The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1898-07-15
THE BOND THEORY.
Machinations Of h Hoard of Jobbery
ut Washington In Delaying
the War.

Numerous sons OF fathers, IA yarl-
Gus IONS of guns. have been appointed
10 responsible and lucrative, but not
dangerous positions, in the army,
where they will proceed ito feather
their nests" while the gallant boys
who volunteered to fight our battles
are fed on hard tack and unsavory
bacon. Fat cattle and sheep are graz
ing on q thousand hills. granaries are
bursting with their yellow burdens of
wheat and corn. and providence smiles
upon us with the promise OF abundant
harvests; and yet our soldiers are linn
tied to Il meager and changeless diet
that breeds sickness and death. The
bullets Of the enemy are not as deadly
as the pestilencc hat stalketh in the
night, or the sickness that broods over
unsanitary camps of badly fed sol
di<rs. These things are happening in
order that incompetent scions of IA
nous sires may add to their bad rcpu-
tations and fill their empty pockets.
Other things are also happening.
The mighty power of our magnificent
navy is wasted in pounding to pieces
insignificant b~lockhouses in hitherto
unknownCuban villages. while Havana
lies undisturbed in peace, strengthen
ing her Notifications and getting
ready to kill our soldiers when the al
ministration shall have made up it's
mind to strike the vitals instead of the
extremities. Our wise board of job
berry at Washington is pretending to
kill the snake by the Intellectual meth
DDS Of cutting off small pieces of its
tail with n broad AK, when one vigor-
Gus blow al the head would end the
trouble. In n hot days work the
combined fleets of Sampson and Schley
could repeat at Havana what Dewey
so ~splenGidly accomplished at Manila,
md then the end would come. But
there was only one cable connecting
Dewey with Washington, and he cut
the cablei A dozen cables hold Samp-
son and Schley down to the pottering
policy OF school boys.
But there is n purpose in all this
business. The peace-at-any-price peo-
pie have suddenly become rampant for
war. They pant for the gore of the
Spanish. and long for a grand army as
an example TO the nations of Europe.
Gore and grand armies require money
and fat contracts. and back of these
are bonds, bonds, bonds, bonds enough
10 be perpetual, bonds that will last
forever, and furnish a basis for end
less wild cat bank privileges. These
are the meat and marrow of present
conditions. The war must be contin
ued so as to create n necessity for
bonds, for without apparent necessity
no party would dare issue them. So
treasury notes and silver. the peoples
money. are voted down. and instead
we have in their place 500, 100000 of
Understanding certificates. and $780,
600, 900 of bonds, also bearing interest.
Side by side with these two outrages
enough to pay all the expenses of the
war If honestly c%onducted) laid on
those things which are necessary to
the poor while the articles of luxury
used by the rich, and other
of the wealthy classes, go free. Hanna
isin the saddle and the devil cracks the
whip. The men who faint at the color
OF a greenback, can endure wagon
loads Of fiat and bottomless bank
notes. This is n paradox, explainable
only on the bond theory. They pro-
claim their anxiety not to open the
first little sluice of greenbacks lest it
shall soon spread into a crevice and n
flood; but an ocean of bank notes
based on wind does not brighten them.
Let US admit that a greenback is a
debt. 1t is a debt without interest.
and easy to pay, because it is a debt
that the people owe to themselves. On
the other hand. n bond is a debt that
bears interest. and both interest and
principal to the money lords. This
makes a great deal of differences
well understood by the people. They
will see to il in due time. The condi-
tions are developing leaders who will
show them the way.
The way ought to have been short,
sharp and decisive. With any other
European nation it might have been
different, but Spain was already ex
hausted with her interminable revolu-
tions. A blow at Havana, like the one
Mt Manila. would have settled the
whole business-and that blow would
have been dealt and the war ended in
six weeks-except for the necessity OF
bonds. And over and above everything
else. this war should have been n cash
war. We had more than 5000. 00O. 900 in
the treasury. including the always use
less and ever dangerous 500, 900. ZOO re-
serve. With this fund and a little tenn
porary taxation. aided by a safe and q
reasonable emission Of grcenbacks, We
could have paid every dollar of the
wars expense in cash. and come out
of the struggle with no increase in
debt and n tremendous impetus tc
business. But il could not be so be.
cause plutocrats desired it otherwise
They love bonds and the contraction
of the currency which the sale oil
bonds produces. So at present they
Will have their way. But the people
will be heard from later on.
w. s. BRYAN.
Failure of the gold standard In
India is a convincing argument of the