The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-08-10

under the title of Peoples party had
many or them carefully traced the progress
OF the greenback, from it's preparation by
the treasury department under the law pro-
vldlng for its issue, to it's advent into the
channels of commerce, and had noted the
following facts:
F1rst-That the cost of producing $780,
100000 of this money is but a small per-
centage of it's purchasing power.
Second--That whatever expense was in
Cured IN collecting materials, engraving of
plates, procuring of appropriate designs
and vignettes and printing of notes, was
paid from the public treasury and therefore
by those upon whom the burdens of federal
taxation necessarily fall.
Third-That when the legal tender paper
of the United States passed from the hands
OF the treasury department to those Of in
dtviduals. 1t passed as payment and not
as certificate Of Indebtedness.
Fourth-That these transactions between
the treasury and employees of government
did not create debt in theory, because the
expressions borne upon the face of the
paper-paid and received-noted precisely
which it was paid, and having been consti-
tuted legal money by the millions Of pat
riotic people composing the government, it
possessed the same purchasing power in the
hands of those creditors to whom it had
been paid that it had while yet In the
hands and custody Of the United States
Fifth-That no Indebtedness in fact was
incurred by the government to those to
whom the greenbacks were first paid, is
shown by the historical fact that they
were received by those to whom they were
next offered in payment for any service
or commodity on sale within the jurisdic-
tion Of the United States, as having the
same purchasing power as when they passed
from the hands Of the government to those
Of individuals, and have since continued to
be 20 received
Sixth-That although a large volume of
legal tender paper had been projected into
the circulation during the progress Of the
war OF '61-'65. this paper was in the hands
OF the people as'the instrument for the ex-
change Of their surplus products at the close
of the war, and was needed by them for this
same purpose as urgently as during the con-
tinuance Of the war; and would, as a self
evident fact, continue to be so needed after
the conclusion Of peace and the resumption
by our citizen soldiery of their wonted in
dustrial callings.
The Populists of 1892-1894, and all true
Populists now know, that generous supply
of currency is at all times, both in peace
and in war, an indispensable necessity of an
industrial and commercial people who have
no especially adopted system of direct ex-
change, and are dependant on the
method Of purchase and sale for the ex-
change of their surplus products They
may know that the same instrument, al
though containing superf1ous verbiage, can
not at the same time and in the same trans
action, be employed as both evidence of
payment and evidence of debt. and the claim
that legal money prepared and issued first
paid) in the interest of all the people of a
great nation, is while in the hands of the
function and subscribing the very purpose
the citizen against his government, is
equivalent to claiming that the people can
be, and are indebted to themselves. They
also know that an instrument by means
of which a single just and fair business
transaction can be accomplished will serve
equally in the accomplishment of any num-
Der of such transactions, and the so-called
redemption of money simply means the
destruction of the peoples chosen instru-
ment Of exchange and distribution of the