People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-05-13

/ nueS SnOuiu De raised Oy income
Taxes thus abolishing the Custom
Taxes altogether.
Further on in your letter the fol-
lowing occurs
sQUANDERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
WHO DID IT?
A sixth cause of discomfort is the
stupendous national land grants and
the subsidies which have enriched gi-
gantic corporations and encouraged
extravaganza and corruption in high
places in Washington. The sole re-
sponsibility for this policy also is upon
a Republican House, Senate and Pres
! ident."
hope every reader of this paper
will read these words carefully.
Then let him wonder how Senator
Gordon could have charged the Re
publicans with the sole responsibility
for Bounty System which the great
Democrat, Stephen A Douglass, in
augurated before the war.
From that day to this both old par
ties have lavishIy granted public lands
and subsidies to these gigantic cor
porations" and no man knows it bet
ter than John B. Gordon.
When Senator Gordon SO strongly
condemns this favoriteism to Gigantic
corporations" which has encouraged
corruption in high places at Wash
ington," we would naturally suppose
that he had long entertained those
views and had practiced what he so
eloquently breaches.
Let us turn to the Record. Sena-
tor Gordon took his seat in the SEN
ate Dec. 2, 1873. The very first bill
he introduced on that very first day
was one to obtain a Bounty for ''gi-
gantic corporation"
His bill sought to have the Gov
eminent endorse for the Interest on
the Bonds of the Great Western Canal
Co. for 40 years at the modest sum of
$4,000 per mile.
BY a subsequent bill for the same
company he sought to have the Gov
eminent give this ''gigantlc corpora
ton" 100000 to improve the riv-
eas as they went along and to issue
Currency Qike the National Bank
notes to the company on the deposit
of its Bonds) at the rate Of $4,000
| per mile.
Good Lord! That was John B.
Gordon's first bill in the United States
Senate!
We did not go out of the way to
hunt up these things.
Senator Gordon invited the people
to ''locate' the men who had been
doing all this devilment and in my
humble way | am doing my best to
accommodate him.
Let us proceed.
The darkest page in the Record re-
lates to the land grants and subsidies
to the Pacific railroads.
The Government gave those roads
one hundred and thirty million acres
which belonged to all the people.
1t also endorsed the Bonds of the
first Pacific railways $6O,0OO,000, and
guaranteed the interest.
This was in 1852. The Govern
ment had to pay the interest from
the start
Nearly twenty years passed away !;
the sums the government paid grew
enormous, and the roads were not
paying back the money or making
any effort to do So
The Government was squandering
the peoples taxes every year to meet
the interest on those bonds.
The Capitalists interested in build
ing the roads had become million
aires. One OF them (StanforD is in
the United States Senate now.
Jay Gould got control of the ma
iority of the stock and coined his mil
lions, hand over fist.
Senator Thurman of Ohio thought
it was high time the roads were being
brought to a settlement. He intro
duced bill to compel the companies
to pay per cent Of their net earn