The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-13

ignorance, Misrepresentation and false
hood; that they advocate measures which
are either instinct with dishonesty or in
justice and folly.
Their denial will not serve their turn,
for the record is against them. Their
campaign handbook is q mass of
dishonest argument, for it is
made up of CARRIED extracts from
the utterances of the opposition,
clipped, mutilated. wrenched. twisted and
patched together like crazy quilt; a gross
illustration Of the lowest sort of political
chicanery and disingenuousness. There
is not a single speaker in the Peoples
party, no single organ OF that party that
has not been exposed and convicted Of the
grossest ignorance and Misrepresentation
of facts over and ove- again, and yet the
same falsehoods are reiterated at the next
stamping ground, or in the next issue of
the Bungtown BugIe or the Podank Snap
ping Turtle.
One of the injuncticns addressed by the
blatherskite orators of this party to their
following is: Don't read anything or
listen to anything at variance with our
faith, because there is not Republican or
Democratic paper that ever prints the
truth" These shepherds of the people"
are afraid to trust their silly sheep out Of
sight or call for a moment; they treat
their flocks very much as the medieval
priest did his congregation when he told
them that they could not be trusted to read
the Bible for themselves or to hear it ex-
pounded save by the priest. The whole
argument Of the Peoples party campaign.
SO far as it rests upon any well-attested
facts or respectable logic. has been
burnt up completely time and again dur
ing the last fifteen years; it has no stand
ing among men of any repute for intellect.
great parties. The intellectual antics of
the Peoples party constitute a veritable
'ghost dance" in present politics. There
is not day passes that some political
knave or fool does not print . statement
whose absurdity is enough to bring
smile to the face of wooden Indian. and
the air is full of stupid delusions and gross
falsifcations of fact.
It was only the other day that Secretary
of the Treasury Foster exposed the false
hood printed in the speech of q Farmers
Alliance congressman that the old 7-30
bonds circulated as money to the amount
of $3.50. 100000. Secretary Foster declares
that these notes were loan.
This was made plain in a circular is
sued December 3, 1861. addressed by Secre-
tary Fessenden to bank officers. The
notes. Mr.. Foster adds. were offered to the
public a. loan, and If they were intended
as money, Secretary Fessenden would
have simply paid them out to the public
without asking the public's consent.
They were not prepared as money. They
were printed on sheets Of paper four by
eleven inches. They were made payable
three years after date, AID coupons were
attached to them. They were sold to
the people through banks and dealer, at
par and accrued interest, and the govern
ment paid commission to the agents who
sold them.
Mr.. Foster quotes the report Of Secretary
Fessenden, made in 1854. that ''the notes
were readily taken in payment to large
extent by soldiers who were satisfied to
aid their country by looming money to the
government. The whole amount then dis
posed of amounted to $40, OOO. 0OO."
This Peoples party congressman in
order to support his contention that the
monetary circulation Of the United States
Immediately after the war was nearly
81, COG, 00O, 600. and that its violent contrac-
ton had brought calamity" upon the
people. was obliged to revive this old tale
that had repeatedly been exploded in the
past. The monetary circulation in Octo-
Der, 1866, was less than $740, 000, 600, but
the Peoples party orators have swelled it
by adding the 7-30 loan to the circu.
lation. The actual contraction of the
legal tender currency was only $5s,oOO.-
600 from the time the contraction act
passed In 1866 to its repeal in 1868. But
the Peoples party folk counted the short
time 7-3o loan of $685., oo0, 900 as part of the
circulation. This loan was paid off or
converted into long loans between Octo-
peis 4SSSs ehN SNNObSAs AShps afst SblS tS
what the Peoples party term 1.-The merci-
less contraction of the currency" when as
a matter of fact the 7-3o loan was as much
part Of the public debt, bought and sold
for investment as the $40 or l0-4o bonds.
They were not paid out as money but SOLD
as bonds; they were not legal tender and
were quoted On the market like other
bonds.
The story that Secretary Foster has pu.
at rest is fair specimen of the kind OF
hspdoodle financial facts" fed out to
their followers by the calamity" howlers.
II is of kin TO the stupid charge that "the
gold bugs demonetizei silver in 1878 and
thus robbed the American people" The
gold bugs" in 1873 had no possible
interest in the passage Of the act of
1875. for the silver dollar had then
practically demonetiEed itself, SO far as
having disappeared from circulation,
aud all the silver bugs" in congress, from
Stuart OF Nevada down voted for il. and
il was not until ls-6, when silver had
DEPRECATED. that the silver bugs" began
10 asitate the Biand-Ailison act of ISIS.
The set Of 1873 was boon TO the
whole people. whether gold bugs" or
''si.yer tugs" FOR IL saved Us from being
caught Nlth free coinage Of silver when all
Europe demonetized silver and began t.
throw their stocks upon the market. The
Biand-Alisol act practically limited sill
yer purchase and coinage - sd, 900, 90 a
year from ISIS 10 1891