Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-28
PERTINENT QUESTIONS.
A Michigan Editor.Puts Some Very
:. poIntedll llnteFrogatovies 20 q "Fiat
Money" Champion.

. n MloU1&0u e0S0tspOSS 8om0 voT
: poInted,l d,lnterrogatovIes TO q "Fla
Money" Champion.
The paper-money question is tn
chief political issue in the presen
campaign in Michigan. General
Sam Cary, the windy Ohio orator,
the principal speaker of the "Nation
| al" party of irredcemsble "fiat mon
ey." The Lansing Republican, pub
lished at the State capital, replies t
one of his recent speeches, and addres
ses to him the following pertinen
questions
!. In asking me to forget all their oil
party ties and listen to you as Ameri
can citizens only, don't you come a
the hired advocate of party whicl
, binds its members with pledge tina
"if q "National" does not wish to vot
his own ticket, or any portion thereof
he shall not vote the ticket of eithe
of the old parties" ?" Do you call sucl
despotism from a dark-lantern eau
Gus, such fetters on freedom of elec
tions, by the name of "reform?' Die
you ever hear of anything quite 81
mean since the old KnOw-N0thinl
lodges excluded mon whose fathers
d happened to be born outside Of tht
United States?
Why don't you preach to the "Na.
tional" party to repudiate its bad lead
ers--such fellows as Brick Pomeroy
Walter II. Shupo, Moses w. Field
Sam Cary and others?
You say that at is no matter who
brought on the rebellion, and who il
responsible for its evil effects all
war-engendered passions ought to
cease" Why then do you begin a
new war ON capital, and stir new ami,
mosities against men who save any
money and engage in banking, by
calling them "old cusses," "pinching g
old Shylocks," "hard-money fools,
"robbers of the people," frauds,
cheats and swindlers," "coupon-clip-
pers living on the earnings of the peo-
ple," "cancers on the body polite, y
ssdeeply. to be abhorred," "fools and
pimps Of corporations" "money pow
er with its grip on the throats of Dem
ocratic and Republican leaders. y
causing the commotion of civil war,
of reputation and revolution?' Do
you consider this and similar Ian.
guage fit for political discussion in
the interest of "reform," especially Y
when you are condemning "passion
and animosity ?"
What proof have you of there be-
ing 100000 unemployed laborers in
this country, degraded into "tramps''
by the gnawing Of hunger and the
distress of. their families? Do you
know enough arithmetic to perceive
that this is one starving tramp" to
every twenty-three persons That if
you tell the truth, Michigan to-day
has $4,000 of these wretched crea-
lures, Jackson county 1000 of them,
and the city Of Lansing $50? Where
are they and who are they?
What proof have you that there
are 200O,OOO more men only half en-
ployed in this country, and 1000, 600
more who, if they were to be sick one
month, would see their families fore
ed into the poor houses? Do you
know enough arithmetic 10 perceive
that 100000 Of idle, or half employ
ed or almost destitute laborers make
about three-fOurths Of the whole
working force Of the country? DO
You pretend to say. seriously, that
only one man an four and a quarter in
the country has any permanent labor
or business to perform! (The total
number of sble-bodied males Of work
ing age ia estimated at 9,OOO,O0O.) Is
this true picture of American socie-
ty to-day?
Don't you know that gold and sill
yer in bars will buy just as much
property as in coin? Don't you know
that if the Government stamp should
be all filed off gold eagle, but the
| filings all saved, you conld buy Just
as much property with it as when it
was perfect?
Don't you know that before there
was any mint in California, the gold
dust was weighed, as your gold ca
giles we're weighed (you say) in Lon
don, when yon wanted currency for
them? In short, don't you know that
the Government stamp adds no value
to money, but simply certifies to the
value already in it?
Did you ever know a man to lose a
dollar by his confidence" in national
bank bills?
Did you ever know a man to refuse
national bank bills for any property
he had to sell
Did you ever know interest or ex-
change to be as cheap under any
other system as at tie national banks
now?
When you say that "greenbacks and
national bank notes cannot any more
exist together than freedom and sla-
very, for one of them has got to get
out of the way" don't you know that
greenbacks and national bank notes
have existed together for fourteen
years, and that for six years past the
difference between them has not av-
eraged $30,OOO,0OO.
When you say there are 16O nation
al bankers in the Congress Of the Uni
ted States, don't you know it ia false !
Can you name twenty national bank
ers in that body2 Can you name ten
Can you name even five whose bust
ness is national banking?
Don't you know that this falsehood
was told three years ago by Moses
W. Field, and that he has never yet
given the names of these national
bankers nor attempted to do so
When you say, "there was never q
bank established on Gods footstool
based upon coin, that was not fraud
and cheat and a swindle upon the
producing class. and never will be
/ n tn hn M
England, the Bank of France, the
Bank Of Germany, tho Scotch banks
and the gold banks of California
Do you know so much more about
banking and finance and the produc.
ing classes as to set up your black
gusrdism against the steady conf.
dence reposed in these banks by 1885,.
100000 people-one-eighth of all
mankind, and the most intelligent
industrious and enterprising races
too?
If these specie e-bottomed banks
some of them established for ages
had been "ffauds, cheats and swim.
dies on the producing classes" all the
time, would not production have beer
stopped and those countries all have
grown poor instead of rich?
| When you refer to France as being
whipped by Germany, and issuing
| 81, 600, ,OO0, 1000 of greenbacks to set hel
people at work to earn money to pay
for the whipping, don't you know
this to be false2 Don't you know
that France Issued no greenbacks al
All-not q dollar of government pa
per currency? Don't you know tina,
she authorized the Bank Of France, q
private corporation, to issue notes be
lyond her immediate ability to re-
deem? Don't you know that in tht
worst times Of the war they never
sank below SO cents on the dollar
Don't you know that the French gov
ernment issued proposals. for popu
lar loan at per cent. interest DOM
you know that the people rushed IL
such numbers to secure this loan tha
thirteen times as much was subscrib
ed 40 the government needed? Dom
you know that the French are ma
ton of bondholders to-day? Dom
you know that they are nation o.
"coupon-clippers," one man in every
five owning government bonds an(