The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1894-01-25
Top THE BOND ISSUE
|OTEST AGAINST LOUD AND
STRONG.
u Dollar Placed ut Interest AbsOrbs All
of Increase - Gulf Deepened
dnai Widencd by u Bond Issue-Organ-
&c, Agitate. Resist.
~ yereign's Ringing Call.

S~vrreign's Ringing Call.
Rrhe sixteenth plank in the Pream-
of the Knights of Labor reads as
lows:
lha, interest bearing bonds, bills Of credit
note3 shall never be issued by the Govern
.nt: but that wiier need arises. the eln.r
bIcy shall be met bJ issue of legal tender
IN interest nearir., money.
! wish every local assembly OF our
fler in the United Sia.es would read
pc plank above quoted and discuss it
their first regular meeting In Jan
nrv. The reason for asking new agi-
k'ion on this subject at this time is
bviOus. The Secretary Of the Treas
Rry, Mr.. Carlisle, has asked Congress
grant him authority to issue two
undred million dollars in interest
eariL g bonds.
am also in receipt of letters from
he cotton regions of the south and
rom agricultural districts in the west
declaring that tue issuing of interest
Bearing bonds by the National Gov
ernment will be considered sufficient
brovocation to Justify Il call to arms.
kiOd forbid that we should ever again
Fecl justified in using bullets in Il
country where ballots are SO tree.
| suggest that upon the first attempt
pf Congress to grant the authority
asked by the Secretary of the Treas
#hry the members OF our order, from
Maine to California, hold Indignation
meetings and send an uneauivOcal
protest TO their respective members Of
Congress.
The issuing Of bonds is an outrage
upon Il liberty loving people, and
should brand with eternal infamv cv-
'ery man connected with the disrepu-
table transaction.
Bonds and slavery are Synonymous
terms, and millions of Our people are
in beggary and starvation because la
Dor has been robbed year after year by
a mcrcilcss money power, that has
grown naughty and dcspotic upon the
bonds of the people. TO say that any
apparent deficit in the national treas
ury or any other real or imaginary
emergency at this time justities the is
suauce of Government bonds is an in
suit 70 every thinking citizen of this
nation. If the Government has power
to issue bonds, it has power to issue
full lrgal-tender, non-interest- bearing
money. Upon this point the cons;itu-
ton is subject TO no other interpreta-
ton, and the courts have so held.
Why outrage and insult our sense of
patriotism in this dark hour of en-
forced idlencss, when II hundred mil
lion dollars from the hand of charity
will be necessary to hush the walls of
hunger during the present winter, and
that hunger the result of the interest
bearing debts already held against Ia
Dor and industry?
Willful endurance of evil is tacit en-
enlargement of evil. Submission to
wrong is cowardice under Il game OF
hypocrisy that makes terms with Sa-
tan and leaves the evil free to rob the
present generation and transmit its
curses and crimes to the next. Give
the money power another $500, 900, OOO
in bonds and we not only strengthen
the hands of this social robber, but in
like ratio we weaken the victims and
dig deeper and wider the almost i'm
passible CALF between the masses and
the classes, and give to idleness an
other degree of priority over labor in
the structure Of Government. II Ia
Dor has any patriotism left, let it exer'
else it now. Public sentiment is strong
within itself. and if properly directed
by the members and friends of our or
der, even Congress may be made t,
quail before it's power.
The issuing of government bonds i.
part of the conspiracy that repealed
the silver purchase act, and its pur
pose is to furnish additional basis fo1
the circulation of the national banks
So that the interest-taker may REAP
where he has not sown and gathere,
where he has not strewn. with tn,
seeming purpose of impoverisliine
labor and erecting an oligarchy o
wealth on the ruins of a once glorious
republic.
Let us be dupes and fools no longer
Let us meet the 5000. OOO,O 900 bon,
proposition with the power and fellow
ship OF our entire organization, ant
stay in the fight until We force a re
taxation in the power of money to rol
tue industrial masses.
J. X. SOVEREIGN,
4