Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-26
BUTLER On PARTIES.
His Views About the GreenbaekeFs
Honey the Only Vital Point In the
Republican PArty-The Reckon
ing TO be Paid By the Rich.

New York Tribunel
Reporter-Which Of the two great parties
will suffer chiefly from the national greenback
movement in your State?
Butler-Tbe Republican party, | suppose,
for It Is In the ranks of the party IN power
that you will always find the larger proper
ton OF dissatisfied ones. In Democratic States
| think there Will be more Democrats than
Republicans to 20 over to the new move
ment.
Reporter-Do You intend TO be active in
organizing and marshalIng the new party
Butler-No. | am only one out of many
who sympathize with those who are dlssats-
fed with the present order of things. The
Tribune says that the Nationals don I want
TO have me in the new party at all. That
there Is to be q new party OF national lmpor-
lance is certain Inc Republicans and the
Democrats now stand on practically the same
platform. What h1ppened IN 1892, when
the Democrats and the Wings enacted sim
liar platforms? The weaker ones dlsap-
peared.
Reporter-Which of the old parties posses
ses the most vitality?
Internationally the Republican party. It
was the party that carried on the war. To
10 that it required money, and naturally 1t
drew TO it the men of ready capital. They
are with it to day, and the Republican party
exists for no other purpose than to conserve
their interests. Republican newspapers have
public debt. The Republican party is the
capitalists party, and it is natural that
workingmens party should rise up IN an
tagonism to 1t. When the government was
founded, it was special ann to prevent the
accumulation and TRANSMISSION OF great
wealth from generation to generation. When
Washington died in 1899, his fortune of
seven hundred and forty-seven thousand dol
lars was the second largest In the country,
the first being that of a Salem merchant,
whose fortune was nine hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. In these times it has been
possible for men in their own lifetime to
amass enormous fortunes. One man in few
years, with the aid of legislation governing
the carrying of passengers by land or water,
amasses a fortune of sixty or eighty millions.
Corporations operate to do Just what 1t was
designed to prevent when the founders of
the government said that there should be no
law of primogeniture, no entail OF property.
Great fortunes are now invested IN corpora
tions, and smart men are hired to administer
their affairs; so, instead of being divided and
dissipated by the new generation, they sup
port the latter in idleness, and are a mlllstone
about the necks of the laboriug classes. II
your father leaves you FIVE thousand dol
lars, Just think OF this, that some
man must work for you during his
| whole lifetime. A doller a day Is a
| large average earning, above the cost OF his
I living, lux lhc dNCIdSO LAhU sumo mon
will have had to work year to make 1t pos
| sble to pay you three hundred and slxty-fve
dollars interest on your FIVE thousand dollars.
| The man who keeps his capital en-
ployed in the channels of trade and manu-
featuring benefits the laboring man. But
those who do nothing with their capital ex-
cept to use it as a means of grasping hard
earnings to keep them in idleness, do not
fulfil their natural duty to society. have no
more respect for the rich tramp than l have
| for the poor tramp. In fact, the latter Is de-
serving of the more liberation, for often he
doesn't know any better. To issue green
backs is not to mortgage the property Of the
country, because the wealth the greenbacks
may represent remains in the country, which,
after the mortgage is paid, to carry out the
figure, is no poorer than 1t was before. Green
backs would put more wealth in circulation,
and turn unproductive property into me-
dunn for carrying on enterprises. There
would be reckoning to pay, perhaps, but
the rich would pay it. The laborer's account
is squared when he receives his wages. So,
in one sense, the greenback policy would
bring about distribution Of ACQUIRED veal 18th
in the interest Of the laboring classes.