Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-08-17

Mr.. President, we are face to face
with grave problem. They who con-
troll the money of the people regulate
their business and dictate their laws.
Wall street claims to WELD a power
greater than that of monarchies, and
we know that the Government of the
United States is on friendly terms with
Wall street. We know, further, that
our Government has poured millions of
money into the laps of operators there.
And we know, further, that many mil
lions OF money not due have been paid
to public creditors-a mere gratuity to
favored few, and at times, too, when
the toiling masses were clamoring for
money 10 use in their daily business.
In the single ear 1890, as appears in the
treasury department report, some S17,-
OO0, 600 in premium on bonds, and SI2.-
OOO, 600 in advance interest were paid
out of the public treasury-not one COL
lar of it due. The amount paid as pre-
MUM would never have been due and
need never have been paid, and the
amount paid as advance interest would
not have been due till nine months after
the money was actually paid. We are
pressing money on men who do not need
1t, while many of the men who imperil-
ed their lives when the country was in
danger are forced into almshouses to
escape starvation.
A few persons, comparatively, are fast
absorbing the wealth of the country.
The average annual rate of wealth in
crease was per cent. the last ten years,
while borrowers were compelled to-pay
8 to IL per cent. and upward for the use
OF borrowed money. Operators about
the money centers grow opulent and
strong, while men and women whose Ia
Dor produces the wealth, grow corr es-
pondingly poor and weak All this is
wrong, and it betokens an unhealthy
state of things. The system which be-
gets it is fatally defective 1t must be
modified, if not radically changed, in the
common interest of all the people. Mon
ey is the life blood of commerce. 1t
flows out through the arteries of trade.
carrying health and vigor to every de-
partment of business. It stimulates eff
fort, 1t encourages enterprise, it civiliz-
es men, and brings the world together.
1t employs labor and lightens the bur-
den OF toll. 1t drives away want and
relieves distress. It gladdens the hearts
OF the poor, it takes Joy to the lowly, it
brings hope to the respondent, and
throws sunshine into the dwellings of
men.
10 him who lives in affluence and
ease. whose home nestles in the splen
doris of wealth, who moves amid mag
nlhcent surroundings. to him it matters
little what is the state of the money
market. He has credit, which takes the
place OF money. His check is good at
bank for thousand ora million dollars.
Scarcity of money affect him not; his
income is fixed; he draws steadily upon
the labor of other men. He knows not
what 1t is to want. It is not so with the
man OF tOll-the man who opens farms,
lays out highways. bridges streams, tun-
nels mOuntiOns, and builds cities-the
man whose muscles rear the mansions
of the rich, and whose sweat and blood
lay crystallized in palatial walls. Mon
ey enters into the daily business of the
common people; they can not get along
without it, its need being most keenly
felt where the greatest poverty is. Time
was, and that, too, within the memory
OF many of us now living, when but lit
tie money was needed i'll the ordinary
affairs of working people,
CONTINUED.