People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — What Does Coxey Wan!? [ARTICLE]

What Does Coxey Wan!?

Express ■Ho where you may. talk to ■Hq you will, this question ■■routs you: “What do these ■H expect to accomplish after get to Washington?’’ HHWhat is it Coxey is demandCongress?” 9o answer that question here good roads bill: Be it enacted by the Senate and Hn'ii! HepreNCiiCati v«*> in <'< >tn;ies.s as- : that the '•eeretary of tin- TrutiMiry tiie I'utted States is here— and instructed to liave en■Hed and printed, immediately after the of tills lull, tiye hundred miiiinns of of treasury notes, a legal tender for ■flits public and private, said notes to ions of one. two. li v ( - and ten and to be placed in a fund to be ns the • General County Hoad fund of the United States.” and to be exsolely for said purpose. Anu tie it further enacted, that it HI he the duty of the Secretary of War to Charge of the construction of the said County Hoad System in tin- United and said construction to commence as tin- Secietary of the Treasury inform ? tie Secretary of War that t lie |H fund is availtihle which sliall not be Secretary of war to inaugurate and expend the sum of t wvnty mil|Ms of dollars per mouth, pro rata with the of miles of roads in each State and in the United States. :i. Be it further enacted, that till other than that of the Secretary of whose compensations are already fixed Haw. sliall be paid lry the day, and that the H^ 111,1 less than one dollar and iifty ■Bts per day for common lalair, and three and Hfty cents per day for team and and that eight hours per day shall cona day's labor under the provisions of Hbiir. ■By the terms of this measure Be national government would Blue five hundred millions of 81l legal tender money, the ■me as it did when gold stole Bay in the early days of the Bir. This money not to be enH;nbered nor crippled with any ■rm of “exception,” but to be ■ fact what the United States ■ipreme Court says the govern lent has the right to make it, a Hll legal tender for all debts, Hablic and private, of any nature ■hatsoever. ■ The government resorted to ■is means to put down the re■llion. Why not issue this Bmount of money to give employment to the millions of unemployed throughout the country? ■ 'But what will this money be ■deemed with? you ask. Since ■e fetichism of a “redeemer” of ■oney is still extant in the minds If such primaly scholars as the leaders of the Chicago Tribune, It may be remarked that when a lollar of this full legal tender noney is paid over the post office iounter in exchange for postage itamps, it is “redeemed.” When >ne of these roadworkers, by hrifty frugality, or stealing :rom liis fellow workmen, accumilates sufficient that he deems it jest for his health to take a trip to Europe, there is always enough gold to exchange to meet any European requirement. But the millions of bankrupt and idle

men to-day are not contemplating a trip to Europe. America is good enough for them. They feel that they have a right here, and are just now engaged in bringing that question to an iskue, as to who owns the earth, anyhow, and who has the right to say that the great majority shall not be granted the privilege of employing their natural endowments in line of providing a living for those dependent upon them. The provisions of this bill would place Uncle Sam in position of standing competitor for labor. When a railroad issues 1 an order* that its section men shall work ten hours for 81.49, ' there stands Uncle'Sam ready to them a job on his roads at $1.50 for a day of eight hours. So -with the iron mills, the dock companies, contractors, and in fact every form of employment would be forced to pay at least $1.50 per day of 8 hours, or go without labor. With labor thus employed there would be no ' tramps; the excuse for them would be removed, and under such conditions the man who would not work would soon be ducked in the rivers or given such other admonition as to be preferable to him to work than beg. When men are employed they spend what they make in buying

the product of other men’s labor. The merchant would quickly dispose of his stock of goods, bad debts would be a thing of the past, for men would have money with which to pay cash for what they bought; and to prove this, is there a mail carrier or other employee of the government who cannot get better credit when needed than his fellow employees in other pursuits?

OBJECTIONS THAT ARISE. The one and only objection that stands in the way of this measure is the fact that it opens an avenue for the great debtor class to pay off their interest bearing obligations, thus necessitating that large class whose income is derived from money invested in bonds, mortgages and pawnshop enterprises to invest their money in legitimate productive enterprises, employing labor instead of labor hireing money and paying ruinous interest. COXEY’S SECOND BILL. The question is raised, how good roads bill is to help the city laborer, and for fear it would not, a second provision is made in the shape of bis noninterest bearing bond bill which reads as follows: Bo it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress assembled: That whenever any state, territory, county township, muncipality. or incorporated town or village deem it necessary to make any public improvements, they sliall deposit with the secretary of the treasury of the United States a non-interest bearing, twenty-five year bond, not to exceed one-half the assessed valuation of the property in said state, territory. county, township, municipality, or incorporated town or village, and said bond to be retired at the rate of four per cent, per annum.

Whenever the foregoing section of this act has been complied with, it sliall be mandatory upon the secretary of tiie treasury of the United States to have engraved and printed treasury notes in the denominations of one, two, live, ten and twenty dollars each, which shall be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, to the face value of said bond; and deliver to said state, territory, county, township, municipality, or incorporated town or village, ninety-nine per cent, of said notes, and retain one per cent, for expense of en«is#fng and printing same. J. S. CoxEy. At present, five men in a community, who own valuable real estate, can convert that real estate on which they pay large taxes into money; with that money they can buy a ment bond, drawing 4 per cent, interest payable in advance JJon which they pay no taxes. This bond Is deposited with the gov eminent in exchange for 90 per cent, of its face value in shape of bank notes, which ,they are granted authority to issue and circulate as money to w r hoever is so hard up has the necessary collateral and is willing to pay tiie rate of interest required. Thus the banker escapes the taxes he was paying on his property; he gets interest on his bonds‘and then regulates the community, or compels it to pay him interest according to their necessities for the use of his credit, in shape of bank notes secured by the government. Coxey’s bill provides that any municipality, upon a showing of its assessable tax role, may issue bonds up to 50 per cent, of that valuation. These bonds to draw no interest, but to be deposited with the governmemt in return for legal tender notes up to 99 per cent, of face of that bond. With this money the municipality can erect its own electric light plants, construct, equip and operate its own street car lines, water and gas plants; pay for them with money that pays interest to no corporation of idlers or blood-suckers, but enters directly into legitimate channels of trade, employing labor, improving the cities and ministering to the comforts of the human family, rather than preying upon its misfortunes. .

SUCH IS THE MISSION OF THE COMMONWEAL. In the past every corporation that craved a few states of vacant land, a bridge franchise, a special tax to kill off opposition, an issue of bonds, demonetizing of silver in interest of the few who own the gold; whenever any of these interests have desired legislation + o <?i v auce the value

of their holdings, they have employed their lobbies to camp right with the congressmen till they got them. They have done this from time immemorial, while labor, patient and forbearing, has paid all the bills, fought all the battles, put down all the insurrections, furnished all the big political majorities, nor ever made an appearance, either by person or by proxy, at the national capital demanding a hand in special legislation. These measures are in the interest of the whole people, the merchant, manufacturer, railroader, operator, ship owner and every form of legitimate commerce, except the Chicago Tribune’s typical standard of American civilization, the usurer, the blood-sucker who is too lazy to work himself, too cowardly to fight in defense of his country, and too selfish to live in enjoyment unless all the balance of mankind are paying him tribute in the shape of Interest on money loaned.

Coxey’s army represents the classes who through operation of class laws have been thrown out of employment, deprived of the opportunities to employ their labor and their genius in remunerative enterprise. They have been driven from their rightful holdings by enactments that now empowers corparations to sumra®n the state troops to drive men from trains on roadbeds given by the public and that should belong to the public. They are going to Washington to personally appear before their law-makers and petition for passage of these bills, and they will stay right there until they are passed or congress adjourns and Grover goes fishing, in which event it may befall him the necessity to ask permission ere he returns.

These men are law-abiding, peaceable, honest citizens. They know their rights, and when the great conservative and business community understand the justice of their demands, they will vigorously resent the imputation hurled against them by the Tribune, that they are a mob of bums, thieves, ex-convicts, and tatterdemalions in general.