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*Weekly Jeffersonian. Vol. 11. \F // /'/ Z/ 7 Zp Z /'yZ / Z- — —'"' __ , 1 -~ - ■ -i A\y- 1 [ \'/Z ■ 1- '=■ '" ■ r ?—rrs^-—fl W -=zz: ~ ~"—*• rr- — t QOL LARS A DAT \ z■ \ J Sf|| -y THE MILLIONS Mm ESSgSpff OF CONSUMERS IN TUNNED OVEN TO TH? NATIONAL BANKERS ± INTEREST Tir Ze? A t rWKw^ ?:^u W»W£O« WW® hoy z WR DRIWK BY GORDON BYB FOR THB WBBKLY JSFFBMONIAN. Was the Government Established Tor This ? During the term of Leslie M. Shaw as Sec retary of the Treasury, our public funds were treated as National Bank Reserves. At any time that Wall Street needed a few millions, and could not get them elsewhere, all they had to do was to call up Leslie on the telephone. He was good for emergency sums, ranging from ten to thirty millions, whenever Wall Street applied. Departing from old-fogy rules and prece dents, Leslie loaned public funds to National Bankers on pretty nearly any old security that was offered—city bonds, railroad bonds, etc. The main thing was to keep open the pipe line from Washington to New York, so that the stock gamblers and railroad thimble-rig gers might get the stakes needed. Great was Leslie! He loved Wall Street so dearly that he has now “jined de ban’.” He is a Wall Streeter himself. And Judge Alton B. Parker, the late Demo cratic nominee for President, who was vouch ed for by Bryan as the Moses of Democracy, is one of Leslie’s partners. Lord ha’ mercy on us all! Mr. Shaw’s successor as Secretary of the Treasury" is Mr. Cortelyou. who ended his postmaster-generalship so creditably by issu ing the order which puts an end to one of the A Debated to the Adbocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Gobernment. Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, March 28, 1907. several fraudulent practices of the Railroads in weighing the mails. Mr. Cortelyou falls heir to a Treasury pol icy which he cannot be expected to reverse at once; but candor compels me to say that if he intends to reform his new department at all he has made a mighty poor start. Bonds which are not due until July, he has agreed to pay now, saving no interest on the bonds, but paying the same in full to the ma turity of the obligations. The $30,000,000 loaned to Wall Street by Leslie Shaw fell due February 1, 1907: and Mr. Cortelyou has indefinitely extended the loan. Furthermore, he has put the Aldrich law into operation, and is now turning over to the National Banks every dollar that is being col lected by the Government at the Custom Houses. For the Aldrich law, Mr. Cortelyou is not responsible. It was his duty to put it into effect. But it is not his duty to pay bonds before they matured, nor is it his duty to ex tend that thirty million dollar loan. n Think what a policv our Government is pursuing! Consider how the machinery of taxation is being used! The U. S. Government, through its Internal \ Wk\ £)) U>A. ' 'z Vi ERE S 70 CONGRESS Z'Z 7 'Z\Z£S 70 US, THE PEOPLE'S poneY /Z WlTli ' our INTEREST. zzp// / —_, ~"Z ■< ■ ' Wx-r Y : WaA S3J/< ciIMF BWs/B’ f\ZZZ\ZZ W/LL LEND THIS S ZZzdsf/ J Zb^Z^^ 7 OF /NTEPEStZ/ <SB W . _Ji >.«sws- Revenue laws, taxes money out of the pockets of the people by laying duties upon tobacco and liquors. After the millions of consumers of the tax ed goods have paid the tribute to the Govern ment, the money is turned over to the Nation al Banks by the Government; and thus what we consumers pay as taxes becomes an ad dition to the business capital of a few favored corporations. The only other considerable source of na tional revenue consists of Custom House Du ties paid upon foreign goods brought into our markets for sale to us. Os course, we Day the duty when we buy the goods, for the reason that the importer is necessarily compelled to add the Custom House Duty to the price of the goods before he can afford to sell them to us. Just as we are the ones who pay the In ternal Revenue tax upon whiskey and tobacco when we buy the stuff, so we also pay the im port duties upon foreign goods when we pur chase them. Up to the last session of Congress, the Na tional Banks did not get the Custom House collections. They only got the Internal Rev enue collections Under the Aldrich bill, passed (hiring the short session of the last Congress, the Nation (Continued on Page 9.) No. 10.