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EDITED BY THOS. E. WATSON . Vol. 11. No. 44. POPULIST SPEECH. My Friends: The party platform is an honest reaffirmation of populist faith. We stand first, em phatically on the money question. We declare that the issuing of money is a function of the government and should never be delegated to corpora tions or individuals. The constitu tion gives to Congress alone, power to issue money and to regulate its value. We therefore demand that all money shall be issued by the govern ment in such quantity as shall main tain stability in prices; every dollar to be a full legal tender, none of which shall be a debt redeemable in other money. The secretary of the treasury shows that there are two billion, eight hun dred million in the United States, and nearly one-half of it is gold. The gold on July 1, 1904, was stated as amounting to $1,326,726,701; silver dollars, $560,083,544; national bank currency, $449,233,095; greenbacks, $346,681,016; fractional silver, $106,- 164,848; treasury notes of 1890, silver purchase notes, $12,978,000. Os the above amount, $150,000,000 gold is held as a reserve fund for the re demption of greenbacks and treasury notes. About 130 million dollars more of the above amount is held in the treasury. Deducting these amounts, and there is left $2,521,151,627, or $30.50 per capita of money, or $6.30 more than it was in 1892, when the Populists declared that the money volume should be speedily increased to not less than $50.00 per capita. The increase has come from four sources, the coinage of gold, the profit in coining silver dollars, the in crease in national bank currency, and the coinage of fractional silver. It is no credit to the statesmanship of our congressmen that half of our money consists of gold. The government could have made just as good money by stamping it upon paper. Had it done so, iDwould not have had to de liver the money over to some private individual, but could have required value for it. But of gold, silver and paper, there is not near enough money to pay a year’s interest and a year’s taxes. Sixty dollars per capital would not be too much. Just think of it, One person can not have more than $30.80 without another person Having less. How can the people prosper when there isn’t enough money to pay interest and taxes. How can they ever get out of debt, or ever reduce their r debt, I hope the day of barter is gone. There must be more money if the people are to prosper. It ought to be possible for the masses of the people to get out of debt. To supply the people with money is the supreme function of government, for the only end of government is the prosperity and happiness of the governed. Hence the constitution declares that Congress shall coin money and regu- Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, November 28, 1907. late the volume th' same section it dw„ ** gress shall declare war, raise ants sup port armies, and provide and main tain a navy. Congress has no more right to authorize private banking corporations to coin money and issue it to the citizens than it would to au thorize war, raise and support armies and provide and maintain a navy. When the civil war broke out vasts sums of money were required. But the treasury was empty, the gold and silver money of the country had fled. What was to be done? Neither American nor foreign capitalists would loan money to the government. On any reasonable terms money changers tendered loans to the gov ernment at from 20 to 36 per cent (see Appleton’s Encyclopedia, page 296) as a result Congress exercised a constitutional right and began to coin (make) money. Sixty million of treasury notes were issued and made full legal tender. Subsequent issues were made of limited legal tender paper money. Government notes were also floated in small de nominations, which were negotiable and passed as money. Fractional money, state bank notes, and national bank notes were also served. We had on July 1, 1865, in fractional cur rency, state bank notes, United States notes, national bank notes and spe cie, a total of $770,129,860 (see treas ury report). The Southern States had issued an enormous amount of Confederate script, and with it waged the mightiest war of modern times. Their efforts failed and their money with it. About four years later the war commenced, in August, 1865, the public debt amounted to $2,885,907,- 426, and included in this huge moun tain of indebtedness, there were sl,- 540,000,000 of treasury notes, Either payable on demqnd or bearing inter est, of which more than $1,500,000,- 000 was a legal tender. We remem ber well the booming prosperity of these times from 1865 to 1870. When no man was idle unless idleness was a matter of choice with him. There was no difficult in finding work at renumerative wages. We then had $65 per capita and America bloomed with prosperity as never before —all was peace and happiness. The small dealers and manufacturers could find profitable fields for the exercise of their energies. Farmers were pros perous and happy, but alas, how soon our prosperity ended. Shylock,' with her greedy maw, appeared in the funding act of April, 1866, and em powered the secretary of the treasury to call in these interest bearing notes and fund them into 5-20 6 per cent bonds —funding, says Thomas Jeffer son, is simply robbing the people on a grand scale. The secretary was au thorized to call in and destroy four million of the United States notes, or greenbacks, each month. From the I 0 * j of this act to June 30, 1869, OUp the amount of $1,595,162,- had been issued, and $77,018,837 of greenbacks had been burned up. A law passed February, 1868, forbid the further destruction of the green backs —a bill passed March 18, 1869 credit strengthening act made all bonds payable in coin—the act of July 14, 1870, refunds the enormous debt into ten, twenty and thirty year bonds bearing 5-4 1-2 and 4 per cent interest, respectively, payable in coin. The act of February 16, 1873, stop ped the coinage of the standard silver dollar. This train of financial legis s lation contracted the money volume and culminated in a tremendous busi ness panic and general distress. The resumption Act of January 14, 1875, provided that specie payments should be resumed January 12, 1879, but in 1878 the further retiring of the green back was prohibited and the Bland Allison bill was passed, which obliged the secretary of the treasury to pur chase and coin not less than two, and not more than four, million per month. On July 14, IS9O, the Sher man law passed, which compelled the purchase .of 4,500,000 ounces of silver to be paid for in a new issue of legal tender notes. In the fall of 1893 the Purchase Clause of the Sher man Law was repealed by the Demo crats, and my friends you remember that bonds were sold by John Sher man to establish the reserve fund in the treasury, and by Cleveland to re plenish that fund. That fund was placed there as the metalic base for our greenbacks. Sherman sould SIOO,- 000,000 worth of bonds to get it. We have paid .$100,000,000 interest on these bonds since they were issued. Cleveland sold $262,000,000 of bonds in time of peace to protect that re serve —the metallic basis. We are paying about $10,000,000 annually as interest on that. When the bullion ist want to force the issue of more bonds all they have to do is to gather some of our coin redemption money and make a raid on the basis —-the re serve fund in the treasury. We are absolutely at their mercy. That is what the metallic basis means —bonds to aecure the coin upon which to base the paper money. That is the sum and substance of the coin redemption theory. We now quote the sayings of a few loading statesmen. Wendell Phillips said: “The pres ent system of finance robs labor, gorges capital, makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer, turns a repub lic into an aristocracy of capital.” Again he said: “The war extended the nominal era of freedom so as to include the black man, but it did not make him free, nor will he or his white brothers ever be free, until both he and they can retain in their pockets the wealth which they create. ’ ’ Listen to Andrew Jackson: “If Price Five Cents. Congress has the right under the con stitution to issue paper money it was given them to be used by themselves and not delegated to corporations or individuals. I wish all the money of the nation, whether gold, silver, cop per or paper, was based, not upon the coin, or other money, but upon the credit and resources of the country.” The Supreme Court has twice de cided that legal tender paper money is in consonnance with our constitu tion (see section 12, Wallace, page 576. also volume 12, page 548.) There fore congress has the power to make money out of whatever material it see proper: that is, print the fiat of law, its units of account on any sub stance suitable and declare it a full legal tender and regulate the volume of the same. Let’s hear from Thomas Jefferson again: “Treasury notes se cured by pledges of the faith and credit of the government with or without interest will make better cur rency than gold or silver.” Again he says: “The only resource which the government could command with certainty, the states unfortunately fooled away—nay, allienated to swindlers and shavers under the cover of private banks.” Again (1813, vol ume 6, pages 199, 200) : “Bank paper must be suppressed and the circulat ing medium must be restored to the nation to whom it belongs. It is the only fund upon which they can rely for loans; it is the only resource which can never fail them, and it is an abundant one for every purpose, whereas, the usurpation of that fund by bank paper obliging them to bor row elsewhere doubles the expense of every war.” And here is from John C. Calhoun: “Why compel the people to pay in terest on government credit through the bank when said credit could be extended direct to the people without interest, place the issuing of money in the hands of a combination of a few individuals and they expanding or contracting the currency—may raise or sink prices at pleasure, and by purchasing when at the greatest depression and selling at the great est elevation may command the whole property of the community and thus place the destinies of the many in the hands of a few.” Hear a few words from General Butler on government paper money, in the House of Representatives, Febru ary 26, 1878. He said: “Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I’m ready to say he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. “We want the greenback for our currency, and mean to have it. Os that currency I said on this floor nine years ago, and repeat it now, with all the confidence gained by experi ence. I stand here, therefore, for in convertable paper money, the green back which has fought our battles (Continued on Page Four.)