
quietude In society under the operation
of tho present system of finance in t lie
world.
The remedy for doing wrong is to do
right.
The remedy for injustice is to do
justly.
The remedy for any evil Is to remove
it.
How Is it that some men can revel in
luxury, having more ryoney than they
never labor ill a IT?
,t some met/ 1 »<•<
to millions ot acres of land, and never
plowed a furrow or raised a hill of
beans?
How do some men own and control
railroads that never did half as much
labor as the section hand who gets a
dollar a day?
It is the result of a vicious system of
money that allows men to secure the
fruits of other men’s labor without giv¬
ing any equivalent.
Now look at it. There are men in
our country who have Incomes of mil
lions of dollars, With out doing a
day’s work, at the end of the year they
are richer by millions from interest
and rents, A large mill standing
among the red wood of Oregon, receives
$7,00(1 to stand idle so that other
mills can sell lumber twice as high.
An iron foundry or distillery receives
hundreds of thousands to stand idle.
Tho coal barons wait until winter
comes, and then increase the price of
coal. Trusts, syndicates, monopolies
and combines rob the toilers of the
world until society bolls like the tem¬
pest-tossed sea. Can society be made
to quiet down and not complain under
this pressure? Our bogus statesmen
seem to think so. One class of them
thinks that a tariff for protection is the
remedy.* Another das thinks that a
tariff for revenue is the remedy. What
nonsense. Can a tariff relieve the pres¬
sure on the poor tenants from which
Aslor draws $5,000,000 of rent yearly.
Can a tax pay a debt for the man who
pays the tax? This wrangle about a
tariff as a remedy for our woes is puer¬
ile. When I hear the Shermans, Mc¬
Kinleys, Culloms’ Reeds, Quays, etc.,
arguing that the tariff is the remedy it
makes me think of the man in the in¬
sane asylum. Some one was reading
about a great storm at sea. and great
destruction of vessels. I liat was the
day 1 whistled so loud, he said. He
thought his whistling caused the storm.
As tor the remedies offered by the old
parties, they might as well organize
congress into a whistling society. he
evils that vex and agitate society now,
could be removed as soon by whistling,
as by the methods our so-called suites
men advocate No evil can be removed
without removing he cause of the evil.
The burden of debts, drawing more in
terest every year than all the money in
the United States, every dollar coming
out of labor; how can the tariff lift this
load from the backs of the toilers?
The remedy for all our woes is jus
tice.
A system of finance that makes it
possible for every man to gather in the
fruits of other men’s labor without giv¬
ing an equivalent, is robbery. By. and
through, this vicious system some men
secure the fruits of the labor of thou
sands. By this vicious system some
men gather millions of dollars to them
selves that belong to other men; ar.d
run in ahead of others and buy mil
lions, of acres of land, thus robbing
others of homes, No curse could be
greater on any nation than to allow
its citizens to be homeless. Our
wicked laws on finance and land mak
ing our people a homeless people, and
Instead of changing these pernicious
Jaws removing the cause, so as to se
cure peace and prosperity, our nobJe
statesmen spend the r time tinkering
with the tariff, and making buncomb ,
speeches about the evils and sufferings .
of Cuba, Venezuela or Armenia.
We want, and must just have, system a just of land sys- j j
tem of money, a
laws, and a just system of commerce,
We want money that won’t draw in- I
terest. We want use and occupation
to be the only title to land. We want
co-operation to take the place of com
petition.
We want socialism transferred from
trusts, combines, syndicates or monop¬
olies to the government. We want one
great monopoly, composed of all the
peeople organized into a government,
We want true socialism, and not per
verted socialism as now. And there
can be no settled permanent peace until
these wants are secured unto all na
tions and all peoples.
REV. D. OGLESBY.
RAILROAD ROBBERIES.
How the Huron* anil Wrecker* Have
Squeezed the People.
The growth and development of the
United States since the war have been
the wonder of the world. One of the
most remarkable things in connection
with that development has been the ex¬
pansion in railroad building.
Who owns these roads, and in whose
interests are they run? Built, as many
of them were originally, by the aggre¬
gation of capital in small amounts from
genuine stockholders, they have been
absorbed in a manner almost phenom¬
enal, until today it. is safe to say that
three-fourth of the railroad mileage of
the country is owned and controlled by
a few score of men, most of whom have
their offices on Wall street.
How could such things happen.'
will be asked. They simply stole them,
that Is all.
The railroads of the land are now
represented by a capital stock of $5,150,
000,000, a funded or bond debt of $5,700,
000,000 and a floating debt of nearly
$400,000,000. The gross earnings per
year are now about $ 1 , 100 , 000 , 000 , leav
lug, after paying operating expenses,
net earnings of about $325,000,000. This
is divided into interest on bonds of
about $235,000,000 per year, and divi¬
dends on stock of about $85,000,000.
The pasengers carried reach nearly
600,000,000 per year, and the freight
traffic is nearly 700,000,000 tons a year.
Evry cent of the enormous Income
from this leading industry of the coun¬
try comes directly from the people. An
examination would show that the
money honestly expended in the pro
duction of all railroads and their equip¬
ments is but a tithe of the capital nomi¬
nally invested in them, The rest is
water pure and simple, but it figures as
“tmested capital,” as “vested inter
’ n*o*K*i.. ? ntr* •#!#>*** • a lists cla
i m protection oi 11V CUUIl.8 al
whole government machinery, and
ways get it.
No belter illustration of the power
exercised by the monopolists is needed
than In the history of the West Shore
enterprise of New York State. Tho
Vanderbilts and their cohorts up to the
time the West Shore road was started
held the merchants and the agricultur¬
ists In their Iron grasp, dictating rates
and conditions for the handling of traf¬
fic with absolute despotism, The pros
peet of a competitive line reaching from
New York City to the lakes put the New
York Central people on their mettle,
arid from the very inception of the
former measures were taken to crush it
out.
After the new line had been com
pleted every obstacle possible was
thrown in its way, and the road finally
went into bankruptcy, a condition
which had been regarded as inevitable
by every one who at the time was ac¬
quainted with the tactics of the Van
derbilts. When the West Shore be
came hopelessly involved, the Vander
hilts, through Mr. J. P. Morgan, gobbled
it up at their own price.
Those who had put money into it
were crowded out. all competition was
crushed, and the business interests ol
the state placed under the Vanderbilt
control as completely as ever. The
Vanderbilts and their friends were the
only ones who profited by the deal
which is only one of a hundred carried
through successfully, despite public
sentiment and without interference
from the courts and judges whose duty
it was to interfere.—Senator Tillman
in New York Herald.
What Next?
The p opuUst6i w ho are all wild free
s jj ver jj eSj sa y they would not vote foi
) le continued to call himself a
Pomoerat And vet Bland worked fot
'
free gUver earlie r , harder and longei
than ftny man in tUe Populist ranks
jj . g , ll)Ier and honester than any mar
llolding a prom inent place in the Popu
. lf plvsen t party lines wen
^ tho Jivision , vcre on silv e,
UIand could poU ten votes tc
•
whk , h would g0 to any mai
-
mentioned Uh . , , in
* ver in eonnecuo w
opull! ’ t UUUilaac '' “ “ b ' 1
Democrat.
oh - m >’ ! 0h - m >' ! Ho J e ls the lea ‘
ins . Republican paper of the , west al
riled up and tearing its hair ir
dramatic frenzy because the Fopulis
party won’t endorse Bland. Republi
cans know that such a course would b<
death to the Populist party, and that i:
what they want.
These pestiferous Pops must be ab
sorbed back into one or the other o
the old parties, or else it will wipe then
both off the earth, If neither one o
them can toll the Pops back they wi!
probably take Senator Hill's advice
and make common cause against the#
meddlesome clodhoppers.
Mr. Bland is all right on silver, bu
he is in the wrong party to catch Popu
; list votes.
WHICH WAY?
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i
THE BANK SYSTEM.
IT NEEDS A GREAT DEAL OF
RECONSTRUCTION.
The “integrity of the Banker” May
Ho flood But When It Don’t J ay
Debts Tho I'ubllc Has No Use for
it.
The Sentinel: In the hurrah and x
citement of properly making the
“money question” an issue in the
present campaign, “reformers” are apt
to overlook some features of the ques¬
tion which are, to say the least, quite
as important as the free coinage of<«fil
ver.
Our banking H ’ ,xn, for instance, is
rotten to the core; is a series of privi¬
leges accorded banking corporatiom; in
return for which the great majority of
tig: people derive not one whit of bdue
fit.
Last Saturday the Supreme court of
the State of Illinois handed down r de¬
cision in the celebrated dealing Meadow^boft justly
case, which, while to a
certain acknowledgments degree, makes relative admission#'j-nd to the T ik¬
ing system showing its entire la. of
o-o
afforded by law In other lines ot busi¬
ness, and fully justifying all the herd
things this and a few other reform
papers have said against the banking
business in general as at present con¬
ducted.
It will be remembered that the
Meadowcroft brothers ran a bank in
Chicago two years ago and received
deposits up to the hour of failure,
knowing their business to be insolv¬
ent.
For this they were prosecuted and got
off with a light sentence—one year in
the penitentiary.
Being ex-bankers they had funds and
friends enough to keep the matter in
tlxo courts for nearly two years, and
will probably now appeal their case to
the Supreme Court of the United States
with a chance of getting clear alto¬
gether, as the banker combine that
nins the government will hardly per¬
mit so dangerous a precedent to be
established as that a banker must not
take all the money offered him, no mat¬
ter what the circumstances.
The Illinois Supreme court in render¬
ing this decision, declare that:
“The banking business is of a semi
public nature; that the hanker occupies
the position of trustee for the people;
the depositing of money possesses no
element of a trade; the transaction is
made purely on the integrity of the
banker.”
Reader, do you know of any other
business in which a man planks over
money by the hundred thousand dol¬
lars, sometimes, with no security ex¬
cept that which rests “purely on the
integrity of the banker?”
If anybody else but a banker receives
the money of the public he is male to
give bonds in three times the amount
he is likely to receive.
Who would consent to putting a
county treasurer into office without re¬
quiring him to give bonds?
Or what banker would take his own
medicine and make loans without s
much as taking the borrower’s note,
depending solely "on the integrity of
the individual?”
If you want to “unite all the reform
forces on the money question” chuck in
a plank requiring the banker to y\
bonds' sufficient to cover all deposit#
they are likely to receive. T . pa; :y
that does that can "sweep the country "
sure enough.
The decision of the court in the
Meadowcroft case further states:
"When Receiver Crandall investi¬
gated the books of the firm he found
less than 1 per cent of the $420,000
liabilities.
"Nothing remains for a defrauded de¬
positor after a bank fails save the
honesty of the banker.”
Bankers have never shown them
selves to be any more hone- than
other people, statistics show ti . ib .
one-fifth of the banks chartered in the
United States, including a
banks, sooner or later so to h v\
statistics also prove that bank# that
:a il seldom pay to exceed 10 - ti. .
ou their liabilities.
If a poor man receives money on
trust and fails to account for it at
proper time, the law calls its embezzle¬
ment and railroads him to the peniten¬
tiary forthwith.
If a banker receives money on trust
and fails to account for it, it is called
“bank suspension,” and this is the first
instance oh record where it has been
regarded as a criminal offense, and
then only because the bank received a
fair-sized deposit just before closing its
doors.
Of what use is it to coin all the gold
and silver in the world if it is to be
turned over to bankers without an
equivalent?
That government which fails to pro¬
vide a safe place of deposit for the peo¬
ple’s money other than those depend¬
ent “purely on the integrity of the
banker” is in itself a failure.
The monetary “reformers may howl
all they please about all other phases of
the money question, but their howling
will amount to little until they pull off
their kid gloves and go to work in
earnest to take the kinks out of the
banking business.
Make the bankers give bonds to cov¬
er deposits or shut up shop.
The people running their own bank¬
ing business, through country and
t?:'.'. 1 :' 1 ^ 1 1T h ° t ■ goo a
way, , too, to afford the relief demanded,
By all means, gentlemen reformers,
if you don’t do another thing toward
settling the money question, revise the
banking business, and at least make it
as honest and as fair dealing with its
creditors as other kinds of business.
NOTES AND COMMENT.
What the People Are Saying Thinking
and Doing:.
Silver Dick Bland seems to have put
down a stake at the “parting of the
ways” and hung out the red lantern of
danger. In other word3 Missouri has
gone free silverwards by a ratio of
about 100 to 1. The delegation may
possibly allow ex-Governor Dave Fran¬
cis and Riley Hall to sit in the delega¬
tion at Chicago for txvo reasons. First,
it would tend to keep them out of mis¬
chief, and second, they could be ex¬
hibited as relics of the expiring gold
standard element in that State.
*
Arkansas will also send a solid free
silver delegation to Chicago, The
canvas between the candidates for
Governor in that State is developing
the sentiment there to be almost
unanimous for free silver. In one
county (Y’ell), in the Democratic prim¬
aries, 2,208 votes were cast, and 2,201
were cast for free silver; only seven be¬
ing cast against it. Not only is Arkan¬
sas Democracy espousing the cause of
free silver, hut its representatives op¬
pose banks of issue, favor govern¬
ment issue of money, and strict rail¬
road control; the candidates for Gov¬
ernor taking this open stand.
This being the case, and the trend of
many leading Populists being in the
direction of adopting substantially the
same kind of a platform, the Arkansas
Democrats don’t understand why the
Populists can’t join the Democratic
party. In a recent interview with Hon.
Dan W. Jones, one of the candidates
for Governor, and the leading one, he
said the Democrats would nominate a
man at Chicago whom the Populists
could support, and he thought that
they would do so.
E. Gerry Brown, a prominent East¬
ern reformer, takes up the gauntlet and
says;
"The Belmont interview has a mean
ing which is too plain. It is a hint of
either nullification or secession. It is
a threat to appeal from the decision at
the ballot box or with traitorous gold to
prevent an honest expression of the
will of the people at the ballot box. Bel
rnont voices the money power. Take
warning, men of the South and West.
“Is the question of the divorce of
the government from the banks to in
volve the question of the disunion of
the States themselves as prophesied by
the natron's statesmen in the Senate
chamber more than fifty years ago?
Will the five thousand millions
of so-called “vested rights” in the
East follow the example of the
■ four hundred millions of "veste^
rishts” in the south in 1S6Q2 Ts
history to repeat itself even to that
much-to-be-deplored extreme? And do
so-called owners of nearly half of these
alleged vested rights realize that they
merely hold titles to that which was
originally stolen and under the moral
law are guilty in the sight of God of all
the robbery and oppression that follow
in the trail of the crime? Will they
rebel against the result of an election
that means “no further extension” of
the money power, and thereby invite
the emancipation of the people from
the bondage into which they have been
stolen?”
* * * internation
Declarations in favor of
al bimetallism are all very well as the
expression of a wish that is generally
entertained; but practically speaking,
they mean nothing because interna¬
tional bimetallism under present con¬
ditions is simply an iridescent dream
—Globe-Democrat.
O-f c-o-u-r-s-e, and the soft-heads
who can’t see it, and the demagogues
who are lying about it ought to be
belted over the head with a dead cat.
■'* * *
Says a recent dispatch from Wash¬
ington; “Congressman Hall is practi¬
cally out of the race for Congress. Yes¬
terday he received a telegram from the
Chaims* " the District Committee in
’"'effect ak folliT“*
“ ‘Will you accept re-nomination to
Congress with instructions to vote for
a bill for the unlimited coinage of sil¬
ver at 16 to 1? You can state that, al¬
though these are not your views, you
must yield to the wishes of your con¬
stituents.’
“To which Mr. Hall, In substance,
replied:
“ ‘Will not accept re-nomination on
conditions you name. Free silver is
raising hell and damnation with the
Democratic party. Will accept re¬
nomination only on a sound money plat¬
form.’ ”
* * *
If anybody is raising more hell than
this same identical Riley Hall it must
be behind the screen doors of some of
the dives or saloons in Washington.
The other day he got into an alterca¬
tion with Congressman Money, of Mis¬
sissippi, who, by the way, is another
Democrat of the flexible type, and
struck him on the head with a glass
sponge top, cutting a deep and painful
gash in his scalp. We suppose he was
testing Money to see if he was “sound.”
Then both men went to throwing ink
wells at each other until parted by
their friends.
* * *
This row happened in the room of
the Navy Committee in the capitol
building. Both men were members of
the Navy Committee and the row was
the direct result of some differences of
opinion regarding a question before the
committee, although it is thought there
is something back of that. Mr, Money
was led bleeding out of the room and a
porter was called in to pick up the
broken pieces of glass and tvipe up the
blood and ink stains. It threatened to
be a pretty serious affair; but neither
of the men seemed to be good marks¬
men and the result w r as there was more
ink spilled than blood.
* * *
Banker Belmont, mouthpiece of
Eastern capitalism, has spoken. “New 7
Y’ork,” says Belmont, authoritatively,
“will not consent that there shall be a
condition of things in which a new
Congress and President may be chosen
on the theory that Congress can make
full legal tender dollars out of anything
it chooses to use.”
There is a good deal of the defiance of
the old slave power in ihese words,
and we are led to believe that Con
gressman Howard was correct when he
said, “the more imminent the danger
the more arrogant do the capitalists
become, ’ and cites as proof the over
bearing attitude of the British aristoc
r ac >' before the revolution of ’76, the
insulting behavior of the French nobil
ity previous to Robespierre’s rule, and
the haughtiness of the slave power be
fore the u pheaval of 1861.
Arrested for T*»cbins Bucks and Whites.
Nine teachers in a normal school at
Orange Park, Fla., have been arrested
for teaching white and black pupils in
the same school, against the provisions
of the Sheafs law, passed about a year
ago.
“AN OBJECT LESSON.”
REPUBLICAN PAPER MAKES A
FEW SUGGESTIONS.
N’ot Surprised That Coxey Bills Find
Favor When Corporations Secure Loam
From the Government—The X Raj ou
Some Corrupt Deals.
Dispatches from Washington an¬
nounce that “the Pacific railroads’ com¬
mittee of the two houses of congress
will in a few days report bills grant¬
ing an extension of fifty years to the
Central and Union Pacific roads; the
payments for the first ten years to be
$365,000 per year; for the second ten
years, $500,000 per year, and there¬
after, $750,000 per year, until the debt
is paid. The principal and interest is
to be refunded at 2 per cent interest to
be paid by the roads to the government.
The roads are to have credit for the
amounts in the sinking fund and the
bond and interest account in ascer¬
taining the amount due the govern¬
ment.”
An’ faith here is an “object lesson.”
The Central and Union Pacific rail¬
roads owe this government large sums
of money and their debt is due, secured
by bonds or mortgages on these rail¬
road properties.
This government, the people through
their representatives, deliberately pro¬
pose to renew this great debt, or vir¬
tually make a loan to these railway
corporations for the amount of the
principal and interest due, for a term of
fifty years at 2 per cent interest per
annum, requiring payments each year
as stated above.
Now, we do not particularly object to
the rate of interest charged or terms
of payment agreed to bat simply sug¬
gest that this transaction might be
taken as an object lesson by the people.
There are those who might ask why
others besides great railway corpora¬
tions cannot secure loans from the gov¬
ernment upon similar terms.
It is quite probable that when the
people look at this transaction they
may be led to think that it is no won¬
der that Mr. Coxey and others are ad¬
vocating very similar financial schemas
in the interest of the general public
instead of solely for the benefit of rail¬
way corporations.
In the case mentioned above the gov¬
ernment takes the bonds of the railway
corporations and extends the payment
of debts due for a term of fifty years at
2 per cent interest, payable in install¬
ments as noted.
Mr. Coxey proposes that county, mu¬
nicipal and other public corporations
issue bonds and that the government
issue, or loan, to said corporations
money at a cost, or interest of 1 per
cent, and that those corporations pay a
certain amount of their obligations to
the government each year, cancelling
the entire debt in twenty-five years.
‘rfie"ITATuAtK
fifty years’ time to pay what they bor¬
row, paying certain fixed amounts each
year for the first ten years, other fixed
amounts for the second, and for the
third and other ten year periods.
While there is some little difference
between the two plans, yet they have
certain features in common and just as
long as the people, through their rep¬
resentatives, continue to make such
contracts with certain private corpora¬
tions no one need wonder that the peo¬
ple listen to and indorse such proposi¬
tions as Mr. Coxey advocates.
The debt due the government from
the roads named was created by a di¬
rect loan of the government’s credit to
the private corporations the same as
Coxey asks for a loan of the govern¬
ment’s credit for public corporations.
These private corporations defaulted
in their payments and instead of being
brought into court and forced to pay,
or their securities sold to the highest
bidder, as in the case with individuals
and the debts they chance to owe, re¬
newals are given as noted above.—
Evening Press, Carthage, Mo. (Rep.)
ABOUT SILVER.
Tom. Watson Rises to Make a Few
Pertinent Remarks.
In 1873 the standard silver dollar wag
dropped from our coinage laws. The
legal tender power of the silver dollars
which had already been coined was not
affected by the Act of 1873. It was not
until 1874 that Congress took away the
full legal tender power of silver and
limited it to payments of five dollars.
Silver remained in this outlawed con¬
dition until 1878, when the Bland-Alli
son Act fully restored its legal tender
quality, and limited the coinage to $48,
000,000 per year.
Between ,1878 and 1892 the dear old
Democratic party never let up on the
wicked Republicans who would not
allow unlimited coinage of silver, in¬
stead of the limited coinage of the
Bland Act and the Sherman Act of 1890.
Kept on worrying over the matter, the
Democrats did, until the people finally
j ; gave them a chance to re-open the,
m j n t s to the unlimited coinage of sil
ver. Whereupon said Democrats con
eluded that the best preparatory step
1 (; unlimited coinage was the stoppage
0
0 f tlte limited coinage we already had.
j n other words, they thought it best,
before pulling the door wide open, to
3 but it hard and fast. Having found
sa j d door more than half open, they
entirely closed it, as a preliminary to
p U ning it wide open. They got it shut
ea sy enough; and shut it stays. If it is
neV er opened until one of the old par
t j es ope ns it, free silver and Gabriel
horn-music will be contemporaneous
events.—People’s Party Paper,
The gold lunacy, like hay fever, ap*
pears to be a rich mans disease.
There can be half a loaf, but t here Is
,: o such thing as haF