The farmers' union., 1891-04-02

raised as other millions for like pur-
poses have been raised by advance in
freight rates. Who pays for the defeat
of the bill?
Right out OF the pockets Of the men in
whose interest the bill was framed comes
the money to defeat it.
Flies caught in the web Of a spider
are business men and producers OF
America to-day and every struggle they
make does but entangle them the more.
And you want to know what | would
do about it. You have asked me to
give. thus publicly my opinion Of the
situation and the remedy for existing
evils.
Well, l would take broom and brush
down the spider webs and then sweep
out. | would have Il general house
cleaning.
These spider webs are made up of bad
laws. Remove the webs and the spiders
will leave the house.
Then | would enact some statutes. pro-
vide some means by which men could
produce and exchange wealth untaXcd of
the idle and vicious.
| would try to lind what is the natural
| law of production aud exchange and Ell
deavor TO help the people to obey that.
| would try to find the Ia under which
men came from savagery up to civiliza-
ton. 1t seems to me that if we could
find the road by which God led men from
sayagery up to civilization that may be as
good trail to follow awhile.
The statesmen talk good deal about
developing the resources OF the country
| by their statutes enacted in congress,
but nature has also done a good bit
| towards developing men by her laws.
NDf fa nf IA to- N
| but still have considerable confidence
| in her plan"
The speaker then drew a picture of
men in :heir savage state, and following
| them on their course upward toward
| civilization showed how under the
| natural law, Gods law, they ever re-
| ceived the full reward of their own labor
| and invention and how had this not been
| SO: had nature. or God dealt with the
| people as do the so-called statesmen,
man had never reached the high position
| he to-day occupies.
| He showed from statistics the ennr-
nous sums loaned upon farm mortgages
| and other forms Of Indebtedness, public
| and private and added:
This then is the resulS of a century
| of labor and invention. '.'his is the re-
| ward of the laborers who have subdued
| a continent, who have cleared the forest,
| broken the prairie. slain the wild beasts,
covered the continent with a network Of
railroads, built towns and cities, dcvcl-
| oped the mines, erected work shops and
| factories, invented machinery and bull,
| It. uncovered the hidden ways of nature
and taught the elements to obey-this IS
their reward-a debt greater than they
can ever hope to pay.
| ssAud who rp tho mon who adyica tho
people not to meddle in politics. but to
stick to their farms and workshops, and
| by economy and work pay off their in
| dcbtedness?'
They are the statesmen-the politi
clans under whose leadership this condi
| ton of things has come upon you.
The Indebtedness of the people. the
| depressions in business, the hard times
| and low prices are the result of false
teachings i'll political economy and Of
| producing exactly the condition of things
| which now exist and the so-calIed "states-
men" have been, consciously or uncon-
| sciously, willingly or unwillingly, the
tools of the conspirators against the
prosperity and liberty of the people.
| The speaker then showed by illustra
| tions and anecdotes how production and
civilization are dependent upon eX
| change of wealth, and declared that the
producer should ncve: be taxed for pro-
ducing or exchanging. These" he de-
| clared. .'are the road by which man
| climbs ever to higher and still higher
conditions, and he who lays one single
obstacle in that upward path is not a
statesman. is not worthy to lead tribe
OF savages much less a great aud pro-
gressive nation of people,
He thpn smoke a lpprtb of tho ,rCp of
money in the making of exchanges and
| showed again by illustrations and anec-
| dOtes bow without money the exchanges
necessary to our civilization could
not be made, and how it was one of
the first duties Of the law makers Of
the country to supply sufficient money
to enable the wealth producers to ex-
change the wealth whice they create at
the least possible cost. 1.-The law max
ers," he declared, ''are not to interfere
with the natural law OF exchange, but
to assist the people in obeying it. They
arc to devise the methods by which the
wealth producers may exchange their
products upon an equitable basis-the
basis of cost in labor-one with another
paying no toll to any one for the priv
ilege for doing So"
He then explained the difference in
cost to the people of different kinds of
money. The silver which cost the price
Of the commodity 1t the market, at
present about IS cents for the
amount that is put in q dollar, and
then the loss by abrasion or wear, but
no interest of necessity came from the
manner in which it was put in crcuia-
ton. The same of government paper
money-the greenback. ats total cost
to the people arising out of the making
and putting into circulation of the green
back dollar is the cost of the paper, the
ink and the printing amounting to less
than 1 per cent. 1t is paid out by the
government in meeting the public ex-
penses, passes from hand TO hand among
the people making their exchanges of
products, and finally passes back into
tho public treasury by being paid in as
internal revenue. In it the people have
a perfect money, costing very little to
make and bearing no interest of nnccs-
sity.
How different the national bank bill.
1t, like the greenback, is printed by the
government, but instead of being paid
out by the government and then put in
circulation without interest, it is handed
over to the banks and by them to the
people, The people are compelled to
| OofTOW ol Ine Dailks because tney can
not exchange products without money or
something that will pass as money, and
as the government fails to furnish the
money the people must borrow of the
banks. Bank notes arc based upon
government bonds. Tho government
| borrows $1,000 of the banks and
pays them 81 to per cent upon it, say
it averages 4 per cent. Then the gov
ernment loans the bank 5000, without
interest and the 5000 the people are COM
PEELED to borrow Of the bank at any rate
Of interest the banks may fix. Suppose
1t averages per cent. Now it is about
twenty-five years since the law authoriz-
ing the national banks was first passed.
Suppose this $40 bill, (holding bill up
so the audience could see it, was issued
and loaned out when the