Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-07-17
MIR. PETER SPEAKS.
CHARGES THAT BONDS WERE
ILLEGALLY USED.

Stands for a Paper Money That Needs
No Rsdeemer And That Will BE Good
~ Long as the Republic Lasts.
Senator PETER addressed the senate
May % on the Butler bond bill, and
the following appeared in his remarks
1.-THE discussion that has followed
a very wide range. Silver in all its
phases has been discussed ably. Gold
monometallsm has been treated with
considerable ability. Both sides OF
almost every economic question have
been considered. But the only argu-
ment which has been presented in OPP
position to the passage of the bill was
that of the senator from New York,
Mr.. Hill, which was that 1t is pOpu-
list measure.
1T appears that the time has come
in our history when in the American
senate the merits Of a measure are to
be determined by the politics OF the
senator who proposes it. l ask If that
is democracy, If that is republicanism,
that because senator who Is the equal
of all his colleagues introduces a bill
trenching upon particular line OF
party politics it must be discarded, 1t
must be bounded and beaten and abus-
ed and ridiculed without touching the
merits Of the subject involved?
II assert, Mr. president, that in all
of our eventful history no president
before the year 1894 ever undertook
to sell a government note or gov
eminent bond without express author
ity of congress before that time
enacted.
"This bill has been treated by sena-
tors as If were the first Of the kind
ever proposed. But that Is error. We
and when 1 use the word we do
not use it editorially, but mean
those of us who are charged with the
paternity Of bills Of this kind-have
not been derelict in our duty. The
senator from North Carolina, Mr.. But
Ter, coming here nearly two years after
the bond-trading business began, very
properly seized the first opportunity
to press the subject on the attention
of the senate, and 1t is greatly to his
credit that he has been able to accom-
plish so much this soon. l allude to
the matter only for the purpose of call
ing attention to the fact that early,
even before the first sale was made,
Immediately, the next day after the
proposition to sell was made, offered
a resolution reciting the facts and as
serting as the sense of the senate that
the whole proceeding was in violation
of law. The next day l addressed the
senate on the subject. A few days
later the senator from Nebraska, Mr.
Allen, delivered a forcible argument
to show that such issue Of bonds is
illegal, and we have not lost an oppor
tunity from that time until the present
to denounce the whole proceeding as
a grievous usurpation of power.
mot only have the bonds been IL
legally issued, but there was no ne
cessity for their issue, because there
was an abundance of funds in the
treasury at the time of the sale of the
bonds to pay every debt that was due
from the United States, whether we
paid it in gold or in silver. There was
an abundance of coin in the treasury
with which to redeem all the green
backs which had been offered at that
time, so that absolutely and positively
no necessity for the issuance of bonds
existed, except only to accommodate
the spectators in New York and Lon
don.
'In proof of that-it is not mere
idle assertion-I took occasion in a
speech, delivered by me January Is
last, to collect the figures from the
treasury. 1t appears that, beginning
in 1879 with $12S,OOO,OOO, we go on down
to 1891. when there was $154,OOO,O 900.
In 1889 there was 1929, 200, 900; in 1890,
S249, 900, 900, the largest amount in any
one year. Then we come down to the
last of January, 1895, with ISL 10000
On the last of January, 1894, when the
first of the last three issues was made,
there was $65 100000 of gold coin lying
in the treasury.
1T may seem almost revolutionary,
and l have no doubt that if ny good
friend the senator from Connecticut,
Mr.. Hawley, were here he would re-
gard it as revolutionary, as infamous,
and anarchistic, but I yet insist with
all candor, with all earnestness, and
with a patriotic devotion which l do
not believe any senator will doubt
that there was no other demand upon
the treasury at the time wAen the
bond issues were made, except alone,
from the spectators in Wall street,
New York, and their confreres in the
city of London, on the other side of
the Atlantic. l have asserted again
and again that the United States gov
eminent has been forced into MARINER