Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1891-01-08
BEAUM0N7's POWERFUL SPEECH,
Continuation Of the Address Delivered BY
Ralph Beaumont at Canton. Octo-
bs, IS, 1890.
Detailed Explanation Of Some Of the
Principles Of the Knights Of Labor
Organization.
NUMBER VIII.

NUMBER VIII
Plank ID, Of our platform advocates the
establishment Of a national monetary
system, inswhich circulating medium
the people without the intervention Of
banks; that all, the national issue shall be
full legal tender in payment of all debts
public and private and that the govern
ment shall not guarantee OF recognize any
private banks, nor create any banking
corporation.
Is, That interest bearing bonds, bills
Of credit shall never be issued by the
government, but that when need arises
the emergency shall be met by issue of
legal tender misunderstanding money.
These two planks, in connection with
the land plank, are the most important
that are in the platform.
Different kinds of material have been
used money by different nations at diff
ferent periods Of the worlds history. For
instance Lycurgus compelled the Grecians
to use iron as money:the Romans and
Cartheginians used leather as money; in
the early history of Virginia, tobacco was
a legal tender in the payment Of debt; in
the days, Of Davy Crockett in Tennessee,
coon skins were a legal tender in the pay
ment Of debt, and in the early days Of the
COLONY Of Massachusetts, Bay, Goldfish
were legal tender in the payment Of
debt. Now, just imagine for a moment
the predicament that dude of this
period would be in going to church on
Sunday morning with goldfish in his
vest pocket to place in the contribution
box!
In this day and age Of ours there are
two systems Of money advocated. One
is known as the hard money or specie
basis; and has been termed in
the debates during the present session of
congress The Silver OF Gold Standard. !"
The other is what is termed the Govern
ment Legal Tender System where the
money is based upon the whole wealth Of
the nation. We knights. OF Labor belong
to the legal tender crowd. The mother
of the specie basis system is the bank Of
England, and when she can get our gov
ernment to adopt that system slsecan tell
the farmer of Dakota how much he shall
have for corn, wheat or pork. She, be-
ling buyer nation Of these products, by
controlling the coin, contracts the volume
and reduces the prices when she wants to
buy, and initiates the volume and en-
hances the prices when she wants to sell.
THE sPEC1E-BAsIs SYSTEM.
The specie basis system Of finance has
enabled the fnanciers and money lenders
of the country precipitate a panic about
once in ten years, that has cost the peo-
pie millions in bankruptcy. The system
is as follows: Suppose ten men in this
city possess S1OO, 600; they could under
the law, start bank and loan this money
out under the law ats per cent to busi-
ness men who employ labor This would
bring them in $4,000 per annum. This
would not be making money rast enough
to suit them, so, one of them, who is more
| y
what to do. Let us get an act ofcorpora-
ton from the state legislature. This act
shall read as follows: That we, the
members of the bank, shall take this
800, 900 and put it in strong box called
safe. That for every dollar in gold we
put in our safe we shall have the privil-
ege Of loaning out to the employer of la
Dor three paper dollars, and we will
charge these employers.of labor six pei
cent per annum on each of those dollars. y
That would amount to $4,000. which
would be better than the $4,000 which
they would have received had they loan.
ed out the gold, and in the second in
stance, they would at all times have their
own money in their box, while in the
former instance it would have been loan.
ed out to the people. besides, it would
rob labor five times as fast at compound
interest in period Of ten years.
THE PANIC OF 1857.
In 1857 we had panic in this country
How many Of you gray-haired old men in
I
the audience remember the panic Of 1857
remember it we'll. In the summer o1
that year made shoes in Massachusetts,
for Sl3 case. After the panic struck
me I made a better article during the
winter, drew them two and a hall
miles on hand-sled, and took my pay
in white beans and dried apples. The
boss told me that the last shoes made he
had to trade to the farmers for white
| beans, that the banks had suspended
specie payments and their notes were not
worth anything; and if made any more
shoes would have to take my pay in the
same kind of stuff as he had.
Now my young friends, let me tell you
what brought on the panic of 1857. Eng
land had just come out of the Crimean