The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-07
THE ISSUES OF THE HOUR
Congressman Benton shows What
They Are and How tn Meet Them.

Representative NJ. f. Benton. of the
Fifteenth Missouri District. in a commu-
nication to the Mississippi Valley Demo-
crat and Journal of Agriculture. pub
lished at st. Louis. and circulated all over
the Southwest. says:
The first ten amendments to the Con
stitution We're made part OF that instru-
ment TO preserve to the people of these
United States popular government. They
served their purpose well until within the
last thirty years.
The only serious attack on popu ar gov
eminent during this century prior to 1865
was the establishing of national bank
We are indebted to Jackson for stamping
it out. The popular will was honored by
this man of the people in vetoing it's re-
charter.
"Out of the civil war has grown new
notions of the Constitution. The money
changers are more powerful and auda-
cious than in the time of our Savious.
There are two powerful classes working
hand in hand. national banks and trusts
The banks are organized to control the
money of our country; the trusts to con-
troll the output OF labor. These two. with
carrying corporations, comprise what IS
truthfully known as PlutOcracy. The OBJ
ject of the banks is as l have said-to
control the currency of our country; tn
this end they made common cause late IN
the SOS with the money lords of the old
world; they realized that possession of
the bonded Indebtedness of this country
was not enough for their purposes. As
long as there was nearly five hundred
millions of greenback currency with
which to pay bonds they were powerless:
hence the act of March IS, 1863 was
made to suit them. LincoIn's hope and
prophecy that our mountains of gold and
silver, dug out by the returned soldiers
of the Union. would meet our debt. cau.;-
ed the stealthy. dishonest, unconstitI-
tionaI act of 1873, striking down silver
The demand of the people for the restors-
ton of silver made the Bland law and it
was sore trial for the national banks
for. before they could murder that law
with the act of 1890. more than 800, 00O, 600
of standard silver dollars had been coin
ed. The purchase Of silver under the law
of 1890 and the issuance of paper 10 pay
for it was still n menace to their plans.
THE next move was the panic of 1898,
brought on. as 1 verify believe, to force
the repeal of the purchasing clause of the
law of 1890. Meanwhile the trusts had
perfected their plans to cover every
branch of manufacture, every mile of
railroad and telegraph lines and they
made the tariff of 1890. The people re-
beied at its enormities and voted, IS
they thought to break the power of the
trusts. Meanwhile the trusts had become
intrenched in the high places and we
were given tariff law little better than
the one it repealed save in the income
tax. Determined not to bear their just
share of burdens. the banks and trusts
appealed to the courts which they have
had so much TO do in making. and pOpu-
lar government was stricken another ter
rible blow in the decision of our court of
last resort on the income tax. Outraged
at this finding of the courts. squarely in
opposition to presidents of a hundred
years, the plain people though discOur-
aged were not dismayed. The rallyius
cry of those who believed in popular gov
eminent, was return to constitutional
methods in the control of the money of
the country. the free coinage of silver.
the preservation of greenbacks, the cur
failing of the growing power of national
banks; legislation by the people and not
by the courts; just and constitutional
laws to prevent the utter enslavement OF
the people by the trusts and banks. \
CLEAN of sunshine came to the plain peo-
pie when the representatives of great
party at Chicago in 1896 shook off the
paralysis of its bank and trust masters
and revived Jeffersonian and Jacksonian
Democracy.
L
named themselves Democrats went over
to the enemy. Their places were filled by
a million patriotic Populists and silver
Republicans. The plutocrats lodged the
issue. and insisted that they were for
'bimetaliism. Read the list of contribu-
tons TO the Mckinley campaign fund by
liz trusts. aggregating more than mill
ion dollars. besides the munificent gifts
of the banks and railroad corporations,
and the way they won is told.
I'VE were repuIsed. but the flag was not
lowered. The election won the banks and
trusts wanted their reward. The trusts
were paid on the eth of July. 1891 in
the 'Dingley bill The demand of the
bankers is not yet satisfied. Silver must
be Il limited legal tender; the bonds must
be funded into bOld-bearing obligations:
| the greenbacks and silver notes must be
destroyed. and the issue OF paper money
must be turned over to national banks.
But the reorganiZed American Senate
stands like stone wall in the way of
these atrociOus demands. The Indian
apolis convention of bankers bondhold-
ers and on-producing, wealth absorbing
| plutocrats have pressed their demands
till the Secretary of the Treasury declares
for the final payment of all obligations
| In gold, and the President lin the lam
guaee of the London Times, the organ of
the Bank of England) has got down on
the right side of the fence in favor of
gold alone.
THE issue is sharply drawn. The re-
port of the Monetary Commission, the
Gage bill, the Presidents speech recently
delivered at New York. the vote of the
Republican House on the Teller resoIu-
ton, the demand for a pooling bill for
railroads. and the recent decision of the
Federal courts abridging personal liber-
~ ON the one side and the Senate vote on
| the Teller resolution and the minority
vote in the House on the same. together
with the Chicago platform ON the other.
| leave no middle ground and no way FOR
| honest men to be mistaken.
"A few sharp sentences make the Issue
| plain: Shall the Federal courts legislate?
| Jefferson feared they would Jackson de
| fled them. Shall the United States Gov
ernment surrender its sovereignty grant
ed to il in the Constitution by the plain
people, to the money kings and national
bankers who are themselves the partners
| and agents of the foreign bondholders?
Shall our Government permit foreign
money lenders to say what our money of
final payment shall be? Shall the great
carrying corporations put the price on
the products of agriculture? Shall the
trusts be permitted tn strange individual
energy and control with despOtic power
the movements of labor? on the other
l n