The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-16
xcKINIEY,s FINANCIAL START.

~In1
The republican party in their plat
form upon which Mckinley was elect
ed favored bimetallism and sought us
restoration by international agreement.
The democrats tool the ground thai
bimetallism was absolutely essential to
h prosperity Of our country. and that
1T should b. restored by the United
States without awaiting foreign CO.
operation or the consent Of Great Br1-
tain, the great. domineering gold pow
or. There has been some movement on
the part of the republicans looking to
an international conference, but 1t Is
not believed by their organs or by the
mugwump papers that any such con-
ference is probable. President Nc
Kinley in his wishy-washy I'M" ~ al
address, in which he takes no We re-
cided ground for any thing except for
protection and gold, shows at least that
his sympathies are really not with the
masses. We believe that he is some
thing weak in his spinal column, that
he is a partisan looking to party sue
cess, and that he is practically control
led and owned by the money power. A
man who can avow in his initial utter
ance-at the very start of official life
as president-that he insists upon all
Indebtedness being paid in gold, shows
where he stand on the currency n
what he will do to oblige Hanna n
his masters.
Reading his address o might at
first fail to catch-On to his precise
meaning and manifested purpose. His
utterances, however, are in the line of
the organs of his party and in keeping
with wha his chosen secretary Of the
treasury, a pronounced goldbug bank
or, is understood to favor. We fall
back on that ablest exponent Of bimet-
allism among newspapers, the republic
can Philadelphia American. It's editor,
Mr.. Barker, says:
and now m Mr.. Mckinley, tell
ing us we must pay all our obligations,
express or implied, that is, bonded debt,
greenbacks, treasury notes, silver cir
t~ifcates, all our currency, in the dear
est honey known to the WOrld-gold.
so we see how Mr.. Mckinley is in
full march along the course of con-
traction that the money cliques, bent
on making the dollar dearer, n thus
robbing debtors for their enrichment.
have aimed at ever since the war. And
it is pusuit Of this policy that has cast
an ever-thickening gloom over our peo-
pie, a gloom tightening when the mon
ed interests have been forced to relax
their efforts towards contraction as at
the time of the passage of the Bland
act, and thickening again on the re-
sumption of contractlon's sway.
The scheme being worked is precise
iy the scheme favored by Cleveland
and his supple Man Friday, and by
bankers and capitalists generally In
the great north. 1t is to contract the
currency. 1t is to give the whole finan-
cial power into the hands Of banks.
1t is to centraliZe capital, to enhance
the power Of gold, to increase the bur-
dens and responsibilities Of the great
debtor class.
1t is the fashion in the gold organs,
republican and others, to denOunce the
congress that has closed it's work. 1t
was not im~peccable, it was not ecOnom-
zeal, it was not without just grounds OF
complaint and criticism but it had vir-
tues and it was in some particulars
faithful to it's trust and true to the
people. The American we again quote
from, for no newspaper is better in
formed or more reliable as to state
ment. 1t says:
Against all schemes of currency
contraction, all schemes for the ag-
grandizement Of centralized capital
through a systematized c~onfiscatiOn of
she fruits Of others toil,it has stood as
a bulwark. Contraction and the en-
hancement of u dollar has indeed
gone on, but the Fifty-fourth congress
did nothing to hasten it, it refused to
yield to demands for the funding of our
greenbacks and treasury notes, it re-
fused to authorize bond issues with .
view to effecting a contraction of n'lr
currency by withdrawing money from
circulation and piling it up in the treas
ury. The pond issue of 800, 600, 900
made last January. was made not
with the sanction but in spite of con-
gress. This bond issue, Of course, re-
suited in contraction, an enhancement
of the dollar, falling prices and conse-
1uent c~OnfiscatiOn Of the property OF
debtors. SO, also. during the term of
the Fifty-fourth congress-, has central
lied capital gone on in its systema-
Sized course of wrecking railroads and
Industrial Enterprises, buying in such
properties at w%reckage prices, reorgan-
iZing n recapitalizing them N SELL
ing new issues Of watered stocks and
bonds at a great profit to the wreck
ers, but by no act has the Fifty-fOurth
congress facilitated this work"
This congress opposed it. fought all
these schemes of iniquity and plumber
and wreckage. 1t fought great rail-
road corporations and was true to the
people.
The president and his Secretary
Gage, the millionaire banker, favor
blotting out the greenbacks. Secretary
Sherman is understood to oppose it.
A great deal can be said in favor of
preventing the destruction, h retiring
of the greenbacks. They have proved
in war and in peace an excellent help
e the people. 49,: