The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-06-12

added thirty per cent to the alcohol that |
goes into our drugs and perfumerIes and !
the general industries Of the country the
internal taxes do not supply the current Z
demand for currency, and the Secretary I
has to buy currency rather than confess
insolvency. Let things be called by their
right names, (applause) and when the cur
rency in the Treasury stands as 1t did when
that announcement was made, at but a
million Of dollars let the Secretary frank
ly tell the people that hs must buy curren-
cy to meet the current expenditures.
Words are things in this connection, and,
! say, If you could induce the money wri-
tiers Of the country to state frankly every
day that there is still no employment for
money, kas nobody will engage IN trade,
and induce the Treasury Department 10
announce the fact frankly when it has to
buy currency, it would enlighten thou
sands that my voice cannot reach. Gap
plause) In 1866, -66-67 every man who
had labor to sell found ready market for
it, | care not what his trade was, what
his calling, what his position, if he were |
honest enough to be trusted in a shop |
| and would work, he could command work |
and wages The idle man in those years |
was the lazy man and he whose character
was tainted. We were all making money. |
Building associations were increasing III
Philadelphia, and square after square was
| covered with those homes Of which have !
| 50 often boosted on the floor Of Congress,
| of which the head of each family occupy
ing one Is the owner, and each Of which
has, III addition to Its sleeping apartments,
its parlor, kitchen and bathroom, with
copious supply Of hot and cold water.
| How is it now The WOrkingmen Of what
shop are organizing building associations
Where are squares Of these buildings be-
ing erected by honest, hard working men
Nowhere.
But, gentlemen, there is a more sombre
side to the picture. While one book
served to record the sheriffs sales in those
years, it takes eleven in these blessed years
Of contraction and resumption to register
such sales The men who then were add
ing to the enduring and taxable capital Of
the country, and to the comfort Of the
community, are now being stripped by It's
legislation of the homes they were then
building on what they regarded as the sure
foundation Of their own temperance, IN
dustry and thrift, and that the government
would not arbitrarily reduce, as 1t has
done, the value Of their labor or their
land by contracting the currency And it
Is for these men, for the producing classes
of the country that | fight our false imam
cial system, which Is sacrificing them for
, the benefit Of the money changers and bull
: lion dealers. Great applause.
l What has produced this unhappy con
! dition Of affairs My friends, it is self
] imposed. 1t is the result Of our devotion
to an idea to an abstraction. There are
millions of ms who think that Andrew
jackson is still President and still fighting
the United States Bank, and that We
! ought, therefore, to 60 for hard money.
I Laughter This is neither Jest nor ex-
aggeratiOn. We meet men daily who say,
. was jackson man, and | 90 for hard
. money" l have met fifty such. Then
3 there are theorists. doctrinalres, as they
3 are pleased To be called, who pooh-hooh
" ut me as a sort vt responsible lunatIc
i who has never read the bullion report OF
y the writings Of such flatulent cyclists as
d Bonamy Price, Of Oxford They cry,
d Consider what Ricardo says Well,
a consider what Ricardo says, and who he
IL was He was a bond and bullion monger,
Z and argued his cause. | have studied
= his theories. and denuunce them as selfish
II fallacles 90 for what old Ben Franklin
e says. Laughter and applause. Ben
e Franklin, who had more wisdom III his
If great toe than Ricardo had in his brain.
z and less seltIshness III his whole body and
. soul than Ricardo had in his great toe.
8 | am follower Of Benjamin Franklin
e and Horace Greeley on this currency ques
ion. Mr.. Greeley, notwithstanding tn,
x fact that the Tribune, founded by him, hN
l. turns satirizes or denounces my opinion,
se on this question, was the first man To con
a vince me Of the propriety and necessity o
= resOrting to the interconvertible bond sys
e. tenn. If you would read the article b
re which he brought me to his faith turn t,
to the Tribune Of November 9, 1871, which
IN hope his successors, in justice to his mem
E. DRY, Will soon reproduce It is a it'll
W hard on their theories, but will be rea,
a. with interest and profit by their patrons
Who was Ricardo He was banker, who
being rich, secured an election to Parlia
" ment, and did for himself and Rober
lie Peel, the son Of the first Sir Robert Peel
5, and other British bondholders, what Con
70 gress is dong for the banks and othe
% holders Of our bonds to day, Transferring
re the property of the men of toll and q
" | enterprise to the men of bonds and gold
h Applause. The Peel family has had it
p story, and 1t should be studied by ever
t. American, farmer, manufacturer and Ia
r borer.
at The first Sir Robert Peel was a mann
facturer Of fabrics, and contracted "a
es clothing the army. He was a patriot, an
IL proved his oyalty by putting all his profit
ry INTO the deprecated bonds Of the govern
in ment He said, 90 | stand with the 20,
i'll eminent, and make or lose, give it til
re use of my capital and when the war wa
Mt over he was one Of the heaviest holders ,
Il, the national debt. He and his son. Nj
II Robert Peel, were both in Parliament
ne The son united with Ricardo in forcin
le through the act providing for the resumy
y ton Of specie payment at the end Of fou
to years, Of which the act passed by Congre.
rk Is IN good measure a copy. They carrie
IS it, and Sir Robert, who had stoutly "
Of posed it, said to his son, Robert. yo
I'd have made the fortune Of your family
X bait you have ruined your country" An
ey II was so. The bonds went up, and ia,
ed tory and every other species Of productiy
property went down. The Paels an
cb Reardos sold at par the bonds they ha
as bought at forty per cent, and put the pr,
aI ceeds into real estate at one quarter 4,
o. one-hfth Of its intrinsic value. In thes
" facts you have the secret of the gres
re landed estate of the Peel family, and a
ar illustration Of the method by which IN
IN landed property Of the country is to B
IN | concentrated in few families. Men VII
u bought our bonds at forty per cent. al
10 now bowling for resumption, in order tia
is | they may get one hundred for them. an
50 that factories, farms, and mines may
n without marketable value, until they sha
IN come to own them and again set industr