The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-04-03

out. 1 would have o general house
cleaning.
These spider webs are made up Of bad
laws. Remove the webs and the spiders
will leave the house.
Then I would enact some statutes, pro-
vide some means by which men could
produce and exchange wealth untaxed of
the idle and vicious.
l would try to find what is the natural
law Of production and exchange and en-
deavor to help the people to obey that.
l would try to find the law under which
men came from savagery up to civilian
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 q
good trail to follow awhile.
The statesmen talk a good deal about
developing the Of the country
by their statutes enacted In congress-,
but nature has also done a good bit
towards developing men by her laws.
Nature may not be much of a statesman
but still / have considerable confidence
in her plan"
The speaker then drew a picture of
men In their 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 occnpies.
He showed from statistics the enor-
nous sums loaned upon farm mortgages
and other forms of indebtedness, public
and private and added:
This then is the result of o century
OF labor and invention. This 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, devel-
opedsthe mines, erected work shops and
factories, invented machinery and built
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.
And who are the men who advise the
people mot to NEEDLE in politics, but to
stick to their farms and workshops, and
by economy and work pay off their in
d~ebtedness?'
"Ihey are the statesmen-the politi-
ciansu under whose leadership this condi-
tion of things has come upon you.
1.-THE Indebtedness of the people, the
depressions in business, the hard times
and low prices are the result of false
teachings in political economy and of
producing exactly the condition of things
which now exist and the so-called estates
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 never be taxed for pro-
ducing or exchanging. 'Thesc," 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 a tribe
OF savages much less a great and pro-
gressive nation Of people,"
He then spoke at length Of the use of
money in the making Of exchanges and
showed again by illustrations and anec-
dotes how 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. ssThe law max
ers," he declared, ARE not to interfere
with the natural law of exchange, but
to assist the people in obeying it. They
are to devise the methods by which the
wealth producers may exchange their
products upon In 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 it the market, at
present about rs cents for the
amount that is put in a dollar, and
then the loss by abrasion or veal, but
no interest of necessity came from the
manner in which it was put in circula-
tion. The same of government paper
money-the g%reenback. sits 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 l 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
the 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 neces-
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 item to the
people. The people are compelled to
borrow of the banks because they can
something that will pass as money, and
as the government fails to furnish the
money the people must borrow of the
banks. Bank notes are based upon
government bonds. The government
borrows $1,000 Of the banks and
pays them 81 to 6 per cent. upon it, say
it averages 4 per cent. Then the gov
eminent 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 8 per cent. Now 1t is about
twenty-five years since the law authorfz-
ing the national banks was first passed.
Suppose this $40 bill, (holding a bill up
so the audience could see it) was issued
and loaned out when the
banks first organized say twenty-five
years ago. Then the government will
have paid interest upon that portion of
the bond, which this $40 bill may be said
to rest upon $40; 4 per cent. for twenty
five gives $40. And the people having
borrowed 1t at 8 per cent. have paid
eight times 2 per cent. which is $40,
making q total OF $50 paid for the use of
this ten dollar bill for twenty-five years,
and all the time it was the credit of the
people that made the bill good and not
the credit Of the bank. a gleenback
bill would have cost 10 cents instead of
$50, and have done just as good work.
But $50 is not at all the $40 bank bill
has cost the people. Money at 8 per
cent. doubles about once in eight years
and under any system in which the
medium Of exchange starts into c~ircula-