FEBRUARY 11, 1904.
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
II
THE SEED AND THE CROP
Mr. Bartley Gets In RaminUccnt Mood
After Kaadlnr "Old Guard Letter
Editor Independent: The Indepen
dent is the most thought stimulating
journal that ' reaches my office. It is
like the known forum of old where
citizens of conflicting views gatheied
to debate every important measure.
Though "The Philosophy of Free
dom" page is nearest my heart, I am
?iOne the less interested in-your ' De
partment of Exchange," and the an
swers from the Old Guard, as you call
the roll, are enough to thaw the dried
up blood in an Egyptian mummy.
They are an heroic lot, these old
timers, and I love to read their
reminiscences.
I fought with the first of them, too.
I well remember old Solon Chuse
and "them steers," and find from ref
erence to an old scrap-hook that I was
writing greenback arguments way
back in 1879. Then the first vote I
ever cast was for that sturdy old hero,
James B. Weaver, in 1880. I ran lor
the state senate on the national
1 2 .' 1 i. 1 i .1 t
gieeuuacK ucKec laier on, auu nave
followed the flag (the principles we
represent) at every national election
since, except in 1892, when believing
in the sincerity of the high sounding,
fatherly utterances of Grover Cleve
land I sought to forward the single
tax by urging his election.
But ., when Cleveland called that ex
tra session and betrayed both his par
ty and his country by suddenly sub
ordinating the issue upon .which he
was elected and by using his executive
powers to coerce the representatives
of his party into competing for Mor
gan & Co.. in 1893 the job begun for
Belmont & Co.- in 1873 (and held up
by the 'Bland act of 1878) I realized
that Cleveland had been to school in
Wall street . between his terms, and
had determined to use his position in
the service of his teachers. Then
when John G. Carlisle, as secretary of
the treasury, performed the same dou
ble back somersault which Sherman
performed under similar temptation,
I went around behind the block and
k;rked myself. Reorganizing our flag
I," of course, voted joyously for Bryan
in 1896 and 1900. , . , .
f We planted the corn in the former
years that showed a crop of nearly
jaxiet,. never. 4 scu.wiw loai, never. a
"Vote thrown awav. and few mistakes
were made. We may have been un
wittingly used occasionally to help
along the schemes of big politicians
older and perhaps wiser than our
selves, but we did our duty just the
same, and never an effort was wasted.
Look at this relic from the Peter
Cooper campaign, which I dig out of
that scrap-book and send to you; then
review the work from that date to
this, and see if there is anything un
vindicated by experience that we
contended for. The record shows we
were right in every instance; and
where we have changed it has only
been to refine and improve our meth
ods and measures, as we saw our way
clearer. What we saw at first daikly
we see now clearly, and what we
struggled then to express in under
standable phrase we state now easily
with force and precision.
Briefly this was and is our whole
case.
1. Money good enough to pay the
baycnet-holtler was quite good enough
to pay any bondholder foreign or do
mestic; and the man who risked his
life deserved at least as fair treat
ment as the man who risked his
money.
2. The exception .on the back of the
money paid the soldiers was put there
at the bidding of men always eager
to make money out of the wars of all
countries; to give them virtual control
of tho nation's treasury and the na
tional finances, and the power to de
preciate our paper cuneuey when
ever that suited their purpose, regard
less of the fortunes of war. The rec
ords of tho gold boom they afterward
established prove that this is true. It
i hows that it enabled ihcm to Luy
bonds at SO tents on the dollai and to
foite down th Rold pun hating power
of tho green bit" k whenever "old was
lidded to pay inUieM and dtmouicd
un their bond.
Tim bond record thows that not r,at
JsfVd with thin doubling their Money
thy ituii 08fuily m-hcii't'd to have
th;jj bond, U?at wire imjhMo la le
gal lender money or ioin, refunded
Into bond piyabl in (oln; md that
afterward they tame aaln tu hae
thrm virtually refunded from oin
bona-pay tibiti in Kud or llvcrln
to gold Umda p.iabl m Kold alone,
by procuring th degradation til Ml
w from It old position a Mand.ird
twin. They did all this under th
cloak and pretend of nat'onal hon
or," and a burning d'ire that tht
country should have only- "honest
money."
We denounced the whole process as
hypocrisy and robbery.
They also hypocritically declared
that a chief purpose of the last change
was to maintain parity between the
two metals.
The result shows that it' destroyed
the parity, just as it was intended to
do.
4. On resumption, or the restoration
of even parity between greenbacks
and gold:
They claimed that to resume it was
necessary to contract, necessary to
call in the millions of non-interest-bearing
currency (for every dollar of
which value had been given, either
originally or at last) and replace it
with interest-bearing bonds of de
nominations too large 'to use as cur
rency. We knew it was not necessary- to
contract in order to resume. We
knew it was only necessary for our
government, then, when peace was
restored, to remove the disabilities it
had itself put upon its own currency,
and it would come to par with goid; or
to replace it by full legal tender cur
rency' of equal volume. -
They knew it, too, but they pre
tended not to; because they knew that
the contraction .they contejmplated
would again double the purchasing
power of every dollar of their bonds
and of the bonds they wanted issued,
and help them to substitute a double
interest-bearing bank currency for the
non-interest-bearing currency.
We protested against such a gigantic
scheme of robbery, chiefly because it
would depreciate the selling value of
every home and . farm, injure our
manufacturers and ruin the majority
of our business men.
That is, we protested as soon as
we could be organized and be heard.
We said that the treacherous move
to demonetize silver was being had
with a view of forcing the country to
resume, not specie payment, but gold
payment, and that the plea that na
tional honor demanded it was adding
monumental hypocrisy to highway
robbery.
The results proved we were right.
They had to let the treasury order
that greenbacks be received as gold
for custom duties. But the ruin that
was predicted also followed, and no
relief came until our policy was again
temporarily substituted for theirs,
and silver partially restored.
5. We held then, as we hold now,
more definitely, that the' law of sup
ply and demand determines the pur
chasing power of money as it does
the price of wheat; that we can't di
mmish it either relatively or abso
lutelywithout increasing its com
mercial or exchangeable value; that
we cannot increase it, relative to the
work it has to do, without lessening
its purchasing power; and that when
we contract its volume either abso
lutely or relatively, and thus compel
the producer to really give two hun
dred dollars' worth of product to get
one hundred dollars in money, the cue
hundred in money will pay no more of
debt, or interest on debts, than it did
before. We thereby rob both the pro
ducer and the debtor to enrich an al
ready rich class of big bondholders.
6. No intslligent man today, who
is sincere, questions this, our main
and really ouroriginal, position. Only
those do who are ignorant or inter
ested. Of course we also held, and hold
now, that issuing or coining money or
currency is no more a proper or nec
essary part of banking business than
it is of knitting business; that c
might as well ailow banks to mint
and issue coin, a3 to stamp or issue
currency; and that either the govern
ment should issue all our coin' and
currency and regulate the volume of it
or else abdicate that government func
tion entirely and give it to the banks,
In addition to the immense deposits
of government money which it now
gives them l'ie use of for nothing.
There U your roll, and here is
the gospel of the Old Guard and the
new; and there's that fine noble,
fcarlens fare of old Alexander Del
Mar the master of finance, the
world's bewt Known and best trusted
authority on money and coinage and
statistic; the unhhakeable,- unpur
chaseable and un otKjuerable defender
oi financial truth, looking down the
lines of the Old Guard and up at ti e
half milium store for Bryan, with an
npprovlnK. watirftf.l smile which term
to say: 'There are the sowers; mid
.leu .i th ham a!"
iami:h iiauti.ky.
Amsterdam, N. Y,
line it is the surest way to get our
party together again. Long live the
noble editors who are waging such
warfare for humanity. . I am with you
to the last ditch." (The votes thus1
far are so numerous tnat I wouldn't
undertake to say how many there are.
As every one must be checked against
the regular enrollment card list, there
is considerable work about receiving
them, 1 Where one is not enrolled, he
is sent blanks and an invitation to en
rollif he doesn't respond to this, his
vote will not te counted. We expert
to count none but populist votes and
a man who refuses to enroll is not
very strong in the faith. At any rale
we have started out with that idea,
and will stick to it in this preferen
tial vote. Associate Editor.)
C. Allen White, Ncholasville, Ky.:
"I took your paper early in the year a
short time. I must have it again be
cause I think it is a splendid paper.
Am a socialist; take the Appeal to
Reason and Tne Commoner. I like
The Independent quite as well, if not
better than either."
Cell for Meeting of National
Committee.
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 12, 1904. To the
Members of the National Committee
of the People's Party of the United
States, Greeting: The call hereinaf
ter is made in compliance with a res
olution passed by said committee at
Denver, Colo., July 29, 1903, that the
committee shall be called to meet at
St. Louis, Mo., on February 22, 1904,
for the purpose of fixing time and
place of holding the national conven
tion of the people's party, which con
vention, when convened, shall place
in nomination members of its own
party as candidates for president and
vice president of the United States,
and transact such . other business as
may come before it.
As vice chairman of the national
committee of the people's party, I was
empowered by a resolution passed by
the national committee of the people's
party at Kansas City, in regular ses
sion of the same, to call meetings and
to transact any other business of the
committee that the chairman by vir
tue of his office would be empowered
to perform.
Therefore I do hereby call on all
committeemen of the people's party to
convene at St. Louis, Feb. 22, 1904, for
the purpose aforestated. And in ad
dition to the committee, would re
spectfully invite all members of the
party who can conveniently attend
such meeting to do so.
It is to be hoped that at this, meet
ing a full recognition of the efforts
made at Denver last July will be in
dorsed by a united people's party of
the nation. And that the influences
for reform as found in the people's
party may be no longer throttled by
misunderstandings, for it is the only
party that can and will uncover wrong
doing and corruption wherever found.
We hope that this meeting will be
well attended and be fruitful of great
good. Reform papers please copy.
J. H. EDMISTEN,
Vice Chairman National Committee
People's Party.
J. A. EDGERTON, Secretary.
James H. l);tvl. Grupevine, Tex.:
"I ta.pe the Old Grard will respond to
this voting rriHcns. am for dimt
nomination. 1 tiut th two commit
tecs will do th riKht thing at Ft.
l-ouis. I am p'o.id of the nohle wmk
you are doing to H th Old Guard In
CALL FOR MEETING OF NATIONAL
COMMITTEE.
Memphis, Tenn., Dec. 10, 1903. The
national executive committee of the
people's party of the United States, in
session at Memphis, Tenn., this 10th
day of December, 1903, begs leave to
congratulate the earnest reform vot
ers of the United States on the rapid
spread of those great principles of
human government enunciated in the
Omaha platform of 1892, and for which
our organization ha3 steadfastly con
tended, since the beginning.
The political history of the past few
years has only served to strengthen
our position, and to draw the atten
tion of patriotic voters to the prin
ciples Involved l our political creel,
until It is today a generally accepted
theory that government ownership of
monopolies is better than monopoly
ownership of government, although
through the manipulation of political
machines by the monopolies now ton
trolling the pubile utilities of the
country, them has been but little leg
islation looUing to public ownership.
Tho polHkal hietory of tho past
few years has taught several Invalua
ble lessons to thoe who would re
form rtUting abuses, the tnot lm
portant of which is that fwdon or co
operation with either of the old par
tu 1 is a failure, destined to spread
ronfuilon amorij reformers and to de
stroy our organization. It has alio
taught that ft divided reform move
ment tan a.ornpl;h but little. While
In the past hontot dltT'iem e of opin
ion have divided our ranks, and lent
consolation to our enemlet and the
df spoilers of th people, w mom
mend as the future policy f our patty
that reformers of all factions bury
their minor differences and unite on
the essential principles that will re
sore to the people the power to con
duct the government free from tho
dictation of an oligarchy of the "idle
holders of idle capital."
To this end we hereby call the na
tional central committee of the allied
people's party to meet at the New St.
James hotel, In St. Louis, Mo., Feb
ruary 22, at 10 o'clock a. m., to fix
a time and place for a national con
vention to nominate candidates for
president and vice president of the
United States, and we invite the com
mittees of other reform parties to
meet at the same time and place, look
ing to a practical union of the reform
forces of the country in the approach
ing national campaign. We especially
invite the representatives of organ
ized labor, as it is the policy of the
people's party to support the worthy
eCorts of organized labor In its strug
gles against organized capital, and be
lieving that the final relief of labor
rests solely in an intelligent and well
directed ballot, we urge the co-operation
of the abor forces in our conven
tions and at the polls.
We indorse the action of the recent
Denver v conference 'in looking to re-
r union of the people's party on the old
lines, and extend our hands In frater
nal greeting to our co-laborers of the
great northwest who have Jn the .past
been misled by false promises, only
to now be offered as a sacrifice to
Mammon. . Y '
There is widespread dissatisfaction
in the republican party; the (demo
cratic party. has abandoned the west
and is now engaged In concluding an
alliance with the capitalistic forces of
the east. The way is now clear for the
patriotic men and women of all par
ties to unite on those essential prin
ciples of human liberty, and to this
end we pledge our earnest endeavors.
JO A. PARKER, Chairman.
Louisville, Ky.
(Reform papers please copy.)
A Possible Recruit
Editor Independent: 1 am not one
of the Old Guard, but from present in
dications I am liable to become a re
cruit. If Cleveland, or any of his
crats I shall have to refuse to vole
the ticket. I still have a hope that
the Bryan element has not given up
the fight, for as long as there Is life
there is hope. r -
In case our party fails to make
nominations as a reform party, I shall
vote with the "pops." So, in the
premises, If you can accept my vote
in the choice of a candidate for presi
dent, you will find it enclosed. As
your list contains so many names
that I know so little, or nothing,
about, to vote intelligently I shall
have to substitute others. "
Seeing the great need of reform, I
am willing, providing we can't get it
through the democratic party, to ac
cept it at the hands of some other
party. It requires resolution to give
up the old party. I love the very
name of it, but I can't hold to it as
long as it is controlled by such men
as Cleveland & Co.
C. 'J. RAWLS.
Dew, Tex.
(Although the vote now being tak
en has no element of formality or offi
ciality, but is simply an experiment
with the Hare system as applied to a
leferendum vote taken by mail, yet at
the same time It was stated at the
outset that votes would be considered
from enrolled members on the Old
Guard of Populism only, and, there
fore, it is deemed best to adhere to
that rule. Mr. Rawls' ballot bow
ever, looks for all the world like votes
being cast by the Old Guard. Per
haps after July 6, he may be entitled
to vote a "sure enough" referendum
ballot for populist nominees. Asso
ciate Editor.) '
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