The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-07-22

sEeusLgcAH HAHD 801oRD. II
During the closing days Of the tafin
ebste, the hand Of the Republicans In
,osxress was forced 70 the light and
heir bypocracy exposed. They have
zen Is loud Ia denouncing trusts -
be Peoples p1rty. Mckinley IN his
inaugural address denounced trusts in
~ strong ~ any ever used
ret, when an amendment wes offered
% the tariff bill providing that II It
VAS found that trusts were controlling
he trade IN any article which was pro-
tected under the bill that said articles
should be placed on the free list, the
amendment Was voted down. The
amendment required that the fact that
= trust existed In restraint OF trade
should hrst be determined BY the Fed
eral courts. So, il there were no trusts |
being protected in the present tarin
bill, there could be NC objection TO the
Amendment, and IL there were trusts |
being protected, then the amendment
should by all means be adopted, and
every one opposed to trusts should
have voted for it. When this amend
ment was offered by Senator Petit
grew, it alarmed Republicans very
much. Mark Hanna 10 reported to
have declared in Republican caucus
that the amendment must be defeated
at all hazards or he would not be able
to get campaign funds from the trusts
in the future. When the vote WAS
taken every Republican voted against
the amendment, including, Of course,
Senator Pritchard, of North Carolina.
Thus the Republicans were put on rec
ord and forced to admit that they were
the defenders and supporters Of trusts,
and by their votes part of their debt to
trusts for the immense corrupt cam
paign fund which they used in the last
campaign.
The Republicans have been declar-
ing all along that they were not in "a
vor of retiring the greenbacks, but
there was good reason to believe that
one of their purposes in attempting *
frame the tariff bill 50 as to raise 4
large surplus revenue was for the pur
pose of holding the Sreenbacks as the,
were paid into the treasury and lock
ing them up and not paying them on
again. This would be an effective va!
Of retiring the greenbacks and retiring
the currency in circulation. To pre-
vent this Senator Stewart offered tn
following amendment:
Whenever there shall be in the treas
r ury q sum in excess of $1O5, 5000 o
full legal-tender money, it shall be tn
duty of the secretary of the treasur,
' to redeem, purchase, and retire bond
of the United States to the amour
T which can be redeemed or purchase
with the surplus above sos ,OOO, 600
r. such purchases to be made under regu
, latiOns similar to those heretOfOr
, adopted and employed for the pur
o chase of United States bonds from sur
i plus revenue.
When this amendment was offere
. the Republicans tried to excuse thei
{ opposition to it by saying that it wa
not necessary in as much as the bill
o would not create such surplus. The
= were answered, however, that the
: there could be no objection to til
= amendment for it would only becem
8 operative in the event that E.r-;- SUI
= plus should be piled up in H., treas
: ury and then the amendment woul
4 have the effect of restoring this i'd
money to circulation. The whole dit
q cussion ranged around the danger an
d possibility of the tariff surplus bein
r used as means of retiring the green
: backs, and nearly every speaker in fl
q vor of the amendment announced an
r showed plainly that every senator VIII
# was in favor of retiring greenbacks i
= this cowardly manner would vol
: against the amendment while thos
f who were in favor of keeping greer
II backs in circulation would vote for til
: amendment. The Republicans did NJ
attempt to answer these argument
e but when the vote was taken ever
Republican voted against the amend
ment.
o Thus within the last ten days tt
s North Carolina senators have gone o
d record on two important test question
. Pritchard voted in favor of trusts
q Butler against trusts; Pritchard vote
IS in favor Of retiring the greenback
q Butler voted against retiring IL
= greenbacks.