The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1894-01-19


The sixteenth plank in the preamble of
the Knights of Labor reads as follows:
':That Understanding bonds, bills of
credit or notes shall never be issued by the
government; but that, when need arises,
the emergency shall be met by issue of
IegaI-tender non-interest bearing money"
Iwish every local assembly of our order
in the United States would read the plank
above quo ed and discuss it at their first
regular meeting in January. The reason
for asking new agitation on this subject at
this tim9 is obvious. The secretary of the
treasury, Mr.. Carlisle, has asked congress
to grant him authority to issue $500, 000, 600
interest bearing bonds.
am also in receipt of letters from the
cotton regions of the south and from agri-
cultural districts in the west declaring that
the issuing of interest bearing bonds by
the national government Will be consider
ed sufficient prOvOcatiOn to justify call TO
arms. God forbid that we shOnId ever
again feel justified in using bullets in
country where ballots are so free
I suggest that upon the first attempt of
congress to grant the authority asked by
the secretary of the treasury the members
of our order, from Maine to California,
hold Indignation meetings and send an I'M
equivOcal protest to their respective memb-
ers of congress.
lie 1SSuAtlZ VI JULIUS Is du outrage uDUA
liberty loving people, and should brand
with eternal infamy every name connected
with the diSreputable transaction.
Bonds and slavery are synonymous
terms, and millions of our people are in
be9gary and starvation because labor has
been robbed year after year by merci1eSS
money power, that has grown Eaughty and
deSpOtic upon the bonds of the people. TO
say that any apparent deficit in the nation
al treasury or any other real or imaginary
emergency at this time justifeS the isSu-
ance of government bonds is an insult to
every thinking citizen of this nation. If
the government has power to issue bonds,
it has power to issue full legal-tender nom
interest bearing money. Upon this point
the constitution is subject to no other in
depreciation, and the courts have so held.
Why outrage and insult our sense of pat
riOtism in this dark hour of enforced idle
ness, when hundred million dollars from
the hand OF charity will be necessary to
hush the walls of hunger during the pres
ent winter, and that hunger the result of
the interest bearing debts already held
against labor and industry?
Recent authentic statistics prove that
sum of money equal to the entire circulat-
ing medium of this nation must pass from
the hands of the people OF this nation into
the Golfers of the interest takers at least
/ once every six months, and that means
that on an average of once every six
months the people must re-bOrrOW the
money from the interest takers with new
Securities-thuS the compound system
grows with graduating power, and if not
checked it will absorb all w ealth and leave
labor in abject SerVitude. Through this
process more than any other the rich are
becoming richer and the poor poorer. Let
no labOring man think for moment that
he escapes the burden; idlenesS never paid
penny of debt. Labor produces the
wealth, beauties the earth and pays all
interest, debts and taxes, and it is the duty
of labor throughout the length and breadth
EFN
on the present scheme to increase the ma
tional debt that the very capitol at Wash
ingtOn will tremble from the thunders of
its righteous proteStatiOns.
Some idle fancy, born IN superstition
and ignorance, may surround fOrtitude and
submission with sympathy seemingly
worthy of reverence. There may be
tender strain of pathOS i'll the character of
MIN who pncOmplainingly humbleS before
the lash and the chain with the hope of
future reward, while an unprOteSting pub
lie writes the sad history of his life and
martydom in beautiful song and pathetic
story. But all must end in vanity and
VeXatiOn.
Willful endurance of evil is tacit encour-
aIement of evil. Submission to wrong is
cOWardiSe under gauZe of hypocrisy that
makes terms with satan and leaves the evil
free 10 rob the present generation and
transmit its curses and its crimes to the
next. Give the money power another
$500, 100000 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 inn
paSSib1e gulf between the masses and the
classes, and give to idleneSS another degree
priority over labor in the structure OF gov
erument. If labor has any patriotism left,
let it exercise it now. Public sentiment is
strong within ITSELF and, if properly direct
ed by the members and friends of our order
even congress may be made to quail before
its power.
The issuing of government bonds is a
part of the conspiracy that repealed the
silver purchase act, and its purpose is to
furnish additional basis for the circulation
of the national banks, so that the interest
taker may reap where he has not SOwn and
gathered where he has not StreWn, with
the seeming purpose of impOVeriShing la
Dor and erecting an Ollgarehy of wealth on
the ruins of once glorious republic.
Society and government must take the
profit out of money and put 1T Into labor
and products. As it now is, the profits of
the dollars at interest absorb the profits of
the dollars at production, and as dollars
have no power to create other dollars, the
profit of the dollars at interest must be paid
out of the dollars at production, and as
soon as the dollars at interest absorb the
dollars at production, Gods green earth
and the fullneSs thereof has to be mortgage
ed to the dollars at interest to induce few
dollars to return to the fields of production
only to be reab5Orbed by the dollars at in
tereSt. Each time they draw great amounts
of and products over to the interest taker.
Finally, the dollars at interest absorb all
elements of increase. Then the interest
takers cell the people that there is a lack of
confidence, and the politicians set the la
boring people quarreIling over the tariff,
while thousand Stomachs go empty and
one stomach through interest, has thOuS-
and ines more than it can consume.
Let us be dupeS and fools no longer. Let
us meet the $500. 600 bond proposition
with the power and fellowship of our en-
lire organization. and stay in the fight I'M
til we force a relaxation IN the power of
money TO rob the Industrial masses.
j. r. SOVEREIGN,
General Master Workman.