Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-08-05

after THEFT has been committed. ! come
to you asking you today to put down this
fraud in politics, and ask the men of both
parties to unite in this that we have honest
elections; that we will maintain the popular
will; that we will give to our executive
and to our legislature and to our judiciary
our sanction, not that they are anointed
at the command of God, but that they are
anointed by the will of the people by the
hand of God.
In taking up the subject of honest money
Gen. Woodford said it was to the poor
man, the man who must live by the labor
of his own hands, that an honest dollar is
the most essential. If there is bad
quarter of dollar in circulation it will
eventually find its way into the pocket of
the poor man, because he must take what
he can get to buy his daily bread. What
is true of bad quarter or a bad dollar is
true of deprecated dollar, and that is
why it is essential that the value of dollar
shall be always the same, so that it shall
buy dollars worth of any commodity
But my Democratic friend says, eve
Democrats are just as good as you Repub-
licans on this question. When the Repub-
lican Senate passed the silver bill, the
Democratic House held it up" Now
friends, take your Democratic PLATFORM
and you will find in it demand for the
repeal of the Federal tax on state bank
issues. Some of the older men in this
audience remember the time before the
war when we had no national currency,
and ] wish the young men would pay care
full heed to what | am going to say, and |
NUill fry tn ha hria md ho ala
l am going to speak of something which
occurred before your knowledge. If | am
wrong the older men will tell me tomorrow,
but if l am right you will see the moral
that l shall point. Before the war we had
| no national banks; there was no such
| thing as a national bank in the country.
| Vermont had her banks, New York had
her banks, Mississippi had her banks,
| South Carolina had hers, and man would
have to find out what security state had
| before taking money issued by its banks.
| Vermont determined what should he the
| Vermont bank bills; New York deter
mined what should be her bank bills;
Mississippi did the same, and so did all the
| other states. Now every state that was
very rich was very careful to see that there
was good security, and make the bills good;
and every state that needed money allowed
the security to be anything, -soap-bubbles,
moonshine, cats, dogs, anything. Now
what was the result? Everybody had to
have bank note reporter. You remember
perfectly well that if a hundred dollars was
to be paid by some one in Memphis, Tenn,
you had to look out for the security of the
bank at Memphis, and had to find out what
the discount was, which might be 10 per
cent. He would look for the Wildcat bank
| IS Er,I fla lie
count on that was 20 per cent. Today you
never look to see where the bank is located
when bill is handed to you. The National
bank of Dallas, Texas, is as good as the
National bank of Brattleboro, the National
bank of Oregon is as good as the National
bank of New York. There is this startling
fact, that while before the war the losses
on bank currency averaged II per cent per
annum-now think of that-upOn the bank
issues of paper money through the United
States, since the national bank system was
founded there has not a man in this
country, the most ignorant, the poorest OF
the richest, lost one dollar on the paper
money of any national bank through all
the United States
Now why does your Democratic party
my Democratic brother, ask for the repea
of the tax on the circulation of the stat,
bank issues? Now if the state of Missis
sippi wanted to charter state banks, or tn,
state of Vermont wanted to charter he
state banks, they could not issue any
paper money without paying a tax of tel
per cent to the Federal government for tn,
privilege of issuing the bills, and therefor,
the tax keeps the wildcat bills out of cir
culation. Why do you want it repealed
Why does thief believe in the disbandin!
,F Nv
brother, if there were not some Democrat
in some Democratic states who wanted TIN
privilege of using the money for their owl
purposes, they would be contented with tn
l present system, for wherever they can pu
t up the security they can get national banl
charter now. They can do it in Soutl
Carolina; they can do it in Mississippi
e they can do it in Vermont, and the onl
D requirement of the national bank system
$ that if you go into the banking business t
= put out your paper that shall pass a
/, money among the people, it shall be s
, secured and guaranteed that the poores
| man and the most ignorant, or a child
: may take it, and no labOring man shall b
e robbed of a dollar, even if the bank fail:
Il In proceeding to speak upon the tart
5 Gen. Woodford showed that the positiO
. |
for the protection of American labor an
; American interests, while that of til
d Democratic party is evasive, being actual
y for free trade, although claiming not to /
y so. Brushing away all bubbles and evi
. sions, the speaker said:
c But, my fellow citizens, let us look
It this in a simple, candid, practical wa,
l. You and l are living here under the sta
II and stripes. We are not in England; "
I are not in France; we are not in German,
}. We must be clothed; we must be fed No
'. what is the practical, cOmmon-sense view
Is Take the manufacture of that coat. The
n were sheep upon the hill-sides, for thei
sheep were in Australia or in Germany
n they were owned by foreigner, were the
10 not? When the sheep was sheared, it WI
nt done by a foreign workman, and he WI
Is paid wages that he might live. That wo
A. was baled and exported; it was baled by
W foreigner, and he was paid wages. 1t W;
e. transported in a foreign ship or on a fO
IL eign railway, and the freight money WI
ct paid to a foreigner; it went into a fOreis
IN factory, and the foreign manufacturer g
ne interest upon his capital, and the labor
I'm cot his daily wages. When it is complete
err it is sent to this country. Now it com
al on the British ship, and the British shi
master gets the freight Every dolla
m every penny, that has gone into that pie
o. of cloth has been paid to somebody al
of supported some foreigner.
of BY your side sits a man with a CO
Nv made out of American cloth. Those she
or were grown upon farm in Vermont or
tic Ohio, and that American farmer got t