The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-05


Unmindful That the Patient rs Like
Iy to Die Before the Demo
cratic Doctors Can Agree
as to How the Poul-
tice should he
Made.
UNITED STATES SENATE|
WASHINGTON, February, 9, 1891.
Messrs. J. T. Buckley, c. J. Coleman and T. T.
Cox, Committee
GENTLEMEN 81 have had no Oppor-
tunity, until today, to answer your
communication of the 2Sth ult.,
which was received a week ago.
have, however, been led 10y my close
identification with the interests in
volved in the matter of which you
write, to give the subject much CON
sideration, from the beginning of its
agitation.
In answering the questions you sub
nit to me, | will give yOu the result
of my reflections and examination
without any elaboration that might
tend to mystify my answers, which it
is due to all concerned, should be ex-
plicit.
The questions are so plainly and
succinctly propOunded in your note
that | cannot better state them than
by setting it out in full. 1t is as fol-
lows:
eve, the undersigned committee,
were appointed 10y the Carroll county
alliance, i'll session, and were request
al tn ascertain ynnr yin~S nY, tIa opp
stitutionality of the sub-treasury bill,
now pending in congress. If you be-
lieve the same to be unconstitutional,
please state wherein and in what par
ticular. Further, can you submit
some plan for us to advocate for the
relief of the masses of the people ?"
The bill you refer to provides for
the erection of government ware
houses, necessarily at enormous ex-
pense, in those counties in the United
States, probably less than one-t third
of the whole number, producing and
selling annually certain designated
products exceeding in value "a certain
named sum. The articles specified
are wheat, corn, oats, cotton and to-
bacco, and the annual value is fixed
at 100000.
The owners of such products may
deposit them in these warehouses, and
receive from the government so per
cent. of their market value, to be de-
termined by government officials I'M
der regulations to be prescribed 10y
the secretary of the treasury.
Receipts are to be issued to the de-
pOsitors showing the amount and val
ne of the deposits, the sums adyanc-
ed and the charges to be paid, and
twelve months is allowed for the re-
demptiOn of the products by the re-
payment of the advances with inter
est at 2 per cent. per annum,
with the cost of insurance and other
charges.
If not redeemed within the time
prescribed, the products are to be sold
at auction to pay the debt and
charges, the excess, if any, to go to
the holders of the receipts.
The sum of $4,000, 900 is to be APP
prOpriated to carry the bill into effect,
and even this large amount is believ-
ed to be wholly inadequate to the
erection OF the proposed ware houses,
by competent persons who have made
the calculation.
If such scheme as this were in
operation, some of it's many i'll effects,
| think, would be the following:
/. The taxation of the great body
of the people to provide the means of
comforting supposed benefits upon a
particular class of the population, II
great evil against which those most
interested i'll agriculture, especially
in the southern states, have been war
ring for many years.
2. The marked discrimination by
the government, between it's own cit
liens in the loan of public money at
rate of interest far below what is
customary to a class limited not alone
to those engaged in the particular
pursuit of agriculture, but in particu
lar branches of that pursuit, or to
those who become the owners, by
purchase or otherwise, of particular
products which are designated.
8. The advantages which the people
of the large and productive counties
would have over those in counties
which do not produce enough of the
designated crops to entitle them to
government warehouses. The far
mers in more than half the counties in
Mississippi, in order to get the bene
fit of such measure as this, would
have to haul their cotton away from
the natural shipping points into an
other county before they could find a
government warehouse.
4. The sudden and dangerous fluct-
uations in the volume of currency
which would be produced by the in
flatiOn that would inevitably follow
the deposits of the products, and the
receipt of so per cent. of their value
on the one hand, and on the other,
the contraction which would neces-
sarily result from their withdrawal,
and the repayment of the money.
5. The advantages which the knowl-
edge of the deposits in all the ware
houses would give to spectators in
forming their combinations to beat
down the prices of the products nam