The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-11-24

been reduced to about 5000, 600, 600,
with the uniform and inevitable result
which has always and everywhere fol
lowed an undue cOntractiOn-high-
priced money and low-priced products,
entailing distress, poverty, suffering
and ruin.
In 1880 we had 2,O9O national banks,
with a circulation of $317, OO0, 600, and
yet thetrlOans and discounts amounted
to 81, 041, 900, O00-Or an amount in eX-
cess of their circulation of $723. zoo, 600
or S28 per cent. In 1890 we had Z, SOY
national banks, with a circulation of
1925, 176, 900, and yet their loans and
discounts amounted to 81, $40, OOO, 600,
or an amount in excess of their CirCu-
latiOn of 81, S44, 900, OOO-Or 1873 per
cent. On what principle of equity or
safety can individual or corporate
credit be thus substituted for money?
We demand governmental control of
transportation; we demand the reten
ton of u public domain for the use
of our own people; we demand the pro
hibitiOn Of gambling in futures of agri-
cultural and mechanical products; we
demand the free coinage of silver; we
demand that no class or interest shall
be taxed to build up any other class or
interest; we demand the election of
United States Senator's by the direct
vote Of the people; we demand a grad
uated tax On incomes; but more i'm
pOrtant than all these, broader and
deeper than all these, and first of all
THESE, is the transCendently paramount
demand that our national bank system
be abolished, aud that the peoples
money shall be issued to the people,
direct by the government, at a low rate
Of interest, and in sufficient volume to
meet the requirements of u growing
population and trade.
The supreme issue before the Ameri-
can people is and must be financial re
form. Those powers and functions
designed by the trainers of our COnsti
tuition for the benefit Of the people, and
which have been stealthiLy usurped
and appropriated by corporate and
monOpOlistic combinations, must be
restored to the people, to whom they
rightfully belong, Thus can be done
only through persistent effort, I'M
swerving fidelity to principle, and har-
moniOus united action.
Evidence is not wanting to warrant
the conclusion that it is the deliberate
purpose of the two great parties of the
country to avoid, evade, and ignore
this great issue in their platforms and
campaigns. That is their deliberate
purpose to divert the minds of the PEG
pie from it, by giving undue and mag
nitied prominence to those questions of
secondary Importance, which have in
this regard served the purposes of the
money power so we'll and so faithfully
for the past quarter of a century. With
their solemn and repeated pledges on
the subject to the voters Of the country
and before the world our financial
system was not made an issue by
either of them in a single State or a
single Congressional district in their
campaigns of 1890 or 1891? They fear
to discuss it before the p, ople. They
dare not discuss it before the people.
Is not the recent declaration of a par
tisan Senator from q great and power
full State, that the two parties wereand
had been in thorough accord on this
question, abundantly sustained by the
history Of our financial legislation for
the past quarter Of q century? At the
dictatiOn of the money power the gov
eminent ceased to coin silver on the
1st Of July last. EmbOldened by what
it c~Onceives and claims as a victory in
the recent State elections, it declared
it's purpose within fOrty-eight hours
after the polls closed, to demand of
Congress that the purchase of silver
should cease, and that the question Of
it's remonetizatiOn should be submitted
to an international commission, Shall
this great government and this great
| people be subje tied to the humiliating
farce of submitting this question to
those powers at whose behest the great
and iniquitOuS outrage of its demOne-
tizatiOn was accomplished? Will Con
gress aggravated and augment this great
| crime by Obeying the dictates of Wall
street? Shall the intrigue of foreign
| capital be invoked to aid in fastening
upon this country a policy, the legiti-
mate fruits of which will be the pro-
| duction of milliOnaires and paupers?
viii the two political parties stultify
themselves by discarding and repudiat-
ing their repeated pledges on this sub
iect? Will they bow before the man
dates of money and corporate power
and force Upon the country such q
policy as will produce a fierce and bit
ter antagOnism between capital and
! productive labor?
Great national eXigencies or emer-
gencies are crucial tests of the spirit,
the manhood, the courage, the wisdom
!! and the patriotism of a people.
Liberty was never won or preserved,
through slavish dependence or cringing
doubt.
Now, as never before in history,
do the demands of the hour call loudly
for men-men of integrity; men of IN
wavering devotion to principle; men
of loftiest cast of moral heroism; men
who will fearlessly condemn the wrong
and manfully defend the right; men
whose conception of duty lifts them to
a plane of noble purpose and resolve
far above all considerations of a mere
partisan character; men who believe
that he who best serves his time and
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