Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-11
WHO ARE THE BoNDHoLDERs ?

Liz oAStIDetShNlo nov AASU Si@lAOA-
ing to have the public debt paid in depre-
tiated silver, and they seek to palliate this
knavish proposition by advancing the
equally rascally argument that the bond
holders are rich people, who presumably
deserve to be despoiled. As some of these
advocates of national swindling have the
impudence to pretend to be in sympathy
with the Republican party, and as their
statement in regard to the affluence of the
bondholders is as false as it is shameless,
it may be in order to cite from one of Cen
eral Garfeld's Congressional speeches a
fair and true presentation of the case. He
begins by saying 81 affirm that the vast
" majority of the creditors of this country
are the poor people; that the vast ma
"jority of the debtors of this country are
the well-to-do people, in fact, people
"who are moderately rich" This being
the case it follows that the Greenbackers
are really trying to rob the poor for the
benefit of the rich. Let the people ponder
that fact. General Garfield proceeds
to show that the great bulk of
the loanable capital in the coun-
try consists of the savings of labor,
and that these savings are borrowed by
the rich for various enterprises He goes
on to say, Gentlemen assail the bond
"holders of the country as the rich men
"who Cypress the poor. Do they know
chow vast an amount of the public securi-
ties are held by poor people? took
occasion, few years since, to ask the
g Officers OF a bank in one of the counties
6 in my district-a rural district-to show
me the number of holders, and amounts
'held, of United States bonds on which
they collected the interest. The total
"amount was s4l6,0 And how many
"people held them? One hundred and
'ninety-six. OF these, just eight men
held from $4,000 to $50, 600 each the
other one hundred and lightweight
"ranged from $50 up to 81, 500. 1 found
90 in this list fifteen orphan children and
sixty widows, who had q little left them
from their fathers or their husbands es-
"tates, and had made the nation their
guardian. And l found one hundred
and twenty-one laborers, mechanics,
ministers, men of slender means, who
chad saved their earnings and put
''them in the hands Of the United
estates that they might be safe.
land they were the 'bloated bondholders
against whom so much eloquence is full
minated in this House." How the
swollen bladder of Greenbacker misrepre-
sentation collapses under the prick of few
facts like these The bloated bondhold-
:. ers of these jaundiced creatures are
widows and orphans, thrifty mechanics
and workingmen of all kinds, Industrious
women, men of small means who cannot
afford to take any chances on business
| speculation. These are the classes it is
proposed to plumber by paying them at the
rate of ST. cents to the dollar; these
classes who are the very people" ap-
pealed to for support of this Infamous
proposition But General Garfield under
stands the question, and knows the Cop
perhead cries of old. He can be relied on
to veto any llnavery OF the kind when he
is at the head of the administration, and
the Greenbackers whe want to take the
bread out of the mouths Of the widow and
the orphan will have to go to Hancock for
help or abandon their charitable under
! taking.