The advocate., 1895-09-18

populist."
Thus as Senator Hill, OF New York,
challenges explicit and express scrut-
my of himself by his historic express
sion, II am democrat" so, also, SEN
ator PETER sets at rest all doubts as to
his standing and party identity by
boldly making the announcement, At
am pouiist." And, while the populists
Of the entire nation are proud to be
able to indorSe this loyal and consci-
entious statesman as a representative
of populistic sentiment the populists Of
Kansas will do well, and simply act in
logical sequence, If they push the claims
to national preferment Of the man who
led the revolt in their state and first
gave to populist principles a prominent
position In national politics.
In due course Of time, / received the
following letter:
Dear Sir: Your favor inclosing the
newspaper clipping and asking informa-
tlon concerning 1t, has just reached
me at this place. The clipping contains
so little which Is true that the matter
as a whole may be declared false. ]
have not come out In favor Of cur
rency based on land alone;' nor have
1 discarded silver and the sub-treasury
plan 1t is equally untrue that have
declared against free coinage, and
that I am against the entire silver
movement It follows, then, that l do
not propose to take the stump against
1t this fall
IT am populist and approve the
Omaha platform in Its entirety, without
mental reservation. believe the proper
function of money is to serve a public
use; that the coming Of money is the
exercise of sovereign power and that
it can not be safely or constitutionally
delegated by Congress to corporation
or any private person or agency; and
that nothing which is not absolute and
full legal tender in payment OF all debts
to any amount whatsoever ought to be
Issued or used as money; and that
everything which Is used as money
ought to be issued only by the national
government.
II would supplement the free and un-
limited coinage of gold and silver at
the ratio Of 1 to 16 with paper enough
to supply all the money needed by the
people in the legitimate transactions
of their business.
1 favor the establishment Of public
banks in which money could be put
and kept in circulation, where deposits
could be safely placed and where per-
sons who need to borrow money could
procure 1t on pledge of property which
Is now taken as good security by pri-
vate banks and loan agencies, and that
at no greater rate of interest or charge
| than the actual cost of doing the work.
This would be in effect the coming
Of land and other property-just as
the issuing of legal tender paper money
Is the coming Of credit.
"I favor the coinage Of silver and gold
in unlimited quantities at the present
legal ratio of 16 to /, II for no other
reason, because we shall need all the
coin we can make to pay our coin debts,
which now amount to about 800, 900, 900
in bonds, and we have promised to re-
deem the greenbacks Gas, ,000, ,0O0) and the
treasury notes Q50,000,000) in coin.
Where and how can we procure the coin
If we do not make It? Respectfully
W. A. PETER.
There is nothing uncertain or vacil-
lating about the foregoing declaration
Of principles 1t is simply the scien-
tlfic Interpretation Of the finance plank
Of the Omaha platform, with govern
mental system Of banks Of deposit,
loan and discount as the some better
system" demanded as substitute al
ternative for the "sub-treasury" plan Of
the Farmers Alliance"
This is the winning platform, so far
as finance Is concerned. More voters
can be gathered together upon that plat
form than upon any other The de-