Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-07-23
RETURNING PROSPERITY.

thing we buy is dearer than it was siA
months ago. They point with pride tC
the increase in the wages of Northern
laborers. They even instance the vast
advance in the price of hides, as q
mark of what the gold standard is do
ing for the people.
In private conversations with ouI
capitalists as we'll as from the public
prints, we are assured that money is
easier and we will soon be in a com.
paratively good financial condition.
Suppose we do little thinking on
our own account. There isn't debtor
today who is not being forced to the
wall by these same capitalists who
declare money is easier. So small is
the return of confidence, that man
who really needs money finds it impos-
sible to get it, even at high rate of
interest. In the midst of our money
panic, when all our banks were paying
depositors from $40 to $50 per day, one
of our bankers had thousands at hand,
which he declared he could not find a
place to invest, and further stated that
he could get all the money he could
possibly use at 4 per cent. Doubtless
today, this same gentleman, because
he does not need dollars assistance,
could get an unlimited supply at low
rates, yet he absolutely refused to loan
one of Mississippi's most successful
farmers single cent at less than 10
per cent. discount; he himself declar-
ing that the mans note was as good as
his own. This is the practical side of
the question. The common people
have no money. We are today actual
ly bartering among ourselves. There
is no market for our products. Our
carloads of vegetables are only little
more than paying freight and commits
sions. Our common people, especially
in this section, are living well, they are
dressing we'll, but ask any unsalaried
professional man, whether or not he
can pay debts, and be it lawyer or phys
ician, he will tell you that he can get
scarcely anything besides corn, pota-
toes and farm products. Today, in
Mississippi, we are actually on the bar
ter platform and have no other means
for the exchange of our commodities.
How long will the American people
submit to this arbitrary rule of the
money power? How long will they be
willing that both they and their chill
dren shall be slaves, vassals instead of
freeman Ireland in her worst days
was not more surely down trodden and
oppressed than are the working mil
lions of this nation and especially the
farmers of the South.
Driven by the desperation of want to
mortgage everything under the law
mortgageable, they have fought the
losing side of great and an awful bat
tie. Millions of acres of our fathers
patrimony have been forced to sale at
one half, one-fourth, and even one
tenth it's value, and capital chuckles
over its success and tells us of return
ing prosperity. If the wild rage of an
impoverished multitude should one
day forget law, and duty and obliga-
tions and consequences, and rush on
to riotous and bloody ending and to
that which in the end is a redistribu-
ton of property, who will be to blame
For 90 years interest rates on large
loans have been steadily declining, yet
old rates of interest prevail among us
and worse than this, we Cypress our
brethren, and that for greed of gold.
No wonder that what the RICH the cul-
tured, the influential have been pleas
ed to call an agrarian movement, the
dream of fools, the catch-penny trap
of designing demagogues, is taking
such fast hold on our people. Why
should not the government loan money
to the farmer as well as to the
banker? The banker and his friends
reply, because that would soon make
the government unable to care for it,
self. Yes, and large part of the bank
ers' business would be gone. Two
things we dislike: One is the open &C
cusation that our farmers are untrust
worthy, as a class are thieves, hence
the government could not trust them
and that land has no value in compar
ison with bonds, whose value would bt
less than nothing were it not for tn,
vast heritage of hill and valley who's,
wonderful fertility enables us still t.
live in the midst of all these unfavora
BILE circumstances.
Since we are divided, and alread.
the smoke of battle is in the air, |, TO
one, stand with the masses. Whateve
benefits them, whatever lifts them VI
and brings them nearer to the divin
image, shall be espoused by me. N
party is right either in principle or &C
ton, that does not have for its chic
object the amelioration of the condl
ton of the masses.