The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-08-07
CAMPAIGN TALK.

1t has been the policy of the privileged
class to make the people believe that. FL
nance was subject of such complexlty
and obscuritv that they. the people, would
never be able to understand it. They
wanted to keep the people in the dark so
that they themselves should have the en-
tire control of the money of the country
and manipulate it accordidg to their own
sweet wills.
Now what they tried to make the peo-
pie believe is not true. To all practical
and useful intents and purposes ana tor
casting an intelligent vote on the allah
sorbiny question now before the nation,
the people are quite as competent to form
Il rational judgment as any railroad
wreckcr on Stock-waterer on Wall street.
There are only two principles about
money that the people need to know to
understand and protect their own interest.
And these are easy to be comprehend. Inc
first principle is that. there are TWO kinds
of property: ac'nai properly which Is land
and its products. live stock. agricultural
implements household and kitchen furni-
ture and everything ernp' money. The
other kind is money and obligations that
cali for money This is called represen etc,
property, because it stands for and repre-
sents @1um property. The people OF
whom the farmers are the largest class,
have the first kind ~imd property; the
| bankers and bond-holders have the second
| kind rprrmntafjr" property. And the
| great flight that is now on, Is between the
two kinds of property between the bankers
| and the bond-holdcrs and the whole pestl-
lential brood of law favored non produces
and parasites on the one hand; anu the
wealth producing classes. consisting chlehv
| of farmers on the other. Mechanics ana
| 4 I bal Will farmers
| for their actual property Is their bone ana
| muscles.
The second princiil which 1t is neces-
sarv to know is that, the amount OF money
| in circulation measures the values or all
actual property: and that, IT money Is
| plenty land and labor and the products
of these are high; if money is scarce, they
are low. Suppose the county OF frlhce
| GEORGES was cut off to itself and lndepen-
dent. If there are million dollars In the
county. there all the property IN the
| country is measured by the million dollars
| or in other words. is worth million l!
there is half a million dolloars, there all
| the actual property in the country ana
and every particular price of property is
worth Just h If as much. And suppose
| | had loaned YOU one hundred dollars or
| had taken mortgage on your farm Tor
| one thousand dollars, when the money In
circulation was one million dollars, and
| suppose further that, should the combine
| with other creditors and mortgage holders
| for the wicked purpose OF doubling the
| value of the obligations owing us by
| cutting down the circulation to hall d
| million Do you not see that the property
| of our debtors would at once shrink to
| one half their former value: hereas
one hundred bushels of wheat would have
| paid your debts of hundred dollars when
the circulation was million it takes two
hundred bushels to pay 1t when the clrcu-
| ation is cut down to half a million, so
while ten bushels of wheat would have
paid Your taxes then, it now takes twenty
bushels and YOU are sold out of house and
home under the mortgage because land
has gone down one half and you mortgaged
the land at half its value. This is precise
" what has been done in the United States
bv the contraction of the currency and
the decentralization of silver. 1t is this
which has been grinding the middle class
down to poverty and driving the poor tc
beggary, cruel and despair, while the
nnIllonairs, under the fostering case OF
legislation, are piling their riches noun
tain high.
1t is impossible for the human magma
ton to conceive the extent to which the
American people have been robbed and
plundered BY the bankers and bondhold
ers. The eminent historian and accurate
statician, DIR. John Clark Ridpath, has
told part of the frightful story in the Are
ma He shows that on the first day OF
March 1866 the total national debt was 80,
S21 SOS, 95946. BY the close Of the yeal
1865, we had paid upon it IN interest atone
So 3d.. OOO, 10000 and upon the principal
81 700, O00, 10000, making the enormous
aggregate of 81 400, 900, 10000. This left
us still owing about 81 ,231 10000 includ
ing premium on the bonds. We had paiC
more than three-tifths of the entire debl
lover and above the enormous interest
and vet-mark it well and invariably dl
west-tbis residue of the debt was wortl
more on the 3lst of January, 1895 than the
whole original debt on the first OF Marcel
) 1866, which was nominally y as much IL
, the residue in 1898. That it will take more
bushels of wheat, more bales of cotton
more barrels of pork, more pounds o.
, | wool and more tons of iron to pay the
debt still due than it would have taken tt
pay the whole debt at the beginning Ant
, there is not poor devil who occasionally
! has nickel to pay for a piece of tobacco
| or a glass of beer who is not taxed to pay
the debt.
But frightful as this picture is it show:
only part and IA small part CT the raw
ages of the money-mongers. 1t does no
include nearly two billions profits by tho
national banks in l6 years, nor the los:
on changing the payment of the principa
of the bonds from paper to specie nor thu
losses from the enforced idleness of mil
| lions for so many years, nor the SHRINK
age from the decentralization of silver
probably equal to all the rest combined
I But who can estimate the silent sutferln G
the blighted hopes. the ruined growth anl
the broken hearts.
: If the farmers and market gardeners o.
: MARYLAND want to know the true cause O.
the low prices of their produce and thei
consequent distress here they have it
And without a remedy things will grow
still worse. Tho remedy is given in thu
Democratic platform adopted at Chicago
last July. Z.