The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1896-08-20
The Silver Policy Defended by Senator Nor
'tiaNat gan.

''t#'''t gan
The decree of therepublican party at
st, Louis that gold shall be the ex-
elusive money Of redemption and the
sole legal basis of all contracts, public
and private, now existing or hereafter
to exist, sinks into the hearts of the
classes like roughly sharp
ened knife. 1t seeks to impose upon
them additional burdens of taxation to
pay unlimited issues of bonds. and, as
n part of this terrible oppression, it
proposes to increase the cost of all
goods that these classes
are compelled to consume, through the
readoption of the Mckinley plan of
taxation. These twin plunderers of the
classes of people who can live only by
their labor and industry, unitedly re-
sort to and use the power of taxation to
accomplish a common object, which is
the creation of wealth in the hands of
the controllers of capital, at the expense
of the industrial classes.
This abuse of the power to tax the
people, by the issue of bonds to borrow
gold for the use of favored business
pursuits, or to encourage the hoarders
of untNXed wealth, is wrong that no
free people should be forced to endure,
and the further'abuse of that power, by
increasing the profits Of certain pro-
tected manufactures under the ex-
elusive control OF capitalists, is an adj
ditional wrong and burden that will
crush out the sufferers, if this cOmbina-
ton is sustained by our votes.
No relief is to be given, none is
promised, as against this continued
burden of bond taxation, or the added
burden of subsidy taxation that is
called protection" by any increase Of
the supply of money. The supply o.
money, redeemable in coin, is limited
by this decree to the amount of golt
coin in the country, and that is no
equal to the expenditures of the gov
eminent for single year.
Without any promise ofretrenchmen
in extravaganza appropriations, or AM
hint at such policy, We are required
1 49,
to pay out our revenues in bounties Il
favored classes, and to sell them for tn,
purchase of trade facilities for othe
favored classes and places, under tn
deceptive pfetext of reciprocity"
All the money that is raised to pa.
the interest and principal upon on
bonds issued for these loans of gold AM
all that is required to pay subsidies an,
bounties to protected industries and t.
pay for reciprocity bargains must b
supplied by the taxation of the con
sumers, at the expense of the unpro
tected producers. All this must b
paid I'M the Increased cost of gold
which is enormously enhanced by it
scarcity, as compared with the volum
of charges that are thus imposed upo
that coin. The remnant of gold lei
for business purposes after supplyin
these exaeti0ns,j will not enable tn
people to buy food and clothing and t
pay their local taxes.
How prosperity can come from thi
increase of burdens, along with the de
crease Of the means of bearing then
to ony others than those who alread
possess wealth and have the control {
money, is problem that will be solve
very quickly by the ruin of all VIII
must labor for a living if the decree {
the st. Ionis convention is adopted Q
our national policy. This harsh deere
of the ST. Louis. convention can hay
no support, either in whole or in par
from any true democrat. 1t is the r,
storation Of European feudalism, an
its application to our people in O for
that means the destruction of the ind,
pendence of the. industrial classes
this country and the enslavement
their p0sterity. In the one case Il
capitalists and corporations that Al
protected in the profit of their 9,
J elusive privilegesby the Mckinley pls
of taxation will, necessarily control IL
labor and the wages of every competel
mechanic and operative in the countr,
They can no more throw off this serv
tude than the feudatories- servants
of the ancient barons Of Europe coul
i escape from the masters that held the
# to service. In the other case the hol,
q ers of our non taxable bonds have
Il mortgage upon the people that will q
n up the products of our industry We,
y by year as certainly as the old Eur
pean barons deyoured the production
of their feudatories. In both cases it
only fight between the wolf and Il
:. lamb.
. In Europe and America all who ha'
capital in large sums are eager to inve
{! it in non-taxable bonds. This motiv
with the inducement and effect of it,
the same that gave rise to the feud
system that Napoleon destroyed
Europe and that we thought our CO
stitution had destroyed here. II
property in which the investment
now made is national indebtedness i
stead oflands. Toprevent the indust
and frugalitY of the laboring class