People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1894-10-05
democratic hypocrisy shown Up.

June %, 1894, is to be found a
speech which claims to have been
delivered by Joseph Wheeler, a So
called democrat, who pretends to
represent the eighth Alabama dis
trict. The said speech, by the priv
ilege 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 man
ner. He left nothing undone to rid
icule every act and wilfully distort
every fact connected with the popu-
lists record. He gathers together
bills introduced by populists in the
fifty second and tifty-third con-
crosses, regardless of whether they
were by request or not, and after
wilfully or ignorantly perverting the
facts, figures that these bills, when
al added together, would call for
appropriating $35, 0o0,000,000, which
he claims would have to be taxed
from the people. If Mr.. Wheeler
had been capable, and had taken the
pains to inform himself, he would
have found that these bills iii ro-
duced by populists did not cal for a
single dollar of taxation, but, on the
other hand, proposed plan for re-,
lieying the people of the burdens Of
taxation that have been heaped upon
them by democrats and republicans
for the last thirty years.
The populisG platform demands
that our circulating medium shall be
increased to $50 per capita. The
bills introduced by populists were
intended to accomplish this object
by the free coinage of silver and gold
at the ratio of 16 to l., 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.
Mr. Wheeler we'll knows, if he
knows anything, that the populist
party has never advocated or de-
manded that our currency should be
increased to more than $50 per
capita. The secretary of the treas
ury claims that we now have about
$25 per capita in circulation. The
popuhsts demand that this amount
shall be increased to $50 per capita
about the amount we had in circu-
lation in 1865, which would require
that silver be coined and legal-tender
greenbacks be issued to the amount
of $1,750,O00,000. The bills intro
duced by populist congressman, re-
ferred to by Mr.. Wheeler, only con-
tempIated the issue of the above
amount instead of the $35,000,000,-
600, as conceived only by the shriv-
eled brain of Mr.. Wheeler. These
old mossback politicians realize the
fact that they are totally unable to
depend on their own treacherous
records, and meet the populists in
the discussion of the living issues of
the day, hence they are circulating
this imaginary and foolish twaddle,
called speech by Joseph Wheeler,
of Alabama.
Lately quite number of people
have written us, asking us to send
them the bills introduced by our
populist congressman. Endeavor-
ing to comply with this request, we
applied to the clerk of the House
document-room at the capitol, and
he informs us that the files had been
exhausted. They have been taken
out by the democratic and Republi-
can congressman to use on the stump
in ridiculing and slandering our party
in their usual way. Failing to find
any populst bills on file, concluded
to investigate the files of the bills in
troduced by the two old parties, and
behold l found something rich. The
$35,000,00O,000 which Mr.. Wheeler
claims for the populist bills is not in
it at all. 1t is not a drop in the
bucket when compared with the
amount proposed to be appropriated
by the thousands of bills introduced
by democrats and republicans.
During the fifty-second and fifty
third congresses the democrats and
republicans introduced something
over 10000 bills. The record shows
that more than halt of these bills
called for appropriations. Without
knowing what amount any particular
bill called for, we selected the num-
bers of eight bills now on the calen-
der, and then procured these bills
from the document rooms of the
house and senate. This was impair
TALLY done to ascertain the average
appropriation called for by the 49,
600 or more bills introduced by
democrats and republicans, calling
for appropriations. The following
figures show the average:
H. R. No. 2l67. A bill by
Stone of Kentucky (Dern.) S 1886
H. II. No, 722. A bill by En-
loe OF Tennessee (Dem.) 1888
II. r. No 1909. A bill by
Pendleton of Texas (Dem.I ALSO
II. r. 1884. A bill by Hooker
of Mississippi (Dem) 19,445
OF Illinois (Dsm.) 1900, 900
H. K. 67l5, A hill by Grain
of Texas (Dem.) 10000
H. R. ll72. A bill by Stall