People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1895 — Page 4

Graduated Income Tax.

4

Keep hammering. Banks are only pawnshops Now is the time to educate. Prosperity! Where art thou? The way to win is to keep a-movin'. The old parties can^dodgo any longer. The gold maniacs must be suppressed. A money despotism is worse than au absolute monarchy. No more gold monomaniacs should be sent to congress forever. You can’t make things better by voting for the fellows that made them worse. Tii.io is not to be considered, but the truth, which is eternal, must triumph in the end. The- republican party will split on the s ‘.me rock that shattered the democratic party. Straddling will no longer fool the people. Radical reform alone will prevent revolution. The gold lunacy can be cured only by free exercise of the people’s right to govern themselves. The republicans laughed at the democrats, but they seem to be afraid to tackle the job themselves. Under the present system the United States assumes the responsibility of furnishing the world with gold. The trouble with the democratic party is it has the dry rot. The republican party has a bad case of the itch.

New York has reached the hanginggarden period in the repetition of Babylonian history. Its fall is approaching. There is no longer any doubt that the leaders of the two old parties are the same—and that both get their instructions from London. The year 1896 will be the most critical period in the life of the American republic. The people must be prepared for the crisis. Educate them. With the increase of population the day is not far distant when the oeople will discover that they have put off the land Question too long for .heir own good. Secretary Morton says: “The plow has outlived its usefulness.” In that it differs from Mr. Morton, who cannot be said to have ever reached a period of usefulness. The Illinois Supreme court has declared the eight-hour law unconstitutional. The next thing we look for is a decision that it is unconstitutional to eat more than twice a day. The postage stamp represents labor —service is not based on gold or silver, and the government will not redeem them in either, yet postage stamps are always worth their face value. Until every dollar of foreign capital is withdrawn and not a single acre of American land is owned by aliens there will be neither freedom nor prosperity of the whole people in America.

One of the silliest objections to government loans is that it is not safe to loan a farmer money on land at the rate of 2 per cent, but a bank or loan company will do it and charge him 10 per cent. Bonds issued by the democrats through republican law are just as fraudulent as if they were issued by republicans through democratic law. Both parties are guilty. The two old parties are the machines through which the corporations, trusts, and banks rule this country. The People’s party is the only party in the field that is being fought by the corporations, trusts, and banks. It is the constitutional duty of congress “to coin (create) money and regulate its value.” It is not doing it when it delegates to the banks the power to issue their own notes to be used as money. A bond is a debt; a greenback or treasury note is a debt. The bond draws interest and absorbs the profits of productive labor. The greenback draws no interest, gives labor employment, develops the resources of the country, and brings prosperity. Bonds bled the country; the greenback saved it. The bond is a robber; the greenback is a patriot and a blessing. The two old parties represent bonds; the young and growing People’s party represents greenbacks.

We saw a cartoon recently representing a congressman returning home to his constituents after the adjournment of congress which was significant. A crowd was awaiting Mr. Congressman just around a corner, anmed with clubs and baskets filled with eggs, anxiously anticipating a “reception of the gentleman who had just alighted from a palace car with grip in hand. There’s mere in a cartoon of that kind than the mere poking fun at the average conjrreseman. It is significant of a time possibly when of these fellows will he received with a rope.

TIE PEOPLE’S PILOT. RENSSELAER, IND., APRIL 3«5, WEEKLY, ONE DO LT.AR PE YEAR. -

Life Judges are kingx All interest is extortion. ■ , I Nov/ is a good time to think. The people must govern themselves. A nation of tenants is a nation of slaves. Don’t mention prosperity to the democrats. Every Populist shculd be an organj for 1896. The Fifty-third congress is worth more dead than alive. There can be no good government except by good people. The “silver party” wants a rich man nominated for President. If you keep in touch with the people you will not be far wrong. Carnegie has closed his steel works —but has not quit stealing. ♦ Every banquet at Washington drives a nail in the coffin of liberty. The old party silver bait conceals a plutocratic hook. Don’t be a sucker. Wage and debt slavery must be abolished. and labor given all it produces. Free coinage through the old parties means destruction of the greenbacks first.' Where machines take the place of men, they should be owned by the public. Senator Plumb said that the glory of Gen. Grant as a warrfor was that he opposed war. Every ship of war fchut floats costs more than a well endowed college.—• Charles Sumner. We have ro.t heard of any Populist going into Warner’s new silver party—none to speak of.

A solid front and an active, educational campaign, will bring a victory that is permanent. Every interference with free thought and free speech, only makes the next utterance of the speaker more bitter. Wouldn’t the politicians of the old parties be happy, if they could sidetrack the Populists on a single-plank platform. Do you ever talk over these things with your old party neighbor. He may be a man hungering |and thirsting after the truth. There has been no suggestion to erect a monument to the memory of the Fifty-third congress—no use, we’ll all remember It. If you desire to see the People's party win go to work and induce some disgusted democrat or republican to vote the Populist ticket. Bland has had a great many opportunities to take the “parting way,” but he now comes out and certifies over his own signature that he won’t. The republican party seems to be lost in the exuberance of its exuberance. The question now is what was the republican congress elected for? The democratic congress appropriated $5,000,000 to send people to heaven with battleships—but not one cent to keep men, women and children from starving to death. A day will come when a cannon will Be exhibited in public museums, just as instruments of torture are now, and the people will be astonished that such a thing could have been. —Victor Hugo.

There is some consulation in the thought that “labor-saving” machinery can neither vote nor shoot. But its a poor consolation to a man who is already starving. He has no time to wait for the process of reform. It depends altogether on what congress ■would do, whether an extra session would be beneficial or not. If It is to be like the Fifty-third congress, it should be postponed for a thousand years. That great republican daily, the Globe-Democrat, says this “ought to be a happy nation, because less than half the farms are mortgaged.” If that is true why shouldn’t it be happier if there were no mortgages at all? Trial by jury is rapidly becoming a farce. It has reached the point where a judge can instruct the jury w'aat verdict to return —and if they fail to agree with his instructions can fine the jury for contempt of court, and still go unhung. The average common school history is devoted principally to war, with a few pages in the latter part of the book summarizing the progress of the world. Examine the text book your boy studies at school, and see if it isn’t so.

Luther began to preach the sain e year that Copernicus discovereil the true system of the universe. Since that time both science and refiigio, ■ have progressed—so has government . and yet the possibilities of progress an 3 not exhausted. Gov. Tillman is a very good man, but he should revise his vocabulary and not apply the word “craalr” sooften to the Populists. Tine ve« men i he calls cranks saw far enough ahead to prevent what he helped to bring tbov-t by remaining so long with the temoeraUc

Banks of issue must go. “Peace on earth, good will to men.” Precedents die of old age ever. year. Mysteries in government are publi outrages. Special privileges take away inalienable rights. Bonds and interest are the whip and chains of slavery. Loyalty to the Omaha platform is not treason to the party. The democratic congress is gone, but the mortgage is still left Organize peace armies. The only fieace party is the People’s party. Representatives who. don’t represent, should be made to represent. Where military force tramples on civil authority there is danger of revolution. If Christianity is anything, it is practical—and if it isn’t practical, it is nothing. The men in the high positions elected by the Populists must be content to serve—not lead. Bland has issued a manifesto which says substantially: “We neither go in ourselves, neither suffer we them that are entering to go in.” How can the “rank and file” of the democratic party be made to believe the sincerity of their leaders who have just lost a good chance to prove themselves the friends of free coinage. There is a great deal of difference between making the currency question the sole issue, and making it the paramount issue. It has always been the paramount issue. Consumption is limited only by the ability to buy. But the lack of a sufficient medium of exchange causes breadstuff to rot while weavers go hungry, and good clothes mildew while farmers wear patches and rags.

WHO RAIDED THE TREASURY?

Au Apology Is Due the Bankers of New York. Col. Van Horn, in his letter from Washington, published in the Kansas ■City Journal of Feb. 20, makes some very strong points against the treasury department and white house gold conspirators. We clip the following from that letter: There is one feature of this gold borrowing that I have not touched upon as yet, for it has only been officially known tor twenty-four hours. It puts the confidence game of Mr. Cleveland in a much clearer light, and were it not that the king can tell no falsehood, the argument of Mr. Cleveland’s message would be based upon a false .statement. It will be remembered that he urged the fact that the borrowed gold was withdrawn for greenbacks and exported and hoarded, while the treasury notes being paid out again were presented time after time without limit. To cure this circumlocution drain of gold he asked for a $500,000,000 gold loan to redeem and retire these notes, and thus protect the gold reserve. As the gold reserve was a mere fiction to keep these notes at a “parity” with coin, where would be the use of protecting a “reserve” foi their redemption when they had been redeemed and canceled? This plain statement would convict anyone but a president of incosistency and special pleading, to use no harsher term. Now, let us see the confidence game Iplayed by this argument in the mesmage. Recently Secretary Carlisle i sent to the senate in answer to Mr. (Orrman’s resolution the astounding .statement that the gold supply had ten diminished since he took the 'office $172,674,315. And of this amount “‘>105,002,143 was directly or indirectly dwuoted to current expenses.” Nftr. Cleveland in his message told congress tihe shortage in gold was from the reI demotion of treasury notes and was I used for export and hoarding. Secre--1 tray (Carlisle says that more than halt of lit was paid out for the running expenses of the government. The fact stands out that Cleveland himself was ; the gold raider, and while j trying to stampede congress into free ; coa'i ;and free iron from his Nova Scotia ,and other Canadian friends, he 1 was paying out the gold reserve and borrowing gold to make good the def- | icits ire was creating in the revenues, i And when this job was through he ; tried to .stampede congress into a $500,j 000,000 fifty-year gold loan to remedy ■ the gold famine he had himself created ' by taking '5105,000,000 of it to pay current expenses. I confess I do not like to use the language toward a president .that this plain statement • of facts from his own mouth and that ©f his secretary suggests as merited— I ©ndy leave it ,to the reader to say whait (the language would be were this ' esmftnut that .of a private individual. Possibly the country may have to talk® back some of the charges made against .the foreign and domestic gold trnat—ifor it is very clear that Cleveland .took out more gold than they did —®nd (that he actually depleted his ressnue sand then blamed it on them. So affiter sail it seems their contract to ikecffs tilhe raiders off the treasury was awl .«» great a job as at first blush it Heemed Ito be. It now remains for congress So protect Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle. A great deal is said about alien landlordism, but to the victims of landlordism it matters little whether they be aliens or the home variety; the result is the same.

THE ENGLISH PLAN.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP IN OPERATION. Reduced Kates for Telegraphy —Greater Content! uce—lncreased Service —How the System Is Conducted —We Are Far Behind. A late report of the practical operation of the telegraph system in England will be read with Interest. It proves that under government ownership the public is served with greater satisfaction and it is a strong argument for its adoption in this country. The improvement in service and increased convenience in every way is so satisfactory that the public would be very reluctant to permit a return to the old system. An abbreviated extract from the report is given in the following dispatch: “Washington, D. C. —A sketch showing the great development of the telegraph in Great Britain since it passed under government control in 1870 is given in a report to the state department from Consular Clerk Martin. He shows that all of the separate companies’ lines were taken by the government in 1870 for £11,000,000 and that in the year succceeding the government built 15,* 00 milei of wire to connect tho various systems. The reports show that while in 1870 the total number of telegrams handled by all offices was from 128,000 to 215,000 per week in 1893 the number exceeded 1,000,000 per week and the number sent annually exceeds 70,000,000. In 1869 the English press service was 22,000,000 words; now it amounts to 600,000,000 words, thirty-six times more than formerly. The present press rate is small compared with the tariff prior to 1870 and in place of sending seventy-five words per minute one way the wires now carry 500 words a minute, and six messages are sent simultaneously on one wire. The service is performed with perfect punctuality, the average time of. transmission of a message being about seventy-nine minutes, against two or three hours in 1870. The rate is 12 cents for twelve words, paid by stamps.”

Twenty-Seven Cents a Day.

A commission composed of Murray Shipley, chairman, Cincinnati chamber of commerce; W. J. Akins, for Cleveland chamber of commerce; J. F. Oglevie, for Columbus chamber of commerce; W. H. Porter, for Toledo chamber of commerce, has been investigating the condition of the coad miners in the Hocking Valley (Ohio) district and in a recent report to Gov. McKinley declare that the average wages of these coal miners is 27 cents a day! Mind you, this does not come from calamity-howling Populists, but from representatives sent out by the chambers of commerce in the leading cities of Ohio. It is not likely that this commission has reported the condition of the miners any worse than really exists and, therefore must conclude that the report is true. Think of it! Twenty-seven cents a day! The magnificent sum of $1.62 a week! A princely income of $84.24 a year! Support a family on this! Think of the luxuries a family can indulge on an income of such magnitude! Seriously, friends, what do you think of of such conditions being imposed upon workingmen in free America? We say imposed, for it is the avarice and greed of the coal operators that force these men to work for worse than starvation wages. If this was an isolated case some excuse might be found for it, but labor all over this country is gradually being pressed to that point. The cupidity of the capitalistic classes on the one hand and the stupidity of the masses on the other are making such conditions possible. Oh,why will not laboring men arouse from their lethargy and shake off this incubus of capitalism? Why be slaves when they can so easily be freemen? Why do millions drink the bitter dregs of poverty, misery, sorrow, and woe when they only to be men—brave, courageous men—to throw it all off? Such conditions are the results “of wrong voting and in no other way can they be removed except by right voting. So long as laboring men vote for candidates and measures suggested by capitalists so long will labor be in the toils, as now. We have been voted into these anomalous conditions and the ballot is the only peaceful remedy to lead the people out.

True as Gospel.

Charles Dickens, speaking of the culminating horrors of the French revolution, says: “There is not in France with all its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more under similar hammers and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the seeds of rapacity, license, and oppression over again and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.” The Globe-Democrat says: “The new bonds are in strong demand as a basis of circulation.” Certainly; that is one of the things for which they were issued. The object of the conspiracy is a perpetual debt, upon which banks can furnish money to the people and draw interest on both bonhs and the money they furnish. The courts, backed by the military, are threatening our liberties.

GOLD, SILVER OR PAPER.

Money is value created by law.— Ceroushi. A legal-tender function is a better basis far money thin a specie basis. —Benjamin Franklin. Gold and silver, constantly varying in their own value, can never be made a measure of the value of other things. —Adam Smith. The theory of intrinsic for money has been abandoned by the best writers and thinkers. Coin is not a safe basis for money—the ba.-*e is too small. —Encyclopaedia Britannica. A shrinkage in the volume of currency has caused more misery than war, famine, and pestilence, and more injustice than all the other bad laws ever enacted. —United States Monetary Commission. I wish all money of the nation, whether gold, silver, copper, or paper, was issued by the government and based not on the coin or other money, but upon the credit and resources of the country.—Andrew Jackson. I find that gold fluctuated 50 per cent during a single year of the late war, while the greatest fluctuation of the greenbacks in any one year, as measured by the same standard, was only 9y 2 per cent. —The Hon. Amasa Walker.

There is plenty cf evidence to prove that on incontrovertible legal-tender paper, if limited in quantity, can retain its full value, but there is abundance of evidence to prove that gold has undergone extensive changes. From 1809 to 1849 it rose in value 145 per cent. —Prof. Jevons of Owen’s University, England. The entire amount of coin in the country, including that in private hands as well as that in banking institutions, was insufficient to supply the needs of the government for three months had it been poured into the treasury. Foreign credit we had none. —United States Supreme Court Decision, 12 Wallace, page 540. (This was a reference to the war period.) Then, too, I would change the form of these notes so that instead of being technically, or in form, a promise they should have stamped upon them the denomination, as gold and silver have, being to all intents and purposes money and not a promise to pay in something of no greater legal value.—Senator Wright. When it was o"nce understood that gold and silver are not wealth, but only representatives of wealth, and that money is of no value to a nation except to circulate its riches, all the old notions of the supreme importance of the precious metals fell to the ground.— Buckley’s History of Civilization.

The Democratic Party's Failure.

The final and utter collapse of the democratic party in the presence of the' grandest opportunities that ever came to any political party in the history of this nation is simply marvelous. No party ever made greater promises, ever had greater opportunities, or made a more signal failure. Under the leadership of Grover Cleveland, who was worshiped as a party idol —raised to a pedestal higher than his party, the party has gone down in ignominy and reproach, so far and so low that even its strongest partisans scarcely have the courage to defend it. Cleveland’s second administration has been characterized with stupendous incapacity in every department of government. The Fifty-third congress—which he had on his hands, and the policy of which he molded with his own sweet will, has already gone down in history as the most venal and corrupt that has ever assembled in our history. His cabinet selections were either nobodies or men plastic in his hands, the members of which might have been fourthclass department clerks for all the influence they seem to have with the executive. The picture is not one for partisan exultation. It is too serious for that. There is a point at which partisanism ends and patriotism begins. While partisan zeal may prompt a strong opposition there is naught but humiliation in the hearts of all true patriots when they see a party sink so low and prove itself so hopelessly incapable as the democratic party has shown itself to be in the two years of the present administration. All this, after thirty-three years of promises! All this with an overwhelming tnajority in congress backed by an executor of the party’s choice! All this after the most withering rebuke ever administered to any party was given to the republicans in 1892! What can the rank and file in the democratic party pxpect in the future by remaining in it?

All for Creditors and Bondholders.

The money question is the great question under the present financial system of our government. The contraction of the currency brought with it, by a law as inflexible as gravitation, falling prices. Low prices is another name for dear mot •'V Debts contracted when wheat was $1.50 have to be paid when wheat brings only 50 cents —that is, the debtor, in addition to the interest, pays in labor and its products three times as much as he borrowed. Under such conditions the power to purchase grows less and less. The wheels of industry are stopped. Manufacturers have no market for their goods. And men raise the cry of overproduction, when there are millions of people in sore want of the very articlesthese manufacturers would like to sell, but which they (the producers of the country) have no money to buy. When the factories close then the wages of the workmen stop and their purchasing power comes to an end also. But the bondholders of the world collect their interest (8, 10, 20, 30 per cent), and when the interest is not paid they take the property for the debt- The Age.

Graduated Inhere .-nee Tax.

THE CLOUDS PASS BY.

THEY DjDN'T MEAN tP AND PEACE REiCNS. Dr. Fish Take* His Pen in Hand and DiacuH«cs the Situation —Populism Has PaatH-d Its Period of Danger —Now All Is Clear Sailing. * Populism has just passed through a period of crisis and danger. It has passed through safely—comes out heart whole and body sound. Of course every one familiar with the current literature of these days knows that a serious effort has been made to at least modify the people’s party platform. Whether it failed because the Reform Press association was stanch and immovable or because those who suggested change did not mean it is of slight consequence. The people’s party remains true to Omaha along gigantic lines of reform —and today it is one united body . This is a matter of great rejoicing. And not only because the party remains intact and immovable, but because the very men who suggested change remain true to the pole-star after the exciting attack and riposte between apparent factions. Mr. Dunning, of the Watchman declares again his fealty to Omaha. He is, of course, a strong man, and his journal has a strong hold upon Populists. That he will cling with unswerving devotion to his first love is gratifying to all reformers. He was terribly severe on socialists and the reform book makers of the age. But every one can forgive him for these attacks, and welcome him to fraternity. It was an hour of supreme temptation. The two gigantic carcasses, or party Dagons, had begun to smell in the nostrils of the world, and a parting between the toller and the pawnshop was at hand. Democracy was wrecked. Now came an opportunity for the great movement to yield its identity and sink into the lesser sea of storm-swept democracy, and win—win not our elemental principles—but power. The great abyss which has swallowed up party after party, and disappointed humanity for ages yawned before . us—at the bottom gilded promises for the office seeker. Victory was .-.lmost sure by yielding to the ■dissatisfied of the old parties, deserting our platform; and taking up an issue foreign to our substrat constitution — the silver issue! And, to urge us on to this dangerous course, we were told that the other reforms would come after —that as soon as one issue was settled they would take up another! When, in all the cycles of political history, has that promise been kept? Never. It is impossible to keep it. Again, through struggling years of oppressive warfare, and amid sacrificial tears, would the new party have to be organized—run the gantlet of the same dangers and temptations—brave the same abuse and meet the same tyrannic dogmatism—before the second reform could be brought to a consummation by another new party. Generations pass away in these almost hopeless efforts. But thank God, over, and over, and over again, the gulf was safely crossed—the party saved —and it is saved intact, with every man faithfully returning to his duty and his toil. And what next? Why, the silver democrats at once organize a fourth party! Yes, and at its very birth it staggers to its grave. It announces that it is not a party, after all! It declares that if either of the old par-, ties will nominate a silver coinage man on a free coinage plank, this new bantling will cease to exist. Great God, whatafarce! And wasittosuchafraud as this that the people’s party was to be tied? Thank God, over and over again, that “populi populorum” remained true to Omaha. The “new party” died a hornin’. It is now dead. Being dead it leaves nothing to bury. Silver coinage is not an issue. A wrong, a barbaric garniture of historic crime, can never become an issue in the progressive history of man. Silver coinage may be a temporizing “policy” of dealing with a mighty issue of self-bank-ing national credits. But the real issue to-day, upon which parties must build, or expire, is this: Shall the miserable fiction of a metal currency remain at all? The secret, unwritten, unspoken but tangible spirit of populism—shrieking and moaning from the million avenues of Wrong’s hecatomb —cries No! Aye, it sits upon the throne builded by the I Am, when Yesus and iris wore only graven upon Serapian rock —and cries out for the day and hour when populism shall destroy the crime of metal money. Populism declares for a standard based upon toil, and the substrat of that toil is the imperishable, and unhidable, and unspendable, and immovable value which comes from this tremendous dogma: Not a dollar of wealth was ever produced on earth which did not come from the tilling of the soil! The crisis is passed. The “new silver party” is ( born and stranded. Populism moves on. Silver will be recoined while gold is coined — so says I populism! But when the divinity ' which hedges power is swept away both gold and silver will go with it — and eternal value from intrinsic worths will remain. And upon that worth will humanity base its self-banking credit! —The Great West. ' The Populist' who thinks that the greatest mission of the People’s party is to, get office has outlived his usefulness and should join one or the other of the old parties. We believe in civil service. t As long as banks have control of th# money we will have panics. r