Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-12-28
BY X. N. STEVENS.
POP ANC

porting some proposed populistic fnan'
cial measures, made a speech that should
be read and carefully considered by
every we'll. wisher of the whole country
He said: ...
Mr.. President, having indicated the pur.
pose OF briefly addressing the senate today
upon "Some Marvellous Senatorial Bills
and Quack Panaceas for Real and Imagi
nary Grievances l hold in my hand nine
senate bills of that class, which l have
been directed by the committee on finance
to report adversely, and to ask for their in
definite postponement. In order that the
senate may have ONE conception of these
bills, l shall ask the clerk to read the list
now presented by their numbers Il titles
with such additional words as will indicate
their leading propositions, which require
the issue Of ninety-three and one-half bill.
lions more of paper money.
Here follows nine populist bills to
conform to their peculiar political views:
There are three more bills now, or were,
lying on the table, half born, like Millions
king OF beasts, "pawing to get free their
hinder parts,' with the umbilical cord not
yet severed; and l will ask the clerk also
to read this list, from which they will be
seen to have a ~morganatic connection with
those already presented, though it may not
be acknowledged, as such connections sell
dom are acknowledged.
Here follows three bills on the senate
table, amounting to s10,563, 100000.
1t is hardly necessary to say that these
hungry bills, big, bigger and biggest, nine
of them, asking for nine or ten times more
money than there is now in use by the
whole world, were unanimously reported
adversely by the committee on finance.
Nothing more, as the committee conceived,
could have been expected, saving brief
post norton obituaries. The bills, many
of them, may have been reluctantly intro
duced by request, and therefore not very
tenderly nursed even by their able and emf
len godfather. Responsibility for such
eccentricities ought not to be asked of SEN
ators, and should any member be charged
with their real authorship | hope he would
he able to plead in defense an alibi With
no reasons offered for the introduction Of
these multitudinous billion-dollar bills, a
sufficient reason for the adverse report
would appear to have been that they were
all death-stricken from an overdose of the
leSdi-LGUutl llOSGl ILL dU GllCll Ull ILL.,, uullllu-
istered by the accoucheur. One of these
bills proposed an issue of lega]-tender
money forty times greater per capita than
any we have ever had. Another, to pur-
chase all the silver bullion that may be
offered at one dollar and rwenty-nine one
hundredths cent per ounce, though it
fetches now in any market only 81 cents
per ounce. Figuratively speaking, the bills
--,-n al oE avn 1rnoI nrI ne {hn n NJ
feather, birds of initiation, none game, none
worth a charge Of powder, but legislative
dodoes, unlikely ever to be set on the earth
again.
No one who reads these bills will need to
be further bored by arguments for their
condemnation without benefit of clergy.
l do not suppose there are more vagaries
or political tomfooleries put afloat here
than in other countries. Occasionally they
come forth here without tatherhood, frisk
about through the dog days, and then dis
appear, leaving no bubbles in sight tOshow
where they sank. We also have some
pushing, fanatical theories wearing the
mask of political reform, and as sure to
give the world the millennium, and not
more SO, than was the philosophers stone
to turn everything it touched into gold.
JolllS iIA1o oAlUiS E$ \oIAAS tSlu 81
like those diseases which at1lict nobody but
once. Such parties, usually destitute of
constitutional stamina, are ephemeral, and
are soon compelled to hoist any flag and
set sail for "Cowes and a market" A re-
cent example of such ephemera, adver-
tised with as much technical ~veracity as
any patent medicine, as the 'populist,' and
leading astray many good men, appears to
have politically pock.marked and discred.
tied two or three OF our sister states, but
the ~grotesqueness on its face is likely to
prove a deterrent against its further domi.
nation.
The eagerness of many politicians and of
some parties in the minority to obtain as.
%cendancy in the control of public affairs
leads them to present p%retentious and kite.
flying platforms for popular support, which
after the gusty winds of a single season
only fatally bewitch antiquated Office seek.
ers, and wire-pullers with no wires to pull
and a few juvenile cranks tarrying al
Jericho.
A synopsis OF a crochety creed, as prop
agated by the governors OF Kansas or Colo
RADIO, and in secondhand use by suct
brotherlY charlatans as Coxey and Debs
may be briefly epitomized, as follows:
First. The government must reduce the
standard of a legal-tender dollar to so cents
worth or less OF silver and coin paper de.
claratory money for circulation not less
than $1,000 per capita.
Second. The government must issue de
claratory money and call in all bonds, ant
loan without interest $780, 900, 900 in pape
money to such persons as the shylocks OF
the rialtO refuse to trust.
Third. The government must repeal al
tariff and internal revenue laws, impose al
impartial income tax IN the rich, and fur
nish work, and provide $4,000, 100000 tt
pay all those who may stupidity desire Il
work.
Fourth. The government must have al
railroads under its control, and carry freigh
without profit, and provide parlor cars 70
all passengers without extra charge OF, tip
to walters.
Fifth. The treasury department mus
issue sufficient paper money to pay all sal
aries, pensions and appropriations mad
congress for the support of the govern
ment.
Sixth. The government must make it
last will and testament, with the state O
Kansas as its ~residuary legatee, in the pres
ence of three witnesses. [Laughter.]
=E' W. .---- -. al - 49, 49,