The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-04-01


for honesty in business and govern
mental affairs and against predatory
wealth and the cupidity of our mil"
lionaires and trust magnates finds its
ablest champions in n section.
Another EQUITY that l shall en-
deavor to blot out. is the pension
policy of the Republican party. The
ease with which every free booter
and camp follower o gets his
name upon the pension rolls is ap-
palling. We have paid to Northern
soldiers since the war ended $3,551,-
025,651.17 or enough to buy the
States of Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana at their assessed values
for taxation. The South pays the
major portion of this tax and gets
nothing in return. We were not ag'
gressors in the Civil War, the refus-
al of the North to accept the decision
of the Supreme Court of the United
States upon a constitutional question
in the bred Scott case was practi-
cally a notification OF that instru-
ment and therefore, according to
their construction, a declaration Of
war. The. South fought in defense
of the constitution. This is now ac-
cepted as true by all writer's Of history
and has practically been sustained by
the Supreme Court of the United
States. The President who has spent
most of his life writing articles and
books defamatory of Southern states
men and heroes, in his last message
to Congress, he thus speaks of this
conflict, There is grave need of those
stern qualities shown alike by the
men of the North and men of the
South in the dark days when each
~valiantly battled for the light as it
was given each to see the light. their
spirit should be our spirit as we strive
to bring nearer the day when greed
and trickery and cunning shall he
trampled under foot by those who
fight for righteousness that exaleth
a nation" The Confederate soldier
battled for the light az given by the
only source from whence It could
come, the sun of the constitution
the Supreme Court of the United
States. Such being the case | shall
demand that the Confederate soldier
be treated as the equal of the Federal
soldiers and granted an equal pen
sion in his old age as a brother who
fought for the light as he saw it and
as he was in duty bound to accept 1t
from it's only source the highest
Court in the Union.
Finances.
Under our Constitution Congress
alone has the power to coin money.
I shall advocate an elastic currency,
issued by the government and in
dorsed by the entire resources of
our country.
The great trouble with this ques-
ton is the tendency on the part Of
our financiers and statesmen to treat
money as a commodity and n otas a
medium of exchange. The idea of
money being sold in the open market
to the highest bidder like real estate
or mules and horses is something
unique to the student OF political
economy and yet this is the specta-
Gle We witness when a scare is pro-
duced in our financial centres.
The volume Of money cannot be
arbitrarily fixed, its only regulator
should be the volume of produce 1t
is supposed to represent the amount
of cotton, corn and manufactured
products it is supposed to exchange
and stand as a pledge for. The idea
that money should have an intrinsic
value is unsound and absolutely an
tagonistic to the object and function
of money. What we need is to go
back to first principles, to Adam
Smith, instead of relying upon men,
who V see anything but a dol
lar, to make the financial policy of
this government men who look upon
money as the only product OF the
country, we should consult men who
manage the farms, the mills and the
mines, which produce the real source
of our wealth and who believe that
monew is stamped by the govern
ment for the purpose of aiding them
in exchanging their products. Then
and not until then will We have Il
sound financial policy. Turn the
money changers out of the temple
and place therein honest men who
produce something and the country
will be safe.
1 am unalterably opposed to the
establishment of a central bank in
| washington to handle the currency
Of our government. This is Republi-
can doctrine pure and simple and
means ultimate monarchy and the
Capitalization of government. Our
experience with a central bank has
been disastrous. 1t was corruptes to
defeat Andrew Jackson for presi-
dent.
Thrice has it been tried, corrupt
ed and reputiated and | do not be-
lieve there is a Republican IN con-
gress who has the temerity to pro-
pose it, to say nothing Of its advo-
cacy by a South Carolina Democrat.
The Panama Canal will soon he
completed and with it will return
the Importance and commercial adj
vantages of our ports, Charleston,
no,t Do,.o1 ond c~aorpetowD shall