The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-10-09
HE DEMOCRATIC HYPOCRISY
SHOWN UP.

Better by Bills For
$1o1,7 4S. o34,454.
In the Congressional Record of June
%, 1894, is to be found a speech which
claims to have been delivered by Jos.
Wheeler, a so-called Democrat, who
pretends to represent the Eighth Ala
bama district. The said speech, by the
privilege granted by the House, was
printed in the Record without being
delivered at all. In this undelivered
speech he undertakes to review the
record of our Populist Congressman in
the most partial and partisan manner.
He left nothing undone to ridicule every
act and wilfully distort every fact con-
nected with the Populist's record. He
gathers together bills introduced by
Populists in the F~ifty-second and Fifty
third Congresses, regardless of whether
they were by request or not, and after
wilfully or ignorantly perverting the
facts, figures that these bills, when all
added together, would call for appro-
priating $35, 600, COO, 900, which he
claims would have to be taxed from the
people. If Mr. Wheeler had been capa-
BILE, and had taken the pains to inform
himself he would have found that these
bills introduced by Populists did not
call for a single dollar of taxation, but,
on the other hand, proposed a plan for
relieving the people of the burdens of
taxation that have been heaped upon
them by Democrats and Republicans
for the last thirty years. The Popu!ist
platform demands that u circulating
medium shall be increased to $50 per
capita. The bills introduced by Popu
lists were intended to accomplish this
object by the free coinage of silver and
gold at the ratio of 16 to 1, and the issue
of legal tender greenbacks. The passage
of one or two of these bills would have
accomplished this, and at once done
away with the necessity for the passage
of the other bills. MIR. Wheeler we'll
knows, if he knows anything, that the
Populist party has never advocated or
demanded that our currency should be
increased to more than $50 per capita.
The Secretary Of the Treasury claims
that we now have about $25 per capita
in circulation. The Populi5ts demand
$50 per capita (about the amount we
had in circulation in 1861 which
would require that silver be coined and
legal tender greenbacks be Issued to
the amount of 81, $50, 600, 900. The bills
introduced by the P0pulist Congress
men, referred to ny Mr., Wheeler, only
contemplated the issue of the above
amount instead cf the $35, 900, 600, OOO
as conceived only by the shriveled
brain of Mr.. Wheeler. These old moss
back politicians realize the fact that
they are totally unable to depend on
their own treacherous r. cords, and
meet the POpulists in the discussion OF
: the living issues of the day, hence, they
are circulating this imaginary and fool
ish twaddle, called a speech by Joseph
Wheeler, of Alabama.
Lately quite a number of people have
q written us, asking us to send them the
bills introduced by u Populist Con.
t gressmen. Endeavoring to comply
with this request, we applied to the
, clerk of the House document room al
. the Capitol, and he informed US that
+ the files had been exhausted. They
have been taken out by the Democratic
and Republican Congressman to use on
the stump in ridiculing and slanderine
our party in their usual way. Failing
to find any Populist bills on file, I con.
cluded to investigate the files of the
bills introduced by the two old parties,
D and behold I found something rich.
The $50, 900, 900, 900 which Mr.. Wheeler
claims for the POpulist bills is not in ii
at all. 1t is not a drop in the bucket
when compared with the amount pro
,. posed to be appropriated by the thou
sands Of bills introduced By Democrats
and Republicans.
During the Fifty sec I'D and Fifty
third Congresses the Democrats and
Republicans introduced something over
90, 900 bills. The record shows shat
more than half Of these bills called for
appropriations. Without knowing what
\ amount any particular bill called for,
we selected the numbers of eight bills
!, now on the calender, and then procured
these bills from the docu nent rooms OF
the House and Senate This was i'm
partially done to aecartain the average
appropriation called for by the - OOC
t or more bills Introduce o Democrats
and Republicans, calling for a~ppropria.