Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-08-28

| only by legislative authority and are sub
! 3ect to proper Legislative control; and let us
| not, therefore, resort to expedients in this
regard which are as dangerous as unneces-
| SAry.
| YOU ask my Endorsement of the Sub-Treas-
| ury bill AMI my assistance to pass it throug h
| Congress. I will be perfectly candid with
| you, and state that this bill does not meet
my approval; and feel confident that there
Is not II county in my district in which Il
] majority of the repres entative farmers VIII
| approve it when they understand its pro-
visions. In fact, within the last three weeks
1 have been twice informed by Mr.. Picker,
OF Dakota, who introduced the bill, that the
officers of the National Alliance were not
| determined as to whether they would press
| further this bill, or reform it; and am adj
vised by Mr.. Hatch, of Missouri, that only
last week Mr.. Picker told him that they had
! concluded not TO press said bill further now,
but to let the subj ect go before the people
of the country for discussion in the coming
| campaign, after which they would deter
mine definitely the form in which their de-
mands for legislation would be presented to
/ Congress. II M ii-moat this bill Is open
| to serious obj tCtions. some of which VIII
| briefly mention.
The main features of the bill may be
| stated as fellows: That warehouses to
| be built by the Government in all counties
where the follow ng conditions obtain:
when it shall be daily certified by the oath
| or affirmation of the clerk and sheriff of the
| county that the average gross amount per
| anncm OF cotton, wheat, corn, oats and to-
| bacco, produced and sold in that county,
| for the last preceding two years, exceeds
/ the sum of so00,09 at current prices in the
| county at that time.'' The bill does not pro-
| vide for the location of such depository"
| at the county seat or any particular point in
| such county; but at such points as,
| in favor of which, 100 cit-
zens of said county shall petition the
Secretary of the Treasury, requesting
the location of such depository in said
county. and file with said petition good
and sufficient title to a suitable and adequate
amount of land to be denoted to the Gov
eminent the site of 1.-The said depository
building 1t then provides that the owner
of any of the five kinds of crops mentioned
may deposit the same in said depository and
receive 50 per cent. of the value thereof IN
Treasury notes on which he shall be charged
interest at the rate of Per cent per an
mum. 1t further provides for the appoint
ment by the Secretary of the Treasury of
manager, to be paid from II 900 81 800 per
mum, to hold office for two years. An APP
preparation of S50000,03O is made to cover
expense of construction of warehouse, etc.
l will not go further into details as the
bill has been generally Published
throughout the country Aside from
the consider alton of the question of
power in Congress under the Consti tuition
to pass such law-which is Il very grave one
i think the proposition contained in said
OH can nOs De sustained on the ground OF
sound police. For myself, l do not believe
that our Government was ordained for any
such purpose as taking, by taxation, from
all the people, money to be loaned to some
of the people, for any purpose Or on any Sc
curity whatever believe further. that an
overwhelming majority of our people now
condemn the past policy of the Government
in lending Ter credit, and by which action
we have liability today of about sl30,000,-
200. account of credit loaned to Pacific
l., I,
strongly, and 1 think justly, condemn the
policy of present law authorizing Ma
tional banks to control in any measure the
volume of currency in the country by
their power to initiate and contract the
amount of their circulation at pleas urc, and
yet this bill, II carried into effect generally
throughout the country, would place in the
hands of spectators, through the man1pu-
latfon of the warehouse receipts and the
grain III store, Il greater power than Ma
tional banks have ever exercised in that di-
rection. But passing from such con der
ations as these, let us inquire what proper
ton of all the people whose taxes would
provide this accommodation for those who
could and would it would be benefited
by it: and if such inquiry does not nearly
demonstrate that the said bill proposes the
worst kind of class legislation, then 1 do
not understand it. This plan had its origin
in the Southern States, where almost the
entire product is cotton, which could
be stored at a much less cost for
transportation and with less risk of loss
from deterioration in value than could
our crops of wheat, corn and oats; and be-
yOnd that the cotton crop of the South
bears such relation to the entire crop of the
world that a material advantage might be
fairly .antic patcd to accrue to the owners of
that crop if the Govern ment would furnish |
the warehouses to store and the money an
unally to ''run a corner on that product.
Hence the popularity of the scheme in that |
section and the persis tent efforts of its ad- |
vocates there to force it upon the Alliance |
of other sections of the country.
An examination of the table presented by |
the representatives of the National Alliance |
in their argument upon this subject before |
the ways and means committee of the SEN |
ate shows that under the operation |
of the bill proposed the eight cotton |
States North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, |
Texas and Arkansas-which, according to |
the census of 1882, had population of 1855,
S29, and an aggregate assessed wealth of ST.,
329, 564, 571, would get 31S repositories tout of |
a total of ST. for the whole country. In
ether words, these eight States hold ing less |
than one fifth of the entire population, and |
less than one twentieth of the taxable prop
erty of the country, would secure largely |
over one third of all the repositories. That
Georgia., with less than One-third the Ropu-
| alton and not one tenth of the taxable prop
erty of New York, would get just six times !
as many repositories; that Mssissip pi with
one-half the population and one fifth the
wealth of Missouri, wo&ld get more than
Nv ice many repositories, and Arkansas, |
with about one third the population and one
sixth the taxable property of our State, |
would secure 80 repositories, wniIe Mis-
souri, would get but - The greater agri-
cultural product of our State consists of
live stock and the manufactured product
thereof, much of her land being given to
grass and the greater part of her corn and
oats being fed to stock, and therefore, much
of her yield is not recognized by this bill as |
fit subject for storage, etc hence, other |
S tates around us, which market most of |
their grain product in original form, would
be much more favorably served by this bill |
than she would. Illinois would have As, |
wa Al, and Kansas AZ repositories, and, as
before stated, Arkansas Sc, while Missouri |
would only get %.
Having seen how our State would fare |
der this bill, compared with her neigh
bors, let how fairly would the benefits
If there were any of such repositories be
distributed among the tax payers of the
different counties of Missouri and espe-
cially of my Congress onal district. If there
should be twenty-five counties in the State
entitled to have repositories (Which Sc
riously doubt), where would they be To-
Gated? Would they be scattered over the
State generally, as to make all sections
thereof equally accessible to them? No;
they would be located, for the most
part, in belt along the
Missouri river, and in the rich coun
ties of the Northwest, while there
would not be one in the whole district east
of Saline County and south of the Missouri
river to the Arkansas border. Every body
in the sighted district, however would pay
H. Ii Tx,A l.