The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-08-10

| which was characteristic of thai
class of statesmen, they looked
across continent that was foul
| thousand miles in extent from ast t.
west and almost the same from norti
to south, and they saw III their Wis
ion glittering galaxy of forty-foul
stars shining, and they said it is go
| ing to be a great commercial natlot
and ii will not do to let corporation:
regulate it, that power must be IL
the hands of the people themselves
(applauseJ and they said put thai
! INTO the constitution that congress:
| shall regulate commerce among the
| States and it was done. applause.
Now, what is commerce among the
States? That is easily enough an
swered, it is the buying and selling
and transshipment of things bought
and sold from one state to another
that is commerce among the States
If we send you in return cattle from
our magnificent prairies. that is
commerce among the States. If we
ship our cereals to you, that Is com
merce among the States. Well, thai
is the thing that Congress can regu
late, and that is what is known as
commerce among the States. Well
what can Congress do? Can Congress
fix the price of these articles ship,
ped from one State to another! No
that is not the idea or the meaning
of it. What does it mean? Smith
began to do little thinking about
this matter, and he said he really
did not know how to answer the
question. SO he jumped on the ca RS
and went down to Washin gtOn and
went to see that wonderful man, Mr..
Spofford, who perhaps knows more
than any other man in the world
about books. He always stands as
he reads, and he said to him, "Mr.
Spotford, my name is Smith, and my
old father used to think that Daniel
Webste, was the greatest man that
ever lived" "Well." said Spofford,
che was about right" Do you re-
member, Mr.. Spuiford, whether Dan
lel Webster ever defined this clause
in the constitution? II do not said
Mr.. Spofford, ''but | will see," and
ringing a bell he said to the messen-
ger, Bring me Webster's speeches."
and he stood and looked over them a
little while and then he said, Eyes,
here it ir; sit down and read it,
Webster said: at simply means
that Congress shall have power to
regulate the instruments through
which commerce is carried on be-
tween the states.n That is all. it
meant. He wanted to go a little
further, so he went to the supreme
court, and he got the decisions of
that court; he found more than
twenty, where the supreme court has
decided that the constitution en-
powers congress to regulate the in
struments through which commerce
is carried. My next question was,
what are the instruments of com
merce that congress can regulate?
The first instrument of commerce is
money; the second instrument of
commerce, facilities for transporter
ton; and the third instrument, faci-
lltles for the transmission of intelli-
gence. Now, said he, there is a trim
lty OF instruments for the regulation
OF commerce among the states. One
OF the great powers and functions of
the government was to regulate
commerce between the states. This
power was taken away from the
state. 1t was not given to any cor
poratiOn, and the constitution saws
it should be exercised solely by the
congress of the United States. I
wanted to know first whether con-
gress had done its duty. | asked: is
congress regulating commerce. Take
the first nstrument-money. The
answer came to me like a flash: Nc;
they have farmed it out to the ma
tlonal bankers; they have given the
power to regulate money to the gold
brokers of Wall street; they have
farmed it out and put it into the
hands of corporations and into the
hands of private individuals. Con-
tinuing, Mr.. Smith went on to say:
- want to tell you what the nation
al business is like. l have been in
1t for twenty years and know all
about it. | have boy by the name
of Abe, a great big stalwart fellow.
= feet2 inches high, able to make a
living anywhere; and have a daugh-
ter whose name is Ruth. She is frail
in body; but l love Ruth, and ex-
pect 1t is because she is so fragile
and lovely. She represents the poor
and humble in the government and
Abe represents tho full-handed rich
man. Now suppose that Abe should
come to me and say: Papa, have you
any money about you that you don't
want" yes, l have plenty of it
there In the bank Well says
Abe, L want to get $4,000 An
right Abe, you can haye it if you can
give the security l want What
will you charge me? Oh, nominal
interest-just what the government
charges me as a national banker. I
will let you have it at per cent. l
don't even want the interest in ad-
vance. You can have it and paw
the interest when you make your
money out of it. That is good for
me- says Abe. Il want a govern
ment bond Well says Abe, lam
lucky; l never owned a government
bond until about two weeks ago. |
have a government bond for $4,000.
Just happened to have it, so Abe
goes to the bank and passes in his
bond and takes out s., 1000,
Now in about two weeks Ruth
comes along and says, 'Papa, whose
money is Abe using9" Mine daugh-
tel. ''What is he paying you fo1
itfn 81 only taxed him one per cent. p"
why father! what do you Think
Last week l got into a financial
strait and | went to Abe and got
some money and what do you think,
he charged me 10 per cent in ad-
vance! OaughteID Now father.
when | want some money next time,
| am your daughter, and you love
me just as well as you do Abe, and l
am not able to do as much work as
Abe, l am going to get the money of
you at l per cent! It makes a o,oo+