The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-08-08
honest DOLLARS WANTED.

ROEEST DOLLARS WANTED.
DIR. DE COSTA, in a sermon delivered
Sunday in New York, while admitting
that it was not the province of the pulpit
TO teach finance or to preach silver up or
down, said he wanted to have something
to say about the money that is called for
by the people. And that money should
simply be an honest dollar. The doctor
said:
W have now reached a crucial point in our
history, and we should at least be willing to
inquire if honesty is not the best policy-that
is, if we do not care for honesty in itself.
Mere idol beating will not answer. We need
a moral reformation. 1t will be well, of course,
to tuln out the goddess of chance and cast her
down from her high PEDESTAL, for until the
goddess is chastised and Danish. d there will
be but little Improvement. A movement was
indeed made in this direction in the last SEES
sion in connection with the bill in relation to
stock gambling, but with the masses of the
people the question seems to lie How shall we
devise a financial system and obtain a tariff
that will render gambling in Wall street re-
munerative and safe?
congress may discover the secret of per
petual motion or square the circle, but it can
never devise a monetary system that will sue
ceed in a country where so large a portion of
the business is fixed on a false basis. Let us
make no mistake and resolve the whole issue
into a quarrel between the silver king and the
gold bug. Silver and gold in all ages haveami-
cab'y held their place in the worlds commerce..
The question is a fundamental moral question, |
regulating the value and use of both the pre-
| clOuS metals, 1t is not a OupStiOO botwaaD sill
yer and gold. This is an issue between the
wheat pit, the oil tank and fair trading-be-
tween honest men and thieves. If congress |
proposes to accomplish any permanent good it
must recognize the situation and legislate in
the interests of fair trading and honest men,"
The above, as good sound sense, viewed
from a moral standpoint, is worth one
hundred cents or the dollar in the gold
of any country But it is the same dole.
full and dismal story that has been told
to US since the serpent in the garden of
Eden beguiled EVE by inducing her to
enter a game of chance.
From the time of history, chance and
games and gaming have been INDUCED in.
and in u swifter and more reckless
civilization they have only been i~ntensi.
ned. The money changers in the temple;
the greedy ghouls who cast lots for the
yesture Of the SAVIOR, were merely of the
kind and style of gamblers who to dav
relentlessly fleece and cruelty dominate
this country. But the High Priest and
his council of seventy in the Sanhedrim
recognized the money changers the same
as congress recognizes the money chang
ers of Wall street to day. Churches hold
their fairs, and we have been g~rayelv and
reproachfully informed that life itself is
but a game Of chance.
In a spasm of virtue which has vet
been u~naccounted for, the great congress
or cur countrY-always controlled bv
Wall street-chased from our midst the
Louisiana lottery, but the gamblers in
the grain pit and at the stock EXCHANGE
were allowed unbridled sway. MAYORS
OF municipalities, who spend their money
by gambling in stocks in this and that
throw up their hands in holy horror
when they learn that a game of cards has
been played for money in their virtuous
and moral vineyard.
DR.. De COSTA hits the nail on the
head. He strikes the bulls eve. But il
is the same old story, told so often, so
often.
The money kings of Wall street rule
the financial world so far as America is
concerned, and the money kings of Wall
street, if they can rule so much, will find
but idle pastjme to dictate and control
the "policy of congress-"
DR. De COSTA may dream his pleasant
dream; he may see in his minds eve the
divine reality of an ideal summers after
noon and no clouds to lower; he NAV
feast his eyes in the flower garden where
pertumed white petals forever meet his +
gaze and butterflies watt their wings and
steal the sweets and play at hide and .
seek-he may dream even tha men and '
women may become these butterflies: and
he may, in that dream, lie down in green ,
pastures and be led beside the still waters; Y
he may marvel at the ~wicledness and at
uniustness and@at the inequality of q
the worlds mint which coins so many
frauds and places a true value upon them. =
But We are forced 10 say the doctor is
1eluded.
All will Admit hat the stock gambler =
IS simply the prey of the hungry Wall
street tiger, and if the gambler prowls he .
must know full well that the tiger prowls, n