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PAGE EIGHT
THE
Weekly Jeffersonian
PUBLISHED BY
TH OS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON
Editors and Proprietors
Templi Court Building, Atlanta, Ga.
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Entarad at Poitifica, Atlanta, Ga., January 11, IQOJ, at nt and dan mail mattar
ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1907
Another Endless Chain,
By first committing- President Cleveland and
Secretary Carlisle to the monstrous proposition
that the paper money, issued to pay for silver
bullion, must be redeemed in gold, when the
holder demanded it, the National Bankers com
pelled an issue of $262,000,000 of bonds, upon
which their immediate profit was about $16,-
000.000.
The law provided that these silver-purchase
notes should be redeemed in silver dollars,
coined out of the bullion bought with the
notes, but President Cleveland and Secretary
Carlisle blandly ignored the law.
By a Treasury ruling a Gold Reserve had
been set aside. There was no law for it. The
excuse was that somebody might want the
Greenbacks redeemed. But there was not a
soul who wanted any Greenbacks “redeemed.”
Even had there been anybody who wanted his
Greenbacks redeemed, the law gave the Gov
ernment a perfect right to swap silver for the
paper. \
But John Sherman, the Republican, had gone
over to the Gold Standard men, and he had
created a Gold Reserve, while he was Secre
tary of the Treasury. And on this matter, as
upon all other matters of national importance,
the Democrats were in accord with the Repub
licans. Therefore, President Cleveland was
determined to maintain the non-legal Gold
Reserve.
Now see how the National Bankers forged
their endless chain:
They went to the Treasury with paper mon
ey and demanded that it be “redeemed’' in
gold. Carlisle gave them gold, day by day,
until the Gold Reserve became “impaired/’
Then, of course, it had to be increased. So the
Government issued bonds and the bankers who
bad taken the gold out of the Treasury, put
it back and got the bonds. 'Then they came
with paper money again and took the gold out
again. Then, the Government issued more
bonds, and gave them to the same bankers, to
get back the same gold.
There was no end to the chain, you sec.
The shameful illegal thing went on, until
such a clamor broke out all over the country
that the silk-hat rascals got frightened and
stopped. But they had saddled an unneces
sary debt of $262,000,000 on the tax payers, be
fore the endless chain was taken off.
But has not President Roosevelt given these
same national enemies another endless chain r
We fear that he has.
The Treasury will issue $150,000,000 in pa
per. This will bear interest. The $50,000,000
of Canal Bonds will bear 2 per cent. The
bankers will buy them, and no money will ac
tually pass. They will buy those bonds as the
Rockefeller bank bought that old Custom
House in New York. They will place the
amount of the purchase money to the. credit
of the Government on their books. Or, if cash
is paid, the Secretary will hand it back, as a
deposit. Like the deposits they already have,
it will be kept. They will use it in their busi*
ness, paying no interest for it.
In other words, the national banks will get
the bonds for nothing, just as Rockefeller’s
bank in New York got an eight million dollar
piece of our real estate for nothing.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
The tax payers will have to pay interest on
the bonds, for which the bankers do not pay,
just as the tax payers have had to pay rent to
Rockefeller for the old Custom House which
he “bought,” but did not pay for.
Then the national banker will issue his
notes on the bonds, and will pocket compound
interest on the same.
I hus, he will get interest on the bonds for
which he pays out no money, and he will get
interest on his own notes. .The tax payers,
therefore, catch it, going and coming.
Again, there are to be $100,000,000 in treas
ury notes. These bear 3 per cent interest. It
is by no means certain that the national bank
ers will not secure control of these
as well as of the bonds. But, in any
event, with real money hoarded in the
banks, and in the Treasury, the endless chain
opportunitv is afforded. To escape widespread
calamity, there must be more stuff that can be
used as money. By renewing the squeeze,
from time to time, it seems to us that the na
tional bankers can milk the Government of
another issue of bonds, and then another, until
thev secure what they are after.
Either that, or they will frighten the coun
try into yielding to that profligate scheme of
the “Asset Currency” crowd.
What an everlasting pity it is that Mr.
Roosevelt did not issue $500,000,000 of straight .
Treasury Notes, bearing no interest, and lim
ited to no brief period of existence! But it is
not too late, yet, Mr. Roosevelt! Do it—FOR
GOD’S SAKE, DO IT! and nip this silk-hat
conspiracy in the bud!
Rise to meet a great emergency, and put
yourself, at once and forever, in the heroic
class of Andrew Jackson!
* * it
Here Is the Lalv For It.
The Acts of Congress, 1862 and 3. author
ized $450,000,000 of treasury notes. These are
called Greenbacks.
The Act of Congress, April 12, 1866, provid
ed that these notes might be retired to the ex
tent of ten millions per month for six months,
and then at the rate of four millions per month.
The Government thus began to burn up the
Greenbacks. But in February, 1868, Congress
suspended the Act of April, 1866. But $44,.
000,000 of the people’s money had already been
destroyed.
When the panic of 1873 came on there was
a popular demand for more money, just as
there is now.
Tn obedience to this demand, the Govern
ment issued $26,000,000 more Greenbacks to
take the place of those that had been burned.
This new issue of treasury notes brought up
the amount of outstanding Greenbacks to
$382,000,000.
So matters stood until, in 1875, Congress
provided that the amount should be reduced to
$300,000,000.
Again they began to burn up the people’s
money. But in 1878, Gen. Grant put a stop to
it. An Act of Congress was passed May 31,
1870. which required the notes to be re-issued
when “redeemed.”
The amount which was left outstanding was
$346,681,000.
There has never been a clay when the Gov
ernment could not have put the amount back
to $450,000,000.
The Acts of Congress, authorizing that
amount, have never been repealed.
The Act which provided for the retirement
of any of the notes was never for one moment
a -mandatory act. The Government was left
to exercise its discretion in the matter.
And when the Government, in 1873, volun
tarily restored to the country $26,000,000 of
the money which had been destroyed it put the
proper construction on the Act of Congress.
The mandatory acts of 1862 and 3 ought to
be obeyed.
The plain letter of the law entitles us to
$450,000,000 of Greenbacks.
nun
Uncle Obadiah.
We once had a Railroad Commission com
posed of three members. This tribunal was
the plaything of such smooth articles as Hamp
McWhorter, Barbour Thompson, and Majoi
J. F. Hanson.
Consequently, the railroad commission came
in for much target practice during ;he cam
paign of last year. Heavy guns were Laincd
upon it, and the batteries “volleyed and thun
dered.” When the fight was over, the com
mission was believed to be in a stafe of dis
mantlement, and comprehensive demolition.
Few of us had any thought of anything being
saved from the wreck. Little indeed did we
think that when the clouds of smoke lifted,
and we could take account of casualties, that
our bombarded commission would be found
serenely occupying its position, and that only
one man on their side had been hit.
Warner Hill was heard to whisper, “Never
touched me.” Uncle Obe Stevens smiled a
sweet smile, as he assured his anxious friends
that he hadn’t received a scratch.
Joe Brown,'indeed, had been laid out: but
the Commission might well plume itself on
having saved “the best two out of three.”
Now, it must occur to everybody that if the
old commission of three had been the tool of
the foreign corporations which exploit the
state, the situation could not be mended by
allow-ing a majority of the old commission to
remain in office. •
Confronted with this self-evident proposi
tion, the Governor had to do one of two things:
He had to remove Stevens and Hill, to make
way for two better men, or he had to increase
the number of the commissioners, so that the
two objectionable men might be thrown in a
minority.
The Governor chose the latter alternative,
thus adding largely to the burdens of the tax
payers, without adding any real strength to
the commission.
Hill and Stevens are either fit for their
places, or they are unfit.
If they are fit, then the Governor should
simply have appointed a good man in Joe
Brown’s place, and allowed the number of
commissioners to remain as it was.
But if Hill and Stevens are unfit for their
places, then the Governor ought to have dis
missed them, as he did Joe Brown.
Two unfit men ought not to have been left
where they may do great harm to the people.
Consider, for example, how much the Gov
ernor is going to be embarrassed in the matter
of the Georgia Railroad.
Uncle Obadiah, during Terrell’s administra
tion, made what he claimed to be an examina
tion of this poor old run-down concern, and
pronounced its physical condition good. Those
who talked of rotten ties, missing bolts, dilap
idated road-bed, etc., were virtually pro
nounced to be slanderers.
But the wrecks continued to come, one aft
er another, so fast that the new commission
had another examination made. This time,
the report fully sustained the assertions of
those who declare that the condition of the
railroad is terribly bad.
The new Commission ordered repairs made,
at once.
The railroad “respectfully declines.”
This brings matters to an issue. We shall
soon learn who is to control our public roads
—the heartless and soulless foreign corpora
tions, or those authorities who represent the
people of Georgia.
But cannot everyone see how much the new
Commission and the Governor are going to
be embarrassed by Uncle Obadiah’s presence
on the Conmission?
Will no Maj. Cumming use Commissioner