People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1895 — Page 6
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The bonds are coming. What’s become of Horr? Lok out for another issue of bonds. Character is greater than formality. Shall England rule the sons of revoutionary fathers? Brand every man a traitor who wants to destroy the greenbacks. Don’t forget that England is backing the entire gold-bug scheme. Join the army of the fool-kil’.er, and help to bury the dead with your vote. The wonjan who sells her womanhood is no worse than the man who sells his vote. If it were not for the government security what would bank-notes be worth ? Carlisle “dealt silver a terrible blow” at Boston —almost winded himself, he blowed so hard. Sherman's death-bed repentance leads him to confess not his own sins but those of others. The real fight of the money-lenders is not against silver, but against the government issue of money. The man who is not radical has neither friends nor enemies—and really amounts to nothing at all. If it were not for pugilism, how in the world could Governors Culbertson and Clark have ever gained fame? Both the old parties foster trusts and when you vote for either you vote to perpetuate them and enslave yourself. The plutocrats want war —but if they continue in their present course, they will hsve to do some of the fighting when it comes. Cleveland is popular with England— George Washington was not. Popularity in England is not the best sign of American patriotism.
It is thought that the prosperitywhoopers will now abandon the faith cure for hard times. The patients have lost faith in the doctors. John Sherman has not only lived to see the Democratic party indorse “the crime of ’73,” but has seen them commit a crime just as bad. The increased purchasing power, of the dollar does not help the fellow who has to sell an increased amount of his labor and produce to. get the dollar. Report comes from Washington that the plates are being prepared for another bond issue. We will likely have it before the beginning of another year. Anonymous writers often speak truths fully as forcible as those that are duly signed by recognized authorities. Truth is the only true authority. The only kind of fusion that is justifiable is between the democrats a£d republicans; their sole object is office and they make no secret of subordinating principle to get it. It is hard for a man to be a silver man and a Democrat at the same time —or a Republican, either, for that matter. In other words, one cannot be a silver man and a gold-bug both. IF GOLD MONEY IS THE ONLY RELIABLE BASIS FOR BUSINESS, WHY DON’T BUSINESS BOOM, NOW THAT WE HAVE A GOLD BASIS? PLEASE ANSWER, MR. GOLDBUG.
The workingman not only sacrifices his manhood in voting for either of the two old monopoly parties, but also robs his wife and children of the protection he promised in the marriage vow. “Farmers” by appointment do not represent the sentiment of farmers by profession. That “farmers’ ” congress at Atlanta which adopted a gold-bug resolution consisted of farmers by appointment. Until the people come to regard their law makers in the same light that they do their other hired hands, and look after them as close, we will never have purity in politics, or that prosperity to which we are entitled. Senator Vest, of Missouri, says there is only $3.84 per capita of money in circulation, yet if his party declares against an increase of money he will stand by the party. What do you think Of such a man’s principles? The Louisville Courier-Journal has invented a new word, “jabberwocks.” Of course it applies to a newly discovered class of democrats. There are so many kinds of democrats that new words have to be invented for naming them. “The man who tries to pull down the flag let him be shot on the spot,” says one of our plutocratic glory-whoopers. Why not apply the same remedy to the men who seek to destroy the greenbacks —the most truly patriotic money in America. If the federal troops were ordered to shoot the cause of the strikes and riots, more American millionaires and their tools would be called to Europe on important business, than ever took a pleasure trip across the water in ten rears before.
CAUSE OF PANICS.
INDICATIONS THAT MYSTERY WILL SOON BE SOLVED. "■ ‘ " ; Men Begin to See the Triek the GoldBogs Are Playing to EatablUh the Gold Standard Despotism —It Is Played By Sbylocks. O The people of the United States have been greatly worried over the question, I "What is the cause of panics?” There j are as many theories and answers as there are points to the mariner’s compass. Just now the indications are that the mystery will soon be solved. Cleveland has got a pet called a “redenip- | tion,” or a “parity” fund. Some call it | the “sound money” fund. The "parity” level of this fund is $100,000,000 in gold. . Above that level, business swims; belpw that level, business sinks. If this fund gets below $100,000,000, business is “panicky.” Then Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, a stock speculator, who isn’t quite ready for a panic until he unloads, comes to the rescue of the government, (?) that is to say, the Buzzards Bay administration.” or the “Gray Gables administration,” and the panic does not materialize. The gold bugs, In connection with Rothschilds, get hold of some greenbacks, buy a little gold, and the parity fund is leveled up, but Mr. Morgan, speaking for the syndicate, informs the country that his contract to stave off a panic has long since expired, and that what he does to run the government is prompted by patriotism. This being the case, the “redemption” or “parity” fund, is an “anti-panic” fund. Hence, all that is required to create a panic is to reduce the “anti-panic” fund below $100,000,000. Reports from London refer to this fund and predict a panic if it goes much below the $100,000,000 level, and all Europe is engaged in depleting the fund. Why? Because Europe, particularly England, wants our “Buzzards Bay administration” to Issue more gold bonds, and this will be done whenever Morgan, Rothschilds & Co. demand it. When the panic struck the country two years ago or more, our “Buzzards Bay administration” saw distinctly through his leather goggles that the cause of the panic was the outflow of gold, and as clearly, that this exportation of gold could be traced directly to the “Sherman law,” requiring the government to purchase a specified amount of silver bullion. Gold was going by millions, and the panic was increasing. While this storm of stupidity was rag- ; lng, and before the repeal of the Sherman law was accomplished, gold began to flow from Europe to the United States. This puzzled the “Buzzards Bay administration” and demonstrated that he was a better fisherman than financier; but he was destined to sink still lower in the list of financial nincompoops, for, after the repeal of the “Shqr- ! man law,” gold again began to flow to Europe in a steady and in a larger I stream than ever before, until, finally, ! no level-headed man has any confidence in the financial acumen of the “Buzzards Bay administration.” Now the “Buzzards Bay administration” has another fad, manufactured by Morgan, Rothschilds and the national banks, which is to retire the greenbacks | since it is held, if the greenbacks were , out of the way, there would be no dej mand for gold, and the “anti-panic-I parity fund” would remain intact. | But while this demand is being 1 mouthed by all the gold bugs, it so happens that the firm of Morgan & Co. take greenbacks and exchange them for gold, which they hand over to. the gov- ; ernment, to maintain the level of the | “parity fund” at $100,000,000, and this, according to reports, has been done seeral times within a short period, the result being that an escape from another j panic was owing, absolutely, to the use of greenbacks, hence it is seen that the greenbacks, instead of promoting panics, has been the acknowledged means of preventing them. The question has recently been asked; Why this ceaseless outflow of gold? and ! several gold-bug, high monkey-monks, including J. Pierpont Morgan, reply: The United States is in debt to Europe and gold goes forward to pay interest ’ and balances, and has no relation what-
ever to the “Sherman law,” nor now, to greenbacks. When the “Sherman law” was repealed, gold, as has been said, left the country in an ever increasing volume, and if in the interest of the national banks, greenbacks were destroyed not a dollar less, therefore, would be e^orted. i Men begin to see the trick the gold ! bugs are playing to establish irrevoca- | bly the gold standard despotism. It is played by Shylocks and has been splen- ! didly played by them, and our “Buzj zard’s Bay administration” is either in the deal or is such a confirmed nincom- | poop that he cannot see through the i jugglery. At any rate never before has ' the world been furnished with a more humiliating spectacle. Never before | was the United States so completely in : the hands of a gang of conscienceless boodlers, and while they are in power the people will never be ten days removed from a panic. If, therefore, the people will vote to ! retain either of the old parties in power, | when the panics come, as come they will, they will have only themselves to blame for they will have been the author of the country’s business calamities. —Railway Times. Spain taxes Cuba pretty hard but nothing to compare with the way the trusts and corporations tax the people in the United States. The man who thinks finds it necessary to face the contempt of the conventional world.
THE PEOPLE’S PILOT, RENSSELAER, IND., THURSDAY DEC..S, 1895.
LABOR IN THE SOUTH.
A CORRESPONDENT TELLS OF THE PRINCELY WAGES- — Farm Laborer* Getting Six Dollar* a Month —Fact* Regarding Report* of “a Revival of Froaperlty” —Starvation Ha* to Compete with Cheap Living. Atlanta, Oct. 10. —When I reached this city and the grounds of the Cotton States and International Exposition, about three weeks ago, I found everything in dire confusion. Two days before the opening there was only one building really ready, and that was the government's. Thousands of workmen, however, were rejoicing in hope that their present condition would continue and were free to talk of their wages, as workmen generally are when they are doing a little better than common. And verily 1 was astonished at some of their statements. Thousands of negroes have flocked in from the farming regions and were getting $1 a day for common labor, where before the exposition boom the rate was but 90 cents. One year ago painters and carpenters in Atlanta got but $1.50 per day. Now they get $2.50 and call it princely pay. Country negroes tell roe that on the farms they get $lO a month and rations, but that is •only in this middle section, while southward and eastward wages are lower. Orthodox party papers over in Tom Watson’s district have been making a great to do over the improvement and revival of prosperity, and surely there is an improvement if Editor (late Senator) Pat Walsh telis the truth, for he says that not long ago able bodied negroes could be hired in the vicinity of Augusta for $G a month, while the latest comers from there tell me they can now get SB. Of course these wages go with rations —that is, enough cornrneal, pork, coffee, peas, rice and black molasses to keep a laborer in working order. And even in this state I hear the familiar statement that one great cause of hard times is the extravagance of laborers. Last year the rate for picking cotton was forced down to 30 cents per 100 pounds. This year there was an attempt at a combine to force it up to f>o cents, the rate which prevailed in the “good old times,” but I am told to-day that there is a compromise by which the pickers are to get 45 cents on “first” and “scant” and 40 cents on the late or full boll. It takes a lively darky to pick 200 pounds a day, but women occasionally do better, and one was pointed out to me who could turn in 240 pounds’ a day for a week. In view of such and many similar facts I was not surprised at seeing a very large chain gang without a white man in it, and when a resident friend called my attention to me model jail in the exposition grounds 1 was moved to ask:
“Will you explain your model convict system?” “Not this year,” he replied, with a dry smile, and we changed the venue. Street car men have also had their wages raised and now get 12 cents an hour, a part of the contract being that they must “maintain a neat and respectable appearance.” That’s a blamed sight more than I could do during the long drought, when a cloud of red dust hung perpetually over the grounds. Editor Martin of The Dixie Magazine tells me that cotton mill operatives average 80 cents a day, and others put their wages at “from sl2 to $lB per month,” which does not seem to consist. I suppose the latter are only the poorest class of workers. In the section where they live board is phenomenally cheap and I suppose correspondingly plain. I had to laugh at one good old lady who told me she “railly hadn’t the heart to charge the poor girls more’n eight dollahs a month, though railly it’s wuth more in these hard times.” In the nicer sections board is much higher, and rents are simply awful.
Gas and water rates are said to be higher than in New York or Chicago, while house service of some kinds is dog cheap. Even among men there is a great diversity, and much more so since the exposition company discharged so many common laborers, who are bidding against each other. The firm I am best acquainted with just now gets the services of a preacher of the gospel for $3 per week, and he is there from 7 a. m. to 5 p. m., though his duties as messenger do not employ him all the time. He is 25 years old, a well educated mulatto and a licensed minister, but is on the pay roll as a “boy.” Draymen and hackmen get $6 per week. All these facts and many more of the same sort I gathered in my first ten days here, for really there was not much to see yet in the exposition, and if it had not been for the thousands of veterans who came down from the Chickamauga dedication and the ten governors, including two candidates for the presidency, and the generals here on blue and gray day we certainly should have suffered “ongwee.” I was particularly struck with the fact that the speakers laid great stress on the rising tide of prosperity and the advantages to farmer and laborer. And all those fellows profess to believe in a God and expect to be justified in his sight!—J. H. Browning, in Chicago Express.
Senator Peffer’s View.
Senator Peffer, in an interview with the Washington Post, says: “I take it that the republicans will elect both a president and house of representatives. Then their troubles will begin. They will soon be in the same predicament of the present administration. A breaking up is sure to come; it may be we will see a collapse of both the old parties before 1900. A great deal depends on the action of the incoming congress. I think it quite possible that legislation will be passed withdrawing the greenbacks and treasury notes from •circulation and funding them in a bond
Issue. If such a policy Is to be pursued. the sooner it Is effected the better and the sooner will the voice of the people be heard. In a few years more the conflicting elements in the old parties will separate for all time. About 75 per cent of the democrats who believe in free silver and equal treatment of both metals will break away from their plutocratic gold-standard coadjutors in the east About 25 per cent of the republicans will do the same thing. These seceders will go over en masse to the populists. It’s easy to predict what will be the result. The populists will come into control in every branch of the government and it will be administered in the interest of the people and not of the Shyiocks and speculators.”
BONDS AT BOTH ENDS.
How Grover Has Fattened the PocketBooks of the Bondholders. During Grover Cleveland’s first term as executive, there ■was a surplus of money in the treasury. How the government officers happened to let this money slip through their fingers is something that has never been fully explained, yet there was actually a surplus so big that it was a burden. The question came before congress, and measures were urged to dispose of this money. Some suggested one scheme and some another, but our Roger Q. Mills finally presented a bill providing for the expenditure of thi3 surplus in buyihg bonds of the government not yet due. In order to induce the holders of these bonds to surrender them, a premium was paid on the bonds, and in fifteen months seventy-two million dollars found lodgment in the pockets of the bondholders, in addition to the principal and interest due on the face of the bonds. Thus, the bondholders succeeded in getting in a bold robbery by the help of Senator Mills, to the tune of $72,000,000. This was the initiatory term of Cleveland.
When Mr. Cleveland came in on his second term a deficiency in the treasury occurred very soon, and how to dispose of the deficiency was a matter of much moment. Of course, it must be disposed of in some way to the financial benefit of the bondholders and money thieves. So instead of buying bonds, Grover went to selling bonds, and did the same as he did in buying bonds, that is, paid the bondholders a premium. The bondholders must have a steal out of the bond deal no matter whether the bonds are “a cornin’ or a gwine.” The money gang succeeded in fleecing the government out of from fifteen to thirty millions on the bond sale designed to procure money for the deficiency in the treasury. Thus Grover has fattened the pocketbooks of the bondholders at both ends of his executive service. When there was too much money, the bond holders were paid to take it out of the treasury, and when there was a shortage of money the bondholders were paid to put money into the treasury. It is down hill both ways for the bondholders and up hill both ways for the people. There is not the least doubt but that some one received a bonus for this scheme of feeding the bondholders fore and aft. As Grover has developed from a poor man to a millionaire in a few years on a moderate salary, it is reasonable to conclude that some of the fat went his way. Senator Mills is, of course, an honest man, but honest men rarely father a bill in congress designed to rob the people for the benefit of the bankers and bondholders. If Senator Mills did not receive a share o? this corruption fund, it is not because he was not in position to do so.—Southern Mercury.
NOT DISCOURAGED.
Tom Watson Says the Pops Are Just Beginning to Fight. In Wilkison county the democratic registrars struck off sixty populists who are entitled to vote; Jefferson some three hundred; in Columbia about the same; in Taliaferro at least 50; in Richmond they not only retained 1,200 illegal votes for Black but counted 1,000 of our ballots for him. We say it; and we will prove it. ... Discouraged? Bosh! Bosh!! Bosh!!! Let the other fellow get discouraged. His troubles are just beginning to commence. ... Courage, comrades! The battle is only begun. A generation of wrong cannot be swept away in a day. If your heart is not in this fight, the sooner you quit-the better: you will be a burden to us rather than a help. But if your heart is in it, then be of good cheer and press on. The world can never suppress a man who loves his convictions better than life itself, and who would stand disgraced in his own eyes if he did not do battle for the right as a mere matter of duty, reward or no reward. All that is worth having in the social fabric which shelters us is the fruit of sacrifice, of toil, of patience, of persistent adherence to noble ideas. We who are populists on principle cannot become indifferent. We dare not. We would sin against conscience to do it. ... Whipped? Not much. We are just beginning to fight.—People’s Party Paper.
A Bottomless Abys.
The celebrated “bottomless abyss” of France is situated in the Province of Vancluse and is considered one of the most interesting geological wonders in the world. It is called the Abyss of Jean Nauveah and has been known for centuries. It is from three to twelve feet in diameter and practically bottomless. It is supposed to be the vent of an ancient geyser.
RAILROADS COMBINE.
THE DAY OF RECEIVERSHIPS PASSING AWAY. In ft Few More Veer* All the Railroad* of the Country Will Be Owned by a Half Dozen Great Syndicates, Perhaps Fewer Than That. “A prominent railroad attorney said yesterday that the day of receiverships for railroads is fast passing. Every change now lessens the number of railroads through consolidation and strengthens them financially. In New England, the New York, New Haven & Hartford was securing most of the roads in those states; west of New York the Vanderbilts, the Pennsylvania company and the reorganized Erie are taking in all the small roads; in the Central states the Big Four and the Brice syndicate are helping the Pennsylvania to cover all the Central Traffic association territory;, in the South the Southern Railway company is gathering in everything in sight; in the West the Pennsylvania and the Vanderbilt lines are steadily getting better hold, as in the case of Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The Gould syndicate is getting a strong hold on the Southwestern lines, and Huntington on the Pacific coast lines. From, this it will be seen that in years to come the demand for receivers will be limited to a very small mileage of railways.”— Indianapolis Journal.
The above tells a tale that is worth the noting and the prophecy therein is eminently sound. In a few more years all the railroads of the country will be "owned by half a dozen great syndicates, with a tendency to grow to even a fewer number than that. These will be called systems. It is only a question of time when all the smaller roads, and even. the single lines that are rich, will be swallowed up. They can’t hold out against the gigantic systems.. These will be practically under one presidency, by virtue of ironclad agreements aS to rates. A hint of this is furnished by what is called “The president’s agreement,” now in process of formation in New York. The bosses of the great systems are engineering this deal and the object is to compel a universal compliance with a fixed tariff for passengers and freight. It was to this that Senator Chandler called the attention of the inter-state commerce commission in a remarkable letter which was reproduced in these columns. If perfected, and no doubt it will be, it will get around the antipooling clause of the inter-state commerce law, and that in fact is its prime object. Huntington, of the Southern Pacaflc, said in an interview some years ago that it would be better if there was only one president for all the railroads in the United States. His order would be law for all, and there could be no cutting of rates by competing lines. Here you have the spirit of what the populists contend for, only with the wrong head to it. There ought indeed to be only one supreme control for all the railroads, but that should be the people acting through the government at Washington. The railroads themselves, by processes described above, are gravitating that way, and in time it will be found absolutely necessary to take charge of them or abdicate the government in their favor. This is an immense question, and it can only be settled right in pursuance of the transportation plank of the Omaha platform. Just as trusts are proving the advantages, as well as the absolute necessity, of co-operating in great enterprises, and thus foreshadowing the co-opera-tive commonwealth, so the railroads, by forming these systems and reducing the number to the smallest possible compass, are showing that the mighty transportation interests of this muntry cannot be left to cut throat competition of hundreds of lines, big end little, but for their own efficiency as well as the public welfare, demand central control. This we call government ownership. They call it the formation of a trust where a few men are to have the undisputed control of all the highways between the oceans. —Nonconformist.
The following from a prominent republican paper, the Atchison Champion, indicates how Kansas was “redeemed” last fall: There is no good reason for attempting to conceal the fact that if a state election occurred in Kansas next month with the same candidates and the same feeling that prevails to-day, the present administration would be in a minority of many thousand votes. * * * There is no longer an 80,000 republican majority in Kansas; nor is there even a 50,000, or even a 30,000 majority over a united opposition. Indeed, if things keep on going as they are now, there will be no majority at all. There is much more in the contest next year than to provide bread and butter for hungry republicans, no matter how deserving they may be. * * * Public offices as gifts of the party in power, have crippled the present administration, and its broken promises and unkept obligations have made the men in office the target for much malice, mendacity and hate. If the republican party exists only by grace of the fellows in office and the fellows who are sore because they are out of office, the funeral program for the party in Kansas had better be arranged for at an early date. The body the temple of the living God! There has always seemed to me something impious in the neglect of personal health, strength and beauty. —Charles Kingsley.
A BUSY LIFE CLOSED.
A Patriotic Woman Called to Har Howard. Populists and other reformers throughout the United States feel the loss of a friend in the death of Mrs. S. E. V. Emery. The following sketch from the Lansing Daily Journal reveals the esteem in which she was held by the people of her own town. She lived for the uplifting of all humanity : “At an early hour this morning death ended the sufferings of Mrs. Sarah E. V. Emery, one of the best-known citizens of Lansing. In March, 1893, Mrs. Emery became afflicted with a malignant cancerous growth, from which she was unable to obtain relief, although every effort was made, and she gradually declined in health. “Since December last, when she was obliged to take to her bed, her decline has been rapid. Two weeks ago it became apparent the end was fast approaching and her death was daily expected. Last evening she fell into a quiet slumber, and the new day was but an hour old when she passed peacefully away. She had suffered excruciating pain for months, and death was a welcome visitor.
“Sarah Elizabeth Van Dervoort was born May 12, 1838, in Phelps, N. Y. She attended the public schools at Phelps, and completed her education at the Clinton Liberal Institute, in Clinton, N. Y. She taught school seventeen years, three of which were spent as superintendent of the schools of Midland, Mich. She was married to Wesley Emery in 1870 in Phelps. Soon thereafter Mr. and Mrs. Emery moved to Lansing, and have resided here since. “Few Michigan women succeeded in attracting more attention or took a more active part in the agitation of political and social questions than has Mrs. Emery during the twenty-five years she has resided here. She first interested herself in the greenback cause, taking the platform and participating in the campaigns. Later she espoused the cause of the Knights of Labor and was one of the ablest champions in the state. The farmers’ alliance next enlisted her sympathies and she exerted her'abilities in its behalf. “Mrs. Emery was ever aggressive in working for equal suffrage, and was instrumental in causing several suffrage bills to be framed and introduced into the legislature. In the W. C. T. U. she was recognized as one of its ablest members and two years ago was elected national president in the department of temperance in relation to capital and labor. “When the people’s party was formed she immediately set about to preach, populism in Michigan and was recognized as one of its ablest champions. She was not only a fluent platform speaker, hut achieved great success in the literary field. In 1888 she completed a book entitled ‘The Seven Financial Conspiracies,’ which dealt with the money question. Of this work over 360,000 copies were sold. Two years ago she completed another book written in the interest of populism. It was entitled ‘lmperialism in America,’ and over 40,000 copies have been sold. The former work had a most remarkable circulation in Kansas, where it wae used as a campaign document, and is credited with the subsequent populist victory there. “Mrs. Emery’s religious affiliations were with the TTniversalists, and her devotion to church work was constant until failing health rendered further work impossible. For several years she was superintendent of the Sunday school of the Universalist church, and almost her last thoughts were concerning the church. Last spring she presented the valuable site at the intersection of Capitol avenue and Ottawa street to the church. “Mrs. Emery’s career as agitator and reformer was both unique and brilliant. From the time she first began to speak on the greenback rostrum until disease Incapacitated her for furthei- work, she was constantly in the harness, campaigning in all sections of Michigan and in many other states. “Aside from her husband, Mrs. Emery is survived by two brothers, G. M. Van Dervoort of Shortsville, N. Y., and T. S. Van Dervoort of Phelps, N. Y.” As requested by Mrs. Emery, her body was cremated.
A Warning to the United States.
Recently the United States consul at Cairo made a report to the State Department showing the deplorable condition of the Egyptian government. From that report, the Topeka Capital selects the following facts: Egypt’s bonded debt reaches the enormous total of 509 million dollars. The population being only seven millions, this is a debt of about $72 per capita, or the equivalent of a national debt in the United States of five billion dollars. At present the productive area of Egypt is only five and one-quarter million acres, the product of this land must be gathered a revenue of eighteen million dollars a year to pay the interest on the public debt, which amounts to an average tax of $4.56 per acre. The consul’s report does not dilate upon the most important fact connected with this sad story, which is: Egypt depended on foreign capital to carry on her government and her public enterprises. English capitalists were always on hand ready and willing to advance gold and take bond” bearing high Interest. The Egyptian sia f esmen were either too ignorant or too e- shonest to issue their own money befo-- it was too late. They were sound mr»ney statesmen. Now their people arc .educed to such a state of degradation ctu the fiat of their government woa>- jf of little value. The Egyptians are slaves. The United States should take warning.—Topeka Advocate.