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I/FhiNG bait dhrS >Z AND POPULISM CAN PREVEN GENERAL BANKRUPTCY. (From The Missouri World.) January shows another increase in the general supply and in the per cap ita of money. The increase was al most entirely in gold. The gold supply was 11,598,116,107 on February 1, as against >1,587,018,385 on January 1. The gain in gold was something over eleven million dollars. The increase in national bank currency was the smallest for several months, the gain being only about $37,000. The popu lation is estimated by the secretary of the treasury as 85,484,000 on the first of this month and the per capita of money, outside of the treasury, as $33.96. This is the highest per capita since the latter ’sixties. The various kinds of circulating medium issued during the civil war brought the circu lation up to about SSO per capita. The money circulated almost exclusively in the union states up to the time the war closed. Counting the people of the union states only, the per capita of money was much more than SSO. The war currency consisted of various kinds of government notes —the green backs, which bore no interest, the com pound interest notes, the 7:30 treasury notes, etc. All, however, were issued in the form of money and were used as such. After the war was over most of the war currency was called in and bonds issued in its stead. Part of the remaining money found its way into the seceding states. There was a large immigration from the old world and in addition there was the natural increase in population. On the face of the increasing numbers the con traction work went on until there was only about sl7 per capita of money. From '73 to ’79 were the years of the smallest per capita of money and the hardest times the nation ever saw. Corn went at 15 cents a bushel and millions were on the verge of starva tion. Hundreds of thousands of able bodied men tramped the country seek ing employment Land and town lots had no market value and in a vast number of cases the people could not, of at least did not, pay their taxes and their property was sold. Many titles are now traced back to a tax deed in the ’seventies. The mortgaged man was subject to the will of the mortgage holder, who in countless in stances from goodness of heart and other countless instances from fear of having to buy in the property, let the interest pile up year after year, but finally had to foreclose. Many who were money lenders became “land poor” by aaving to buy in the prop erty at foreclosure sale and them selves became borrowers or at least hard up for ready cash. Twenty per cent was a common rate of interest. Oh, those terrible times! They are only too fresh in the memory of many of our readers. That awful work of destruction through currency contrac tion almost destroyed the energy of man. Year after year went on from bad to worse and there seemed to be no hope. At first, only a few saw the trouble. Gen. John A. Logan, then in congress, declared in 1874, “It’s a money drouth.” But Wall street was supreme in its influence and in 1875 congress decreed the destruction of the remaining greenbacks. The mints had been clandestinely closed to silver in 1873. A new party seemed necessary and was necessary. A few who saw’ what the trouble was and also saw that there was no hope for relief from the old parties organized the Greenback party in 1876, nominated Peter Cooper of New York City, for president and Samuel E. Cary, of Ohio, for vice pres ident. The new party polled only about 95,000 votes. But it was a start. Greenback clubs were formed rapidly ih 1877 and the people were evidently about to shake off the old V glance. When seats in danger, they saw , ght— saw it dimly, but saw it. T »assed, in February, 1878, what i en wn as the Bland silver law, w^ a tarted the mints to coining silvefid at the rate of not less than two million nor more than four million dol lars’ worth of silver bars per month. Congress, in May of the same year, also repealed the law which provided for the destruction of the greenbacks. The president (R. B. Hayes) vetoed the two acts but they were passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote in both houses, the senate at the time being Republican and the house Dem ocratic. We believe neither of these acts would have been adopted had not the new Greenback party been grow ing so fast. There are men now forty years of age who were not old enough in the ’seventies to realize the terrible de struction wrought by the contraction of the currency and doubtless some of them get 'vexed at their fathers (now of advanced years) because they attach so much importance to the money question and are so uncompro misingly opposed to the old parties because they (the old parties) pei’- mit corporations to control the cur rency, the very life-blood of the na tion. We want to tell these 25 to 40 year old children that their fathers are right; that they formed their judg ment in middle life when the object lesson of bankruptcy and ruin was all around them. The reflection of ma turer years has only confirmed the judgment formed in the prime of life. The money question is the greatest question the American people were ever called upon to settle. Contraction of the currency has wrought more ruin, it has been truthfully said, than famine, pestilence and war. You children of these old Greenback ers and Populists, you who were either very young or not born when your fathers were forced by the terrible business depression existing in the ’seventies to investigate the cause thereof, are sleeping over a volcano. But you don’t know it. The proposi tion made by the present head of the nation to retire the greenbacks you hardly give a second thought. But your fathers know it would bring ruin and would be a surrender of the grand principle of government money issued direct to the people. Your fathers may be tottering with the physical in firmities of old age, but you must re member the judgment ripens with years. Faces, names and dates may be forgotten, but principles, never. There is some more money now than when your fathers enlisted in the battle against the money-power and times are some better. Thanks, in part, to the old Greenbackers who forced the renewal of the coinage of silver and saved 346 million dollars of greenbacks from destruction. The credit for most of the balance of the increase of the currency belongs to no party, no organization. The increase in the production of gold has come, not by the desire or wish of the powers that be, but In spite of them. But what have we now In the way of money supply? Not enough to pay a year’s interest on public and private indebtedness and a year’s taxes. For the last ten years there has been a riot of borrowing, the bankers alone In creasing their loans to an amount eight billion dollars more than ten years ago. These loans are chiefly credits on the books of the banks and for the time being take the place of money; but only for tho time being. Eventual ly they Increase the need of money. This extensive borrowing has had much to do with producing better THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. times —that Is to say, better times now with worse times sure to folic X Nothing but a full measure of Green backism and Populism can prevent a great carnival of bankruptcy. The old reformers know this, and are working to enlighten the people. Their children —25 to 40 year old cml dren —may think that their working for the cause is a whim of eccen tricity—a kind of old man’s dream. But it is the children who are doing the dreaming—or at least are asleep. These old reformers know what they are doing. They are heeding the les sons they Jparned in earlier life. They are acting upon mature judgment and are moved by love of country and con cern for the rising generation. The editor of the World is not very old (having eight more presidential elections to go through before he will be as old as a gentleman who has just been elected to the U. S. senate), but we have been in the reform cause for twenty-eight years and knew many of these old Populists when they were in the prime of life and we know that there are no finer minds or truer hearts than they possess. h n IF INSURANCE DIRECTORS WERE ALL LIKE LEE. “Life insurance trusts 1 consider sacred. To hazard the property of the dead, and to lose the scanty earn ings of fathers and husbands who have toiled and saved that they may leave something to their families, de prived of their care and the support of their labor, is to my mind the worst of crimes. 1 could not under take such a charge unless I could see and feel that I could faithfully exe cute it.” These are the words of General Robert E. Lee. They were written in 1868 in a letter declining a lucrative position with a large insurance com pany. General Lee declined this po sition for many reasons, but chief among them was that he did not consider himself the proper “person for the position of man aging director,” and that he did not think he could find a profita ble field for investment of funds in the “present condition of affairs.” What a sad pity it is that there are not more insurance directors in the country today with consciences like that of General Lee. Knowing that his name would be regarded as a guarantee of safety and that he might not b© able to meet the promises of the company to its policyholders, he was unwilling that through him any one should invest their savings under false impressions. Such men in busi ness would soon work a revolution in industry in America were there more of them. General Lee was not honest because it was the best policy, but because his conscience was as large as the great heart that beat in his bosom. We need more such men at the heads of the great industrial organizations of the nation.—Augus ta Herald. H H H DIRECT LEGISLATION. (From The Independent, Neb.) Oklahoma proposes to follow South. Dakota, Utah and Oregon in bestow ing the power of direct legislation up on the voters. At least this is the prospect from the action taken by the constitutional convention now in ses sion. This will involve both the ini tiative and the referendum. In Ore gon no law passed by the legislature goes into effect within ninety days of ite passage. If within this ninety days five per cent of the citizens of < the state by petition ask for lar vote on any of thes<- T action suspends the operrz law until after the ■tion, at which the voters ju ment on the measure. iSo much L the referendum. On the other hai the voters may cause the submissive - of an original act by securing t J petitions of a given percentage of tne total of voters. This initiative was taken in the case of the direct pri mary law, which was approved and the woman suffrage amendment, which was defeated, while several acts of the legislature have been re ferred to public test since the new system came into use. South Dako ta and Utah voters have made little use of their privilege. The Oklaho ma people may have concluded thht such a power is a good thing to in reserve, even though they may : be called upon often to exercise ? n * * A STRANGE PIECE OF BUS INESS. , Some time ago it was decided 4 turn over the cutting of the Panaw Ganal to contractors. Chief Engin Stevens approved this plan and advertisement was made for bids, bid by Mr. Oliver, of Tennessee, much lower than any other. " government objected to his part and the matter was held in abeyai.. until he could associate himself with some individual or company accepta ble to the government. This he has done. The government acknowledges that his associates are acceptable. And yet he does not get the con tract. Perhaps he will, but it is not decided yet. It now develops that Chief Engineer 'Stevens says he will resign if the canal is cut by contract and he seems to be considered the only man on earth capable of filling his position. The matter has not an agreeable look. Mr. Stevens favored the plan of cutting the canal by contract and announces a change of opinion only when Mr. Oliver’s bid was certain to secure the contract and certain other bids were certain not to secure it. It would have looked much better if Mr. Stevens had announced his change of opinion before it was known whose bid would get the con tract and whose would not. As for Mr. Stevens, we take it for granted that he is an able engineer, but surely he is not the only one. The president is a weaker man than he has ever shown himself to be if he permits himself to be bullied by the chief engineer of the Panama Canal. The whole matter looks like a pre tense. To be sure, the government re served the right to reject all bids, but it was supposed that it would not exercise this right unless all were too high. Mr. Oliver’s bid is surprising ly low and should get the contract.— Times (Fla.) Union. nun Physicians agree that the rush of modem business is the pace that kills. But what are we to do about it, since there are not enough political jobs to go around T * Senator Bailey is now charged with owning three fine farms in Kentucky. His enemies are evidently determin ed to stir up bitter feeling against hijq iq Texas, 13