The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1895-10-04
'R0BBER FIHBHGIAL SYSTEM.

hUBDLh flHHIblHL 0l0l[M.
BuiltJp By-Crimes Committed In the Name
Of Loyalty,
Wealth LcgisIated from the Frsdaoszs
Into the Vaults and Safes ct the IdIers.
eur Nation Is BankTups-Thsrs Is one
Hope Bsft and Only One.
Swish to cali your attention for a
short time to a few facts in our Ameri-
can system OF finance not found in the
metropolitan press which viii be of In
terest and Of use to you as American
wealth producers, as American citizens,
es American voters The national debt
under which the wealth producers are
struggling, principal and interest, is
not war debt Oh, mol Thirty years
ago, shortly after the close Of the war,
Secretary Boutwell,, in his official re-
port, said the nation was practically out
of debt, Now, during these 80 years Of
profound peace with all the nations,
with prosperity unbroken and unparal-
leled, with resources diversified and
manifold, with productions from field,
forest and mines, agricultural and me-
chanical, where do we find ourselves?
One Of the richest, and therefore one Of
the grandest, Of nations this world has
ever produced. This sounds we'll when
spread out on paper and gives one a
touch Of local pride to be born a citizen
Of America.
But let Us inquire q little farther
on. What we are after now is facts
not oratory. not diversion, not burlesque,
just plain, everyday facts. Who ale the
owners of all our fabulous wealth? For.
sign and home stock jobbers, usurers,
bankers, bondholders and corporations
generally, who never added farthing's
worth to the nations wealth. What Of
the wealth producers who created all the
wealth? How fare they? Alas and alacki
After 30 years of hard labor, with uni
form prosperity, they find themselves
worse off than at its beginning. They
find their farms, their homes and their
products cut in two in prices. There are
no sales except forced sales. The farms,
the homes and possessions are blanketed
with debt and mortgages. The wealth
producers Of America today at a forced
sale are a bankrupt nation. Their assessed
valuation at q forced sale would not pay
their Indebtedness. The Indebtedness of
the American wealth producers, who
must pay all as we'll as produce all, is,
according to official records, at the low
est estimate, $40, 900, coo, 00O-not mil
lions, but billions of dollars. No man
can compass or estimate this vast
amount. At an annual interest Of 6 per
cent, which is a low estimate, from
shore to Shore, it is 81, 400, 600, coo.
Divide this yearly interest by ~, and
we have as a monthly stipend to pay to
foreign and home aristocrats $500, 000,-
600. Divide again by 30, and we have
the enormous and appalling sum Of So
666, 600 per day interest to pay, to say
nothing about ever paying the principal.
Sundays and work days alike the inter
est keeps ticking right along.
Labor has produced ali the wealth,
and all has gone into the vaults and the
safes Of the idlers. How did it get there?
Easy enough. TWAS legislated from the
homes Of the tOileTs into the vaults and
the safes Of the idlers. 1t couldn't help
| going there any more than the water can
help going over the precipice at Mag
ara. All the forces were in that direc-
ton. 1t couldn't help going, and so it
went The momentum was too great to
overcome. England's system Of class
laws which were migrated into our
| American legislature between the years
1851 and 1874 inclusive did the deadly
work. 1t did inst what it was intended it
should do when it was placed there It
has done the same for every other nation
under the light of the sun which has
migrated England's system Of robber
laws into its Legislature. 1t was placed
there to rob, and it rObs and will con-
tinue to rob so long as the laws remain
and there is anything left to plumber
Better than war and blOodshed, better
than Norman brigandage, better than
the despotic laws of the bandit chief, it
/ plumbers its victims and sets them into
the streets so smoothly and adroitly that
they don't know who did it nor how it
was done.
| Is there, then, no hope for the labor
ing, wealth producing populace Of this
great nation? Yes; enc hope left, and
only one. The only hope is that they
will arouse from their lethargy and
apathy that they will behold their true
condition; that they will break away
from the old party ties that have SO long
held their brains in bondage; that they
will mite at the ballot box as men, as
fathers, husbands, sons and brothers and
wipe cut and forever from our statute
books the last vestige Of England's rob
Der system of laws that have so nearly
snslaved rs. This is the one only hope,
| the one only remedy. This is our only
salvation as a republic.
| The appalling conditions which con
front Us today are the direct and legiti-
| mate result Of England 'sclass system Of
laws enacted into our legislature under
Republican administration. The Re
| publican party is directly and solely
responsible for the great crime-for
crime it was, and not a biunder-with
all its direful results On the American
! people. The Democratic party is only
the echo Of the Republican party.
AT the close Of the war the nation
vas out Of debt For a quarter Of a cen
tury the Republican party had absolute
/ control. Under Republican rule between
/ the years 1861 and 1874 inclusive the
( tools were forged in congress and were
sl4aeafS Hfrzq4Is iflfr ffvnfv al1d efficient