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.)