Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1881-04-14
De LA MATYR.
Speech OF the Greenback Leader at
Portland, Maine.

Speech OF the Greenback Leader a
Portland, Maine.
The following is the financial por
ton of the address delivered a few day
ago at Portland, Me-, by Hon. Gilber
DE La Matyr:
When the present banking system
was born in England then came tn,
funding system. For the past thirteel
years we have seen the national deb
of the world increase from $4,000,
10000 to S22, 100000, and when
speak of billions | speak of something
that | cannot grasp in my mind; nci
ther can you. Private debts have in
creased as rapidly. 1t is estimated
that the Rothschlds, without producing
have accumulated in siXty-iive year
$50, 100000 of the products of la
Dor. At the close of the war in OH
own nation the public, private ant
corporate debt was estimated at $4,000,
100000. 1t is now estimated at 800,
00O,000,0O0, while the whole weatl
Of the country is but $50, 600, ,OOO,OW
or $40,000,0O0,OO0 at the most.
find in the Bible usury condemned
in just an mequiyOcal language as an,
other sin. The word in the origina
means an eating cancer--it is Il cancer
on the body polite. 1t is great mean,
of centralizatiOn of wealth and power
1t is the great blighting curse that has
stopped the march Of civilization and
turned it backward. Providence has
greatly blessed us with abundance OF
crops, seeming to meet this great drain
upon our producers, but it has not been
enough. The farmers have no new
Improvements and they are not laying
money up in banks. The boom that
started through a partisan press was
not enough, Ask your business men
of this city if they have not seen that
prosperity. Ask them if it is Il fact
that they are laying up money. If it
is so, they are more fortunate than any
| have known.
There are many causes for this state
of affairs, but we believe the system of
supplying Our currency to be the great
est. We now have about $3jO,00O,OO0
of grccnbacks. They have only taxed
us the bare cost of printing. They went
directly from the treasury to the peo.
pie. Yetno man ever got Il dollar m-
til he had given something for it.
The bankers cf New \ Ork and Dos
ton went down to Washington and
bulldo2ed congress with placing an eX-
ception on the back Of these notes.
The conduct of the bankers cannot be
adequately characterized. They took
advantage of the government, when in
a life struggle, and manifested Il greed
unparalleled in the annals of sin The
acts of ghouls who followed the army
to rob wounded men while bleeding on
the field of battle were sanity com
pared to it.
The latter stole from those who per-
lied their lives for the nation Il few
dollars; the bankers robbed them and
their families of millions. But for
that exception the greenbacks would
not have fallen below par. Notwith.
standing all this is not the grcenbacks
the best currency we ever had?
On the other hand we have had
n1,nnt l'lIll nm IlIIl t.,,,1 1.
money that has taken $2,iOp,OOO,OOO
right out of the pockets of the people.
The power TO control the volume Of
money is the power to control the price
OF labor and property. ! would not
give this power which the bankers
have, with the temptation that sur
rounds it, into the hands of the minis
tcrs of the gospel. | would not trust
my own father with that power. Con-
gress, in the fifth section Of the fund
ing act, proposed to take away the
power of the banks To ruin the lUsi-
ness interests of the country by taking
away their means of rapidly reducing
the volume of their currency. They
said: Erase that feature from the
bill or we will ruin the business inter
ests of the country The president
obcyed.
We propose to check these banks and
pay off the double drain upon our toll
ers by paying off the bonds. We want
to lift off the load and let the people
rise up. They say we can't pay the
bonds in greenbacks. We can pay the
bonds according to the letter and spirit
of the contract-iust the same weight
and lineness they inserted themselves
in the contract. We can tell the bond
holders to take up their carts and take
the silver away, but more Of them will
take greenbacks than silver and it will
not take long to replace those national
bank bills with greenbacks.
Let the government issue all the cur
rency and regulate its volume, 1t is
the greatest power the government has.
If we give up that power to bankers
we may as well give them all the power
of government and make no further
attempt at ruling ourselves As to
other important questions before the
people | have not now the time to
speak, except that | do not believe the
railroads are entitled to all the profits
of the products of labor which they
transfer over their tracks. Neither
should the profits of the oil pumped
from the earth be giving to the Union
Pipe company. 1t is true cooperative
power has greatly facilitated transpor-
tation, but transportation can he per-
fected by other means than through
these crushing monopoles. All these
general matters should be controlled
by the government and then justice
may be done. No man has the natural
right to own any land mcultiyated,
The land should be properly divided
among those who make their homes
upon it; this should be done legally,
not communistically
Invocation to the Bondholder,
The CommOncr