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

The Greenbackers are just now clamor-
ing to have the public debt paid in depre-
ciated 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 afiluence of the
bondholders is as false as it is shameless,
it may be in order to cite from one of Cen
eral Garfelds Congressional speeches a
fair and true presentation Of the case. BE
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
g 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
show vast an amount of the public securi-
"ties are held by poor people? l took
occasion, few years since. to ask the
/" Officers of bank in one of the counties
8. in my District rural district-to show
me the number Of holders, and amounts
'.held, of United States bonds on which
'they collected the interest. The total
samount was s4l6,000 And how many
'.people held them? One hundred and
''ninety-six. OF these, just eight men
held from SIS, 900 to $50, coo each the
other one hundred and eighty -eight
"ranged from $50 up to 81, 500. l found
&C in this list fifteen orphan children and
sixty widows, who had little left them
''from their fathers or their husbands es-
"tates, and had made the nation their
guardian And I 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.
''And 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-
g. rs 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 972 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 knavery of the kind when he
is at the head of the administration, and
the Greenbackers who 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.