The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1920-11-03


of the amount of II money in circula-
tion. Under the Sherman act I'M
1873, they brought a panic by the
retirement of currency; in 1898, d it|
was silver. We were to go from the
bimetallic to the single gold basis.
g Everybody was told that we must
maintain the gold reserve, and the
first thing a man did in the morning
was to look at the paper and see
whether the gold reserve was up or
down. Wall street would gather up
currency and send it down and get
gold. The treasury would issue more
currency and Wall street would re-
peat the performance. Iti is fool
thing to look, at now, but it put cot
ton to five cents a pound, wheat Is
cents a bushel, and Kansas farmers
burned corn instead Of coal. ! re-
member in 1898, that l travelled from
Bennettsville to Washington and
never saw the smoke coming out of a
single factory chimney. t.r.~.
Cleveland went out of Office hat
cd by Democrats and his only de-
tenders in congress, Republicans rep
resenting the monied interest Nc
! Kinley was elected and he brought
|
country had had since 1873.' He did
it by issuing currency and expanding
the volume of credits. He followed
the same policy that Bryan was de-
feated for advocating and coined
more silver than Bryan could have
coined, because Wall street was sup
porting Mckinley and fighting Bry-
an. Yet strange to say, Mckinley
died at the hands of an assasson. He
was one of the kindlicst, sanest, and
most lovable characters l have ever
known, breathing with his dying
lips forgiveness to the miserable
wretch who fired the fatal shot. .
Roosevelt came into power, siren
uous and energetic. He undertook to
curb the trusts. The people backed
him up, and Certain malefactors of
great wealth" engineered an artifi-
cial panic to curb Roosevelt, and
they did it, by contracting credits.
There was the same tremendous
drop in prices as in 1878, but very
few failures, because it was not
real panic. Banks suspended pay
ment; even the National City Bank
CT New York issued scrip Some
states passed stay laws, and we all
used clearing house certificates in
stead of money. Now l call attention
to one strange thing. In 1873 and
1893, it was farme" panic, and no
scrip was issued. We tried clearing
house paper in 1898, and to his ever
lasting shame John G. Carlisle, then
10 per cent tax on it, In 1907, it
was bankers panic, and they issu-
ed al 1.-The scrip they wanted, and
farmers had to take it.. This is a
farmers panic and 1 do not hear any
thing about stay laws or clearing
house certificates. Now coming
down to present conditions; Senator
Aldrich of Rhode Island, a represen-
tative of Wall street, proposed the
present Federal Reserve act, but be-
fore it could be passed the Republi-
cans passed out of power and Wood
row Wilson became president. The
Democrats Immediately took pos
session fthe Aldrich-Vrccland act
and converted it to their own uses.
They inserted section 13, which pro-
vides for the discount of agricultural
paper based either on live stock or
field crops, not only when in actual
leyistence, but also for money to grow
the crops. 1t does not say that such
paper may be discounted, but that it
snail De discounted.
1t was the intention of this act to
provide an elastic currency which
should contarct and expand as the
business needs Of the country eX-
pands and contracts Last spring
federal reserve banks were freely
discounting paper on cotton as high
as 35 cents a pound. This of course
encouraged large acreage and eX-
| traVapancp Tho tiO,o to contra ot
credits would have been then if re-
it of the law, ubt no, Wall street was
cunning for the South. There was a
"jOker" in the Federal Reserve act
just as there was in 1878. Some Re
publican senator stuck in a clause
amending the house bill so as to COM
pei DO per cent gold reserve to be
maintained for the redemption Of
the treasury notes. Nobody seems to
have attached any Importance to it,
but either by that or some other
means, Wall street dominates the
federal rescrva G board, as completely
as it yer did the national banking
act. One has only to read the state
ment made by John SHELTON Will
Jams, comptroller of the currency
for confirmation on. believe this is
the real reason why Mr.. McAdoo re-
signed and also why he did not de-
sire to be a candidate for president
l wish he was in there now, for | am
sure he would answer Wall street in
the only way it can be answered, :,
flood this country with credits and
put prices up, so that the debts can
be repaid in the same kind of money
in which they were contracted. 1t