The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-12-25
A PoPULIST NIGHTMARE
Another of the Cancasian's Deiudsng
Money Lee HTes.

Money Lee HFes.
Editor News and Observer: The
age or dreams and prophetic Wis
ions is supposed TO have passed away
with the dawn of the Christian era.
Superstitions and yagaries of many
kinds are abundant still, for have we
not Schlatter, the new Messiah in
Colorado, and a motley gathering of
fakirs at Atlanta? But something of
interest in this line has transpired
nearer home, for in the early morning
by the rays of a waning harvest moon,
wearing the light clothes of night,
with staring eyes and striking knees, a
man sped through the streets of a
centrally located city, a trembling
reaching his desk and grabbing his
quill, he stabbed his ink stand. The
above Is not the peroration to astump-
speech or even the first sentence of a
beguilding patent medicine advertise
ment- Simply a description of the
transit of newspaper man fleeing
from his couch (where, oppressed by
a narrowing dream of National banks,
he had tossed with nightmare TO his
sanctum; with a trance-medium ex-
preston, he Filters the floor with
copy" clean white sheets despatched
with mud, for he dipped his pen deep
and drew on fiorid imagination for
facts. To have told this in plain An
glo-Saxon would have destroyed the
illusion, because, to eliminate the FIN
de steele" features attendant on Popu-
lism and tell of the antics of its mem
bers in language less dramatic than
they themselves affect. would be to
lay bare the frame on which the scare
crow is set up.
On October gath the editor Of the
Caucasian broke loose. lashing him
self into fury, he ragged through two
columns Gaping its climax with
blasphemy Through the " mole of this
National bank TRADE there is an under
current of sentiment, which. like a
pleasing chord of an opera, continu-
ally appears in new combinations. 1t
is this: that one class of men are com
bined like a band of brigands to live
without labor on a helpless and unde-
Tended populace. There il also a dis
tinct intimation Notwithstanding we
are assured in holy writ, that rain and
sunshine are accorded To the righte-
Gus and wicked, the just and the I'M
just, without Discrimination that the
natural laws controlling oursocial and
commercial fabric are in some myster-
ious way construed or set aside, en-
aiding the wealthy to accomplish the
possible getting, without effort, some
thing for nothing; while the poor are
represented as failing 10 secure the
legitimate reward of their labor
l.
is matter that should be thoroughly
understood" the readers OF the eau
casian are treated to a maze of work
well calculated to enthrail the uneasy
but honest voter. This is the fashion
it gallops along; referring to the re
tirement of greenbacks. ii says: THE
question comes up as to why this par
tieular scheme should be proposed and
advocated by bankers, gold-bugs and
the like
Bankers. gold-bugs and the like.
Bankers, we understand. for they are
a necessary adjunct to the growth of
trade; banks furnish an improved
method of conducting commerce over
the original way, when producers rode
to market with bags of wool, bundles
of skins or perhaps a live pig. to swap
for coffee, sugar, hardware or other
goods kept by dealers in merchandise.
The mercantile transactions to supply
our seventy millions of people for one
year. with food. fuel and clothes, are
found by one of the best statisticians
to be not less than thirty-fve billions
which is nearly 100 million OF dollars
per day: this volume of business is
conducted by credit TO the extent of
90 TO IS per cent and from 5 10 10 per
cent in cash. All wholesale trans
actions and a large part of the retail
trade are conducted through instru-
ments of credit, known as notes, drafts
and bills of exchange; it is in the
handling of these papers that bankers
find their Office and get their profits.
Banks and bankers do not deal in
money but in the transferable titles of
property to be exchanged. "Gold-bugs
and the like have never been defined
by those who use the term. and like
charIatans. when they getbeyond their
depth they resort to the use of words
neither they nor their hearers under
stand.
"The purpose of this scheme is to
continue the present National bank
ing system. aud to put the National
finances of this country absolutely un-
der the control Of the bankers. This
is a matter which the general public
is not acquainted with and hence the
necessity Of a plain statement" Lis
ten, "and TO put the National finances
of this country absolutely under the
control OF the Bankers the boldness
ofthis statementisst aggering:we have
grown familiar with dictators in South
American Republics; we have even be
come accustomed TO boss-rule at home.
hut il remained for "a 'green-goods
a. ocste TO discover this mares nest
ara tril a constituency in whose gul-
libii;tv he has unlimited faith, that
there was on foot a plot to have Il re-
ceiver appointed for thf United States
as the treasury was about to llake an
ASSIGNMENT i'm favor of the bankers