Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-06-08
Greenback Clap-trap.

Mr.. Joseph L. Smith. the candidate for
governor of the greenbackers, is busi-
ness man. He has amassed a fortune in
business. We find no fault with him Tor
that if he has obtained his large property
honestly. We do not complain if part or
all of that property is in United States
bonds. He has the right aud privilege 10
acquire bonds, to clip his coupons and
collect his interest, the same as any other
bondholder. He is no better. no worse,
than any other bondholder. If bondhold-
ers are Sbylocks because they hold bonds.
Mr. Smith is a Sbyock.
But how comes it that he greenback
party, which in its platform plants Itself
in opposition to the boniholders as "a class
and whose organs stigmatize them as Shy
locks. money kings, credit mongers, men
who grind the face of poor, &c. &c.. hav"
nominated such man rs Joseph l.. smith
knowing him t. be bondholder and a
man of large properly, a. the highest rep
resentative of he greenback doctrines ard
principles Mr. Munson who was nomin
aled and supported by the party last year
as a candidat, for governor was no, rich
man. not a bondholder, but a man occu-
pying very different position in that re-
spect from the one occupied by Mr.
Smith. II Mr. Munson was good repre-
sentative of the party last year, can Mr..
Smith be fair represent dive this year,
unless the party has radically changed It's
principles Looking at Mr. Smith as he is.
rich in bonds and other property, what
nonsense, yea what dishonest clap-trapit Is
to pirate in the platform of the purity about
"credit mongers,r and harp in the or
gans about Shyloeks and money
kings. We make no objection 10
Mr.. Smith because of his bonds if he got
them honestly, as we presume he did, but
we should like to know how the honest
supporters of Mr.. Monson or the believers
of Scion Chase and Chase's Chronicle or
in the greenback platform adopted al
Lewiston, can vote for the bondhoIder,
coupon clipper, Joseph L. Smith. as can
didate OF the greenback party for gov
ernorP IF they do vote for him where is
the honesty that the new party boasts of
possessingP .H
As Mr.. Smith is a business man of long
and large experience, we wish he would
explain how it is that the issue of unlm-
tied, irredeemable paper woul |, As stated
In the first plank of the lie ~iston platform,
"enable the people to do cash business
and to relieve them from the debt system
which has made the industrial and COM
mercial classes the slaves and drudges of
the credit mongers of the world" Shall "A
man under this system be able to reap
where he does not SOW ? Is this money to
be thrown broadcast over the land, as
much falling into the hands of the idle as
into those of the industrious What
would be the inducement TO work under
this arrangement Who would build rail
roads, fill the land with useful inventions,
erect factories, set in motion the countless
wheels of commerce and industry, il those
who furnish neither labor nor capital for
such enterprises should share the benefits
equally with those who toll and spend Their
money to carry them forward? Where /.
the end of this thing except in the com
pIete overthrow of all industry, all incen-
tive to labor. and final Communism We
know how il has been in other countrie,
that have tried the same experiment; the
result would be as disastrous here as there