Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1899-11-30

An Open Letter TO Secretary
Gage.

An Open Letter to Secretary
Gage.
Corntassel, N. c. Nov. 16, 1899.
Mister Secretary Gage: Pm
in tight place, and I've been
reading about the gamblers of
Wall-st, being in tight place,
and you Offering to let them have
$25, 600, 900 to help them cash
their chips; sol thought I would
lay my case before you, and
maybe YOU would help me out,
too. Five years ago | bet my
muscle and industry against
s'manifest destiny, "thatt I could
pay for 1OOacre farm al the end
of five years. I pulled off my
coat and, with the help of good
wife and pair of mules, [ went
in to win. The first year I made
a good crop of cotton and enough
hogs and hominv for another
years eating. My cotton only
brought me five cents pound,
and I was told that I had pro-
duced too much: my muscle and
industry bad been too active,
and where [ though | should reap
a reward, I garnered disappoint-
ment instead, and my cotton crop
only brought enough to pay the
interest on the price Of the farm ::
and buy my wife and children
clothes and shoes for the winter.
With the building of spring and
the rising Of the sap, my muscles
and my industry opened the jack
pot of chance, with new hopes,
and, although manifest destiny"
sent the April cold rains to kill
my cotton, and the bud worms
nipped nv low-grouud corn in
the bud, I raised the ante, re-
planted my crop and battled with
crabgrass and hog weeds the
summer through, and housed
another good crop. But the
gamblers of Wall-st, and our
loving cousins, at Liverroot were
bulling and bearing the cotton
market to such an extent that
my product again only netted
enough to pay interest on the
debt hanging over my little home.
From year to year have
fought the fight, while I watch
ed my children growing up in
ignorance and my wife ageing
beneath the cares of poverty,
and now the five years are out
and the debt is due, and panic
is threatening me. [ know there
are only few hundred thousand
of US farmers in the same fix, and
the fnanciers of our great country
must be looked after first, But,
honestly, Mister Secretary, don'G
you think that a man who ha )
a wife and five children to care
for, to feed and to clothe, 10
| educate, SO they NAV grow in,n
| intelligent clf z,nsh'p, is sOme-
what of ''fnaucier" f ne does it
on an income of $500 a year,
without cheating a n-igh DOR In I.
horse swap or leaving his bills
uppaid?
I know the treasury reports
show a per capita clrcu tatlon of
| $25 or more, but it don'G circu-
late down here to that extent,
| and we have to do on about Sc
or $8 per capita. [ cau'G under
stand it exactlv, but it. seems to
me that our constitution meant
to guarantee equal rights to al i,
and I don'G see why the specu-
latorF, the men VINO play beyond
| the limit of ratioualism aud re
compense, should seek relief at
| the hands Of the government
when their hands are called aud
it is found they were bluff ng
with bobtail flush.
I notice the banks Of New
York. for the week ending Nov.
II, hold ''nearly three million
dollars less than legal require
ments." Does this mean that they
are that mnch below the 25 per
cent. reserve required by law ?
If it does, Mister Secretary, don'l
you think somebody has been US
ing somebody's money that they
had no right to use?
[ don't exactly understand
these things, but me and a neigh
bor was taking these matters
over the other night, and we
came to the conclusion that if
you we're going to use the gov
erument funds to help the Wall.
st. OK out of the Sunday ditch,
we as contributors to that fund,
ought to know why a panic in
| Wsll-st. is any more detrimental
to the interest of good citizen
ship than stringency of money