The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-13
THE MONEY POWER.

Beck, Of Kentucky, this remark:
We have been the slaves of the bond-hol
ers long enough here in the West Our col
tinued prosperity, our very existence, N lac
demands that this money power and Don
: monopoly of the East be broken up. II
I Mississippi Valley demands it. the enti1
South requires it, the whole West requires
and it will come sooner or later.
These sentences sound as if they had bee
written by the eminent Scotsman who repr'
scented the Ashland District, composed I
. Bourbon, Clarke, Fsyette, franklin, Henri!
Jessamine, Owen, Scott, Shelby and WOOD
ford counties, the blue grass counties, til
Henry Clay district, the Breckinridge dil
trict Of Kentucky, in the Fortieth, Forty
first, Forty-second and Forty-third Cor
crosses of the United States, his last electio
being by q vote of 10, 978 against 1922.
This is declaration that shows how reall
alive the people of the West, the people 9
the South, the agricultural producers of th
Republic, are to the grand, preponderant AM
paramount issues of the great contest now no
more than seventeen months distant.
"We have been the slaves Of the bondhold
ers long enough" Not literally slaves; no
without the liberty to work or not as W
pleased; not wearing collars or bearing TIL
brand of masters; not rationed to our ounces
Of meat and our pounds of meal per week; no
reused to our labor by the sound Of horn OF
bell; not spurred to action by lashes and the
curses of brutal drivers; not melted to unwill.
ing toll even by the prick of bayonets-not
slaves in any sense of ownership, but yet
slaves in this: that we sowed that which we
did not reap; that we produced that which we
did not enjoy; that our labor was exploited by
the cunning men Of the East, and that when
We earned or produced the value Of three
dollars we received only two dollars in value
in return. He who works all the days, weeks,
months and years of his life for himself CT for
his own family is no slave. He who spends
constantly considerable part Of his earnings
in one or more vices, though technically
slave to those vices, is yet regarded as free
man and no slave. But he who works two
days for himself and by compulsion for the
government is, in an important sense, to that
extent slave.
For ten years the bondholders have got the
benefit Of the toll of great many millions of
the people of this country. They have got
this benefit without returning an equivalent
They have pocketed the interest on national
debt now about twenty three hundred millions
They have pocketed the interest on State
bonds of a still larger amount. They have
pocketed the dividends on great many hun.
dreds of millions Of dollars worth of railroad
and other stocks and shares. These fellows,
who have done no work, have put into their
purses by crooked, mysterious and round |
about ways, without service and without equiv |
alent, under the shadow and protection of the |
Federal Government, sums so vast that in the |
aggregate they amount to many thousands Of
millions of dollars
If one man gets rich from the labor Of |
hundred men who remain poor, then it fol- |
lows that the laborers are, to . certain extent |
md in certain sense, slaves The Radical |
rule of fourteen years in America is marked |
with this result: That the laboring, and
Notably the farming classes, have grown
ooor, and that the managing, financiering,
political bondholding classes
AVE grown very rich. Thus the strong ex-
'ression is justified, and the bondholders
nay, with the strictest propriety, be affirmed
0 be the masters of those who pay their
oupons and dividends.
These our masters are scattered and hid
EN-. Some Of the shareholders are in Con-
ress and employ their dividends in keeping
themselves in power. Some hundreds Of mil
ons of bonds and shares are owned in Europe,
here the solid gold is carried when paid in
oupons and dividends. Other vast amounts {
70 held by sundry ''fat and greasy citizens
no elect members of Congress, and who i
ontrol local Offices. A vast proportion is
annually used to control elections, which are t
Ipected to result and usually do result in +
Inns much greater than the outlay. Crosus 4
nys an Office for servant and the servant e
pays the purchase money with usury. The '
'eat railway company packs q Legislature O
it'll its own tools and agents, and then gets e
ack its outlay in grants and franchises The L
ltocrat of finance maintains body-guard 8
legislators, has agents in every department, !,
i'd spies who dog the steps Of every oppo-
int.
Money is power on this continent, an auto
at which scarcely tolerates rival Even
ter the government Of the Republic passes !.
to honest hands this power of money will =
It cease. Massed capital in new forms and >
,der new managers will still form a potent IL
influence. The sin that is plated :.
gold will still defy public opinion and . .
ock at the law. Votes will be bought and o
ID, influence will be peddled about in legis- 5
i've halls, and legislation will be swerved S
IN its just purposes. from this date until o,
Q "last syllable of recorded time;" yet we ..
, permitted to hope that before many :. s
,nths have passed wholesome lesson will N
taught to the class who do not yet know bi
" to moderate their greed by any of the fu
les of decency. :.