The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1896-04-22

The Crime Porpetrated Upon the People.
Extracts from contribution of
John Ridpath, the Great Republi-
can and Historian, in the 1renG.
HOW THE MONSTER DECAME KING.
1t was on the 18th of March, 1869,
that the government of the United
States made it's first league and
covenant with tile fundholding inter
ests against the people. BY the terms
of that league the millionaire who had
given a hundred thousand dollars for
a bond of the same denomination
should receive back, true enough, a
hundred thousand dollars, but should
receive it in units of another kind
worth about two for one. QO)
From that day, distant from the
present by more than twenty-siX
years, there has been no deviation or
shadow of turning on the part of in
trenched intrigue to carry out the
compact. Year by year the bolts and
bars have been driven ever further
and deeper with blow on blow of the
sledge of the money power, until the
national fraud has been glorified I'M
der the name of honor, and the whole
some truth nailed in the coffin of con-
tempt. Each succeeding administers
ton has been as it's predecessor, but
more so in it's devotion to the bond
holding interest Mt the expense of all
besides.
Having&secured the declaration of
the payment of the national debt in II
currency different from the currency
of the contract, the next step was that
of lengthening and perpetuating the
bonds If the bonds, now payable i'll
coin, were good for ten years or TWEEN
ty years, then they would be better
for thirty years or forty years to run.
Nor will the government now be so
eager to pay when payment in coinis
impossible. The people can now be
made to believe, what is true, that
the government cannot for the pres
cnt pay our bonds. They must there
fore be extended. Great iinnnciers
will they be who can sell us five per
cent. bond with an extension of ten
years, and take upa six per cent.
bond which is falling due. That is
the process of refunding in II nutshell,
and that requires the gigantic intel
lect of some great Secretary to do 1t.
We, the beneiiciaries, Inny hold out
to him the impossible prospect of be
ing president-if he will do the work
Well
The bonds had now become the
most profitable of all Investments.
OF all forms of property they were the
most exempt from hazard, most con
venient and most strongly fortified by
law. They offered themselves, how
ever, only to the surplus accumula-
tions of capital. The man of moderate
means must needs employ his whole
resources in the business to which he
devotes his energies. When capital
accumulates in large amounts and
there is no such thing as national
bond in which it may ensconce itself
and begin to grow, such capital must
of necessity offer itself for the pro
motion of legitimate productive,
manufacturing and commercial enter
prises. 1t must under such condi-
lions do something useful for man
kind; but where the bonds exist, sur
plus capital takes the form of the
bond by preference of all other enter
prise, and to that extent all other en-
terpriscs, languish and weaken for
their wonted stimulus.
by the beginning of the eighth de
cade, this much had been accomplish
ed. The fundholding interest had
confirmed itself to the extent of get
ting long bond for II short one, with
the guaranty of payment of both
principal and interest in coin. The
next point attained by the boud-hold-
ing power-for it had now become II
powcr-cnn hardly be touched upon
with equanimity The coin of the
United States existed in two kinds,
silver and gold. Should the govern
ment ever again reach the basis of
specie payments, the debtor would
have the option of paying in one coin
or the other, according to his convcn-
fence and the plentifulness of the Civ
Ell kind. This option constitutes the
essential element of bimetallism.
That could it be taken away from
the debtor seems in the retrospect Il
thing SO monstrous as to be incredible.
1t was valuable option which the
debtor in the United States had held
unchallenged from the foundation of
the government. No creditor had
ever tried to take it from him. 1t had
never been denied by any. 1t had
always been cheerfully conceded
IL 81, Of foil
when an unforeseen condition remov
ed all coin and put the country, as we
have seen, on the basis of II legal ten
der of paper.
Now that coin was ngninin sight, or
was supposed to be coming i'll sight;
now that the government had declar-
ed it's purpose to pay the national
debit in coin. thomgh TINT debt had