The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-15

back into bonds drawing one per cent
| interest a day on one hundred dollars
which is three dollars and siXty~tiv,
| c5n;s year. Farmers and Others hold
| ing each, one thousand dollars cast
which they did not care to pay out
could get thirty-six dollars and fifty
| cents interest on the same, while having
their money always available for any
business purpose. Let the people have
All the interest, and the banks not d
dime on currency.
We must have a sound currency
made by the sovereign people for their
own use, with ali monopolies, corpora
tiOnS, state and national banks wisely
IL # out of this business arrangement.
The same honest industry that produc-
| ed all the wealth of the nation knows
how TO give existence to ten times as
much more; but Instead of chOpping
wood with axes made OF rock, indus
try intends to have far better tools to
work with. AS a matter of sober fact.
soft and easily worn gold, too scarce
for general use, is worth more as a sub
stitute for steel in making all cutting
Instruments, than as y basis OF any ours
rency. OF all property deeply absorbed
and tainted by fashion, pride and folly,
gold is the most implicated; being a
measure of value which holds quart OF
comfort as a watch, a chain, or a ring,
one year, and hardly gill OF comfort
a sorry luXury-the next year How is
it possible TO make the silver on sill
yer plated harness, or the gold on Il
gold plated harness, leave that service,
and be available to drain swamps,
build houses, barns and fences, as real
money? MOnopilists want gold and sill
vercOin to be the only legal tender in pay
ment of debts, because the annual sup
ply bears no comparison with the inn
menSe products of tlllaCe and huSban-
dry, aud admits OF easy concentrate
in few hands. Recently thore was 4 le-
gal sale of real estate in the District Of
Columbia 10 pay debt, and set aside
by the Court, not for any defect in the
proceedings, but because the property
sold at pdblc outcry fetched so small
sum that, practically the sale robbed
the land holder to enrich tho currency
holder. A deficient currency is con-
trivance invented by thieves and shar>
pers, to use the forms OIL law to transfer
the property of the m&ny into the pos
session of the few. This practice has
been carried too far already. Our six
per cent federal bonds which have long
est to run are worth from ten to twenty
per cent more than gold, which would
pay them if due now. Ii the peoples
promise to pay is 50 valueless, as the
bullionists contend, why arc govern
ment bonds at a premium over gold in
the same market, simply because homes
ty and Industry are better than gold coin
with bankers and boad~holders. Can
not the same people appropriate a part
of their honest Industry to supply them
selves with all needful currency withs
out the let or hirdrance ofmoney kings?
Are the people freemen or slaves? They
have the same right TO make a circula-
ting medium for themselves and use il
as they haYe TO make and use CONS
mon wagon. Our system of govern
ment is based on the principle of doing
the greatest good to the greatest nuns
Der. This does not mean that the masses
shall live i'll idleness, but that they
shall have fair opportunity to work to
the best possible advantage. To do
this, they must cultivate and acquire
that wise industrial craftsmanship
which makes voters sovereign in fact
as we'll as in name. All sovereigns are
very liable to be misintOrmed and mis-
led by sycopbants, c0urtiers, dema-
gogues and scoundrels. We have
reached 2 fearful crisis, with the bonds
of our state worth only fifty cents on
che dollar, and our farms sinking in
value. To my mind the remedy is plain
and satisfactory, but will Changers and
the masses have the good sense 10 APP
ply it in time to save the country from
ruin? To many minds the word cur
rency expresses an unknown abstrac-
ton. Hence, it ought to be discussed
as an abstract element of social and in>
dustrial economy. Like virtue, hon~
esty, confidence and credit, currency
inclines 10 become less material with aG-
van cling science, and more a sound NOR
al principle passing current in a Chris
Uian nation. With an adequate circus
lating medium to foster productive la
Dor, TennPsseans could produce enough |
to pay their state debt and their share |
OF the national debt, in from seven to |
ten years, without Inconvenience; and |
more than double the productive value |
of all their real estate. The avarice of a
few capitalists should not be allowed |
to defeat this contamination. They do !
not want the interest now paid in gold |
semi-annually to stop by the payment
of the principal. But the public good |
demands that this large annual tax on |
| abor shall end at no distant day.
TO achieve this results all departments |
of our industries must have the benefit |
oflabor saving machinery. There must |
be no class legislation, no restrictions |
on free trade with all peoples, but equal |
and exact justice to all, with special fA~ |
vors to none. This policy fairly per- |
sued, would place farmers, (the most |
numerous class) at the head OF our State |
and national affairs. AS the majority,
they cannot abdicate their political pow |
er, nor evade their public duty without |
dishonOr. We must study, enquire and |
learn the right path for republican GOV,
ereigns to walk in, follow it with firm
step to prosperity, independence and /
Utilize the forces of ma
ture. | have recently counted 1872 seeds
Of corn on one ear, produced from one
seed in four months. Here was a gain
Of 1872 fold in one third of a year. Let
he advocate of metallic basis for our
medium plant gold dollar
n the soil where this ear of corn grew,
give it the same care and culture, and /
see ii in one summer Or ten summers,
it will yield harvest of 1872 dollars
This yellow metal idOlized by fools, is
no where when compared with any plant |
Or animal raised on the farm tor in~
crease. While increasing largely agri~
cultural wealth, and ali industrial pro-
luctiOn, let US see how we can decrease
our taxes and national debt. 1t is
known that many currency notes frOmst
EN- cent fractional bills u p to one of
housand dollars get lost and DESTROYED
II various waYs.a and are never presented
or payment. If banks supplied all the
currency, this loss by fire, flood, ship
wreck, wear and tear in a thousand |
ways would be their gain. But if all |
,ur currency came directly from the
reasury Of all consumers and tax pay.
,rs, the accidental burnings of green
packs would put out OF existence a irac-
ion of their national debt. With cir
u ating medium in which all had con-
idence, and just as plenty in the South
md West as corn, wheat and cotton, it
would not De hOa. ded, but kept in active
Use to augment production, which is
he true source OF all wealth, and this
much used currency would wear out
ike much used plOw. Labor has to
purchase new plows, and it must do
he same with currency. Ia a normal
tate, forty million of energetic indus.
riOus people will wear out an average
# dollar each in a year, Including all
lther losses of money.
This disposes of forty million dollars
year ofour United States bonds cons
,erted into greenbacks aud fractional
In ten years with no increae
If consumption with an increase OF pop
llation and business, four hundred
million dollars OF our public debt is
Cancelled, and no tax payer
is paid a dime to attain that result Il
comes from giving the producing class
IS the benefit of the bankers profits.
Allow me to work out this tnaEolai and
Industrial problem a little farther. The
currency comsuriied In ten years must
Dc replaced by q larger sum in the
leXt decade. The wear and tear, fire
md shipwreck will bA fifty per ccat /
greater, just as many t4rC3eT who has