Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-27
THE SUB-TREASURY.
DISCUSSED PRO AND CON IN
LIMESTONE COUNTY.
Attacked by Hon. j. ". Blake of Mexia.
Defended by r. W. Coleman of South
srn Mercury and Alliance Fame.
THORNTON, LIMESTONE COUNTY.
TEX, June 90, 1891.


TEX, June 49, 1891
Correspondence OF the Gazette.
This has been field day in Thornton.
There was a picnic in the spacious grounds
of the academy, with political speaking
from 10 o'clock until night. The sub-treas-
ury scheme was thoroughly discussed, pro
and con, before a large and appreciative
audience, and if these people are not well
indoctrinated upon the subject it is not for
lack Of teaching.
r. W. Coleman of Southern Mercury and
Alliance fame opened the argument in q
two hours speech in favor of the measure.
He said that this was an irrepressible con-
monopoly. That the expressions OF the
money power had become so intolerable
that the people in self-defense had been
compelled to league together in the organ
izaticn known as the Farmers Alliance.
That it might be objected that the Alliance
itself was monopoly, and this was, in a
sense, true. But there were good monopo-
lies and bad monopolies. II we opposed all
monopolies we would have TO complain OF
the God Of heaven himself. as He was a
monopoly of all power. Every one was
willing to acknowledge the evils existing
under the present state of affairs, and TO
conccde that some remedy for the aggres-
sion Of capital must be found but the ques-
ton Is asked: What are you gong 10 90
about it2 We answer, we are going TO do
them as we did the bagging trust-break
their necks.
He likened the body polite to sick man
covered with ulcerous sores. The good
physician, instead of trying to heal the
sores by outward applications, would strike
at the root Of the disease by the use of u
constitutional remedy and publication OF
The patients blood, though at the same time
prescribing some cooling, palliative lotion.
This was what the Alliance proposed to do.
They offer the sub-treasury as the constitu-
tional cure, and some minor plans of relief
AS the palliative.
He charged the civil war upon the money
barons of Wall street and of Europe. They
wanted an immense national debt con-
tracted, so as to afford safe investment
for their idle millions They desired con-
trol of the currency, so that they could
AIRY on their nefariors juggling unmo-
Tested. They wanted the negro freed,
knowing that they could not control his
labor while he was in the hands of tho
Southern planter.
He then went for the two old parties in
most approved John i. Sullivan style.
They We're both corrupt to the core and
maintained a perfect understanding with
each other. Democrat and Republican,
they were tarred with the same stick and
worked in uniaon TO delude the people
with false promises. No relief could be ex-
pected from them He himself was Dem
ocrat; much better Democrat than those
partisans who wore the party collar. SO
were all sub-treasury men.
He next went for the national banks.
Within the last thirty years congress had
turned over TO private corporations every
function of government except the right TO
declare war. Incidentally he paid his re-
spects to Honest John Sherman, whom
he styled the arch traitor and the. meaneSt
man in America. He had gone into politics
low Aaf fit.S-
as a tribune Of the people. He was now
worth S1,000,000 Probably this vast sum
had much to do with his change of heart.
He then plunged into rank fiat money
harangue. There was no standard for
money except the Drawn of the laborer.
Whenever government takes piece OF ma
terial, however intrinsically worthless, and
stamps It's edict upon il, that instant it
loses its commodity value and becomes
money, with just as much purchasing power
as il it had been coined out of the so-called
precious metals. In fact, neither gold nor
silver had any intrinsic value. They were,
per Sc the most worthless of all metals,
and owed all their value TO their arbitrary
designation by the common consent of civ
ilized nations as circulating mediums De
monetiZe them, and with the exception of
small quantity OF each used in the arts,
they would be drug on the market.
Democrats and Republicans alike told you
money, This was 4 lie, and they knew
they lied when they sad so. Their only
object was to bamboOzle the people and
keep them in slavery. The Federal con-
stitution expressly confers upon congress
The right to make and issue money. That
money need not be a promise to pay it
needed no metallic basis. The sanction OF
government was basis enough.
Greenbaclzs had saved the nation once,
and could do so again. Nor would 1t de-
preciate unless juggled with by the money
sharks. The first issue of 500, 900, 900 never
went below 100 cents on the dollar in gold.
Then came the Hazard circular from Eng
land, demanding the recall of the green
backs, and a Servile congress obeyed the
dictation of their masters, English capital
lists and English gold, and their allies OF
Wall street.
But the barons wanted paper money
themselves, provided only they could get
the kind to suit them. So they devised the
damnable exceptional clause" by which
the United States refused its own paper for
duties. The soldier in the field was COM
PEELED to take this spurious and degraded
issue. Under such skillful manipulation
depreciation rapidly followed, just as the
sharks had foreseen and intended.
Later came the so-called ''act tc
strengthen the public credit" which should
have been styled an act TO plumber the
American people, providing for the pay
ment of the public debt in coin or its equiv
slent. Again, at the bidding of their own
ers. slavish congress had previously de-
preciated the coin by its infamous legisla-
ton. and the gamblers of Wall street had
nearly all of il in their foul clutches. To
meet its. obligations the government of
course had to buy from them at their own
price Thus, by a series of lnlqultous leg
islation was kept up the game of battledore
and shuttlecock between coin and currency.
So to-day the greatest people on the face
of the earth lie PROSTATE under the heel OF
corporate power, and gigantic republic
lies gasping in almost its death agony.
Something must be done; the Union must
be preserved But howe The Alliance Of
fers solution in the sub-treasury.
The, people must have more money. Even
Coke, Mills and the rest of that ilk admit
that only 50 per capita is now in circula-
ton. In the old states property has in the
last fifteen years decreased in value from
40 to 60 per cent, while the lands are COW
cred with mortgages. This is not true TO
such a great extent in Texas, because
Texas is a comparatively new state
This plan is the outcome of the delibera-
tons of the aggregate wisdom of the Alli-
ance in these United States. But as soon
us il is promulgated to the world, what fol-
lowss Wall street and its satellites begin
relentless war upon it. Every species of
misrepresentation is INDUCED in by hired
speakers and yenal press. Its supporters
are slandered and maligned. For instance,