The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1896-08-12
70 The voters of Mason County.

/ want to say to the Convention
held on the LIST day of August,
1896, that / feel thankful to them
for the honor they conferred on me
by endorsing me as their candidate
for the House of Representatives,
and 1 will now give my views in
regard to finances as that seems
to be the leading question of the
day.
The old sectionalism is dead.
Thank God, it is dead beyond all
power of tho bitterest partisans to
it. Nobody killed it 1t
died for the want of life, but it did
not die till lit had done an immense
amount of harm. 1t wasa colossal
verification of the scripture "the
love of money is the root of all
evil" If slavery had beenas profit
able in the North as in the South,
or as improbable in the South as
in the North, there never would
have been any sectionalism such as
we have had. The new sectional
ism Just now making itself power
full in our national life has the very
same "root of all evil" New Eng
land has for decades been in what
is fairly termed comme4S;als poll
tics. A tariff as high as possible
has been maintained, and this has
made that section rich.
Large sums of money accumu-
lated under tariff legislation has
been lent in the South and West,
or invested in bonds. 1t 1873 a
system of legislation begun, the
result of which has been the de-
monetizing of silver. Silver being
half of our real money,it follows that
the currency was or will have to be
contracted to suit the base. This
cut prices half and makes it impos-
sible for the people in the West,
especially, to meet their obliga-
tions. They are in great distress.
The same is true in. the South in
less measure. 1t has been a sys-
tenn of wreckage and the money
lenders have taken the remainder.
New York City, the money center
of the country, is now the center OF
the Eastern side of this new sec
tionalism, The temptation was
very great to do what was done
destroy half tho money and make
the other half double in value and
thus double all bonds and other
forms Of indebtedness. In this
scheme the money lending section
of the country has been under the
lead of foreign capitalists mainly
English. Nothing could suit the
holder of American securities bet
ter than to double their value, un-
less it would be to quadruple them.
Now the curious thing. about all
this is that it has been done under
the fine names of honest money,
sound money, staple finance, etc,
which is another illustration of a
we'll known truth that Good
names have never been wanting
for bad things" 1t is an unparal-
leled piece of robbery. A few
dozen capitalists given themselves
to financiering think out and put
in operation schemes like the one
under consideration. They have a
single purpose, and that is to make
their money as great force as
possible. They act in concert and
adroitly win to their scheme the
men necessary to their plans.
They practice steafth and keep
up blinds SO that the masses do not
see what is going on. The great
mass of plain people are scattered.
They never get together to plan
and scheme, they are busy about
their separate affairs; the farmer is
following his pillow, the mechanic
is busy, the merchant is hard at
work to get on his feet. None of
these think of the government to
use it to get rich. After while
things begin to close down, times
get harder and harder. There is
trouble in the land, the farmer has
made fine crop, but prices are SO
low he can't even pay interest on
his mortgage, the machine is
out of work. The preachers
salary is not paid, railroads are
wrecked an bought up at'half price
by these base money tinanciers.
There is only one way to remedy
the evils and that is to restore sill
yer to what it was prior to 1873, re-