The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-02-05
The Pacific Railroads.

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second place in order that private capt.
talists might get soft spot to place sixty
four millions of money. Or rather steal
that amount by issuing bonds to whoever
would buy.
Now the bonds are due, Uncle Sam
must either foreclose his mortgage and
buy in the road at the price of the first
mortgage, Or the holders of the first mort
gage bonds will sell the property and
purchase it themselves, cutting the United
States out of its claim which amounts,
principal and interest, to considerably
over hundred million dollars. A bill to
extend the debt of the government fifty or
more years on an issue of bonds bearing
per cent interest has been voted down
by Congress
The enemies of government ownership
set up plea that the government, if it
took possession of the part its mortgage
rests on would have no terminals or out
let. But the government could very
easily overcome this if it had American
statesmen in control in place of corpora
ton attorneys dominating both legislative,
executive and judicial branches of govern
ment. The terminal roads could be con-
denned and bought at their actual value
or Uncle Sam could do as he did when
the storm of rebellion burst over his head
.,,;11io,e &c. rraa.,hoo1,e
they were created to prosecute the most
stupendous war of the century, would
soon build terminal to the Pacific, and
if, necessary, fifty more would complete
a through line to the Atlantic. The vol
unteer soldiers accepted pay in green
backs; and risked their lives on the bat
tlefeld. Farmers, mechanics, artisans
and all manner of people of the indus
trial class accepted greenbacks in pay for
their products and labor, gladly. and car
ried forward those pursuits which gave
them wealth and prosperity as never
before or since. The money which can
keep armies, numbering hundreds of
thousands in the field, and the producing
force of the nation in active employment
for years will carry forward every line of
business in time of peace. Nobody can
doubt that fact if both wise and honest
A call for labor to build railway from
any point west of the Mississippi with
fifty millions to pay that labor, of good
tGco,,t,IJ5 raarhoo1, ypif1,
ception clause forced into the law by
Wall street attorneys, would find thous-
ands Of anxious laborers on the ground
before the ink was dry on the call for
them. This would place the government
i'll possession of a terminal line to the
Pacific and it would not cost one cent of
taxation levied on the people. That fifty
millions would go into circulation and be
continued in circulation for hundred
years or indefinitely, just as the crippled
greenback has continued In circulation
for the third of a century. and will pur-
chase more of everything at present than
when they were created. Not a man of
the industrial class among seventy mil
lions desires to part with those old war
greenbacks.
If the alternative was offered the hold |
ers of the first mortgage bonds of the
Pacific road to have new line constructed
by using new. full legal tender green
backs for that purpose, or to accept those
same greenbacks and hand over their
liens on the road to the government, they
would jump at the chance when they
knew to certainty that one of the other
was fixed fact.
Fifty millions of new greenback money
injected into our meager circulating me-
dunn would have no more influence on
general prices than a sprinkle of rain has
on the parched earth in an August
drought. No living man can put up an
against the above proposition
that will stand for moment the test of |
logical examination, much less an actual
trial test The bank sharks have expend- |
ed millions in publishing sophistry in the
attempt, and have produced but tangle
of words in the hope of keeping the peo-
pie deceived. Many of them have be-
logged themselves trying to construct an
argument or find a reason that would
prove that legal tenders issued by the
government, receivable for all debts.
taxes and dues, public and private, has
not done, and will not do, all the work
hat any money can do. whether it be
made of gold, silver or any other sub
stance convenient foi use.
Fifty millions created and expended by
he government in such work as above in
Heated would he a thousand times more
to the people and go fully as
many times further in strengthening the
credit of the government, than the two
hundred and sixty-two millions of interest
bearing debt piled on the backs of the
people by Grover Cleveland and Wall
street sharpers and winked at and en-
by the leaders of the republican
party. 1t Is money famine that is max
ng the people poor. They cannot pro
luce or exchange the products of their
abor if they do produce, without money
At the close of the war there were
,6 ooo 900 people in the 'loyal" States
he States not under control of the coil
tolerate government, There was then
n IS65-ahout $40 per capita, before the
money began TO flow into the southern
States. The farmers, mechanics and
rading class were never before or since
in so prosperous and satisfied condition.
There is at the present time, agreeably