The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], December 28, 1892, Page 9, Image 9

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
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THAT BrtL(H. I. 9754).
I refer to the Otis money bill bo rudely
assaulted in the New York Sun and To
peka Capital. It surely has Borne force
a veritable M thorn in the flesh " to plu
tooratio leaders to call down such vials
of wrath, ridicule, and bitter sarcasm
from the vicious partisan press. Listen
to the Topeka Capital of the 18th Lost,
in its long leader. It says: "This (bill)
abolishes the credit system, and does
away entirely with all banks, bankers
and loan companies, and with all uses of
money by the owners of money, except in
the purchase of things and its employ
ment in productive indastry. When any
amount may be borrowed from the gov
ernment t 2 per cent, no one can be a
loaner of money while the .statutes pro
hibit interest higher than 2 per cent
Altogether, the bill, on cursory
examination, is eeen to be revolutionary
not only of the established definitions of
money, but as to methods of business.
Brother Otis would turn the country
upside down ; and in the process it is not
unlikely that he would let its insides fall
out, and cause the entire establishment
to collapse."
Ala! alas! it must be a very dangerous
measure! And that man 0 is must be a
veri'able devil incarnate! A regular
French Jacobin! But what surprises
most is that Hudson should turn politi
cal mission ry, and advise Otis to read
the abl speech of Daniel Webster in the
Umted States senate, March 12, 1838, in
opposition to the sub-treasury then be
ing advocated by Ca'houn. If Hudson
would have read carefully those debates
between Webster and Calhoun, he would
have known that they sustained Otis'
position upon the currency in so far as
giving congress exclusive control of
money. In the very same speech referred
to by the Capital (" Webster's Works,"
page 426) can be found these worda.'
"A system of mixed circulation, there
fore, was exactly that system which this
constitution found in existence at its
adoption- There is not the tightest evi
dence of any intention, in establishing
the constitution, to overthrow or abolish
this system, although it certainly was
the object of the constitution to abolish
bills of credit, and all paper intended for
circulation, issued upon the faith of the
states alone.
, "Inasmuch as whatever there existed of
the nature of money or currency rested
on state legislation, and as it was not
poeaible that uniformity, general credit
and eeneral confidence could result from
local and separate acts of the state, there
is evidence, I think abundance of evi
dence, that it was the intention of the
framero of the constitution to give to
congress a controlling power over the
whole subject, to the end that there
ahou'd be, for the whole country, a cur
rency of uniform value."
Again, on the 3 1st day of January, 1833,
Mr. Webster said:
"The constitutional power vested in
congress over the legal currency of the
country is one of the very highest powers,
and the exercise of this high power is
one of the strongest bonds of union of the
states.
44 It is not to be doubted that the con
stitution intended that congress should
exercise a regulating power, a power both
necessary and salutary, over that which
should constitute the actual monej of
the country, whether that money were
coin or the representative of coin."
It might be well to refer Mr Hudson
to the words of Albert Gallatin, who
was twelve years secretary of the treas
ury. He sid:
"The rignt of issuing paper money as
currency, like that of sold and silver, be
longs exclusively to the nation."
Thomas Jefferson said: I
44 Bank paper must be suppressed, aad
the circulating medium be returned to
the nation to whom it rightly belongs.
It is the.only recourse that can
never fail them, and it is an abundant
one for every necessary purpose. Treas
ury bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or
not bearing interest, as may be found
necessary, thrown into circulation, will
take the place of so much gold and silver.
I sincerely believe banking establish
ments are more dangerous than standing
armies."
In 1816, James Madison said:
44 it in essential thit the nation should
possess a currency of equal value, credit
and use wherever it may circulate. The
constitution has intrusted congress, ex
clusively, with the power of creating and
regulating a currency of that descrip
tion." In 1837, John C. Calhoun, in speaking
upon this subject, said:
" I insist that the duty of congress is
commensurate with its power. Why
should the government mingle its credit
with that or private corporations?"
And again, March 22, 1838, he said:
44 That a paper issued by the govern
ment, with a simple promise to receive it
in all its dues, leaving its creditors to
take it or gold and silver, at their ption,
would form a perfect circulation."
Listen to President Jackson in 1829:
44 1 submit to the wisdom of the legis
lature (congress) whether a national one
(currency), founded on the credit of the
government and its resources, might not
be devised which would obviate all con
stitutional diffi ml ties, and at the same
time secure all the advantages to the
government and the country that were
expected to result from the present
bank (United States bank) "
Mr. Dallas, secre ary of the treasury in
1816, eld:
44 Whenever the emergency occurs that
demands a change of system, it seems
necessary to follow that the authority
which was alone competent to establish
the national coin is alone competent to
establish a national substitute."
I might continue quotations from
eminent authority along this line almost
without limit But this will do for one
installment. It would be well for the
editor of the Capital and others of a sim
ilar opinion if they would carefully read
the financial history of our republic
under a constitutional government It
might aid them to wake up to the
emergency that now confronts us, and
make them better acquainted with the
demands of the period in which we live.
Especially they ought to study the finan
cial legislation of the past thirty years.
A careful examination of this bill (IT.
R. 3754) will clearly show the unpreju
diced mind that it fully embodies the
financial plank of the Omaha platform of
the People's party. Its objects and pro
visions may be briefly stated thus:
1. It declares what shall be the Ameri
can monetary unit of value, and how it,
together with its multiples and fractional
parts, shall be expressed and fashioned.
. 2. It makes all our paper issues
44 money ," and not 44 promisee."
3. It provides for the free coinage of
both gold and silver, and provides for
both a metallic and paper fractional cur
rency, and the issue of paper money.
4 All kinds of money are made inter
changeable at their face value by this
bill.
5. All kinds of money (except frac
tional currency ) are made a full legal
tender in any sum for all debts, both
public and private.
6. All outstanding paper issues of
every kind are called in and redeemed
with lawful money after due notice. I
7. It creates a fund in the national
treasury for the use of every state in the
union that may desire to avail itself of it
and comply with the conditions of the
bill.
8. It leaves every state free to estab
lish its own methods of putting its money
into circulation among its citizens, fixing
a uniform rate of interest for the entire
union, and that interest a tax for publio
revenue only.
9. It will give flex'bility to the circula
tion, and prevent speculators from mak
ing corners, and prevent scarcity in
periods of great demand.
10. It establishes a central national de
pository in each state in the union, and
enables each state, acting in c n junction
with the secretary of the treasury, to es
tablish a perfect and uniform system of
ready exchange and safe deposit for
every locality.
1L It eliminates usury from our in
dustrial system, and absolutely precludes
any speculations in money.
12. It calls in all issues of paper money
once in ten years and replaces them with
a new aeries, giving the publio the ad
vantage of any loss.
13. It is most emphatically a measure
in the interest of the 44 workers," and not
of the 44 drones," in the busy hive of
American industry.
14. It coins a reasonable per cent of
the credit of the entire nation into
"American Dollars," instead of coining
the doubtful credit of a few bankers into
a circulating medium.
15. It substitutes publio credit in
which all have full faith, for private
credit in which few can have much con
fidence. 16. It will stop piling up silver bullion
in the vaults of the treasury, or holding
gold reserves to redeem a money that the
people are constantly redeeming every
day in the year by exchanging their labor
and products for it
17. It puts an end to non-taxable gov
ernment bonds drawing interest
18. It is one little step in the direction
of folly emancipating labor from the
thralldom of capital, and robs Shylock of
his occupation.
19. It at once gives us a national sys
tem, sound, uniform, flexible and endur
ing. 20. It places the sub-treasury idea
where each state can solve it in accord
ance with its own looal needs and condi
tions. 21. It practically says: "Service cer
tificates, issued by all the people, and
universally accepted, and made a full
legal tender for all debts, both publio and
private, are the very best form of money
any nation can devise."
In fact this bill will effectually remedy
the difficulty suggested by Mr. Windom
in his report for 1890, page 31:
"The demand for money in this coun
try is so irregular that an amount ot
circulation which will be ample during
ten months of the year will frequently
prove so deficit during the other two
months as to cause stringency and com
mercial disaster. Such stringency may
occur without any speculative manipu
lations of money, though, unfortunately,
it is often intensified by such manipu
lations. The crops of the country have
reached proportions so immense that
their movement to market in August
and September, annually causes a danger- j
ous absorption of money. The lack of a
sufficient supply to m 'et the increased
demand during those months may en-1
tail heavy losses upon the agricultural
as well as upon other business interests.
Nearly all of the great commercial crises
in our history have occurred during the
months named." I
This bill merits something more than
ridicule, something mere than caustic
sarcasm, something more than editorial
Greenwald & Co.,
THE
People'sClotliiefs.
When In Topeka be sure and call and max
our store your headquarters.
The largest stock of
Overcoats, Suits, Boy's
and Children's Clothing
In the state, and at prices that cunnot he bf,l,
Krervtht'is marked In plain figure. BTE1CTLY
ONE PRICJB.
Greenwald & Co.,
607 Kansas Ave. ,
bulldozing. It demands careful, candid
and deliberate consideration at the hands
of the law making power. Hatsxed.
An Appeal to Equal Suffragists,
Sister workers in the equal suffrage
cause, whether members of an equal
suffrage association, or the Woman's
Alliance club, we appeal to you as differ
ent organizations throughout the stats
to do all in your power this winter to
help push eq ial suffrage on to victory.
We fee1 that now is the time to work, as
both parties, the Populists and republi
cans, are pledged to woman suffrage in
their ttate platform; and we do not see
how they can honorably get around that
plank, especially it they have strong sup
port from good, earnest women working
for the caus throughout the state. Let
us do what we can, and not overlook the
small things which are nearest at hand
in trying to do something beyond our
range, but remember that small deeds
tell in the end.
I will give you a short synopsis of what
we as an equal suffrage organization are
doing at present, and we hope ether
societies will do something in the same
1 ne.
We, as an equal suffrage association, of
Lamed, have circulated a petition
throughout Lamed and vicinity, and
obtained a great number of signers of
both sexes to said petition, asking the
legislators-elect to pass a bill conferring
equal suffrage on women at the earliest
convening of the coming legislature, said
petition to be presented by the representative-elect
from our own Ninety
second district the Hon. A. II. Lupfar;
and we shall further petition the senate.
This is our line of work at present,
and we sincerely hope every woman's
organization in the state will supplement
it with something equally as good or
better; and further, we hope every
society that is financially able to do so
will send a delegate to Topeka during
the session of the legislature to work for
our cause. Olive K. Russell,
Vice President E. S. A.
Larned, Kas.
The Now Mines.
Denver, Colo., December 21 Hun
dreds of Colorado misers are leaving for
the reported rich gold placers on the
San Juan river, in southeastern Utah,
just across the Colorado line. The rush
promises to equal the stampede to
Creede and Cripple Creek a year ago.
Several outfits have already left Dsnver,
and other companies are organizing. Re
ports from the alleged new discoveries
are very indefinite, but this fact only
adds to the mystery and excitement.
Stories f fabulous riches are current,
and silver miners out of work are willing
to take chances in the new country.