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.dt Betsy Gaskins “Dimicrat”, by W. I. Hood
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BETSY GASKINS
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Transcriber’s Note:
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Betsy Gaskins
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.ca “That every star was an eye looking down on me with pity.” (CHAPTER XXXVIII.)
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.ni
(Dimicrat),
Wife of Jobe Gaskins
(Republican) Or, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin Up to Date
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By....
W. I. HOOD
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With Illustrations
from Original Drawings
by C. B. FALLS
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.sp 3
.nf
And an Appendix
Edited by K. L.
ARMSTRONG
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CHICAGO:
THE WABASH PUBLISHING HOUSE
No. 324 Dearborn Street
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Copyright, 1897,
By W. I. HOOD.
All rights reserved.
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Notice.—The illustrations in this work are engraved from original drawings
from life, and their reproduction, except by special permission from
the publishers, is prohibited.
.bn 005.png
.il id=i005 fn=i-005.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca Betsy Gaskins.
.bn 006.png
.il id=i006 fn=i-006.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca Jobe Gaskins.
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.pn vii
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.sp 4
PREFACE.
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THIS book is written for a purpose.
It is founded upon actual occurrences.
Betsy and Jobe Gaskins
are characters well known to you,
if you will but reflect upon events
coming under your own observation
within the past few years.
The author claims no inspiration
or gift of genius. This is only a
simple statement of facts deserving
the consideration of every intelligent human being. While
you read these pages, if you will permit your intelligence to
assert itself over your prejudices, and if finally you will
do that which the nobler instincts of man prompt you to
do toward bringing about a better condition of things under
the government of which you are a part, the author will be
fully repaid for his labor. He asks you only to keep in
mind at all times that Jobe Gaskins is your brother; that
Betsy Gaskins is your sister.
.ll 68
.rj
W. I. Hood.
.ll
New Philadelphia, Ohio, April 24, 1897.
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“GOD, by giving to man wants and making his
recourse to work necessary to supply them, has
made the right to work the property of every
man; and this property is the first, the most sacred, the
most imprescriptible of all.”—Turgot.
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“THE right to work is the right to worship. The
clink of the anvil and the hum of the harvest
field, the music of the poet and the meditations
of the inventor are chords in the anthem of creation.”—Henry
D. Lloyd.
.bn 009.png
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.h2
CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER | | Page
I.| Jobe Sets and Studies | #15#
II.| An Argument on the Money Question | #22#
III.| Jobe Sleeps in the Spare Bed. The Dream | #27#
IV. | “The Comers” | #38#
V. |Jobe Must Raise $2,100 | #43#
VI.| Betty, the Drivin’ Animal | #49#
VII.| They Drive Old Tom | #53#
VIII.| Another Letter from Richer | #61#
IX.| A Few Reasons by Betsy | #65#
X. |Is there a Woman in the Barn | #69#
XI. |“In Town” | #73#
XII.| The Decision | #78#
XIII.| Jobe Cheers Up | #84#
XIV.| A New Mortgage | #89#
XV.| Jobe, Out of Trouble, is Unruly Again | #93#
XVI.| Jobe is Scared | #97#
XVII. |Jobe Sleeps in the Barn? | #104#
XVIII.| The Spittoons | #111#
XIX.| A Big-headed Man | #118#
XX.| Bonds Sell Well | #121#
XXI.| The Sermon | #124#
XXII. |Jobe Working to Raise the Officers’ Salaries | #128#
XXIII.| Plan to Relieve the Rich of an Expense | #132#
XXIV.| Them Promises | #138#
XXV. |Jobe Excited Over a Nomination | #141#
XXVI.| The Bloomers | #145#
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XXVII.| “Them Populists.” | #149#
XXVIII.| Trouble with Billot | #155#
XXIX.| “Inforcin the Law agin Billot” | #158#
XXX.| Betsy Discusses “Fiat” Money | #166#
XXXI.| Jobe Blows a Fish-horn | #180#
XXXII.| At Court Again | #185#
XXXIII.| Judgment Rendered | #189#
XXXIV. |The Little White Rose-bush | #195#
XXXV.|Jobe Talks of Things that Are Gone | #200#
XXXVI.| Bill Bowers on the Fence | #202#
XXXVII.| Betsy Faints. A Vision | #207#
XXXVIII.| The Parting | #211#
XXXIX.| The Preacher and the Saloonkeeper | #216#
XL.| Them Rooms. The Director of Charities | #228#
XLI.| A Sore Hand | #235#
XLII.| Hattie Moore | #244#
XLIII.| A Family Reunion | #249#
XLIV.| After the Woe, then Comes the Law | #256#
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PART II.
I.| The Impending Revolution | #277#
II.| The Philosophy of Money | #283#
III.| A Bird’s-eye View of American Financial History | #307#
IV.| The Eight Money Conspiracies | #345#
V. |Financial Authorities | #352#
VI. |Interest and Usury | #380#
VII. |Debt and Slavery | #387#
VIII.| The Laws of Property | #393#
IX. |Direct Legislation | #401#
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
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1.| “That every star was an eye looking down on me with pity.” | (#Frontispiece.:i002#)
2.| Character title. |
| | PAGE
3.| Betsy Gaskins | #7:i005#
4.| Initial T | #11:i007#
5.| Jobe Gaskins | #13:i006#
6.| Initial M | #15:i015#
7.| “We both hankered” | #17:i017#
8.| “I did git him started to readin” | #19:i019#
9.| “That canderdate feller” | #20:i020#
10.| Tailpiece | #21:i021#
11.| “Me a knittin, him a settin and studyin” | #23:i023#
12.| “‘Talkin like them blame Populists’” | #26:i026#
13.| “I waked not until broad daylite” | #28:i028#
14.| “‘Feedin-feedin, of course,’ says he” | #29:i029#
15.| “‘Do you promis?’ says I, girlish like” | #30:i030#
16.| “I sot down, lookin him square in the face” | #31:i031#
17.| Bill Bowers | #32:i032#
18.| Ornamental tailpiece | #37:i037#
19.| “‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the very next township election’” | #39:i039#
20.| “They waked me up at the dead hour of midnite” | #41:i041#
21.| “That very sheet of paper” | #45:i045#
22.| Congressman Richer | #46:i046#
23.| “Jobe works and sweats” | #47:i047#
24.| Ornamental tailpiece | #48:i048#
25.| “Jobe and me both sot down and cried” | #50:i050#
26.| “Started for town bright and airly” | #54:i054#
27.| “Jobe and me counted up how much we had” | #57:i057#
28.| “That nite I put another patch on his pants” | #62:i062#
29.| “He explained to Mr. Jones” | #63:i063#
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30. |Ornamental tailpiece | #64:i064#
31. |Ornamental tailpiece | #68:i068#
32. |“Peekin through a crack” | #70:i070#
33. |“Jist a layin it off with his hands” | #71:i071#
34. |“‘Mistur Court, Gaskins is here’” | #74:i074#
35. |“‘I ’bject’” | #76:i076#
36. |“‘I want to prove to you, Mistur Judge’” | #79:i079#
37. |“‘This is the law, whether it is justice or not’” | #81:i081#
38. |“Jobe and me sot there dazed like” | #82:i082#
39. |Aunt Jane | #84:i084#
40. |“He would call him ‘Billy,’ in honor of the next president” | #85:i085#
41. |“Before Jobe could git up, William hit him agin” | #86:i086#
42. |Ornamental tailpiece | #88:i088#
43. |“He would rather pay seven per cent. than six, in order to support a sound money basis” | #90:i090#
44. |“‘Law or no law,’ says I” | #91:i091#
45. |“‘Payin it in gold to keep your party in power is up-hill bizness’” | #92:i092#
46. |“‘John Sherman is the greatest financier on airth’” | #95:i095#
47. |Ornamental tailpiece | #96:i096#
48. |“‘Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong to’” | #98:i098#
49. |“So I went to work and cut out the headin” | #100:i100#
50. |“‘It is all over, Betsy,’ says he” | #101:i101#
51. |“That nite he slept in the barn” | #103:i103#
52. |“‘Jobe Gaskins, you make another move!’” | #105:i105#
53. |“‘Are you mad, Betsy?’ says he” | #108:i108#
54. |“Jobe was on his knees in the middle of the bed” | #113:i113#
55. |“A strait, influential, leadin Republican officeholder” | #115:i115#
56. |“Lots of fellers jist like him” | #116:i116#
57. |“Jobe he flew up” | #119:i119#
58. |“It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he could” | #120:i120#
59. |“‘Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sell well?’” | #121:i121#
60. |“‘Times are never hard under a gold basis,’ Jobe says” | #122:i122#
61. |“They whispered and snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s linen coat” | #125:i125#
62. |“He said the rich all belong to church” | #126:i126#
63. | Harvesting | #129:i129#
64. |“I was puttin salve on Jobe’s hands” | #130:i130#
65. |The hand that voted “the strait ticket” | #131:i131#
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66. |“Some good men in case of labor trouble” | #133:i133#
67. |“Some of the little children are pretty” | #136:i136#
68. |“Jobe took what hay he could spare” | #138:i138#
69. |“They are kept so busy legislatin” | #139:i139#
70. |“A huntin them overhalls” | #142:i142#
71. |“I had sot down and went to churnin” | #143:i143#
72. |“The Dimicratic bloomers” | #146:i146#
73. |“‘Hello, mistur’” | #147:i147#
74. |“‘We ketch em a comin and we ketch em a goin’” | #148:i148#
75. |“I seen him a comin up the lane” | #151:i151#
76. |“The fust time for nigh onto twenty years” | #153:i153#
77. |“Billot jist laughed at him” | #155:i155#
78. |“Jobe he got mad and called Billot a Populist” | #156:i156#
79. |Ornamental tailpiece—sunset | #157:i157#
80. |“Lawyers a talkin and a laffin” | #159:i159#
81. |“‘Mistur Moore, how long has it been since you quit advocatin the use of good, old-fashioned greenbacks?’” | #161:i161#
82. |“‘Lawyer—Dimicratic lawyer and polertician’” | #164:i164#
83. |“He carried a banner” |#167:i167#
84. |“I got a straw and tickled his nose” | #171:i171#
85. |Ornamental tailpiece |#179:i179#
86. |“It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds of the fish-horn” | #181:i181#
87. |“He looked kind a pale” | #182:i182#
88. |“‘Give us a tune, Jobe’” | #183:i183#
89. |“‘This is not accordin to contract’” | #184:i184#
90. |“We hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry goods store” | #186:i186#
91. |“‘Ready’” | #187:i187#
92. |“‘I am a banker, sir, a banker‘” | #190:i190#
93. |“He made sich a fine argament for gold and agin other money” | #193:i193#
94. |Little Jane | #196:i196#
95. |“I could nearly see her little dimpled fingers pattin the airth around the roots of that little bush” | #197:i197#
96. |“‘Mamma, ... how pritty!’” | #198:i198#
97. |Ornamental tailpiece | #199:i199#
98. |“Jobe jist lays and moans” | #200:i200#
99. |“I have to chop all the wood” | #201:i201#
100.| “‘Out with it, Bill; we are prepared for the wust’” | #203:i203#
101.| “‘Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them Populists hereafter’” | #205:i205#
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102.| “‘O, Lord, is there no other way to do?’” | #209:i209#
103.| “He drawed me over in his arms and kissed me” | #212:i212#
104.| “He was wipin his eyes and blowin his nose as he went towards town” | #213:i213#
105.| “Then sot down and cried and kept a cryin every little bit all mornin” | #214:i214#
106.| “They pulled me away from the winder” | #218:i218#
107.| “At all the gates around the big fence they had signs stuck up” | #221:i221#
108.| “I asked him for something to eat” | #222:i222#
109.| “‘Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be’” | #225:i225#
110.| “I slipped over and put my face agin the glass” | #229:i229#
111.| “The feller turned around and looked black at me” | #233:i233#
112.| “I have to work hard in this place” | #236:i236#
113.| “One nice little place that I thought I would rent as soon as I got my first week’s pay” | #239:i239#
114.| “I worked there three weeks” | #241:i241#
115.| “Everything was cold and dark” | #242:i242#
116.| Initial M—Hattie Moore | #244:i244#
117.| “He teched me on the shoulder” | #247:i247#
118.| “I got onto a freight train” | #248:i248#
119.| “Pushing back the hair of the sick woman, leaned over and kissed her on the forehead” | #250:i250#
120.| “There lay Mrs. Gaskins” | #252:i252#
121.| “There again was the face of that little girl and the face of an old man” | #253:i253#
122.| “In the morning there was found a white-haired man” | #254:i254#
123.| Tailpiece—the rose-bush on the grave | #255:i255#
124.| Initial B—the editor | #256:i256#
125.| “Behold! See that money!” | #265:i265#
127.| The world’s oppressor | #274:i274#
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.h1
Betsy Gaskins (Dimicrat).
.hr 20%
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.h2
CHAPTER I. | JOBE SETS AND STUDIES.
.sp 2
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MISTUR EDITURE:—My name
is Betsy Gaskins. I was born
a Dimicrat. My father was a
Dimicrat and my mother dident
dare to be anything else—out
loud.
Our family, thus, was of
one mind, perlitically, until
Jobe Gaskins begin to come to see me.
I was a young woman of nineteen summers, as the poit
would say.
Jobe he was a Republican and “didn’t keer who
knowed it.”
My folks opposed Jobe on perlitical grounds.
Jobe he opposed my folks on the same grounds, but
hankered arter me, though he knode I was a “Dimicrat
dide in the wool.”
And I must say I hankered arter Jobe, though I knode
he was a rank Republican. On that one pint we agreed:
we both hankered.
Well, the time come when Jobe and me decided to lay
aside our perlitical feelins and git married.
This our folks opposed, but we “slid out” one day, and
the preacher united the two old parties, as far as Jobe and
.bn 016.png
.pn +1
me was concerned, though I was still a Dimicrat, and
Jobe he was still a Republican.
Like the two great perlitical parties at Washington, when
they want to make a law to suit Wall Street, Jobe and me
decided to pull together on the question of gittin married.
We have lived together for nigh onto thirty-five years,
and durin all that time Jobe has let me be a Dimicrat, and
Ive let him be a Republican. It has never caused any
family disturbance nor never will, so long as I be a Dimicrat
and let Jobe be a Republican.
We have no children livin. Our little Jane was taken
from us just arter her seventh birthday. Since then we
have been left alone together, jist as we was before little
Jane was born. It is awful lonesome, and as we grow
older, lonesomer it gits. Sometimes, when I git my work
all done and have nothin to okepy my mind, I git that
lonesome, I hardly know what to do. Of late years I read
a great deal to pass away the time.
Jobe he hardly ever reads any, not because he cant,—Jobe
is a good reader,—but it seems the poor man works
so hard, and has so much to trouble him, that he would jist
rather set and study than to read.
When he gits his day’s work done and his feedin, and
waterin, and choppin of wood, he jist seems to enjoy settin
and studyin.
I hardly ever disturb him when he is at it. I jist set and
read or set and knit, as the case may be, and let Jobe set
and study.
I did git him started to readin a couple of years back. I
had signed for a paper that said a good deal about the
Alliance and the Grange and sich, and Jobe he read it
every week, and got so interested that he would talk on the
things he read about to me and to the neighbors. He got
nearly over his settin and studyin and seemed in better
.bn 017.png
.bn 018.png
.pn +2
spirits so long as he kept a readin of that paper. But one
day a feller, who was a Republican canderdate for a county
office, came to our house for dinner (they allers make it
here about dinner-time, them canderdate fellers do).
.il id=i017 fn=i-017.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “We both hankered.”
Well, arter dinner, Jobe and that feller went into the
front room, and the feller gin Jobe a segar (a regular five-center,
Jobe said), and then they set and smoked, smoked
and talked, talked about the prospect of their party carryin
the county, the feller doin all the talkin, until at last Jobe
told him that he “had been readin some of the principles
of the People’s party and liked em purty well.”
The feller reared back, opened his eyes, looked at Jobe
from head to foot, and then indignant like says, says he to
Jobe:
“I am astonished!—astonished to think that Jobe
Gaskins, one of the most intelligent, most prominent and
influential Republicans in this township, should read sich
trash, much less indorse it.”
And from that day to this Jobe Gaskins, my dear
husband, has quit his readin and gone back to his settin
and studyin.
His party principles was teched. The argament of that
canderdate feller was unanswerable; it sunk deep into
Jobe’s boozim, and from the time that that feller thanked
Jobe for his dinner and hoss feed, and invited Jobe and me
both to come into his office and see him, if he was elected,
to this writin, I have not had the pleasure of talkin with
my husband as before.
.il id=i019 fn=i-019.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “I did git him started to readin.”
That feller robbed me of all the bliss I enjoyed of havin
my pardner in life to talk with of evenins. And all I got
for bein thus robbed, and for the dinner and hoss feed he et,
was a invitation to see him okepy the high position of
county officer—as though that would pay for vittles or
satisfy an achin void, caused by him a turnin Jobe from
.bn 019.png
.pn +1
his readin to his settin and studyin. What good would it
do me to see him okepyin a county office and drawin of a
big salary? Yes, drawin of a big salary that poor Jobe has
to work his lites out of him to help pay. All that there canderdate
feller cares for Jobe remainin to be a Republican
is so that he, and sich fellers like him, will continer to
vote for him and his likes, and pay the high taxes out of
which they git their big salaries. What do they care for
poor old Jobe Gaskins, whether he be a Republican or a
.bn 020.png
.pn +1
Dimicrat or a Populist or one of
them wild Anacrists, if it were not
that he had a vote and they want
to keep him in line? What keer
they what papers he reads, or how
quick he changes his polerticks, if
they dident want to git office and
draw a big salary?
.il id=i020 fn=i-020.jpg w=33% ew=33% align=l
.ca “That canderdate feller.”
Say anything to Jobe about this
and he will flare up and tell you he
“doesent intend to lose the respect
of all the leadin men in the county
by changing his perlitical views.”
He dont stop to ask hisself,
“Who is the leadin men?” He
dont stop to ask hisself how much
taxes and interest and sich he contributes
to make them the leadin
men. Contributes it to support
them and their families in style
sich as becomes leadin people.
Yes, to support their families, I said, so that their wives
and their girls can wear fine silks and satins, while I must
git along with a brown caliker or gray cambric dress at
best.
Jobe and his likes earns the money by the sweat of their
brows, and them canderdate fellers and their likes spends
it in high livin and makin theirselves leadin citizens. And
then they are astonished to hear of one of their regular
voters a readin anything that says that sich men as Jobe
Gaskins and his wife Betsy, if you please, are jist as
respectable, jist as leadin citizens, as any county officer or
polertician and their wives. Yes, it astonishes them to
hear of his readin a paper that says that the farmers have
.bn 021.png
.pn +1
jist as intelligent, honest and patriotic people among them
as the leadin citizens have. Now I read sich “trash,” as
the canderdate feller calls it, and I dont keer who knows
it, though Ime a Dimicrat. But as it is gittin late and
milkin time is here, I will close, promisin you more anon,
as it were.
.ll 68
.nf r
BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat),
Wife of
Jobe Gaskins (Republican).
.nf-
.ll
.il id=i021 fn=i-021.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.bn 022.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER II | AN ARGUMENT ON THE MONEY QUESTION.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE anon is here. Last Tuesday evenin, arter I had
milked and swept and washed up the supper dishes
and done many other things I have to do day in and
day out, year in and year out, arter Jobe had done his
waterin and feedin and choppin of wood, we both found
ourselves settin before the fire, me a knittin, him a settin
and studyin.
Says I to him, all of a suddent, loud and quick like:
“Jobe, what yer studyin bout?”
You ort a seen him jump. He was skeert. I spoke so
suddent and quick.
He hemmed and hawed a minit or so, got up and turned
around, sat down, spit in the fire, crossed his legs, and
says, says he:
“Well, Betsy, Ile tell you what I was a studyin about.
I was jist a studyin about the mortgage and the interest
and the fust of Aprile. Aprile, Betsy, is nearly here, and
where is the money a comin from to pay the interest and
sich?”
I saw he was troubled; but all I could say was: “Well,
indeed, Jobe, I dont know.”
And I dont.
It seemed, now, as I had Jobe started, waked up as it
were, he wanted to talk, and I was willin that he should,
even though it wasent a very pleasant thing to talk about.
.il id=i023 fn=i-023.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Me a knittin, him a settin and studyin.”
Says he: “Betsy, I sometimes think we will never git
our farm paid for. It seems to be a gittin harder and
.bn 023.png
.pn +1
harder every year to make payments. It has took all we
raised to meet the interest for the last four years; we haint
been able to pay anything on the mortgage; and this spring
I dont know where we will git the money to pay even the
interest. It takes twice as much wheat, or anything else,
nearly, to git the money to pay the interest with as it use
to, and crops haint any better. Besides, Betsy, if I was to
sell the farm to-day, it wouldent bring much above the
$2,100 we owe on it. When I bought it for $3,800, fourteen
years ago, I thought it cheap enough, and it was if times
hadent got so hard and things we raise so cheap. Jist to
think, we have paid $1,700 on the first cost, and $2,100 in
interest besides, and if we had to sell it to pay the mortgage
we would not have a dollar left. Congressman Richer
could foreclose at any time; he could have done so for the
last three years—ever since I failed to make the payments
on the mortgage.”
“Well, Jobe,” says I, “it is bad enough, to say the
least.”
.bn 024.png
.pn +1
“Yes, Betsy,” says he, “if we cant meet the interest,
Banker Jones tells me, we will be sold out.”
I was silent.
Jobe continered: “I tell you, Betsy, these times, six
per cent. interest is hard to pay. It seems that, no matter
how cheap a farmer has to sell what he raises, interest
dont get any cheaper.”
Thinks I, “Now is my time to speak.”
“Jobe,” says I, slow and deliberate, lookin him square
in the eyes, “Jobe Gaskins, haint you a American citizen?
Haint you jist as good a citizen as a banker? Haint you
jist as honest? Haint you jist as hard-workin? Haint
you got as much rights in these here United States?”
Jobe was silent, but lookin straight at me, starin.
Continerin, says I: “I was a readin in my paper, the
other day, that the banker borrowed money from this here
government for one per cent. The very money he loans
you and your likes at six and seven and eight per cent. he
gits from this here government for one per cent. You,
Jobe Gaskins, ort to have jist as good right to borrow
money from this here government of yourn and his as he
has, if you give good security and will pay it back, and God
knows you would, as honest as you are. Jist to think, Jobe,
if you could have borrowed the money from the government
to have paid Congressman Richer for his farm fourteen
years ago, when we bought it, at only one per cent.
interest, and only paid back to the government, at the
post-office, or some other place appointed, the same as you
have paid Congressman Richer in payments and interest,
we to-day would have our farm nearly paid for and be out
of debt, and you wouldent be a settin and studyin about
the mortgage and interest and the fust of Aprile. Or even
if you could borrow the money to-day from the government
at two per cent., you could git the $2,100, pay it off, and
.bn 025.png
.pn +1
next year only have to raise $42 interest instead of $126.
Dont you see it would be easier for you to pay? And you
could pay a little on the mortgage every year, as hard as
times are?”
While I was a sayin all this Jobe was a lookin at me,
a starin, turnin on his seat, spittin in the fire, crossin fust
one leg, then another, waitin for me to stop. I seen he
was teched; so, when I had done, I sot back in my cheer,
and begin to knit, and waited for what was a comin. He
begun slowly, but warmed up as he proceeded. Says he:
“Betsy, I have lived with you for nigh onto thirty-five
years; we have allers lived in peace, though you was a
Dimicrat and I was a Republican; we have had our
sorrows and our hardships, and now, arter all these years
of peace, am I to pass the last days of my life with a
pardner who is allers talkin like them blamed Populists?
You know, Betsy Gaskins, that I am a Republican and
expect to die one. I believe that all the laws made by the
Republicans are just laws. If they made laws to lend the
banker money at one per cent. it must stand, and I will try
to bear my burden, though I have to pay six per cent.
interest or more, if need be, for the same money. Betsy,
you must stop readin them papers. I never look into one;
they jist start a feller to thinkin, and the fust thing he
knows he dont believe a thing he has been a believin all
his life. It ruins a feller’s perlitical principles. If a feller
is a Republican, he should be one and never read anything
to cause him to think. Them Populists, Betsy, is jist
made up of a lot of storekeepers and farmers, and men
who work in shops and mills and coal-banks and sich
places. They dont know anything about makin laws, or
money or bizness. Our law-makers, Betsy, should be
lawyers and bankers and rich business men and sich.”
Well, I jist saw it was no use argyin with him, but I
.bn 026.png
.pn +1
thought I would have the last word, as I allers do, and
says I:
“Well, Jobe Gaskins, if you ignorant farmers haint fit
to make the laws to fix the taxes you pay; if you farmers
haint fit to make the laws to govern yourselves; if you
farmers haint fit to transact the bizness in which you
should be most interested, I think you ort to begin to
prepare yourselves until you are fit, by readin what hasent
been done for you that ort to have been done, and what
has been done agin you that hadent ort to been done.”
.il id=i026 fn=i-026.jpg w=75% ew=75%
.ca “‘Talkin like them blame Populists’.”
At that, bein ready, I skipped into the bed-room and in
a twinkle was in bed with the kivers drawed up over my
head. If Jobe said any more I heard it not. In a few
minits I was asleep, where I must soon be agin.
.bn 027.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER III. | JOBE SLEEPS IN THE SPARE BED. THE DREAM.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THAT nite arter I had got into bed and kivered up
my head, I went to sleep and waked not until broad
daylite. Imagine my surprise, when I waked, to
find that durin all that long nite I had been the sole okepant
of that bed. The piller on which Jobe, my dear
husband, had slept for over thirty-four years had not been
teched that nite, and, for the fust time in thirty-five years
next corn-huskin, Betsy Gaskins had slept alone. I felt
skeert. I felt as though some awful calamity had or would
occur to me.
With a heavy heart I ariz and put on my skirts, all the
time feelin as if I was about to choke. Everything was
silent and still about the house. Could it be possible that
my dear Jobe had dide or been kidnapped, or what? I
hurried into the room—no Jobe there. I went into the
kitchen—no Jobe there. I hastened to the spare bed-room.
The door was closed. I stopped. I rubbed my
hands together, studyin what to do, all a trimblin. Certainly
the dead and lifeless corpse of my dear husband
was in there cold in death, drivin to it of course by the
cruel words of his lovin wife. There I stood stock still,
not knowin what to do. I must have stood there some
three or four minits until I came to myself. All at onct
I says, says I, out loud: “Betsy Gaskins, what are you
about? Haint you allers been looked upon as a woman of
good jedgement and feerless in the face of disaster?” At
that I marched up to the door and flung it open.
.bn 028.png
.pn +1
.il id=i028 fn=i-028.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “I waked not until broad daylite.”
Now what do you suppose I found? Jobe was not
there, but that spare bed had been okepied that very nite.
Then it was that I realized that the two old parties, as it
were, had been divided—divided for one nite on the money
question. Yes, Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy, a Dimicrat
and Republican, had slept beneath the same roof and
in seperate beds.
While I stood there, contemplatin what next to do and
where Jobe might be, I heered him come onto the back
porch. I met him with a smile as he come into the
kitchen.
Says I: “Why, Jobe, where have you been?”
“Feedin—feedin, of course,” says he; “where do you
suppose Ive been?” lookin at the floor and walkin
apast me.
Arter reflection thinks I, “’Tis best to say nothin to him
about the split in the two old parties until a future date.”
So I jist went about it and prepared the mornin meal,
thinkin all the time of a dream I had that nite, some time
between bed-time and daylite, while I lay there all alone,
while the pardner of my life okepied the spare bed.
.il id=i029 fn=i-029.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “Feedin,—feedin, of course,” says he.
Well, while Jobe was partakin of his mornin repast, I
.bn 029.png
.bn 030.png
.pn +2
saw all the time that he wanted
to say something. I never said a
word durin the whole meal,
neither did Jobe. We jist set
and eat—eat in silence.
.il id=i030 fn=i-030.jpg w=33% ew=33% align=l
.ca “‘Do you promis?’ says I, girlish like.”
When Jobe was done he pushed
back and tipped his cheer agin
the wall. I knode he was a goin
to speak. He cleared his throat
like, and says, says he:
“Betsy, I dont want you to
say any more to me about what
you read in the newspapers. I
am willin to listen to anything else
under the sun, but dont let me
hear any more about them Populist
ideas. I want to talk sense
to you, and you to talk sense to
me. Now what I want to know,
Betsy, is, how are we to raise the
money to pay the interest by the
fust of Aprile?”
Says I: “Land a goodness, Jobe, how do I know?
Goodness knows I am willin to do all I kin to help you
raise it. I had a dream last nite; if that dream was true
I might tell you how to raise it.”
I stopped.
“Well,” says he, arter studyin a minit, “what was your
dream?”
Lookin at him kind a girlish like, says I:
“Jobe, I wont tell you what it was unless you make me
two promises.”
Jobe actually smiled. Says he:
“Go ahead; what are your promises?”
.bn 031.png
.pn +1
.il id=i031 fn=i-031.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “I sot down, ... lookin him square in the face.”
“Well,” says I, smilin, “the fust promis is that you
sleep in the same bed I do to-nite.”
At that I laffed out loud. Jobe he did, too. Then
says I:
“The second promis is that you will listen without
commentin until I tell it all.”
Jobe he studied.
“Do you promis?” says I, girlish like.
“Yes, I promis,” says he; “go ahead.”
“You promis to sleep in the same bed you have for
these nigh onto thirty-five years?”
“Yes, yes,” says he, lookin half guilty.
“And you will listen?” says I.
“Yes, yes, Ile listen,” says he.
So, arter clearin away the dishes and scrapin off the
crumbs for the chickens, and puttin some dish water to
bile, I sot down on the other side of the table from Jobe,
lookin him square in the face. Says I:
“Well, Jobe, we was talkin of the mortgage and the
interest last nite when I went to bed, and I suppose that
had something to do with me havin the dream, and for
that reason I dont suppose there is anything in the dream.”
“Spose not,” says he, lookin oneasy like.
.bn 032.png
.pn +1
.il id=i032 fn=i-032.jpg w=25% ew=25% align=l
.ca Bill Bowers.
“Well, Jobe,” says I, “I dreamed
that Congressman Richer had demanded
his money, and you had to
raise the whole amount of the mortgage
or lose our home. I thought you
and me went down to town and went
to every bank to try to borrow the
money with which to pay the mortgage.
I thought every place we went
we was told that they was not makin
any loans now, that there was a
money panic and they had decided
not to make any more loans for some
time. I thought we could see great
piles of money inside the wire fence
that seperated us from the bankers,
you know.” At this he nodded.
“And I thought you said, jist as
plain as I ever heard you say anything:
“‘Why, haint you got plenty of money?’
“‘Yes, yes, we have plenty of money, but we are not
loaning any at this time,’[A] says each banker, jist as though
they had all agreed to say the same thing.
.fm rend=th
.fn A
In July and August, 1893, during one of the severest money panics ever
experienced in the United States, many of the banks not only refused to
lend money on choice security or to discount commercial paper, but in
many instances would not permit persons to draw out the money they had
deposited with them. Business was paralyzed. Thousands of persons
were ruined, losing the accumulations of a lifetime by being unable to raise
money as usual to meet obligations falling due. Factories were closed for
lack of funds to pay employes, and thousands of American citizens were
thrown out of employment. The consequent suffering among the poorer
classes throughout the nation was indescribable. And during all this time
the banks of the country held the money of the people and refused to pay
it out even to those to whom it belonged. Hence the question: Can not
a better system of financiering be devised than our present banking system?
Would it not be better to permit the people to deposit their money with our
county treasurers?
.fn-
.fm rend=th
“So I thought we traveled and traveled and coaxed and
coaxed, and we couldent git a cent, as it were.
“Finally I thought we was agoin along the street, both
feelin sad and discouraged, when jist in front of Spring
Bros. & Holsworth’s big dry goods store who should we
meet but Bill Bowers of Sandyville.
.bn 033.png
.pn +1
“‘Hello, Gaskins,’ says he.
“That was the fust we had seen of him. Our minds was
so troubled.
“We stopped, and arter inquirin about the folks, and
the stock, and the meetin that is goin on at Center Valley
school-house, he asked:
“‘What are you doin in town?’
“And I thought you up and told him about havin to pay
the mortgage; and of our havin been to every bank; and
of our havin been told the same tale by each banker, and
then you said, ‘I guess, Bill, we will have to lose our
farm.’
“When he up and says, says he:
“‘Why, Gaskins, haint you heerd it?’
“‘Heerd what?’ says you.
“‘Why, haint you heerd of the new law?’ says he.
‘Why, Congress passed the law yisterday. I was jist over
to the court-house and they showed me the telegram.’
“‘Why, what law do you mean, Bill?’ says you.
“Then you and Bill sot down on a box and I leaned
agin the house, and says Bill:
“‘Why, yisterday, Jobe, they passed a law in Congress
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to, at once, have
engraved and printed full legal-tender paper money to the
amount of ten dollars per capita of the population of the
United States, and that money is to be set apart only to be
loaned to counties on county bonds, and the counties are
to git it at one per cent. interest. Then the county treasurers
.bn 034.png
.pn +1
are to lend the money only on first mortgage real
estate security to the farmers and business men and
mechanics, at only two per cent. interest, and when the
man that borrows it pays it back, or any part of it, the
amount of his payments shall be credited on his mortgage,
and as fast as it accumulates in the county treasurer’s
office he shall forward it to Washington and git it credited
on the county bond they hold. The one per cent. the
government gits is to pay for makin the money and keepin
the books at Washington. The other one per cent. that
the borrowers pay is to go toward payin the county treasurer’s
salary and clerk hire. This money, Jobe, is as good
as gold, because the government agrees to take it for
postage stamps and internal revenue and duties on
imports and sich. All you have to do, Jobe, is to go over
there to that grand old court-house, give your mortgage to
the people of the county, and git your money; and after
this you will only have to pay two per cent. interest instead
of six or seven, and you kin save your farm.’
“Well, Jobe, I thought you and me and Bill Bowers all
went over there, and sure enough, what Bill told us was
true. The county treasurer told us that he would put our
application on file, and as soon as they could git the money
out and here, possibly in thirty days, we could come in and
git ninety per cent. of the value of our farm if we needed
that much.
“And while we was standin there a talkin to Treasurer
Hochstetter, I heard George Welty explainin to Ed. Walters
‘how nice it was for a person to be able to give a mortgage
to the people of the county for money to pay for a home,
and then the county goin that person’s security and gittin
the money from all the people of the United States,’ and
explainin that there would always be jist enough money to
do bizness on and no more, since the county would only
.bn 035.png
.pn +1
borrow from the government when some citizen of the
county had use for the money and was willin to give good
security and pay two per cent. for it. And, Jobe, I thought
you looked happier than you have for ten years.”
“Well, Bet——”
“Hold on, Jobe,” says I. “Well, I thought you and
me and Bill Bowers started up street, and when we were
passin Jones’s bank he called us in.
“Says he: ‘Mr. Gaskins, I guess we can accommodate
you with that little matter you was speakin about this
morn——”
“‘I dont want it now,’ says you.
“‘No,’ says I.
“‘Ide think not,’ says Bill Bowers.
“‘Well, but hold—hold on,’ says Jones. ‘I—I—we—we
will let you have that amount at four per cent.’
“‘Oh, no,’ says you.
“‘Well, how will three strike you?’ says Jones.
“‘I dont want it at all,’ says you.
“‘Come on,’ says I, and we went on up street. When
we passed the First National Bank, out comes one of
the clerks a hollerin, ‘Mr. Gaskins! Mr. Gaskins!’ We
stopped. He came a runnin up and says: ‘Come in now
and our people will accommodate you,’ takin hold of your
arm and startin back with you. I thought I jist took a
hold of your other arm and says, says I: ‘Jobe Gaskins,
where yer goin? We dont want any bank money in sich a
panic as this. So come on and lets git out of this panic.’
“Well, every last bank we had been to that mornin was
a peckin, and a hollerin, and a beckenin to us that evenin,
until we like to a never got out of town and away from
them. They jist seemed bound to lend you that money
whether you wanted it or not. Something had created a
panic among them—a panic to git to lend you money.
.bn 036.png
.pn +1
Maybe they had heard of the new law. I dont know.”
Durin most of the tellin of my dream Jobe he was leanin
his face in his hands, his elbows on the table, eyes wide
open, listenin as he never did before.
When I finished, says he:
“Betsy, that will save us. What a grand country this
is!” And he got up and walked across the floor. Comin
back and lookin, anxious like, at me, says he: “Betsy,
which party did Bill say passed that law—the Dimicrats or
the Republicans? It is grand! grand! It will save us.”
As he spoke he looked full of joy and happiness.
Answerin, says I:
“I think I heard John Denison say it was the Popul——”
I never got to finish that word. His fist came down on
the table like a thousand of bricks. He jumped back into
the middle of the floor, cracked his fists together, stamped
his foot, and says in a loud voice: “I wont! I wont! I
wont do it. It can go fust. Bill Bowers is a dum fool.
I wont! I wont!”
Says I: “Why, Jobe, what on airth is the matter?
What ails you? What yer talkin about anyhow? You
wont do what?”
Answerin, says he, bringin his fists together agin:
“I wont borrow any money from any scheme them tarnal
Populists has made into a law. Ile—Ile pay ten per cent.
interest fust. Ile not lend my approval to any law they
have made.”
“Why, sakes alive, Jobe,” says I, “they haint made
any law. That was jist a dream I had. What ails you,
anyhow?”
At that he stepped back a step or two, lookin at me
vicious like. Movin his head up and down in short jerks,
says he:
“Betsy, you must stop it. Stop it at once. Its got you
.bn 037.png
.pn +1
crazy—so crazy you are dreamin about it. You must stop
that readin or Ile have you sent to a lunatic asylum.”
He went out at the door then, but just as he got out, in
time for him to hear it, I hollered:
“Its you and your likes that ort to be sent to a lunatic
asylum for not seein a thing that you have to turn your
back on to keep from seein.”
This ended the second “discussion of the financial situation,”
as they say down at Washington. The two old
parties—Jobe and me—are still divided; but I have one
promis he has yet to fulfill.
.il id=i037 fn=i-037.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 038.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER IV. | “THE COMERS.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
BILL BOWERS has got me into trouble. The Thursday
arter I had my dream about the money bizness,
who should ride up to our gate and hitch but Bill
Bowers? I had not seen him for nigh onto two years,
except in that dream, until he rid up to that gate post.
No sooner did I lay eyes on him than I thought of our
meetin him that day in town, right there by Spring
Brothers’ big store, and of his tellin us of the money plan,
and of his goin with us to the county treasurer, and of us
a learnin from the county treasurer that in a few days he
would become the people’s banker and would lend money
to the people on good security. While he was gittin off
and hitchin, I remembered of his walkin with us up apast
all the banks; I remembered of them refusin to lend us
any money in the mornin; of them a peckin and a beckenin,
a hollerin and a runnin arter us, wantin to lend us their
money, in the evenin, arter we, and they too, had heerd of
the new law Congress had made the day before—a law that
turned a panic where we had to beg for money, and not git
it, to a panic where they begged to lend us money and we
wouldent borrow it.
Yes, sir, that there dream all come back to me as plain
as day, Bill Bowers and all, jist as soon as I laid eyes
on him.
So it was no more than nateral for me to tell him about it.
Jobe not bein at home, I had to do the entertainin. As
soon as he got in and got settled, I says:
.bn 039.png
.pn +1
.il id=i039 fn=i-039.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca
“‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the
very next township election.’”
.ca-
“Bill Bowers, I am glad
to see you. I must tell
you my dream. Bring
your cheer up to the fire.”
Then I jist up and told
him that whole dream, and
he swollered every word
of it without chawin, as it
were.
When I had finished he
says, says he:
“Betsy Gaskins, if that
ere dream was only enacted
into a law, what a
blessin it would be to the
creatures of this world!
Betsy, though I am one of
the stanchest Republicans in Sandyville, if this here Dimicratic
Congress would make sich a law, Ide vote the
Dimicrat ticket at the very next township election.
Betsy, how in the world did you come to dream sich a
dream?”
Now, how do I know how I come to dream any particular
dream? I went to bed and went to sleep, jist as I had
done for nigh onto thirty-five years, exceptin, of course,
Jobe slept in the spare bed and me alone. But would I
tell Bill Bowers of that split in the two old parties, as it
were, and have him tell all over creation that Jobe Gaskins
and his wife Betsy had quit sleepin together? No. Ide
die fust. So I jist says:
“Well, Bill, indeed I dont know how I come to dream it.”
And I dont.
Well, my tellin of Bill Bowers that ere dream is causin
me no ends of trouble. Ime jist worried and hounded
.bn 040.png
.pn +1
about by this and that one, to have me tell em about that
dream, until I hardly git time to breathe.
Bill Bowers he jist went, and from the time he left our
house until now he has been a tellin of my dream to every
one he meets. And it seems he is a keepin a tellin it, the
way people has been flockin here and keep a flockin. Jake
Cribbs, and Joe Born, and Curt Hill, and Bill Loyd, and
Jim Rankin and Mag his wife, and the Minnings, and the
Bateses, and the Hances, and goodness only knows who
all has been here to know more about my dream! And
how I come to have it; and what Ime a goin to do about it;
and why I dont git it published; and why I dont send it
to Congress; and why I dont do this and do that!
And some of em say they have it goin that the law is
made—that Bill Bowers told Tom Osborne, and Tom
Osborne told Doc Hendershot, and Doc Hendershot told
Lucy Joss, and Lucy Joss told somebody else, that Betsy
Gaskins said there was sich a law passed, and they come
from fur and near to know what paper I read it in? or
how I heerd it? or if Ime certain I had it? &c. &c., and a
thousand and one other things, until Ime sick and tired of it.
Last night they even waked me up at the dead hour of
midnite—Ellic Shank and Lew Zimmerman and Dan
Hochstetter did—to hear me tell em more about it. And
Jobe he’s nearly destracted. The poor man is jist run as
hard as I be, though he had nothin to do with dreamin of
that dream, onless his not a sleepin with me that nite
caused it.
.il id=i041 fn=i-041.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “They waked me up at the dead hour of midnite.”
What to do to git rid of all this questionin and answerin,
this comin and a goin, I dont know. If they would go to
readin, and thinkin, and a reasonin with themselves, they
might have some dreams of their own—yes, have dreams
with their eyes open. If these very people, men and
women, who are worryin the life out of me, would go to
.bn 041.png
.bn 042.png
.pn +2
readin of papers whose mouths haint shut by the public
printin they git or hope to git; if they would go to readin
papers that haint got some polertician’s hand around their
throat—I say if these very people would read papers whose
editures haint afraid to speak the truth when they see it;
haint afraid to condem the wrong wherever they find it—I
say, if they would read sich papers and sich books, they
would dream dreams they never dreamed of dreamin
before. I think they would begin to see that the Dimicrat
pays the same rate of tax as the Republican pays, and
vicey versy.
They would see that, no matter what is the polerticks of
the office-holder, the voter has to pay the taxes out of
which the feller draws a salary.
They would see that by reducin or increasin salaries
their taxes are made high or low, as the case may be.
When they begin to see these things, I think they will
begin to see that so far as they are concerned it dont make
any difference to them which ticket they vote; that the
feller most interested in their vote is the canderdate feller
who is wantin to draw the salary.
Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that holdin
office is the best payin bizness in the country?
Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that the
salaries of all officeholders are too high, and that the
foreigner dont pay the taxes out of which these salaries
are paid?
Does a feller have to go to sleep to dream that all public
expense ort to be cut down and kept cut down?
These are some of the dreams that the dreamless people
would dream if they would go to readin of papers and
books that Jobe and his likes would have me sent to the
lunatic asylum for readin. (Here is another comer. I must
quit.)
.bn 043.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER V. | JOBE MUST RAISE $2,100.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
MY heart is heavy. Poor Jobe is nearly destracted.
Our home is in jeopardy. Congressman Richer
must have his money. He must have it by Aprile
fust. Poor feller, he too is in bad straits; his gittin
defeated last fall upset his calkerlations.
And jist to think, Jobe voted agin him; helped to defeat
him, as it were. But Mistur Richer holds no spite agin
Jobe for that. He was a Dimicrat, and he knew Jobe was
a strait Republican.
Such things will happen to any feller runnin for office;
somebody has to be defeated. They all cant hold office.
I wish he had been elected agin, and so does Jobe. Jobe
wishes it, though he is a Republican and voted agin him.
Poor Mistur Richer, he is in desperate strates. He is
hard up. If he had been elected agin he wouldent a been
that way.
It makes my head swim to think about what his disappointments
are and may be.
Here is his letter to Jobe. It is so kind and nice. And
jist to think of what a big man it is from, and the place.
Jobe likes to read the headin:
.dv class='quote'
.ll 68
.nf r
House of Representatives,
Washington, D. C., Feb. 23, 1895.
.nf-
.ll
.ti 0
J. Gaskins, Esq.:
Dear Sir and Friend—Owing to circumstances over
which I now have no control, I am compelled to call on
you to pay the $2,100 with interest due me on mortgage,
not later than April 1st of the current year.
.bn 044.png
.pn +1
No doubt, Mr. Gaskins, this will take you unawares, and
most probably unprepared. Were it not for the political
reverses with which I met last fall, I would not be compelled
to do what, I assure you, is a very unpleasant thing
to me, i. e., call on you for this money at this time.
No doubt you will think that on the $5,000 a year salary
I have drawn for two years, now nearly past, and the other
sources of revenue that have become the perquisites
belonging to a Congressman’s office, I ought to be able to
get along without, in this way, inconveniencing you.
Had I been re-elected last fall I would have been in
such circumstances. But when I call your attention to the
fact that the nomination two years ago cost me $2,500 spot
cash; that I have only been able to dispose of a very few
post-offices at anything like paying prices; that, it being
my first term, my services were not sought to any paying
extent by those seeking “profitable” legislation, as well
as the high rents and expenses in maintaining the dignity
of myself and family, I am satisfied you will realize not
only my great disappointment, but the loss, financially, I
suffer as a consequence of my late defeat.
True, I have bought something like $20,000 worth of
real estate in this city, but I still owe nearly $5,000 on it.
I bought it expecting to be re-elected; so you will see the
necessity of my calling in the money I now have outstanding
in order to meet the deferred payments on my
real estate venture.
I may be able to dispose of one and possibly two more
post-offices between now and March 4th, but as they are
small offices it is not likely that I will get more than $300
to $500 each for them, and as the friends of my successor
are using every effort to postpone these appointments
until after March 4th, you can see that I may even lose
the profit on these appointments, since, as you are aware,
all such revenue goes to my successor after that date.
The fact is, friend Gaskins, I have not been able to
clear over $15,000 in the two years I have served as your
Congressman, while some of the older members (those
better known and more sought for by the liberal rich who
come here to secure legislation favorable to their interests)
make as high as a million a year.
.bn 045.png
.pn +1
With kind regards to Betsy, and hoping you will not
put me to the necessity of foreclosing the mortgage I hold
against you, I am
.ll 68
.nf r
Yours truly,
D. M. J. Richer, M. C.
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
.il id=i045 fn=i-045.jpg w=75% ew=75%
.ca “That very sheet of paper.”
Now, jist to think, that letter, that very sheet of paper,
come right from the great capital of these here United
States; right from where all the great and leadin men of
the country sit and make laws, and sell post-offices and sich—yes,
this very sheet of paper has been writ on, handled
and folded by a live and livin Congressman. The beautiful
red tongue of a real Congressman licked that invelope,
and his fingers sealed it up and put it in that great marble
post-office there; then it traveled across them high
.bn 046.png
.pn +1
mountains, over
the big rivers
and through the
great cities to
Jobe Gaskins, a
common, everyday
farmer, of
Tuskaroras
County, Ohio.
.il id=i046 fn=i-046.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca Congressman Richer.
Yes, that
letter was writ
by fingers that
have fingered
$5,000 salary
money in only twelve months, and the Lord only knows
how much post-office money—but lots—as it must a been,
though they dident sell high enough to suit him.
Five thousand dollars from Noo Years to Noo Years!
More than Jobe Gaskins has cleared since he become the
lawful husband of his dear wife Betsy!
And jist to think, all them $5,000 paid by taxes. Paid
by Jobe and his likes.
Poor Mr. Richer, how he must pant and sweat to airn
that much money in twelve months—as much as Jobe could
airn in twenty years if he could airn $250 every year. Jist
to think how Jobe works and sweats, and walks stiff and
plans and studies, and don’t airn $250 a year.
I expect there wasent a dry thread in all of Mr. Richer’s
clothes.
I expect that even his pants was wet through every day
of that whole year.
What big washins poor Mrs. Richer must a had.
Jobe he jist couldent stand sich sweatin, day in and day
out.
.bn 047.png
.pn +1
It would take a whole barrel of soft soap to keep his
clothes clean.
Five thousand dollars!
Five thousand dollars a year!!
Four hundred and sixteen dollars a month!!!
Seventeen dollars a day for every workin day in the
year!
Seventeen dollars!
Enough to buy me twenty-four caliker dresses a day!
.il id=i047 fn=i-047.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Jobe works and sweats.”
One every hour!!
Seven thousand four hundred and eighty-eight caliker
dresses in a year!!!
How in the world could I git them all made?
I spect poor Mrs. Richer has to so day and nite.
And jist to think, all of them 7,488 dresses for one man’s
wife!
All paid for by taxes.
Now I wonder, if them Congressmen dident have to
work so hard, and could get along on less pay—I wonder
.bn 048.png
.pn +1
if the tax-payer’s wife wouldent have a dress or two more,
even if Mrs. Richer and her likes had to get along on a
dress or two less? The Lord knows she could spare them
out of all them 7,488 dresses.
Well, the idea okepyin my mind most now is: “Where
can Jobe git the money to pay all that $2,100, when he
haint got even one post-office to sell?”
.il id=i048 fn=i-048.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 049.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VI. | BETTY, THE DRIVIN ANIMAL.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
EVER since we got that letter from Congressman
Richer, demandin his $2,100 by the fust of Aprile,
Jobe has been scourin the country fur and near
tryin to borrow the money, and, poor man, he is worse
destracted than ever. Things haint like they use to be.
Nobody seems to have any money to lend. He finds lots
of people a huntin money, but nobody a findin any. He
has been to Sandyville, and Mineral Pint, and Zoar, and
way up in Stark County as fur as New Berlin, and nary the
man has he found with $2,100 to lend on good security.
What to do Jobe dont know, nor neither do I.
Jobe says he will write to Mr. Richer and git him to wait
a little longer, until times pick up a little.
“But,” says I, “Jobe, when will times pick up?”
And the poor man, lookin at me sadder than he has
since he become my dear husband, says, says he:
“Betsy, the Lord only knows—I dont.”
And I think Jobe is right.
Well, we—that is Jobe and me, the two old parties—have
decided that the interest will have to be paid whether
the $2,100 is or not. So Jobe has been a rakin and a
scrapin to raise what he could, and I have been a rakin
and a scrapin to raise what I could.
We sold Betty the other day, the only drivin animal we
had; sold her for only $42.
As the stranger went a leadin her away Jobe and me
both sot down and cried. We both loved Betty. We
.bn 050.png
.pn +1
had raised her from a colt. She was a purty colt, and so
lovin like, Jobe he named her for me. We had intended
to always keep her, and since our little Jane was taken
from us we jist loved Betty as if she was a child. And,
poor Betty, I know she loved us. When the stranger
started to lead her away she jist looked back at Jobe and
me, so pleadin like, as much as to say: “Dont let him
take me away from you!”
.il id=i050 fn=i-050.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “Jobe and me both sot down and cried.”
When I seen that look my heart come up in my throat,
and I jist couldent hold in any longer. I busted out a
cryin, and so did poor Jobe. We both sot there and cried
and looked at our poor Betty as fur as we could see her,
and she kept a lookin back at us, nickerin—tryin to speak
the best she could.
Ever since she has been gone my heart keeps a comin up
in my throat, and tears keeps comin in my eyes every time
I think of her. I know it is foolish and no use, but I cant
help it.
I know the interest has to be paid if it takes everything
.bn 051.png
.pn +1
we have, but I cant help cryin when I think poor Betty is
gone from us forever—yes, gone for interest.
Well, with the $42 for Betty and twenty-six bushels of
wheat and twenty-eight bushels of corn and $14 worth of
sheep, and the only brood sow we had, and 96 cents’ worth
of old iron, Jobe has been able to raise $92.34, arter payin
Banker Jones the discount for cashin the notes he took for
the sheep and the sow, and Jobe says he cant think of
another thing to sell. I jist up and says, says I:
“Jobe, its awful. Poor Betty gone for interest; our
wheat gone; nearly all our corn; our sheep gone; our
brood sow; and what will we have to show for it when the
interest is paid? Nothin. We will owe jist as much on
the mortgage as before. But Jobe, dear,” says I, “I will
help you all I can to raise the balance. I will spare you a
dozen hens, though layin time is just here. And there is
my carpet rags, that I wanted to git made into a new
carpet for the spare room; we might sell them for something.
And I have them two new quilts I made last fall a
year. I can spare them by patchin up the old ones to last
a year or so longer. I see, too, Jobe, that feathers are a
good price, considerin the times; we could sell all the
feathers we have in our pillers, if you think you could
sleep on straw pillers awhile, until times git better. If
you say so, Jobe, Ile gether all these things up and we will
take them to town and sell them for what we can git. The
Lord knows, Jobe, I am willin to do all I can to help you
raise the interest money.”
As I looked at him I saw big tears rollin down his
wrinkled cheek.
Whether he was thinkin of poor Betty, or me a sellin
the pillers, or what, I dont know. He said nothin, but
turned aside and walked out toward the barn. I saw him
usin his hankercher as he went.
.bn 052.png
.pn +1
Now, though I be crazy on what I read in them noosepapers,
though I be so crazy that I dream about it, I
would like to ask you if my dream about the new money
plan, and the county treasurer, and borrowing money at
two per cent., though that dream, Bill Bowers and all,
come from the mind of a crazy woman, sleepin alone—I
say, wouldent it be a godsend to Jobe and his likes if he
could go to the county treasurer this spring and if, by givin
the same kind of a mortgage he gave Congressman Richer,
he could git the money to pay Mr. Richer off at only two
per cent.? Next year our interest would only be a little
over $40.
And, oh, how that lump comes up in my throat when I
think that if we had had sich a law this Aprile we need
not have sold poor Betty.
Would it not be better to have a State law authorizin our
county treasurer to receive deposits, and loan money at a
low interest, even if we had to take tax off from money to
do it, than to have people sellin the things they love, doin
without the things they ort to have, and losin their homes?
Who would sich a law hurt? Congressman Richer and his
likes would git their money if they wanted it, and Jobe and
his likes would be able to pay two per cent. interest and
some on the mortgage every year. And jist to think, if
interest was less, the difference in interest alone would pay
off all the mortgages in this county in a few years.
Then people would live in homes of their own, in homes
with no mortgages on them.
Everybody would be out of debt and happy. But Ime
talkin crazy agin and will have to stop until Jobe and me
gits back from town.
.bn 053.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VII. | THEY DRIVE OLD TOM.
.sp 2
JOBE and me have been to town and we are back alive,
thank goodness. There is no place like home—if it
is mortgaged.
Last Tuesday mornin, bright and airly, Jobe and me got
up and got ready to go to town to raise some more interest
money.
I wore that blue cambric dress that Simon Kinsey’s wife
got me for helpin her make apple butter last fall three
years ago, and the lace cap mother knit and gave me the
year John Sherman fust begin to borrow greenback money
on bonds and burn it up, and that black straw hat Mrs.
Vest Hummel traded me for that half dozen of dominic
hens the spring she was married.
While I was a standin before the lookin glass gittin
ready Jobe come in, as men allers do, and says, says he:
“Betsy, are you ever goin to git ready?”
Then he begin to comment on my clothes. Says he:
“I hope you haint a goin to wear that cap? Why, its
out of fashion ten years ago. Haint you got a dress with
bigger sleeves in? Why dont you borrow a hat more
becomin you?”
I stood it as long as I could, then I jist up and says,
says I:
“Jobe Gaskins, my mother wore a cap, and she made
this one with her own fingers, and, fashion or no fashion, I
expect to wear it when and where I please. If my dress
sleeves haint big enough to suit you, you quit votin the
.bn 054.png
.pn +1
ticket that is causin us farmers to spend five dollars for
interest and taxes to one for women’s clothes. If my hat
is out of date, sir, you begin to inquire why I haint able
to buy a new one, and see if you cant have sense enough
to vote for a better system of laws, instid of votin for a
lot of office-seekin canderdates who belong to your party
for the salary they are a gittin or expect to git. Yes, see
if you cant have sense enough to vote for a party that will
make laws for the farmer as well as for the banker.”
.il id=i054 fn=i-054.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “Started for town bright and airly.”
You ort a seen him tuck tail and sneak.
The idea of a man, with the sense Jobe Gaskins has,
wantin his wife to put on airs, when he knows it takes all
she can rake and scrape to help pay interest and taxes to
the leadin citizens so they and their wives can put em on!
Well, we loaded in our truck—that is, our chickens and
our quilts and our feathers and sich, and started for town
bright and airly.
We hitched old Tom, the only boss we have since we
sold Betty, to the spring wagon.
Tom haint purty, and, bein stringhalted in his right
hind leg and lame in his left fore foot, I couldent help
thinkin of poor Betty as we proceeded toward town. Betty
would trot along as though she enjoyed takin us. Tom
he limped and jerked along as though he would like anything
else.
.bn 055.png
.pn +1
We finally got there, and from the time we struck the
superbs of the town till we hitched in front of Urfer’s store
people were a snickerin, and a titterin, and a pintin at us.
Women would come to the winders and scream out a
kind of a holler laf, and then two or three more would
come, and they would laf and titter and holler until I was
ashamed of them.
When we got up to the court-house square a lot of
young upstarts, eighteen or nineteen years old, were
standin on the corner by Miller’s drug-store, smokin paper
segars, and they begin to holler at us and poor old
crippled Tom, all sich nonsense as “Git on to that horse,”
“See his gait,” “Where’d yer git that hat?” “Have you
got any hay to sell?” “See her style!” “Oh, haint she a
lolly?” etcetery.
I dont know who they were, but they were young men
and big enough to have more sense and better manners;
but I guess maybe their raisin was neglected and they
couldent help it. They dident look like coal miners, or mill
hands, or farmers, and I know they wasent sich. They all
were well dressed and wore pinted yaller shoes. They
couldent a been the sons of the leadin citizens, because one
would think they would teach their offspring better sense.
Maybe they were orphans, born without parents. I dont
know.
Well, arter we got through the storm of insult and
abuse that we had to suffer because we had to sell our
drivin animal to git interest money, we begin to try to sell
our stuff. Most of the stores was willin to trade goods for
what we had, but none of em wanted to spare any money.
We went from one store to another, Jobe a tellin them
that he had to have money to meet interest, and that we
were sellin our quilts and pillers to git it. Fust one and
then another would buy somethin, jist to accommodate
.bn 056.png
.pn +1
us, until we finally got our stuff all disposed of. We got
$14.45 in cash, which, added to what Jobe had, made
$106.79, lackin $19.21 of enough to pay Congressman
Richer the $126 interest.
We was in Mathias & Dick’s store when we sold the
last of our stuff, and steppin aside Jobe and me counted
up how much we had and how much we lacked.
“Well, Betsy,” says Jobe, “where will we git the
balance?”
I studied a minit. Then it come to me all at once.
“Why, Jobe,” says I, “lets go and accept that canderdate
feller’s invitation to ‘come and see him arter he’s
elected;’ he’s elected, and you voted fur him and fed him
and his hoss when he was runnin. He will lend you the
$19.21 you lack.”
“Maybe he will,” says Jobe; “lets go and see.”
And at that we started fur the court-house.
Jist as we got across the street onto them big stone
flaggin in front of the court-house, we met that Republican
feller with black mustache and curly like hair who is
hankerin arter the county clerk’s office. Says he:
“Why, hello, Gaskins, howdy do?” all smilin and
nearly shakin the arm off Jobe. “Well, Gaskins, weve
got em out,” says he, “got em out! Every office in that
grand old buildin is now okepied by one of our own fellers.
I tell you, Gaskins, its a day we may well feel proud of,”
hittin Jobe a lick on the shoulder.
“Well,” says Jobe, “I cant see as it makes much
difference to me. Taxes are jist as high and interest
money as hard to raise as it was when the Dimicrats were
in. I cant see where us tax-payers has anything to be
proud of; we dont git any of the salaries.”
.il id=i057 fn=i-057.jpg w=55% ew=55%
.ca
“Jobe and me counted up how much
we had.”
.ca-
“Why, Gaskins, what do you mean?” says he. “Dont
you feel proud that the people of our own party, the
.bn 057.png
.pn +1
Republicans, has at
last routed the Demmies
from the county
offices?”
“No, I cant say as
I do,” says Jobe; “fact
is, I cant see much
difference to me between
a good Dimicrat
and a good Republican
or between a bad Dimicrat
and a bad Republican,
so long as
both are willin to let
bad laws remain and
good ones go unmade,
provided they git to
draw a salary. Where
is the difference?” says Jobe, with force.
“Gaskins!” says he, steppin back and lookin at Jobe
from head to foot. “Gaskins, is it possible you are
succumbin to pettycoat argament?” (lookin sideways
at me).
I was teched.
I jist up and says, says I:
“Mister Canderdate, it would be a Lord’s blessin if him
and more of his likes would listen to pettycoat argament
instid of the argament of you office-seekin canderdates.”
Says I: “Come on, Jobe,” takin hold of his arm and
startin.
I looked back when I got a piece away, and I seed the
feller had met Doc Tinker and was pintin at my clothes
and smilin. I thought I heard Doc say:
“Yes, them are the marks of prosperity the administrations
.bn 058.png
.pn +1
of the past thirty years have scattered over the
country.”
That is what I thought he said. The feller went on
across the street. I dident see him smile or pint any
more.
Well, we went on to accept the invitation to see the
feller okepy a county office.
We clumb up them high steps, went through them big
doors, past several fine rooms, till we come to the sign of
that office to which he was elected.
The door was shet.
Jobe knocked, and some one inside hollered, “Come in.”
They hadent manners enough to git up and open the
door for us.
In we went. It was a nice place, nicer than my spare
room, and so warm and pleasant. If I could git to live
there day in and day out, without payin interest money or
rent, Ide do all their writin for a good deal less than what
I hear they git. It is so nice.
Well, when we got in we found two men and two women
settin over next to the winder, a eatin oranges and laffin.
Nobody was doin nothin.
I spect the county officer got up airly so as to do his
work before his visitors would come.
They all was a talkin and a laffin and a shootin orange
seeds at each other, and enjoyin theirselves high.
They stopt when we went in, and the feller what eat our
dinner and hoss feed come up to the fence and asked
what he could do for us, lookin round at the women.
The women they would look at me, then at one another,
then whisper, then look out of the winder and laf.
Jobe, answerin the feller, says, says he:
“I want to borry $19.21 till arter oats harvest.”
Says the feller:
.bn 059.png
.pn +1
“Why, my dear man, I dont know you,” lookin round
towards the women.
They smiled.
“Dont know me?” says Jobe. “Why, Ime Jobe Gaskins,
the most prominent and influential Republican in our
township. Jist afore election last fall you was at my
house, when you was runnin. I voted for you.”
The feller studied a minit.
“That may all be, Mr. Gaskins,” says he, “but I saw
so many people durin my campaign, and so many voted
for me that if I was to lend each of them $19.21 I would
have nothing left for myself. I can not accommodate you.
You see I have company” (pintin to the women), “so you
will have to excuse me” (turnin to leave us).
I jist up and says, says I:
“Hold on, Mister Officer! Dont be in a hurry. We
are here by your invitation. We paid you for the privilege
of visitin you—paid you, sir, in hoss feed and grub, besides
payin by taxes to come here any time we see fit. We
have come to stay all day; to visit with you. I have
brought my knittin and am in no hurry. You ort a be
decent enough to ask us over the fence and give us cheers
to sit down on.”
You ort a seen them women. They looked distrest.
The officer looked tired.
The women begun to tuck their skirts close agin their
legs. I suppose they wanted to keep my cambric dress
from rubbin em.
But land a goodness! jist to torment em I said I was
goin to stay. I knode they would have no more fun that
arternoon if I stayed there. I knode I wouldent be welcome,
and if Ide a had to stayed there Ide a wanted them
women gone.
When that feller said he wouldent I knode it was no use
.bn 060.png
.pn +1
of askin any more. What does he care for the hardships
of old Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy?
So I jist up and says, says I:
“Dont worry, Jobe. Weve got along without any commodation
from him; we can git along agin. Arter this
when a office-seekin canderdate comes to our house and
talks about your bein the ‘most intelligent, influential
and prominent Republican in our township,’ and is ‘astonished
that you ever read sich nonsense as Populist noosepapers,
much less indorse them;’ that talks about the
Dimicrats all bein rascals and the Populists all cranks;
that feeds you on three-for-five segars and tells you they
are regular five-centers, you have sense enough to charge
him 25 cents for dinner and 15 cents for hoss feed.
“When votin day comes recollect that ‘self-preservation
is the fust law of natur;’ that the officeholder draws the
salary and you pay the taxes; that votin can bring you to
distress or prosperity.
“Come on,” says I, and we left.
None of them was laffin. They seemed to be thinkin.
Jobe he was jist so disappinted at not gittin the money,
and his perlitical loyalty was so shockt at the feller furgittin
him, that he wouldent try to borry the interest
money any more that day.
We jist got in our wagon and went up that alley by
Urfer’s store till we got out of town. Nobody seen us.
Jobe is diggin a well for Bill Gerber, gittin 50 cents a
day.
If they dont strike water too soon, and if it dont take
too long, and if the fust of Aprile dont come too airly, we
may be able to raise the balance of the interest money in
time to keep from being foreclosed.
No letter from Congressman Richer yit.
I wish interest was two per cent., dream or no dream.
.bn 061.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VIII. | ANOTHER LETTER FROM RICHER.
.sp 2
JOBE went to the election Monday and voted her
strait. That nite I put another patch on his pants.
Ive been a doin his patchin just arter election every
year since 1873.
Jobe dont mind patches so long as the Republicans are
in, but there is no end to his kickin if the Dimicrats are in.
I cant see what difference it makes; the patchin has to
be done, and more of it, every year.
Tuesday Jobe went to town to pay his interest and hear
how the election went. He had borrowed what he lacked
of Bill Gerber and will work it out at diggin that well.
When he got to town he went strait to Jones’s bank
and paid the $126 interest, then went to the post-office and
got this letter:
.pm start_quote
.nf c
OFFICE OF
BERIAR WILKINSON,
General Speculator and Political Wire-Puller.
.nf-
.ti 0
D. M. J. Richer, Attorney.
.ll 68
.rj
Washington, D. C., Mar. 29, 1895.
.ll
.ti 0
J. Gaskins, Esq.:
Dear Sir—Your letter to hand. I must have the money.
I have instructed my attorney to begin foreclosure proceedings
at once, unless the $2,100 is paid by April 10th, 1895.
.ll 68
.nf r
Yours truly.
D. M. J. Richer.
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
took Jobe’s breath. He forgot to ask who was
elected. He hurried from the post-office to the bank, to
git his interest money back, hopin he could save that
much.
.bn 062.png
.pn +1
.il id=i062 fn=i-062.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca “That night I put another patch on his pants.”
When he got into the bank
and explained to Mr. Jones
that he had got that letter
and that he wanted his interest
money back, Banker
Jones kind a smiled and
said: “You should have
gone to the post-office first,
Mr. Gaskins. I cannot give
you the money back now.
That would not be bizness,
Mr. Gaskins. It would not
be bizness.”
Jobe he explained to him
that the reason he did not
go to the post-office fust was because he was anxious to git
the interest paid, and that was the fust thing on his mind.
“Cant help it,” says the banker.
Jobe he begged and plead for the money. Told him of
our sellin Betty, and our wheat, and corn, and sheep, and
hog, and quilts, and feathers, and chickens, and of his
borrowin part of it from Bill Gerber—told him how he had
tried to borrow the money to pay it all and couldent find
any one that had it to loan; he showed him how, if we were
foreclosed, we would have nothin left at all.
Banker Jones told him it was too bad, but it couldent be
helped; he couldent give Jobe any of the interest money
back.
“Bizness is bizness,” says Banker Jones, “and I have
to do bizness accordin to bizness rules.”
Jobe asked him to be merciful, and told him the Lord
would bless him if he would show mercy to them a needin
mercy.
.il id=i063 fn=i-063.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=r
.ca “He explained to Mr. Jones.”
But Banker Jones said he was purty comfortable as it
.bn 063.png
.pn +1
was, and when he needed
any favors from the Lord
he ginerally paid “spot
cash” for em; in fact he had
several blessins paid for in
advance.
Then he told Jobe if he
had any other bizness to
attend to he had better go
and attend to it, as he was
bizzy.
Poor Jobe! He jist got
out and come home. He
says he dont recollect how
he got home, he felt so
dazed and queer. He has
been droopin around all day.
He looks distrest; and, poor
man, I know he is. The
Lord only knows what will
become of us—I dont.
My heart has been a raisin up in my throat all day.
Every time I see anybody a comin up the road I feel
faint like and skeert. I think its the sheriff a comin to
notify us that we are foreclosed.
If Jobe had only heerd how the election went he might
feel better. I wish the Republicans got in. I wish it,
though Ime a Dimicrat. I wish it for Jobe’s sake. It
might help him bear his trouble better.
Jist to think, if we had only $2,100 of all them
$683,000,000 of greenbacks that John Sherman burned up
when he was in office—yes, and put Jobe and his likes in
bonds to git them to burn—I say if we had only $2,100 of
.bn 064.png
.pn +1
all them millions, we could pay off our mortgage and Jobe
would be happy.
If Sherman had burned less of that money, I wonder if
Jobe and his likes wouldent have more?
Do the people in the poor-house have interest, and mortgages,
and foreclosures, and taxes and sich to worry them?
I have to quit. My heart is heavy.
.sp 4
.il id=i064 fn=i-064.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 065.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER IX. | A FEW REASONS BY BETSY.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE Republicans swept the platter. They elected
every officer from township clerk down, and the
sheriff has sent Jobe a notice to appear before the
Common Pleas Court and show cause why he should not
be foreclosed.
Jobe feels good over the election, but bad over the
notice.
Now I think there are a good many reasons why we
shouldent be foreclosed, and more reasons why we hadent
ort to be. Its not our fault that we have to be.
First. We shouldent be because Jobe has voted the
strait Republican ticket, rain or shine, for nigh onto
thirty-five years. In this he has done his dooty—as he
seen it.
Second. We have paid our taxes every year without
ceasin, not even complainin when the law-makers drawed
two years’ pay for one year’s work, nor when new officers
were added and old ones given more wages. In this we
done more than our dooty.
Third. We have given all we raised to Congressman
Richer for interest, not even keepin enough out to take a
trip to Urope or to buy me a new spring bonnet. In this
we done all our health and opportunity enabled us to do.
Fourth. We have indorsed everything the polerticians
and office-seekers done or said durin our united lives,
even havin to change our minds as often as twice a year to
do so. In this we have been foolish.
.bn 066.png
.pn +1
Fifth. When John Sherman was a burnin up that
$623,428,000 of greenback money and givin the rich men
of New York and Urope mortgages on our property to git
the money to burn, I agreed it was fine sport, jist to please
Jobe, and when Jobe said the national debt John was
makin was a national blessin, I nodded my head to it,
though I was a Dimicrat. I nodded to keep peace in the
family.
I am now payin for them nods, payin for them in fifty-cent
wheat and high interest.
Sixth. We have taken good care of the farm, and have
jist as many acres as when we bought it from Mr. Richer
and give him a mortgage for the balance due. We have
paid him $1,700 of the purchase price and all we raised
besides, and I think he ort to wait till land increases in
price before foreclosin us.
We sent him down to Congress to make laws for us, and
it was his dooty to make sich laws as would make it easier
for Jobe and his likes to git a home and git it paid for.
He dident do it. In this he dident do his
Now, suppose Mr. Richer, as our Congressman, had
introduced a bill, and got it made into a law somethin
like my dream was. He would have been sent back to
Congress and a been a drawin $5,000 a year salary and
disposin of post-offices and sich at payin prices, and
wouldent need the money still due on the mortgage, or if
he did need it to help him out on his real estate deals,
under that new bill Jobe could borrow the money of the
county at two per cent. and pay it, and besides could pay
the interest easier and have more each year to pay on the
mortgage.
You remember that my dream was that Congress had
passed a law that hereafter, when more money was needed
to do bizness with in any county, instead of the United
.bn 067.png
.pn +1
States lendin it to the national banks at one per cent.,
and lettin the banks loan it to the people at eight or ten
per cent., I dreamed that the law was that the same
officers of the government should lend it to the county at
one per cent., on county bonds as security, and that the
county treasurer should lend it to the people of his county
at two per cent., on sich security as the banks now take,
and I drempt that Jobe and me and Bill Bowers went to
the county treasurer to see about gittin the money to pay
Congressman Richer the $2,100, and we found that sich a
law was passed, and the county still lived. And I dreamed
that the bankers was a peckin, and a beckenin, and a
coaxin of people to borrow their money at the same rate of
interest as the county treasurer loaned it. Now, had we
ort to be foreclosed because no sich law was made? Had
Congressman Richer ort a want to foreclose us when he
dident try to git sich a law made? Had we ort to be foreclosed
when Jobe has been a votin men into office to make
laws that would make it easier for him to live and pay for
his home, and they dident do it? Had we ort to be foreclosed
because them men have made laws agin Jobe instead
of fur him? Made laws to reduce the value of his farm and
the price of his crops; made it harder for him to pay
debt?
Had Mr. Richer even made a law permittin county
treasurers to receive deposits of people who would ruther
put their money in the county treasury than in banks, and
allowed the county treasurer to loan it out in the name of
the county at three or four per cent., givin all he received
as interest, less what it cost to attend to it, to the fellers
what deposited it, it would a helped us some. But he
dident do it nor try to do it.
If we are foreclosed and our farm is sold by the sheriff,
and Mr. Richer bids it in for $2,100 and gits the farm back,
.bn 068.png
.pn +1
where is Jobe’s $1,700 cash paid on the principal and
$2,212 interest money he has paid?
Who gits it? What has Jobe got for it? For who has
Jobe and me been a workin for the last sixteen years?
For who is this foreclosin law, with high interest, made?
I hope we will be able to git our case at court put off till
arter the fall election and corn huskin! Livin in this hope
I must retire to bed. Jobe is asleep in his cheer. Every
little bit there is a troubled look comes into his face, as
though his dreams haint all pleasant.
.il id=i068 fn=i-068.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 069.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER X. | IS THERE A WOMAN IN THE BARN?
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
YOUD a dide to see the fun I had with Jobe day
before yisterday. It was warm like, and I went out
to the barn to see what Jobe was a doin. When I
got up to the barn door I heerd Jobe a talkin. Peekin in
through a crack, I seed Jobe settin on the half-bushel,
lookin desperate and jist a layin it off with his hands, like
as if he was argyin with some one. At times he come so
near a swearin that he is in danger of gittin churched, if
they find it out on him. Jist as I got my eye to that crack
he brought his fist down on his knee with force, and says,
says he:
“Ive been made a fool of and I know it. Ive marched
up to the ballot-box for nigh onto thirty-five years and
voted men into office that cared no more for Jobe Gaskins
and his likes than they did for a good fox hound, and not
as much. They said it was necessary to destroy the greenbacks,
and I said, ‘Destroy them.’ They said, ‘We ort
to demonitize silver,’ and I said, ‘Demonitize her.’ I
seed that times was gittin harder, but they said way back
in the seventies that the tariff ort to be higher, and the
next year higher, and higher, and higher. And every time
they said higher I hollered, and the higher they made it
the louder I hollered, and kept a hollerin until to-day
about all I have to show for my hollerin and votin is the
holler, and there is dummed little of that left now.
.il id=i070 fn=i-070.jpg w=55% ew=55% align=l
.ca “Peekin through a crack.”
“Here I am a old man. I have worked hard, year in
and year out, and have been fool enough to vote a ticket
.bn 070.png
.pn +1
that was enslavin
me for thirty years
or more. The
wealth that I have
produced by my
hard work has
been taken from me
by the laws they
have made, while
the fellers I have
voted for have got
rich, and say that
it is my fault if I
am poor. Me and
my likes had to be
made poor in order
that others might
be made rich. Its
no fault of mine.
Ive tried to be
honest and scorn
dishonesty, and am
to-day nearly without a home for bein sich and for votin the
strait ticket and not askin what they was doin; while
the fellers I have voted for looked on dishonesty as a
honor, and have made laws by which the products of my
labor has been taken from me and given to themselves and
others no more honest. Ime dummed if I know what to do.
“If I leave the party the polerticians and officeseekers
will call me a ‘sorehead’ and sich names; if I stay in I am
doomed to distress.
“I wish the Republicans would make some of them
Populist ideas into a law. Ide—Ide——”
Just then I opened the door all of a suddent, and says:
.bn 071.png
.pn +1
“Jobe, who air you talkin to?”
“Nobody, nobody,” says he, gittin up and steppin
round, quick like.
“Jobe Gaskins,” says I, puttin my hands on my hips
and throwin my head back. “Jobe Gaskins, dident I hear
you a talkin?”
“No, you dident,” says he, mad like. “I haint spoke
a word for hours.”
.il id=i071 fn=i-071.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “Jist a layin it off with his hands.”
I stepped back a step or two, lookin Jobe square in the
face. Says I:
“Jobe, I heerd you a talkin, and you needent deny it.
If there is a woman in this barn I want to know it.”
At that Jobe got mad, and comin at me with his fist
drawed, says he:
“Betsy Gaskins, do you dare accuse me with anything
like that?” grittin his few teeth.
I had grabbed the pitchfork. Says I:
“Jobe, take care!”
.bn 072.png
.pn +1
He stopped, and I started to turn the hay upside down,
sayin, “If there is a woman in here, Ile—Ile——”
Jobe he watched me a minit or two; then says he:
“Betsy, what the Harry is the matter with you? There
haint any woman in here.”
And at that he sneaked out of the barn and went down
in the sheep-shed.
Now, jist to think! There is Jobe Gaskins, a man of
good sense, a man who sees that every law made by the
Republican party since the war was a law agin him, and
for people who make their livin off Jobe and his likes
without workin. Yit, fool like, Jobe will keep a votin his
party ticket, jist to please a lot of office-seekin canderdates
and “hangers-on” that eek out a existence by doin the
dirty jobs set up by the leadin polerticians and fellers who
pay to git laws made agin Jobe and his likes.
Jobe ort to be ashamed to admit that he was talkin the
talk I heerd him talkin.
But, poor Jobe, I suppose he will keep a votin for the
hand that has smote him, and will keep a smotin him, till
he is in his grave and beyond smotin.
Had the Republican party made laws for all the people,
instid of for only the rich; had they made laws to make
interest less and taxes lower; had they made laws to make
it easier for people to borrow money when they needed it,
instid of makin it scarce and hard to git—I say, if they
had made sich laws, if they had been as foolish as my
dream was, do you suppose Jobe and me would have to go
to court next week to show cause why we hadent ort to be
foreclosed?
.bn 073.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XI. | “IN TOWN.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
WE are at court. The case is on. Poor Jobe, he is
so worried and troubled and downhearted that he
dont seem to enthuse when the officeseekin canderdates
and polerticians are shakin of his hand and tellin
him that “we got there, and are now ready for ’96,”
&c., &c.
Jobe he jist takes it, and says: “Is that so?”
Not one of all them polerticians or canderdate fellers
seems to know that one of their “old and respected
citizens” is about to be foreclosed out of house and
home. Not one of them seems to care if he does know.
The leadinest idea in their minds is gittin office and
enthusin over the election. But I notice some of them
dident come near, but seem kinder cold toward Jobe. I
spect they have heerd of the foreclosin and dont want to
be seen in our company.
Well, we got to town this mornin and come strait to
court. I jist felt as though the house would fall on me; I
was so out of place.
But them lawyers and fellers what okepy that field over
the fence from the common herd, they jist walked around
and whispered, and tiptoed, and laffed, as though they was
raised right there in that field all their useless lives. Some
of them even had nice tables to put their feet on, and
carpet and soft cheers and sich. Well, I spect the poor
things were brought up tender like, and it would hurt them
to git along with common things like taxpayers git
along on.
.bn 074.png
.pn +1
.il id=i074 fn=i-074.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca “‘Mr. Court, Gaskins is here.’”
Well, arter a while the
judge come, and the officer
opened court.
Then the case of
.nf c
“Richer, Plaintiff,
vs.
Gaskins, Defendant,”
.nf-
was called.
I felt like as if Ide faint—gone
like.
The judge asked if the
parties to the case were in
court and ready for trial.
The lawyer for Congressman
Richer got up
and said he was “there
and ready.”
Then the court called for the “defendant, Gaskins.”
Poor Jobe he jist sot still and looked as white as a
ghost. He never moved.
I hunched him, and told him to “git up and answer.”
He said he couldent; he was sick.
The court, kinder mad like, called for “Gaskins” agin,
when I riz up and says:
“Mistur Court, Gaskins is here, and I am Betsy
Gaskins, the lawful wife of Jobe Gaskins, the defendant.”
“Whose your lawyer?” says the court.
“We haint got any,” says I.
“Youd better git counsel,” says the court, “if you
desire to contest this case.”
“Will counsel keep us from bein foreclosed?” says I.
The judge said the case would be decided on the law
and evidence.
“Then,” says I, “what do we need of counsel? You
.bn 075.png
.pn +1
have the law, and we will give you the evidence, and if the
court please, if our side needs any pleadin, Ile do it
myself.”
I hadent them words out of my mouth till up jumped
Mr. Richer’s lawyer and says:
“I ’bject.”
The court said that I could not do the pleadin, as I was
not a party to the case, nor had I a license to practice
before the court.
I riz up agin.
“Mistur Judge,” says I, “what difference does it make
who I am or what I am, so long as I treat the court with
respect, and know as much, or nearly as much, about this
case as any lawyer we could hire?
“If the case, Mistur Judge, is to be decided on the law
and evidence, and not on the pleadin, why cant I do what
pleadin we need, as well as some lawyer?”
I sot down.
The judge looked at me a minit over his specks.
“Well, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he, “if we allowed anybody
and everybody to come into our courts and represent
a neighbor or friend, half our lawyers would have nothin
to do. The law prohibiting this privilege is made so as to
afford our attorneys a livelihood. While it sometimes
proves a hardship to litigants, it would be a greater hardship
on our lawyers if they dident have sich a law in their
favor. However, Mrs. Gaskins, as this is a case of small
importance, if the bar is willing I will permit you to say
what you desire in behalf of the defendant.”
to the lot of high-toned cattle over the fence
from us, says he: “What do you say, gentlemen?”
.il id=i076 fn=i-076.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca “‘I ’bject.’”
They kind a hemmed and hawed and whispered together,
and looked disgusted and disappinted and contemptible,
and finally one of them says:
.bn 076.png
.pn +1
“We shant ’bject.”
And four or five of em
got up and left, lookin
like as if they had lost
somethin.
Well, the judge invited
us over into the field.
We went in, and I sot
down by a table. The
lawyer for Mr. Richer
got up and stated his
case. He said that he
would prove that a number of years ago one Jobe Gaskins
purchased from the Honorable D. M. J. Richer certain lands
and tenements to the value of $3,800; that there has been
but $1,700 paid on the amount; that there remains due and
unpaid some $2,100, which is secured by mortgage. And
he was there to pray for the foreclosure of said mortgage
and sale of the premises to satisfy said claim.
He sot down.
I got up.
I says, says I: “Mistur Judge, this here case haint
just exactly like that there lawyer said. We claim there
haint no $2,100 still due Mr. Richer, although he has our
notes and a mortgage for that amount. We claim that he
has got nearly full value for all we got from him. We
have paid him $1,700 of the principal and over $2,200 in
interest. The land, for some cause, haint worth now as
much as we paid for it, and we expect to prove that Jobe
haint done anything to cause the land to fall in value.
The land may now be worth $2,500, if we could find some
one that had the money and wanted to buy land. If we
are foreclosed and forced to sell it, it may not bring more
than the $2,100 that he claims we owe him.
.bn 077.png
.pn +1
“Now, we want to be fair with Congressman Richer,
Mistur Judge, and all we ask is that Mr. Richer and his
likes what lends money be treated by the law and the
courts the same as Jobe and his likes what owes money is
treated.
“Now, as I said before, Mistur Judge, the farm is the
same size as it was the day we bought it; the land is jist as
good; the improvements are better. We have paid Mr.
Richer his interest every year for sixteen years, and $1,700
besides.
“Now, Mistur Judge, wouldent it be fair for Mr. Richer
to take the farm back and give us our $1,700? He would
have jist what he had before we bought it, and he would
have $2,212 interest money for the use of it, and we would
have the $1,700 we have paid him over and above the
interest.
“Or, if he dont want to do that, Mistur Judge, we will
value the farm at $2,500, which is all or more than its
worth to-day, and will pay him the difference between the
$1,700 we already have paid and the $2,500, or $800, in cash.
“Now, Mistur Judge, this would be honest and fair, and
he can take his choice, while if you foreclose us, and the
farm at sheriff sale only brings $2,100, and Mr. Richer
buys it in, he will have the farm he had at fust, our $1,700
principal and the $2,212 interest money we have paid him,
or he will have the farm and $3,912 in money, and we in
our old age will have nothin.”
When I was through the other lawyer got up and said
sich argament was all bosh and contrary to law; that the
court had too good sense to be governed by sich anachristic
talk from a rattle-brained woman. At that, it bein noon,
the court dismissed for dinner, without explainin why this
was “a case of small importance.” It looks to me that
its a purty tolerable important case to Jobe and me.
.bn 078.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XII. | THE DECISION.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THAT day, when the judge and lawyers got back from
dinner, and arter Jobe and me had eat our lunch in
the jury-room, they opened court agin, and the judge,
lookin at me tired like, says:
“Mrs. Gaskins, the court is now ready to proceed with
the case.”
“So be we, Mistur Judge,” says I.
So Congressman Richer’s lawyer got out a lot of papers
and notes, and, showin them to Jobe and me, asked us if
we admitted signin of them.
“Certainly we do,” says I.
So he handed them to the judge, sayin that that was
all the evidence he desired to produce, and as the notes
had not been paid, as stipulated in the mortgage, he asked
to have the mortgage foreclosed and the property sold, and
judgment for costs rendered agin the defendant.
At that he sot down.
Jobe he looked distressed.
I felt kind a gone like.
But when the judge said that if we had any evidence to
produce or objection to make why the mortgage should
not be foreclosed, now was my time to make it, I jist
gathered up courage and says, says I:
“Mistur Judge, we have some evidence to offer, and I
want to say a few words.
“We never denied that we signed that mortgage and
.bn 079.png
.pn +1
them notes; we never claimed we had paid all we did
sign.
.il id=i079 fn=i-079.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘I want to prove to you, Mistur Judge.’”
“Now, what I want to prove, Mistur Judge, is, that the
reason we haint paid more of the notes was because times
have been so hard, prices so low and money so scarce that
we jist couldent pay any more than we have paid.
“I want to prove that we have paid every dollar we
could pay, and that we have went naked and hungry, or
nearly so, to pay what we have paid.
“I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that when we bought
this farm, some sixteen years ago, times were better than
now; that farmers could sell what they raised for more
than now; and I want to prove that it has not been by any
act of the farmers that times have been made harder and
prices lower than then.
“I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that taxes haint got
any less; that interest is jist as high as then; that it takes
twice as many bushels of wheat for Jobe to pay his share
of your wages, and the wages of the other officers in this
buildin, as it did then. I want to prove that Jobe had to
use wheat to pay you fellers that he could have used
.bn 080.png
.pn +1
toward payin on them notes if prices had staid up or
officers’ pay had been brought down.
“I want to show you that all you officeholders have
helped to bring about this condition by your endorsin of
men that made laws to destroy the greenback, to demonitize
silver, encouragin high interest and money monopoly,
and by your increasin of wages of officeholders or lettin
them remain the same as they were when wheat was high.
“I want to prove, Mistur Judge, that Mr. Richer was one
of the law-makers, that he voted agin silver, and did not
try to do anything or to make any law to make money as
plenty as it use to be.
“I want to show that Mr. Richer already has got all we
have raised by our hard work for the last sixteen years,
and, Mistur Judge, I think that instid of you sellin our farm
to satisfy him, you ort to order him to give us back all the
money we have paid him, except the interest, and let us
give him back the property we got from him; we are willin
to do this, and give him our improvements besides, if he
will give us back our $1,700. This is all we ask, Mistur
Judge.
“If you grant it we would have a few dollars to keep us
in our old age, and Mr. Richer would have all we got from
him and $2,212 interest money besides.
“If you foreclose us, as this high-toned lawyer asks
you to do, we will have nothing left, and Mr. Richer will
have as much as he had before and $3,912 of our hard-earned
money besides, part of it, Mistur Judge, bein money
I got from home when father died.”
The judge kind a looked at me pityin like, and says,
says he:
“Mrs. Gaskins, your argament may be all right from
your point of view; but it is not law, Mrs. Gaskins. It is
not law. We must proceed according to law.”
.bn 081.png
.pn +1
“What is law?” says I. “Haint it justice?” pleadin
like.
The judge studied a minit, cleared his throat a time or
two, and then says he:
“It is supposed to be, Mrs. Gaskins. It is supposed to
be. It should be justice; it should be. I appreciate the
position of you two old people. I believe, as you say, that
you have worked hard and saved that you might get your
farm paid for and have a home in your old age. I believe
you have done all you could do. Your argament has been
well made.
.il id=i081 fn=i-081.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “‘This is the law, whether it is justice or not.’”
“But the law—the law, Mrs. Gaskins, says that if these
notes have not been paid according to the provision of the
mortgage, it can be foreclosed.
“Even if you had paid all of the notes but one dollar,
and had worked fifty years to pay them, and for some
reason money had become scarce, and your farm under
forced sale would not bring more than the one dollar, it
would have to be sold, under the law, to satisfy that one
dollar still due on it.
“To make it plainer to you, Mrs. Gaskins, suppose that
all the money was demonitized or destroyed except gold
.bn 082.png
.pn +1
or silver (no matter which), and suppose that one man had
succeeded in getting possession of all the money, and you
owed one dollar on a farm that had cost you $3,800, you
would have to get that one dollar from the man who had
it, and he could place his own estimate of value on it, and
could, if he so desired, demand 120 acres of good farm land
for one of his dollars, and, in case of forced sale under the
law, all the property you have would have to be sacrificed
to satisfy that one dollar. It would have to be done, even
though that one man who had all the money cornered
owned your mortgage and had made the law, or got it
made, that destroyed all the other money. So this, Mrs.
Gaskins, is the law, whether it is justice or not, and I, as
the judge of this court, must be governed by the law as it
is. All the testimony you have mentioned is not such as
could be admitted before this court. Hence I shall render
judgment as prayed for by the plaintiff, with costs of this
action attached.”
.bn 083.png
.pn +1
.il id=i082 fn=i-082.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Jobe and me sot there dazed like.”
I wanted to say some more, but the judge told me the
case was over, and that I need not say any more.
So Jobe and me sot there dazed like for a little while.
Then the sheriff come to us and said the case was over and
we had better go home. We got up and come home.
We have been over the dear old farm half a dozen times,
so as to carry its memory in our minds to wherever we shall
go. Oh! how queer I feel when I wonder where that will be.
Jobe is jist a mopin around with no life in him at all.
I haint heerd him holler for McKinley since we got back
from court.
I wonder if Mr. McKinley, and Mark Hanna, and Henry
Flagler, of the Standard Oil Trust, and Mr. Kohlsaat, and
them other millionairs what has been down in Georgia
schemin and plannin and arrangin to git Mr. McKinley
elected to the president’s office, want to git him elected so
as to make it easier for Jobe and his likes to pay for their
homes.
I wonder if the laws they are wantin to git made, or keep
from bein made, is to make themselves richer or to make
the life of the fellers who vote the ticket they fix up easier.
Them millionair fellers seem to take a great interest in
elections and things.
.bn 084.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIII. | JOBE CHEERS UP.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE’S aunt Jane out in Indyana is dead. The poor,
dear soul worked hard all her life, and now she is
dead. She had been takin care of a rich inverlid for
some twelve years, and got two dollars a week for all that
time. By livin plain and not goin anywhere for all that time,
she has saved $563, and she has left all her savins to Jobe,
her only kin, the lawyers out there write us.
.il id=i084 fn=i-084.jpg w=33% ew=33% align=l
.ca Aunt Jane.
We got a letter from them last week sayin she had
died of a suddent, and left Jobe all she
had, arter payin her buryin expenses.
Jobe has been more like hisself,
ever since he heerd she was dead, than
he has been for some time.
He now says that if he lives to vote
for McKinley it will be the happiest
moment of his life. I hope Jobe will
live.
As soon as he got that letter he
started out agin to try to borrow
enough money to pay off Mr. Richer’s
mortgage before foreclosin day. He
found one banker at Canal Dover
who said he would let him have $1,800
at seven per cent. interest, jist to commodate Jobe. Jobe is
a goin to take it, which, with what he is to git as his dead
aunt’s heir, will make the money Congressman Richer is
wantin so bad, and a little besides.
Jobe went to town yisterday to try to stop the foreclosin
.bn 085.png
.pn +1
bizness until our legicy money comes and we can git the
other from the bank at Canal Dover.
.il id=i085 fn=i-085.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “He would call him ‘Billy,’ in honor of the next president.”
They told him down to the court-house that they would
try to “stave it off.”
Jobe said that when the report got out that he was
about to git a legicy everybody wanted to shake hands
with him and be friendly like.
Even them canderdate fellers, what acted kind a cold
durin our foreclosin trial, come around smilin, Jobe said,
and shook hands, and said that “they knode it would
come around all right,” that “a man never loses anything
by votin the strait ticket.” They told Jobe to “cheer
up and git ready for the next election,” and all sich stuff.
Jobe he come home declarin that the Republican party
was the “grand old party” of the universe, he was so
puffed up like.
.bn 086.png
.pn +1
Last night I actually heerd him whistlin one of them
campaign tunes, while he was a feedin of the calf. When
the calf got all the milk out of the bucket and looked up
at Jobe lovin like, Jobe patted him on the head and told
him he was a nice feller and looked so knowin, like
McKinley, that he would call him “Billy,” in honor of
the next president.
Jobe then started to the house a whistlin agin, when
William came at him stiff-legged, and struck Jobe on them
election patches I put on his pants, and knocked Jobe
down on his hands and knees, and before Jobe could git
up, William hit him agin, knockin him clear down. Jobe
turned over on his back and begin to strike at McKinley
with the bucket, sayin, “You dum rascal,” or somethin like
that. He then clamered to his feet and took arter the calf,
kickin as hard as he could kick. The second kick he
missed the calf and fell. Then I hollered at him.
.il id=i086 fn=i-086.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Before Jobe could git up William hit him agin.”
He got up, put his hand on his hip and limped to the
house. When he come in says he:
“Ile kill that dum calf if he ever acts that way agin.
He like to a broke my hip.”
“Why, Jobe,” , “dident I jist hear you namin
.bn 087.png
.pn +1
him for the leadinest Republican of the State? Dont you
know he was jist a givin you a practical lesson in polerticks?
Dont be mad, Jobe,” says I, “youle be a lovin him
tomorrow with all your heart.”
At that Jobe went into the room to git the bottle of salvation
oil, mutterin somethin as he went about me not
havin any sense.
Now, isent it a fact that the polerticians and officeholders
have been actin like that bull calf toward Jobe and
his likes for years?
Haint they been lookin into the face of the taxpayers
pleasin like jist before every election? Haint they been
buttin the life out of the people that feed them by
increasin salaries, and makin taxes higher, and sellin out to
rich trusts and sich, ever since the war?
Haint they made law on law agin the poor and for the
rich?
Haint they issued bonds on top of bonds, to the rich
people and on the poor?
Haint they raised salary arter salary of officeholders
when the people never asked it?
Haint they brought us to a gold basis and made it hard
for people to pay interest and mortgages?
Haint they made it easy for the money-lender to foreclose
agin the borrower?
Haint they destroyed millions and millions of the people’s
greenback money?
Haint they demonitized silver?
Haint they done everything agin the people and nothin
for them?
And what has the people to show for all the money they
have destroyed, and salaries they have increased, and
mortgages they have foreclosed, and bad laws they have
made, but hard times and debts, and people without homes,
.bn 088.png
.pn +1
and cheap wheat, and low wages, and high interest, and
big taxes, and foreclosin, and beggin, and the Lord only
knows what all?
Yet Jobe and his likes will vote the strait ticket, and I
suppose will keep a votin it until the bull calf knocks
their brains out.
What has Jobe and his likes got to show for all the votin
they have voted? What, I say!
If we can save our farm, and if we raise enough to pay
the interest and taxes this year, and a little besides, I am
a goin to git me a pair of them bloomers and go to workin
and votin for more good laws and less polerticks; and the
fust polertician that comes around our house talkin “party
success” and “party principles” Ile kick clear into the
middle of the big road—Ile do it if I split them bloomers
from waistband to waistband in doin so.
.il id=i088 fn=i-088.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 089.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIV. | A NEW MORTGAGE.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
WE was that bizzy last week, with gittin our legicy
and payin of costs, and a borrowin of money, and
a writin of papers, and a signin of our names, and
a swearin to this, that and the other thing, that I dident
git my bakin done, let alone do any writin.
The fust of last week we got our share of our legicy;
the officers in Indyana got the balance.
Howsomever, what we did git come handy for a while
anyhow.
I dont know what we would have done if Jobe’s poor,
dear dead aunt hadent a died jist when she did.
Well, when what was left us, arter payin them Indyana
fellers, come, Jobe and me hitched up old Tom and struck
out for town to stop the foreclosin bizness.
We fust went to the bank at Canal Dover, and made
arrangements to borrow $1,800 at seven per cent. Jobe he
hung for six per cent., but when the banker explained to
Jobe that we was now on a gold basis; that McKinley had
come out for a strait gold basis platform; that he could
lend all the money he could git at seven per cent. or more,
and that all the leadin financiers and bankers, in fact all
the leadin citizens, were in for a gold basis, Jobe he
“saw it” and agreed to seven.
Comin home Jobe told me he would ruther pay seven
per cent. than six, in order to support a “sound money
basis;” that “nobody believed in small interest but them
crazy Populists and their likes.”
.bn 090.png
.pn +1
.il id=i090 fn=i-090.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “He would rather pay seven per cent. than six, in order to support a sound money basis.”
Well, arter we arranged for the money we went to the
court-house, and from the time we got there till I got out
I heerd nothin but “costs,” “costs,” “costs.” They had
it all charged to Jobe. Not one cent was charged to Mr.
Richer. There was the clerk’s costs, and the sheriff’s costs,
and the auditor’s costs, and the judge’s costs, and supeena
costs, and writ costs, and mileage costs, and the Lord only
knows what all or who all had costs charged up agin Jobe.
The very fellers Jobe had helped to elect had jist as big
bills charged up as the law would allow, and some bigger,
and nary one of them was willin to knock off a cent. We
had to pay it or be foreclosed, and we had to take our
legicy money to pay it with—the money that poor, dear,
dead Aunt Jane had worked so hard to save.
Well, when we got the costs all paid, we then begin to
draw up papers, and sign and acknowledge, and read and
reread of papers, to git the money from the Canal Dover
banker.
One feller told Jobe and the other fellers to go out of
the room till he examined me seperate and apart, at which
I became insulted and up and says, says I:
.il id=i091 fn=i-091.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=r
.ca “‘Law or no law,’ says I.”
“No, you wont, sir; no man will examine me seperate and
.bn 091.png
.pn +1
apart or any other
way in the absence
of Jobe Gaskins.”
“The law requires
it,” says he.
“Law or no law,”
says I, “Ile not
submit. I have submitted
to law instid
of justice; Ive
submitted to law
instid of right; Ive
submitted to law
instid of humanity,
but when it comes
to submittin to law
instid of decency, Betsy Gaskins demurs.”
But arter they explained that he jist wanted to read and
explain the mortgage to me, I even submitted to law agin.
When they was all out, the feller read the mortgage to
me, and asked me if the signin of it was my “free act and
deed.” I told him it was so fur as I had to sign it to keep
from bein foreclosed, but that I would not sign it as it
then read.
“Whats wrong?” says he.
“The wrong,” says I, “is where it says that Jobe shall
pay the ‘principal and interest in gold.’”
I explained to him that Jobe and me hadent had ten
dollars in gold for years and years.
But he said it was only a form; that we was now on a
gold basis, and the bank requires all their mortgages to
read, “payable, principal and interest, in gold,” since we
have come to a gold basis.
But I wouldent sign it, and the feller called Jobe and the
.bn 092.png
.pn +1
other fellers in. Jobe he got mad at me and scolded and
fretted around until I got ashamed of him, and I jist up
and says, says I:
“Ile sign it, Mr. Gaskins, but you will find that payin
seven per cent. interest and payin it in gold to keep your
party in power is up-hill bizness.”
.il id=i092 fn=i-092.jpg w=80% ew=80% cw=80%
.ca “‘Payin it in gold to keep your party in power is up-hill bizness.’”
So I signed it. But the Lord only knows where we will
git the gold to pay even the interest with. We have to
pay the interest every six months.
Ive lived on this farm for nigh onto seventeen years, and
have never found a piece of gold as big as a pin-head.
Maybe Jobe knows where it is. I dont, goodness knows.
Well, arter the signin was done there was some more
charges and sich to pay for, and Jobe had it to pay. Then,
arter requestin Jobe to look arter his party’s interests in
our township, they bid us good-by, and Jobe and me
come home.
.bn 093.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XV. | JOBE, OUT OF TROUBLE, IS UNRULY AGAIN.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE he is jist as contrary and stiff-necked as he ever
was. He acts as though he had never went through
what he has went through since last Noo Years. He
is beginnin agin to act towards me as if I was his inferior;
as though it wasent me who stuck up for him and fought
his battles in time of trouble—yes, stood by him when all
creation, office-seekin canderdates and all, had forsook him.
He now says the reason he did not pay off that other
mortgage years ago was because it wasent made “payable
in gold;” he says he believes in payin debts in “sound
money,” and that he now feels sorry that he dident git
gold and pay what he did pay on it; that he feels as
though he has cheated Mr. Richer by payin him in greenbacks
and silver and sich.
He says that he would ruther pay seven per cent.
interest in gold than six per cent. interest in paper money
or silver.
Then he gits up and swells out his boozum, and says:
“John Sherman is the greatest financier on airth. He
has brought us to a gold basis quicker than any other livin
man could a done it. He has taught old Cleveland all he
knows about sound money.” And so forth and so forth.
He goes on in this way day in and day out until I am sick
and tired of it. He even wants me to come out and be a
Republican, when he knows I have been a Dimicrat for
nigh onto thirty-five years.
When he is tellin the neighbors about how much better
.bn 094.png
.pn +1
it is to pay debts in gold, and about us a givin a “gold
mortgage” to the banker, he always calls it his mortgage
and his doins. He never even mentions my name
when speakin of the mortgage, when he knows as well as
I do that both the old parties, as it were, made that gold
mortgage, and that it is “our mortgage” and “our doins”
that made it.
But that is the way with Jobe. As long as everything is
goin along without trouble he wants all the glory; but as
soon as trouble arises he tries to blame me for gittin him
in it, and calls on me for help.
Now, as Betsy Gaskins, I am ashamed of that gold
mortgage, and if I could have had my way I never would
have signed it. Ide a dide fust. But as a Dimicrat I
must approve it, to be in line with my party, and I think
Jobe is mean that he dont speak of it as “our mortgage”
and “our doins,” when he knows the highest paid Dimicrats
in the land is jist as much in favor of “gold mortgages”
as John Sherman or Mistur McKinley or any high-up
Republicans are.
Haint Mistur Carlisle, who is drawin $8,000 a year (for
work he ort a be a doin in the money department at
Washington), spendin lots of time makin speeches for
gold mortgages down in Kaintuckey?
Haint Carlisle a Dimicrat?
Dont Mistur Cleveland set up of nites and write letters
favorin “gold mortgages,” and some nites like as not lets
Mrs. Cleveland sleep all by herself?
What more has John Sherman done, or McKinley?
Jobe thinks because McKinley has spent all spring outside
of Ohio, talkin “gold mortgages” and workin to git
elected to the best payin office in the country, that he is
intitled to all the credit for bringin about “gold mortgages.”
Now, I dont believe it, though he was so bizzy
.bn 095.png
.pn +1
at it that he had to have his salary
as governor sent to him by mail
for months.
.il id=i095 fn=i-095.jpg w=35% ew=35% align=r
.ca “‘John Sherman is the greatest financier on airth.’”
Suppose my dream was true,
and instid of us havin to give the
banker a mortgage drawin seven
per cent. interest (“interest and
principal payable in gold”), that
we, that is, Jobe and me, could
have gone to the county treasurer
of Tuscarawas County and a borrowed
the same amount of paper
and silver money (the same kind
we got from the bank) at two
per cent. interest, payable in any
money of the government. Who would it a hurt?
Wouldent it a been better for Jobe and me? Wouldent
we a had only $36 a year interest to pay to the county
instid of $126 in gold to the bankers? Wouldent we a
had more money to pay toward our home or to buy store
goods with?
If we could spend $90 a year for store goods that we
now have to pay as interest, wouldent that help the storekeepers
a little?
Which would be the best for the storekeepers, for Jobe
and his likes to have to pay high interest in gold, or low
interest in any kind of good money?
There is another question I would like to ask you.
It is this: If the pay of the post-offices is big enough to
pay a feller to buy them from Congressmen, and pay big
money for them, haint it about time that the pay of such
post-offices was cut down?
Why is a feller’s time what is glad to clear $300 or $400
.bn 096.png
.pn +1
a year doin anything else worth $1,500 or $2,000 for keepin
the post-office?
Does it hurt their character so much? And why is it
that all them fellers what sells post-offices, and most of them
what buys em, favor a gold basis and gold mortgages
and sich?
Are they afraid they will have to go back to their old
jobs and less pay if they dont holler as the big fellers
holler?
.il id=i096 fn=i-096.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 097.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVI. | JOBE IS SCARED.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE he is in a critical condition. Day before yisterday,
when Jake Stiffler brought our mail out from town—it
consisted of the two noosepapers that we have took
for years, that is, the Ohio Dimicrat and the Tuscarawas
Advercate—I played a trick on Jobe that nearly cost him
his life, and nearly made me a weepin and mournin widder.
For years and years we have took them two “stanch
and substantial” noosepapers without ceasin. We have
took them simply because one was a Dimicrat paper and
the other a Republican. We have took them when payin
for them kept me from gittin a new dress or Jobe a change
of pants.
We have took them though durin all them years they
have said the same things over and over agin, aginst each
other and aginst the party they wasent, jist at the time,
gittin any campaign money or county printin from.
The Dimicrat has allers called the Republicans rascals
and sich, and the Advercate never fails to show how the
Dimicrats are worse still.
Always, when the Advercate comes, Jobe he sets down
and reads out loud all the abuse agin the Dimicrats; then,
lookin over his specks at me, says:
“Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong
to. You see now what kind of leaders youve got,” &c., &c.
Its a regular thing for Jobe to read the same things
week arter week and then to criticise me and the Dimicrat
party time arter time, until for years Ive been in the
.bn 098.png
.pn +1
habit of goin in and settin down and a listenin to Jobe
read the Advercate’s abuse of the Dimicrats, and a waitin
for my regular weekly tongue-lashin. Ive done it jist for
the good it seems to do Jobe.
.il id=i098 fn=i-098.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘Now, Betsy, you see what kind of a party you belong to.’”
Sometimes to answer him I jist read from the Ohio
Dimicrat the same things he has read from the Advercate—only
where the Advercate says “the Dimicrat party,” the
Dimicrat says “the Republican party.”
Then Jobe will flare up and say:
“The Ohio Dimicrat is a dum dirty sheet, and full of lies.”
He knows that I dont swear and wont say that
about his Advercate, even if I know it is the same kind of a
paper as the Ohio Dimicrat is, except in the name at the
top of the fust page. Of course it gits its campaign money
and public printin from the office-seekin canderdate fellers
of the other party.
Now, when Jake brought them papers, I happened to
pick up the Advercate (a thing I seldom do), and one of
.bn 099.png
.pn +1
the fust things I read was a article a praisin Mr. Cleveland
for workin to git a “gold basis” and “gold mortgages”
and sich. I was so surprised to find a word of praise
for a Dimicrat president in a Republican noosepaper that I
looked twice at the headin to make sure it was the Advercate
I had instid of the Dimicrat. Sure enough it was the
Advercate, but I dont want you to blame Editure McIlvaine
for sich a article appearin in his paper. He couldent help
it. It was in that part of his paper that he dont print.
It was in the patent part what is printed in Cleveland—the
part, you know, which them fellers down east, the
fellers what gits rich by havin on this gold basis bizness,
pays to have in all papers, Dimicrat, Republican, Methodist,
Prisbyterian or any other kind except them howlin
Populist papers. Them Populists seem to be so sot agin
that “gold basis,” and a “contractin of the money to
make it scarce and hard to git,” that they wont put anything
a favorin the “gold basis” in their papers for love
or money. They are jist that mean.
So I dont want you to blame Mr. McIlvaine or any other
feller for sich articles a bein in their papers. They cant
help it. They jist have to do it or lose their rich money-lendin
friends.
But the feelin I felt when I seed sich a article in a
Republican noosepaper prompted me to do the thing that,
as I said afore, nearly made me a weepin widder.
I jist thought Ide have some fun with Jobe.
So I went to work and cut the headin off from last week’s
Tuscarawas Advercate and pasted it over the headin of this
week’s Ohio Dimicrat. Then I cut the headin out of last
week’s Ohio Dimicrat and pasted it on this week’s Advercate.
I then folded the papers up nice like and laid them on the
table in the settin-room, where I had laid them week arter
week for near onto fifteen years.
.bn 100.png
.pn +1
.il id=i100 fn=i-100.jpg w=50% ew=50% align=l
.ca “So I went to work and cut out the headin.”
Arter supper, when
Jobe had his chores all
done up, he says, as he
come in from the barn:
“Betsy, has the mail
come?”
A question that he
has asked about that
hour, on that same day
of the week, fifty-two
times a year for these
many years. The mail
alluded to meanin the
Tuscarawas Advercate.
I told Jobe, as usual,
that it was in on the
table. He took his
specks down off the
kitchen mantel, and,
wipin them as he went
on the corner of his coat tail, approached the table.
He sot down, rared back in his split-bottom rockin cheer,
put his feet on another, then picked up the Ohio Dimicrat
(with its name changed), and begin to read, as he expected,
Editure McIlvaine’s slaughter of Dimocracy.
It started out with:
.pm start_quote
“There never was a more corrupt gang in control of any
State government than the Republican boodlers at
Columbus.”
.pm end_quote
Then:
.pm start_quote
“Every Republican officeholder in this county seems to
exist for no other purpose than to suck the life-blood out
of our hard-working tax-payers. We must turn the rascals
out.”
.pm end_quote
.il id=i101 fn=i-101.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘It is all over, Betsy,’ says he.”
And so on and so on, clear through the paper. Jobe he
.bn 101.png
.bn 102.png
.pn +2
read a minit or so; then looked at the name of the paper;
then read another item; looked at the top of his paper
agin; took off his specks; rubbed them hard; put them on
and read, or started to read, another item; laid the paper
down; got up and went to the lookin glass; stuck out his
tongue and shook his head in a troubled manner; then
he felt his pulse, shook his head agin and fell over on the
lounge that was near him. He groaned once or twice, then
hollered, “Betsy, Betsy!” dyin like.
I went a hurryin in. There he laid as white as a ghost,
and drawin short, quick breaths.
“Why, Jobe, dear,” says I, pleadin like, “what on
airth is the matter?”
“It is all over, Betsy,” says he, “all over; Ime a goin
to die. The end is near. Betsy, Ive tried to be a good
husband, but at times I know Ive been a little cross and
contrary. Betsy, I want to hear you say you forgive me
before I go.”
“Why, Jobe,” says I, “what in the world is the matter?”
“Oh, Betsy,” says he, “the end is near. I know it is.
Editure McIlvaine is changed, or my mind is shattered.
My mind is so onbalanced that I can no longer read my
paper and understand it, or the leopard has changed his
spots. Betsy, its me. It must be me, for where my paper
has been praisin, it is now abusin; and where it has been
abusin, it is now praisin. Betsy, I want to die. I want
to die a believin that its me and not the Advercate that
has changed. You must do the best you can, Betsy; and
if you marry agin arter Ime gone, remember my last wish
is that you do not marry one of them wild Populists.
Betsy, will you promis?” says he.
At that I began to laf out loud, as hard as I could laf.
“Oh my! oh my!” says Jobe. “Is my wife crazy or do
my eyes deceive me agin?”
.bn 103.png
.pn +1
I took holt of him and jerked him off the lounge, sayin:
“Here! git up and have some sense. That is all the
truth you read in your paper to-nite. The office-seekers
of both parties are corrupt, and if the papers were
honest they would say so. Neither of them dare tell
how the people have been betrayed, and so they fill up
their columns with abusin the party they dont happen to
belong to.”
.il id=i103 fn=i-103.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “That nite he slept in the barn.”
Then I explained what I had done, and he jumped to his
feet and swore awfully. That nite he slept in the barn, and
for the second time in her married life Betsy Gaskins slept
alone. Jobe is still critical and sleepin in the barn.
.bn 104.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVII. | JOBE SLEEPS IN THE BARN.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
IF Ide a knode that Ide a had to went through what Ive
went through since I last writ, I would have been a
old maid longin for some one to love, and some one
to love me in return, instid of bein the tormented wife of
Jobe Gaskins, Esquire, as I am to-day.
From the time Jobe come in from the barn, the next
mornin arter nearly dyin over the Advercate’s change of
abuse, to this hour, the two old parties has been on the
outs; and instid of gittin better, things are gittin wuss.
The Lord only knows what it will lead to. I dont.
That mornin, about breakfast time, he come a bouncin
into the house all of a suddent, while I was a puttin some
corn cakes in the skillet, and, shakin his fist in my face,
says, says he:
“Betsy Gaskins, you’ve got to take it back. Take it
back or Ile—Ile smash you,” makin a motion towards me,
and, with his hair all mussed up and full of hay-seed, he
looked dangerful.
I jist drawed back the dipper what I was puttin batter
in the skillet with, sayin:
“Jobe Gaskins, you make another move towards me, or
attempt to strike me, and Ile knock you so cold youle never
vote for another Republican office-seeker.”
I was a lookin at him all the time with the dipper drawed.
He seen I meant jist what I said; so he walked over and
sot down on the edge of the wood-box. Continerin, says I:
.il id=i105 fn=i-105.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “‘Jobe Gaskins, you make another move!’”
“You are a purty-lookin feller, haint you? Thats as
.bn 105.png
.bn 106.png
.pn +2
much sense as you and your likes has got. You would
strike down the pardner of your life rather than listen to
the truth about the rascality of the men who run your
party.”
I had the dipper drawed all the time, and had stepped
nearer to him.
“Betsy,” says he, pleadin like, “tell jist one dishonest
thing a Republican officer ever done.”
Says I: “Now, Jobe, you are actin with sense. Where
do you want me to begin, at the top among the big ones,
or at the bottom among the little ones?”
“Begin at the bottom, Betsy, at the bottom,” says he.
“Well, Jobe,” says I, “you listen, and I will keep at
the cakes or they will burn.”
Thinkin a minit, says I:
“Fust, there is the county commissioners.”
“Hold!” says Jobe, jumpin to his feet, “dont lets go
into that commissioner bizness——”
I turned right square in front of him, and drawin the
dipper, says I:
“Now, sir, you set down, and set there till I tell you to
git up.”
Jobe sot down.
Says I agin:
“Fust, there is the county commissioners and the
bridges——”
“Betsy——” says Jobe, conquered like.
“Jobe!” says I, and I looked a look at him that made
him drop his head.
Then proceedin agin, says I:
“Fust, there is the county commissioners, the bridges
and iron tubes.”
Jobe flipped his thumb and fingers, and held up his hand
like they do in school.
.bn 107.png
.pn +1
Says I: “Whats you want?” cross like.
“Betsy, if you are a goin into that bridge bizness, with
them iron tubes and all, I would like to have my say as
well as you,” says he.
“That depends,” says I. “If you act with sense and
dont git mad, you can have your say. If you flare up Ile
silence you, sir.”
“Are you mad, Betsy?” says he, cowed like.
“No, Ime not mad. Ime in airnest,” says I, takin up
the cakes and settin them on the table. Then I sot down
in a chair in front of Jobe, still holdin the dipper. Says I:
“Now, Jobe, who is agent for a iron bridge company in
this county but a Republican county commissioner?
“Who went over into a adjoining county and offered to
sell a iron bridge for several dollars per foot less than
he charged his own county for the same kind of a
bridge? Who done this but a Republican county commissioner?
“Who let a contract for stone butments for one of the
leadin bridges in this county, and then let them put in iron
tubes instid of stone butments? Who done this but a
Republican county commissioner?
“Who sold the Trenton bridge out in three sections at
$999.99 a section, so as to evade the law that says all
public contracts for $1,000 or more shall be advertised
and sold to the lowest bidder? Who done this sellin but
a Republican county commissioner?
“Who gits a commission on all the bridges the taxpayers
are a payin for, but a Republican county commissioner?
“Who has tore down good bridges jist to git to sell a
new bridge to this county, but a Republican county commissioner?
“Who is it but Republican county commissioners that
.bn 108.png
.pn +1
dont care how high taxes are so they git their commission
for sellin bridges?
.il id=i108 fn=i-108.jpg w=75% ew=75%
.ca “‘Are you mad, Betsy?’ says he.”
“Who but a Republican county commissioner refused
to allow the expense necessary to collect the $65,000 back
taxes, Beriar Wilk——?”
“Hold! Hold!” cried Jobe, jumpin to his feet. “Wilkins
was a Dimicrat! Wilkins was a Dimicrat! A leadin Dimicrat,
and you know it! And more, Betsy Gaskins, when
you say that nobody was mixed up in that bridge bizness
but a Republican county commissioner, you lie, and——”
I dident let him finish. I couldent. I was teched. I
jist grabbed the mop-stick that was standin near, and struck
at him with all my might as he went out at the door. I
follered him clear to the fence, strikin at him as he went;
and jist as he was crossin the fence I broke that mop-stick
.bn 109.png
.pn +1
(that cost me thirteen cents) on them election patches.
So my heart is heavier than it has been since I become
the lawful wife of Jobe Gaskins.
The idea of him a tellin me that I lie, this late in our
lives! It is awful! It teched me to the quick! Well, Jobe
Gaskins got no breakfast that day, and I was so worked
up that I couldent eat much.
That nite Jobe slept in the barn agin, comin in some
time between dark and daylite to get what vittles was
cooked.
He stayed out around the barn for three days and nites,
only comin in arter I had gone to bed, to git what he
needed to eat. I dont know how long he would have kept
it up if it hadent got cold Thursday arternoon and evenin.
That evenin he froze out, and came up to the fence and
hollered:
“Hello!”
I went to the door, and says:
“Hello, sir! What you want?”
“Betsy,” says he, “I would like for you to let me come
in and lay by the cookin stove to-nite.”
Says I: “If you wasent so set in your ways and insultin,
you could a been sleepin in your usual place, by my side,
all these nites. Come in,” says I, “and keep your mouth
shet, and all will be well.”
He come in, and I set him a good warm supper. He
eat three bowlsful of corn mush, and drunk two big cups
of hot coffee.
Now, I intend to git all the names and facts about that
bridge bizness, and that Beriar Wilkins back tax bizness,
and them commissioners, and Ile convince Jobe that all
his high-toned Republican officeholders are arter is the
chance to get rich off from the people’s money. Ile do it
if it costs me a divorce suit to do it.
.bn 110.png
.pn +1
That nite Jobe went to bed fust. When I went in I
found that he had got in with his head to the foot. He
thought it would spite me, I spose. But it dident. I
laffed and jist stood there and looked at him, and while I
was a lookin I couldent help thinkin how much he represented
his party on the money question. You know how
they use to claim that they was the party what believed in
lots of greenback money, and how they pinted with pride
to the great amount of greenbacks they had given the
people to do bizness with. Now they are turned end
about, jist like Jobe. Now they claim they are for “gold
only,” that “lots of greenbacks haint good for the people.”
They are a sayin now agin silver and paper money jist
what Vallandingham and his likes said about greenbacks.
But then this is about the top fellers. So I wont discuss
this any more until I git the facts about them bottom
fellers—about the county commissioners and auditor and
prosecutin attorney and Beriar Wilkins, and lots of sich
things that is done and bein done all over this country.
Ile git enough to drive Jobe clear under the bed, if I can
hold him down to listen to it.
Jobe says he is a goin to git the facts agin the Dimicrats
if he has to subscribe for every Republican noosepaper in
the county. Now I dont think he need to go to all that
expense, because so fur as I can see they are all alike and
run for the same purpose—for the purpose of keepin the
Republican voters in line.
.bn 111.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XVIII. | THE SPITTOONS.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
COULD you tell a feller where he could borrow a little
money to pay taxes with? Here it is June, and
taxes are due agin—bridge taxes and all—and Jobe
lacks $22.69 of havin enough to pay his share.
Taxes seem to stay up better than anything else. They
really seem to be on the rise.
I wonder if a feller could borrow that much money from
them county commissioners? They git their pay when
they sell a bridge to the taxpayers—cut-worms or no cut-worms.
Them commissioners ort a have a little spare change by
them, when they git pay from the people of the county for
buyin bridges and pay from the bridge companies for sellin
bridges.
Ime a hearin a good deal about that bridge bizness.
About them iron tubes that we paid the same for as stone
butments would a cost, and that sellin out of the Trenton
bridge in pieces privately, so that it would bring more
“commission,” and of them contractors that come down
here and got paid for not biddin on another job, and all
them things, and Ime a layin low for Jobe so that the next
time he lites into me Ile pulverize him.
He’s been quiet for a day or two. He’s been out a tryin
to borrow tax money, workin on the “gold basis,” as it
were.
He ginerally is quiet durin tryin times. He dont know
what minit he may need my help.
.bn 112.png
.pn +1
This tax bizness is a deep question, and seems to be a
gittin deeper. How does it come that a feller what has a
farm, and owes for it, has to pay the same tax as he would
if he had it all paid for?
Now, here is Jobe and me. We have this farm, that
haint worth more nor $2,500; we owe $1,800 gold mortgage
on it. So we own $700 of its worth, and the banker
what holds the mortgage owns the balance. We have to
pay $51.80 a year tax on it. That is, we pay $51.80 tax on
$700 we own. Haint that over seven per cent. tax on all
we are worth? Now, if the banker is permitted to deduct
his debts from his tax list, and the storekeeper and manufacturer
is allowed to deduct their debts from their tax
list, why haint the law-makers what Jobe and his likes has
been electin to office made laws to allow the farmer to
deduct his debts from his tax list? Why haint they, I say?
Haint a voter what farms for a livin jist as good a citizen,
jist as much entitled to the benefit of laws as the fellers
are what lends money for a livin, or what sells store goods,
or gits rich by makin things to sell to the farmers and sich?
If we only had to pay taxes on what we have paid on this
farm, on what we have over our debts, we wouldent have
to borrow any tax money this June. If anybody but them
crazy Populists would offer to make sich a law, I believe I
could git Jobe to vote for it. But them Populists are
pizen to Jobe.
He is so swelled up and elated over the county offices
bein filled with Republican officeseekers instid of Dimicrats,
that I dont suppose he will ever vote any other
ticket, even if doin so would put him out of debt or bring
down taxes and interest and sich.
The second nite arter the cold weather drove Jobe in
from the haymow to the comfortable bed of his lawful wife,
I had a experience Ile never forgit.
.bn 113.png
.bn 114.png
.pn +2
.il id=i113 fn=i-113.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Jobe was on his knees in the middle of the bed.”
We had gone to bed about the usual hour, and as neither
was very sleepy we fell to talkin.
I had tried to avoid anything of a perlitical natur since
that tryin mornin in the kitchen, and Jobe had got along
with givin me a slur now and then.
Well, arter we had laid there some time we got onto the
question of taxes, and I onthoughtedly said:
“Jobe, why couldent there be a law to make interest
less and taxes lower?
“What good does it do you and your likes to vote the
same party ticket year arter year, when you see they dont
do anything to make things easier for you—when you
know, or ort a know, that the men what runs your party
only work for the money they can git out of the taxes you
pay?
“What difference is it to you what party has the offices?
Better laws is what you ort a look to.
“What satisfaction is it to you to have the Republicans
in, anyhow?”
I hadent that last question out of my mouth until Jobe
was up on his knees in the middle of the bed, layin it off
with both hands. The moon shinin in through the winder
made him look like a ghost, with his long gray whiskers
and nothin on but his shirt.
.il id=i115 fn=i-115.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=r
.ca “A strait, influential, leadin Republican officeholder.”
“Satisfaction! satisfaction!” says he, loud and quick.
“Betsy Gaskins, for forty odd years Ive been goin to that
air court-house and have had to pay my taxes to Dimicrats—copperheads,
if you please, rebels!—and do you
suppose its no satisfaction for me to go there now and see
a Republican in every office? Betsy, it was the happiest
day of my life when George Sharp told me that the last
office in that air court-house was filled by a Republican.
Even the janitor, Betsy, is a Republican. Yes, sir, the
janitor is a prominent Republican. Satisfaction! Do you
.bn 115.png
.pn +1
suppose it is no satisfaction
for me to go into that court-house
and see a influential
Republican cleanin them big
spittoons and a sweepin of
that stone floor? Do you
suppose that when I spit in
one of them large vessels, or
throw a chaw of terbacker in
one of them, that it does not
give me more satisfaction to
know that that terbacker
what has been in the mouth
of Jobe Gaskins will be
handled and wiped out of
that spittoon by a prominent,
influential Republican
than if a copperhead Dimicrat
was to do it? Satisfaction! Betsy, you women dont
know what real perlitical satisfaction and enjoyment is—thats
one reason you haint got sense enough to vote.
“Do you suppose that Ive been a votin the Republican
ticket all these years for nothin? No, sir.
“If the Republicans hadent a turned out the Dimicrat
what was janitor, and appinted a tried and true Republican
in his place, I wouldent a gone to the next election.
Jist to think of all them court-house offices bein filled by
Republicans—janitor and all—is enough to make any true
Republican farmer rejoice.”
Durin all this time I jist laid there and let him talk.
Finally he laid down, and, thinkin I was asleep, he muttered
a few things to himself and went to sleep too.
.il id=i116 fn=i-116.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “Lots of fellows just like him.”
Poor Jobe! If I had a knode it would be sich great
enjoyment to him and his likes to knock the Dimicrats out
.bn 116.png
.pn +1
of that court-house,
Ide a been
in favor of it long
ago. I would,
though Ime a
Dimicrat.
Jobe says you
can find lots of
fellers, jist like
him, standin
around the court-house
nowdays,
chawin terbacker
and talkin polerticks,
jist to git
to spit in them
big spittoons and
to have the satisfaction
of knowin that it will be cleaned out by a strait,
influential, leadin Republican officeholder.
Well, all Ive got to say is to let them enjoy their
satisfaction while they can, for that is about all they git
for the taxes they pay and the vote they vote and have
been a votin for years.
Ime glad they have spittoons in that court-house. If
they hadent, what would Jobe and his likes git for votin the
strait ticket? What would they git, I say?
Susan Swaller is a goin over into Harrison County next
week to visit her aunt, and Ime a goin along.
While Ime over there Ime a goin to find out more about
the county commissioners of our county offerin to sell that
county a bridge for much less money than they charged
.bn 117.png
.pn +1
this county for the same kind of a bridge. If what I hear
is true, Ile give Jobe names and dates and prices that
will make him stand clear up in bed next time, moonlite
or no moonlite, shirt or no shirt.
.il fn=i-117.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 118.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XIX. | A BIG-HEADED MAN.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE and me are livin under a flag of truce. I went
down into the adjoinin county to find out which one
of our county commissioners is the bridge agent, and
by what I could hear it was Commissioner Westholt what
was down there, but it seems they are all agents or kind a
pardners in the “commission” bizness.
When I got home I up and told Jobe that it was one of
the Republican commissioners—givin his name. Jobe he
flew up and claimed he knew better; that Commissioner
Westholt is a Dimicrat, for he had been inquirin too.
Jobe said that it was purty hard to find anything out
about it, as all the court-house fellers thought it would be
better not to let it git out.
Jobe says they told him that it wasent anything onusual
for a county officer to make all he could while he had a
chance, and as a of $400 or $500 on a bridge was
only a little thing to each tax-payer, they hadent ort to
know much about it, as they might git to talkin about it and
hurt the party.
And Jobe says they told him on the quiet that the Dimicrat
commissioner was the bridge agent now, but jist as
soon as his time was out a Republican would come in, and
a commissioner of his own party would git the job of
lookin arter the bridge company’s interests in this county.
This seemed to satisfy Jobe, so he proposed to me that
if I would say nothin more about it he wouldent until they
can git a full board of Republicans in.
.bn 119.png
.pn +1
.il id=i119 fn=i-119.jpg w=35% ew=35% align=r
.ca “Jobe he flew up.”
And as there seems to be some
doubt as to which one is agent
now, that Dimicrat or one of the
Republicans, I agreed to postpone
further argament on the subject
until that pint was settled.
I would like to know which one
is it now.
If it is the Republican, and not
the Dimicrat, Jobe will ketch it.
If it is the Dimicrat, and not a
Republican, I expect Ile have to
lay low.
But let it be Republican or
Dimicrat, either or both, it seems
to me that a man must have a big
head for bizness that is able to be
the buyer and seller of a thing at
the same time. It seems to me
he would git “mixed in the deal.”
As county commissioner he takes an oath to buy the
things for the county as cheap as he can git them. As
agent of the bridge company he would want to sell a
bridge for as high price as possible, so that his commission
would be big.
Wouldent you like to see him a argyin with himself, fust
as buyer, then as salesman?
But then, Jobe says, “they work the office for all there
is in it.”
Now, if Mistur Republican or Dimicrat, as the case may
be, as county commissioner, gits his salary from the taxpayers,
whether he buys a bridge at a high figger or a low
figger, dont you suppose he lets himself, as bridge agent,
work himself, as county commissioner, for a little bigger
.bn 120.png
.pn +1
price for a bridge than he would let himself, as county
commissioner, be worked for if somebody else was bridge
agent, especially when the pay for sellin bridges depends
on the price you sell them for?
I cant see what Jobe and his likes expect to git out of
that way of runnin bizness.
But then there are the spittoons.
.il id=i120 fn=i-120.jpg w=45% ew=45%
.ca “It wasent anything onusual for a county officer to make all he could.”
.bn 121.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XX. | “BONDS SELL WELL.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE haint got that tax money yit. Times seem awful
hard. But Jobe says they jist seem that way; they
haint hard at all. “Times are never hard under a
gold basis,” Jobe says.
Jobe was a argyin last nite that “times is better than
they was jist arter the war.”
.il id=i121 fn=i-121.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as bonds sells well?’”
Says he: “Hadent we all ort to be satisfied so long as
bonds sells well?”
Now, I dont know. Maybe we had.
.il id=i122 fn=i-122.jpg w=40% ew=40% align=l
.ca “‘Times are never hard under a gold basis,’ Jobe says.”
But Jobe and me have been a keepin house for nigh onto
thirty-six years, and of all the crops we have raised to try to
make a livin at, Ive never seen Jobe plant a single government
bond at seed-time nor harvest one at harvest time;
so whether government bonds bring high prices or low,
good prices or bad, I cant see what benefit it is to Jobe and
his likes so long as they haint got any to sell. And if government
.bn 122.png
.pn +1
bonds are like
bridge bonds, I think the
lower they are, and the
fewer of them that are
sold, the better it will be
for him and his likes.
I guess it is really so
that them iron tubes
under the Dover bridge
cost the taxpayers of this
county jist what stone
butments would a cost.
I hear the contract was
fust let for stone butments,
and then the same
contractors persuaded
the county commissioners,
“by word of mouth
or otherwise,” to let them
put in them little iron
tubes, and was paid the
same pay as if they had
put in stone butments.
They dont do things
that way down in Pennsylvania.
My aunt Jane’s
son Charles is a workin
down there. He sent me a paper from his town, and
here is the way they do it down in that State:
.pm start_quote
.ce
“Court Wouldn’t Release Them.
“Hollidaysburg, Pa., June 24.—The Blair County Court,
this afternoon, declined to order the release from custody
of County Commissioners John Hurd and James Funk on
a writ of habeas corpus. The accused officials were required
.bn 123.png
.pn +1
to furnish bail in three different prosecutions for malfeasance
in office. The grand jury reported to court this afternoon
that the two commissioners had unlawfully let two important
bridge contracts to the Groton Bridge Company at a
loss to the county of $1,490. The jury requested that the
court interpose its power to prevent such loss.”
.pm end_quote
You notice that it would be dangerful for county commissioners
to let a bridge contract, like the Trenton bridge,
contrary to law, without advertisin, if they were down in
that State.
Jobe hasent time to discuss this bridge question now,
nor wont have till arter tax-borrowin time is over. He is
bizzy.
.il fn=i-068.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 124.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXI. | THE SERMON.
.sp 2
.dc 0.2 0.4
I GUESS Jobe and me are goners. Jobe is nearly
broken-hearted, and I feel kind a faint like. We will
have to go to hell. Our preacher says so.
Last Sunday Jobe wanted me to go to meetin. I said
Ide go. So I jist put on that hat I got from Jane Summers,
and the blue cambric dress I have wore now for
some three years, and we hitched poor old crippled Tom
to the spring wagon and we went.
We tied Tom under a shade tree jist outside of town
and walked in.
They was singin when we got there. As we walked up
the ile of that big Methodist church, crowded full of
leadin men and women, they pinted and whispered and
snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s linen coat, with a
muslin patch on the sleeve, till I was really ashamed of
some of them. High-toned people do sometimes act so
silly that its shockin.
Well, the preacher took a hard text to preach from.
It was about Jesus tellin a young feller “to go sell all
he had and give it to the poor.”
I thought the preacher had his foot in it the minit he
read that text.
But then he got out of it in a way that cast a gloom over
Jobe and me. He went on to explain that Jesus dident
mean what he said; that he was jist a jokin with the feller.
He said Jesus wanted to make a preacher out of the
young man, and he told him that jist to try him; but when
.bn 125.png
.pn +1
he told him to do that the young feller went off sorry and
dident go to preachin.
.il id=i125 fn=i-125.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “They whispered and snickered at my straw hat and Jobe’s linen coat.”
I jist thought if that was what Jesus intended to do and
why he told him that, Jesus was a poor judge of timber to
make a preacher out of.C
.il id=i126 fn=i-126.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca “He said the rich all belong to church.”
Then the preacher went on to show that the young feller
Jesus failed to make a preacher out of was the only one
he meant should give anything to the poor; that he dident
mean anybody in that Methodist meetin-house; that they
and everybody else could git all they could and keep all
.bn 126.png
.pn +1
they can git; that the
more they git and the
less they give to the
poor the surer they
would be of gittin to
heaven.
He said the rich all
belong to church and
were good; that that
was the reason they
were rich—because
God loved them and
prospered them; that
God had made them
his bankers, and they
were his bankers.
Well, when he said
all that I jist felt gone
like.
I looked at Jobe,
and he was as pale as
a ghost. He was
skeert.
We both felt that
we were doomed to eternal torment, because the Lord
knows he hasent prospered us.
We are old and poor. If riches is evidence that God
favors the rich, and that they are good, and that He will
take them to heaven because they are rich, to be poor
is a sign that God does not favor the poor, and that they
are bad and will go to hell.
We have worked hard, Jobe and me.
We have plowed and sowed and rept; we have labored
in sunshine and in rain; we have paid interest on interest,
.bn 127.png
.pn +1
taxes on taxes; we have caught bushels of pertater bugs and
killed thousands of cut-worms, tryin to git rich and thus
gain the favor of the church and reach the kingdom of
heaven.
We have picked the lice from spring calves and buried
many a sheep that died of the rot, tryin to gain the praises
of the preachers and the world and git on equal footin, in
the race for eternal bliss, with the fellers who live on
interest and rent and taxes and dividends and sich, and in
all our efforts we have failed. So now in our old age, with
late frosts in the spring and airly frosts in the fall, with
drouth when it ort to be wet, and wet when it ort to be
dry, I can see no chance to gain the praises of the church
and the necessary qualification for God’s favor this late in
our lives.
Feelin this way, I can see nothin for us to do but to
work day and nite to pay interest and taxes, so as to help
the money-lenders, monopolists and officeholders git there.
Its bad, but I suppose it must be that way. The
preacher knows.
Jobe has been buildin great hopes on havin it easier in
the hereafter. His hopes are blasted. It looks now as
though he would not have the pleasure of even votin the
strait ticket in the great beyond.
Poor Jobe! Its a great disappintment to him.
But whats to be done?
He will jist have to submit. He cant help it.
.bn 128.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXII. | JOBE HELPING TO RAISE THE OFFICERS’ SALARIES.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE has been a helpin Hen Minick cut wheat and
harvest for a week past, and the poor man has big
blisters in his hand and cracks and sores on his fingers
that jist keep me busy a pickin and a salvin and a doctorin.
And he is that stiff he can hardly walk.
He has been workin to git money to pay taxes with.
When he got done Hen told him he would have to wait
till arter thrashin time for the $7.50 he owes him for
helpin.
Jobe told him he would have to have it right away, as
his taxes was past due, and if he dident pay them soon
they would attach a penalty to them. Hen said he was
sorry, but he dident have a dollar, nor haint had for
weeks.
Jobe come home discouraged like.
How can he git it from Hen when Hen haint got it?
If Jobe sues him, Hen will git mad and git somebody
else to do his harvestin next time.
Besides, Hen is honest and would pay if he had it. He
is a good nabor and worth it, but Hen says times is hard
and money scarce.
.il id=i129 fn=i-129.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca Harvesting.
.il id=i130 fn=i-130.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca “I was puttin salve on Jobe’s hands.”
When I was a puttin salve on Jobe’s hands last nite I
jist thought:
“Here is the same hand that has been puttin tickets in
the box for thirty years or more to help elect the law-makers
who made laws to lend money to national bankers
at one per cent.; laws to issue bonds to git the paper
.bn 129.png
.bn 130.png
.pn +2
money of the country
to burn; laws to demonitize
silver; laws
to make money scarce
and times hard; laws
to enable the rich to
live off the poor. And
here that hand is sore
and full of cracks and
pain—yes, the same
hand that has helped
to elect the county
officers of this county—full
of blisters and
scabs, made so a
workin to git money
to help pay them
officeholders their
salaries—salaries of thousands of dollars a year—and they
ready to add to that tax and sell our home in order to
git them big salaries if Jobe dident pay his sheer.”
There is the probate judge, who gits $5,300 a year; and
the county clerk, who gits $5,500; and the recorder, who
gits $3,600; and the sheriff, who gits $3,900; and the
treasurer, who gits $3,400; and the auditor, who gits
$3,500; and the prosecutin attorney, who gits $1,600;
and the county commissioners, who git $1,400 apiece.
And they git it from Jobe and his likes, who dont make
$500 a year, even when seasons are favorable and crops
good. And they are gittin of them big salaries by the
votes of Jobe and his likes, who has them to pay—yes, by
the votes of the very fellers who are a blisterin their hands
and a rubbin salve and a walkin stiff to pay them.
Now if them salaries were reduced to what them same
.bn 131.png
.pn +1
men would be willin to work for at anything else—if them
salaries were reduced to $600 for commissioners and $1,500
for probate judge, auditor and sich, I wonder if it wouldent
take less blisters and briars and cracks and backaches to
pay them to do the people’s work.
.il id=i131 fn=i-131.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca The hand that voted “the strait ticket.”
Any of them would be willin to do the same work for
them figgers, if the people would git together and, instid
of votin for officeseekers, vote for men who would make a
law to only pay sich figgers for public work.
Is it any wonder they want to hold Jobe and his likes in
line?
All Ive got to say is: If Jobe and his likes would rather
have sore hands and stiff backs, if they would rather rub
salve and pick briars than to quit votin the “strait ticket,”
let them have them. Let them pick and rub.
This strait ticket bizness is increasin the demand for St.
Jacob’s oil and Green Mountain salve and sich alarminly.
But as they are great on the “home market” scheme, I
suppose they are satisfied, and I ort to be.
.bn 132.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXIII. | PLAN TO RELIEVE THE RICH OF AN EXPENSE.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
ON the fust page of last Tuesday’s Plain Dealer there
is a article that has caused me to have a great deal
of thought.
It is about Captain Fred W. Lawrence of Company B,
of the Standin Army of Ohio, a writin to the coal operators,
and railroad officers, and monopolists, and bankers,
and rich speculators of Cleveland, askin them to give
somethin toward supportin said army.
He says he wants to git “good men in the militia—men
who can be depended on to do their duty in case of labor
trouble.”
Now, Fred dont want any common scrubs in his company.
He needs money to hire the kind of men he wants—“men
who will do their duty in case of labor trouble.”
Now what is the “duty” of sich men?
What does Fred want them to do to the “laborin
people”?
Haint it the “duty” of good men belongin to a army,
like Fred, to shoot?
Judge Hutchins and Judge Blandin and some of the
other polerticians say Fred hadent ort to a writ that letter,
or, if he wanted to write it, he hadent ort to a writ it in
that way, because now it is out what the militia is for.
The militia is to shoot laborin men with.
They are afraid some of the laborin people will begin to
ask themselves what they are votin the strait ticket for.
.il id=i133 fn=i-133.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “Some good men in case of labor trouble.”
Fred says he jist copied that letter from the ones his
.bn 133.png
.bn 134.png
.pn +2
predecessors in office have been sendin out to these rich
people for years.
Now what is botherin me is how to save them coal operators,
and railroad owners, and monopolists, and rich stockholders
in monopolies, from havin to pay toward sich things
as “keepin up the militia.”
They are leadin citizens and own the coal fields, and
railroads, and banks, and trusts, and sich. They are rich,
and everything should be done to make it easy for them to
git along in the world without trouble.
If there were no laborin men there wouldent be any need
of “keepin up the militia.”
So if the militia is to be used only to quiet the people
who labor, the best thing I know of is to get rid of the
laborin people.
They seem to be a kind of unwelcome creatures in this
world anyhow.
If we can get rid of them this will be a fine country.
The rich can live in peace and the militia fellers can go to
doin somethin useful.
Now there is several good ways to git rid of the people
who work for a livin.
The best and surest way is to kill them, and now is the
time to do it, when land is cheap. The buryin wont cost
so much now as it would if we had more money and land
was higher.
But I dont believe in shootin.
They ort to be killed in some nice, quiet way, in a way
that wont cripple them up as militia shootin might.
I hate to see crippled poor people; it makes me feel
sorry for them.
The thing to do is to git a great lot of them together in
a bunch, then do it quick and sure.
The best way I know of is to offer a great feast of bread
.bn 135.png
.pn +1
and “real cow butter,” with three or four side dishes, and
invite all to come and feast their fill.
Then when they are all at a great feast, eatin and enjoyin
theirselves, like the rich people do, have an electric arrangement
fixed so the current could be turned on the whole
crowd at once, and in twelve seconds they would all be
stone dead.
They would die with a smile on their faces, jist like as if
they had allus sot at the table of plenty and enjoyed theirselves.
The big Methodist church in town would be a
good place to have the feast and do the killin.
Then arter the current was turned off all we would have
to do would be to load their dead bodies in wagons and
haul them off and bury them in some cheap piece of ground
and let the militia disband.
Dont you see, in that way we would dispose of the old
and young alike—the little children as well as the grown
up men and women. I know some of the little children
are pretty. Some even have nice yaller, curly hair, big
blue eyes and red cheeks, and love one another. Ive heern
of them clingin to the necks of their fathers and mothers
with love, even when hungry. But we will have to kill the
little things, or they will grow up to annoy the rich, jist as
their fathers and mothers annoy them now.
Of course, I know drownin is a easy death, and pizenin
and all sich, but them are old-fashioned ways. Some of
them might escape if we undertook to do it them ways.
This electricity bizness is a grand thing, and is sure
death if worked right.
Of course, other counties could do it whichever way
they think best, but here in Tuscarawas County, with the
big Methodist church and all and plenty of laborin people,
electricity is the thing to use.
.il id=i136 fn=i-136.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “Some of the little children are pretty.”
We might have two or three killins in this county. Fust
.bn 136.png
.pn +1
we could give a feast
to all the rollin mill
men and rail workers;
then to all the
coal miners; then
to all the carpenters,
and stone
masons, and day
laborers, and sich,
and by not lettin any
escape, one kind
wouldent git onto
what was bein done
until we had them
enclosed and the
current turned on.
Ive been a talkin
to Jobe about it, and
he says that jist
whatever the Republican
party says
he’ll agree to; but
he declares he dont
want to go to town on the day of the killin.
I dont know why he doesent want to go. It may be he
is afraid he will git inside, or it may be he doesent want to
look upon the faces of those dead poor people, whose toil
has created all the wealth the rich people own who now
wants them killed.
Now, Mistur Editure, if you will talk this scheme up
among the rich people of the nation, and especially of
Ohio, I think you can git them to see that it would be
much cheaper than their payin each year to keep a standin
army, and it would be more kind to the laborin people
.bn 137.png
.pn +1
than to shoot them through the head when they are hungry,
or make them cry with pain by cripplin them all up with
big, heavy Winchester bullets.
Besides, think of the moanin and grief and heartaches
and tears it would save the wives and children if they are
killed at the same time their husbands and fathers are.
Shootin down men folks allers makes someone cry, and
I hate to hear it even if it is poor women and little poor
children.
And shootin seems to be sich a slow way of gittin rid of
them.
Why, down in New York they use electricity to kill
murderers with. They wouldent think of standin off and
shootin even murderers down there. They use electricity
because it is quicker and surer death, and more refined,
and I know that the people of Ohio who labor for a livin
haint any worse or deservin of more cruel treatment than
murderers are in New York.
Hopin the rich will be merciful to the poor as long as
they let them live on their land and in their country, I am
yours for electricity and agin the militia.
.il fn=i-048.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 138.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXIV. | THEM PROMISES.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE took what hay he could spare to town yisterday
and sold it to Billot, the miller. He dident git any
money. He took Billot’s note, due ten days before
our semi-annual interest falls due on our mortgage.
Jobe says he would rather have Billot’s note than the
money. He says it haint in style to pay cash durin a gold
basis.
.il id=i138 fn=i-138.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Jobe took what hay he could spare.”
Our hay crop wasent nothin to brag on this year. We
got $19 worth of hay off from five acres of medder, and a
little doodle for old Tom.
Now, I haint a goin to complain any more till arter fall
election, but when Jobe come home and told me that $19
was all he got for his hay, and that what he did git would
have to go for interest, I jist thought that it would not be
so hard to give what you raise to somebody else if you got
anything to show for it when you did give.
But arter we sell our hay and thirty bushels of wheat
that Billot said he would take at 60 cents a bushel, and
.bn 139.png
.pn +1
the Lord only knows
what else, to pay that
$63 interest in October,
we will still owe jist as
much as we did before.
.il id=i139 fn=i-139.jpg w=55% ew=55% align=r
.ca “They are kept so busy legislatin.”
Now, if my dream had
been true, and we had
borrowed that $1,800
from the county treasurer
at only two per
cent., instid of the
banker at seven per
cent., our semi-annual
interest would a bin only
$18 instid of $63.
With $63, then, we
could have paid the $18
interest to the county
and $45 on the mortgage—and
that would be
encouragin.
I wonder when the
Dimicratic, or Republican
party either, or
both, will begin to do
somethin to make it easy
for people to buy homes, and pay for them, by makin it
easy for people to borrow money when they need it, by
reducin interest and taxes and sich.
Every election since Jobe and me was married, fust one
party and then the other has been promisin to do somethin
to help the people git along in the world, but I declare to
goodness I have nearly got discouraged waitin for them to
do it.
.bn 140.png
.pn +1
They seem to be so forgetful arter election. I guess
they are kept so busy legislatin and makin laws to help
the rich that they jist dont have time to do anything for
the poor.
By the time the law-makers git all the laws that the
railroad-owners and street-car companies and bridge companies
and bankers and bondholders and monopolists and
other milionairs want, they haint got any time to look
arter the farmers and mechanics and merchants and mill-hands
and coal miners and sich; so they jist let the people’s
bizness go, until the next election, to make promises on.
And as the voters seem willin to wait, jist so they git to vote
the strait ticket, I guess I will have to do so too.
.il fn=i-064.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 141.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXV. | JOBE EXCITED OVER A NOMINATION.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THIS mornin while I was settin a churnin and
thinkin, thinkin how high the monopoly men and
the money-lenders and the officeholders live, and
how low the farmers and mechanics and day laborers live,
and wonderin why some live high and some low, Jobe
come a stormin in at the kitchen door, so suddint like that
it skeert me.
Says he: “Betsy, give me my overhalls, quick, and put
up that churnin and come out and help me build a higher
fence around the medder.”
And while he was a sayin it he was a jerkin skirts and
pettycoats and sich like down from the nails in the wall
onto the floor, a huntin them overhalls.
“Why, Jobe,” says I, “what on airth is the matter?
What do you want more fence around the medder for?”
“To save the grass, Betsy, to save the grass,” says he.
“What would you suppose Ide want more fence around the
medder for? Hurry up, quit that churnin and git me them
overhalls, or he will have half the grass stomped out before
we git a rail up.”
I stopped churnin, and, lookin him strait in the face,
says I:
“Jobe Gaskins, are you crazy? What are you talkin
about anyhow?”
.il id=i142 fn=i-142.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “A huntin them overhalls.”
“What am I talkin about?” says he. “What am I talkin
about? Betsy, Ime talkin about Coxey—Coxey! Theyve
went and nominated him for governor, and he’ll stomp all
.bn 142.png
.pn +1
the grass out of the
State of Ohio if the
fences haint built
higher and stronger.
“You can see now
what them Populists
are a bringin us to.
“You can see now
what you git for
readin them Populist
books and papers.
“You git to carry
rails, and set stakes,
and put on riders,
and——”
I had sot down
and went to churnin.
When Jobe heerd
the sound of that
dasher he stopped huntin for them overhalls, and, turnin to
me with fire in his eyes, says, says he:
“Haint you a goin to help build that fence?”
I stopped churnin, and, turnin round facin him, with my
hands on my knees, says I:
.il id=i143 fn=i-143.jpg w=70% ew=70% align=r
.ca “I had sot down and went to churnin.”
“Jobe Gaskins, if you and your likes would begin to
build up your common sense and good judgment with sich
ideas as Coxey’s ‘county bonds without interest,’ and
Coxey’s plan of makin roads and givin work to idle men
like yourself—I say, if you and your likes would build up
your common sense with some sich ideas instid of votin
the strait ticket with your eyes shet, you wouldent have to
lose so much time in the future a borrowin interest money
and workin to pay taxes. Yes, if you and your likes had
.bn 143.png
.pn +1
been a votin for
some sich ideas
for years past
instid of votin
for a lot of office-seekin
canderdates
(who never
had a idea), you
wouldent be $1,800
in debt to-day;
you wouldent
be a sellin
wheat for sixty
cents a bushel
and wool for fifteen
cents a
pound; you
wouldent be a
givin all you
raise every year
for interest and
taxes.
“So my advice
to you, Jobe
Gaskins, is for
you and your likes to open gaps in your wall of prejudice
and let Coxey and his ideas in, instid of buildin higher
fences around your medders to keep him out.
“Yes, put up a notice invitin Mr. Coxey to come in and
plant his ideas all over your field, and tromp them in if
need be.
“Do this, and I think when you go to vote hereafter you
will see crops a growin you haint seen before.”
Jobe had been sidelin toward the door while I was
.bn 144.png
.pn +1
speakin, and, reachin it, he went out a mutterin somethin
about dyin before he would change; that he wouldent
let Coxey into his medder if it would cause enough hay to
grow next year to pay off the $1,800 mortgage that’s on
our farm.
I went on a finishin my churnin so as to have the butter
to trade for some groceries when the huckster comes
around. It was lovely butter. I was tempted to use some
of it for dinner, but dident dare, for fear I wouldent have
enough left to git what we actually need.
.il fn=i-021.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 145.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXVI. | THE BLOOMERS.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
I MADE me a pair of Dimicratic bloomers day before
yisterday, and Jobe he is mad. Ive been a waitin to
make me a pair all summer, but put off doin so till
arter the Dimicratic State convention. As soon as I heerd
from that convention I sot to work and made them.
I made one leg and the waist out of a pair of Jobe’s old
black pants, and the other leg I made out of a sheet.
The black leg is to represent the polerticians and
schemers what wants a “gold basis,” and the white leg is
for the Dimicratic voters what wants silver for money jist
like we use to have years ago when times were good.
I made the black leg and waist for the right side, because
it seems that the fellers what it stands for is the strongest,
and the white leg is for the “left” side.
When I was a soin that white leg to the black leg, every
now and then a stitch would break out of the white leg,
jist as though that white leg dident want to be hitched
onto that “black leg” side, and I jist thought it would be
a wonder if the white leg side of them bloomers dident
split clear off from the “black leg” side before election day.
But by a good deal of whippin and stitchin I got them
together and put them on to go out and pick pertater bugs.
.il id=i146 fn=i-146.jpg w=55% ew=55% align=l
.ca “The Dimicratic bloomers.”
Jobe he was away, and I was as busy as I could be
knockin bugs into an old tomato can, bent over like, when
Jobe come up to the gate and hollered:
“Hello, mistur!”
I stopped and turned towards him and says, says I:
.bn 146.png
.pn +1
“I thank you, Jobe
Gaskins; Ime no ‘mistur.’”
Well, you ort a seen
the look on that man’s
face.
He turned pale,
opened his eyes skeert
like, stepped back and
says:
“Why, Betsy, what
air you out here for
with your clothes off?”
That made me mad.
Says I:
“Mistur Gaskins, I
thank you for none of
your insults. If you
had any sense you
would know that I am
dressed in the latest
fashion.”
Then I explained
to him that bloomers
were all the go, and that I had made mine arter the style of my
party—arter the Dimicratic State platform of Ohio and
the Dimicratic county platform of Tuscarawas County—one
gold, the other silver. Says I:
“Dont you see, Jobe, in this garb we ketch em a comin
and we ketch em a goin.”
Says he: “Betsy, do you intend to wear them things
all fall?”
“I do,” says I.
.bn 147.png
.bn 148.png
.pn +2
.il id=i147 fn=i-147.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “Hello, mistur!”
He studied a minit. Then,
lookin at me determined like,
says he:
.il id=i148 fn=i-148.jpg w=30% ew=30% align=l
.ca “‘We ketch em a comin an we ketch em a goin.’”
“You needent look for me home
to-nite.”
And off he started.
As he went he kept lookin, fust
back at me, then down at his pants.
Whether or not he was a thinkin
that his pants with their patches
represented the platform of his
“dear old Republican party” I
cant say. But I jist thought: “If
they dont represent his party
platform, they are a good standin
advertisement of the greenbacks
that have been burnt, and the
bonds that have been issued, and
silver that has been demonitized
by them within the last thirty
years.”
Jobe is gone, the Lord only
knows where, but Ive made up
my mind to truly represent the
divided principles of Dimocracy as it now stands, if doin
so elects Coxey the next governor of Ohio and makes me
a grass widder for life. Feelin that way, I am yours in
bloomers.
.bn 149.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXVII. | “THEM POPULISTS.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
IME in trouble. Them Dimicratic bloomers seem bound
to split asunder, or worse. Some days there is only
a stitch or two breaks out; other days they rip half
the length of my arm.
Every time I think of the high interest we are payin and
have been a payin for these many years, of the number of
times we have changed officers from Dimicrats to Republicans,
then from Republicans to Dimicrats, back and
forth, time and agin, without any change except for the
worse—every time that I think in all these years not one
Dimicrat or Republican officeseeker or polertician has riz
up in Congress and demanded that the law that permits
interest and foreclosin and sich be abolished, a stitch or
two lets go. Yes, neither Dimicrat or Republican has
ever proposed to abolish interest or in any way make it
easier for the hard-workin poor people to git homes and
pay for them. And the more I think of what they did do
that they oughtent a done, and what they haint done that
they ort a done, the more I wonder that there are enough
men left of either of them, or, for that matter, of both, to
hold a county convention.
But then I spose its because they are born that way.
But talkin of my gold and silver bloomers, nothin seems
to strain them so much or make as long rips in them as a
listenin to them Populists explainin Coxey’s “Good Roads
Bill” and them bonds what wont draw any interest. When
I see in my mind people a needin work and a gittin it—when
.bn 150.png
.pn +1
I can see how under that law Jobe wouldent have to
spend time a borrowin tax-money, but could work for it,
them bloomers keep a gittin more obstreperous all the time.
The other nite at our school-house they jist kept a rippin
and a rippin as speaker arter speaker went on a showin us
what we haint got that we ort to have; showin us how we
had been a throwin our votes away for these thirty years
or more; showin us how that votin for officeseekers and
polerticians and votin for good laws and good government
was two different things; showin us that while Jobe and
his likes has been a doin the votin, the officeseekers and
polerticians has been a makin the laws that takes from us
in taxes and interest what we raise, and that it seems that
we are willin to submit just so long as they will let us keep
on a votin for them.
I tell you its a goin to take a good deal of Brice’s senatorial
soin thread to hold these bloomers together until
election day; and arter election, sooner or later, I know
they will split. That white leg side hates the black leg
side worse nor pisen, and here and there all over the
white leg I notice strange-lookin spots the same color as
the clothes them Populists wear. And the spots are a
growin and I fear there will be no bloomer bizness when
them spots are big enough to rule that leg.
If it ever happens that all the people who have suffered
from the hard times that bad laws have brought them go
to flockin together, and votin for common, decent people
to make our laws, there will be a weepin and a wailin
among the high-toned rulin class. The people will quit
bein led around with a ring in their nose by the polerticians
and officeseekers jist like Dave Syke’s Durham bull. But
so long as one Dimicratic convention declares for gold and
the other for silver, I suppose Ile have to try to hold my
bloomers together.
.bn 151.png
.pn +1
Well, Jobe he come back last Saturday. He had been
gone for two weeks. When I seen him a comin up the
lane, I jist felt like I use to when I was a girl. He dident
say a word about my bloomers, but seemed pleased like to
see me. Before he got up to the porch he says: “Hello,
Betsy!” and when he got to me he shook hands and kissed
me (the fust time for nigh onto twenty years)—yes, sir,
kissed me, and me in bloomers—Dimicratic bloomers!—and
him a Republican. Somehow it seems the Republicans
do like us Dimicrats better than they use to. Maybe
its because we all hate them Populists so.
.il id=i151 fn=i-151.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “I seen him a comin up the lane.”
Well, arter Jobe had come in and got his supper and I
got my work done up, we went into the front room and sot
down; sot down to have a talk—to court like. I had to
begin the talkin. Says I:
“Jobe, where have you been for so long?”
“Well, Betsy,” says he, “Ive been around over the
country learnin all I could about them Populists. Do you
.bn 152.png
.pn +1
know, Betsy, that them Populists are jist made up of a lot
of farmers, and school teachers, and doctors, and store-keepers,
and railroad hands, and mill-workers, and coal-miners,
and carpenters, and stonemasons, and day
laborers and sich? Do you know that the lawyers, and
judges, and officeholders, and bondholders, and polerticians,
and monopolists, and bankers, and railroad officials,
and coal operators, and in fact nearly all the fust, high-toned
and leadin citizens of our country—all them that
dont work for a livin—them what are smart enough to live
without workin—all sich, they dont belong to them at all.”
Says I: “Is that so?”
“Yes,” says he, “it is. And now, Betsy, what do
them Populists expect to do? Do they expect to elect
farmers, and school teachers, and merchants, and
mechanics, and men what work for a livin, as officers?
“Do they expect to have men what haint got any more
sense than to work for a livin to make our laws?
“Do you think farmers have sense enough to know what
laws farmers need?
“Do you suppose school teachers has sense enough to
know anything about schools?
“Does merchants know anything about the store-keepin
bizness?
“Do you suppose mechanics and mill-men and miners
know anything about laborin? No. These men what do
all these things dont know anything about the things
they do.
“We want lawyers, and bankers, and railroad owners,
and monopolists, and speculators, and bondholders, and
mine-owners and sich as our law-makers. These are the
fellers what know all about farmin and teachin, and sellin
goods, and diggin coal, and buildin houses, and workin
mills, and makin things. Yes, Betsy, the fellers what do
.bn 153.png
.bn 154.png
.pn +2
them things haint got sense enough to know anything
about the things they do. Its the fellers what dont do
them that knows all about them.
.il id=i153 fn=i-153.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “The fust time for nigh onto twenty years.”
“Now, Betsy, this bein the case, if you are a goin to
wear bloomers, I want you to color that white leg black
and work for the strait ticket, so, if the Dimicrats git in,
we will have the same kind of men to make our laws as we
would have if the Republicans git in. We must unite agin
them Populists, Betsy, or the fust thing we know they will
be a gittin in and passin them laws what Coxey is wantin
passed, and then people what work for a livin will go to
askin $1.50 a day—and a gittin it. I repeat it, Betsy, we
must unite.”
I was silent.
Jobe, continerin, says:
“Betsy, think over this and lets us two old parties hereafter
live in peace and unite our efforts in keepin things
jist as they are, and not go to complainin of hard times of
our own makin.”
It bein late, and not wishin to git into a argament with
Jobe so soon arter his return to my boozum, I retired in
silence, but I cant jist say that I swaller all of Jobe’s logic
without peelin.
I think I shall defer the colorin of that white leg for a
few days, until we have discussed the subject further, and
until I have obtained the full consent of the white leg side
to the colorin act, remainin for the time ondecidedly yourn.
.bn 155.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXVIII. | TROUBLE WITH BILLOT.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THERE may be hopes of my bloomers survivin the
election, but I tell you it takes stitchin and soin to
do it. That State platform ort a been like the county
platform, or else the county platform like the State. Then
my bloomers would a been all alike—both legs made of the
same kind of stuff—and wouldent a needed this whippin
and stitchin and soin.
Jobe is in a fix agin.
Our interest falls due the 20th of October, and you
remember it is payable in gold.
.il id=i155 fn=i-155.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Billot jist laffed at him.”
Well, what do you think? Jobe sold his hay and wheat
to Billot, the miller, and took Billot’s note for $37.60,
and yisterday, when Jobe went to git his money, Billot
counted him out paper money for the amount.
Jobe told him that he wanted gold.
Billot jist laffed at him, and told Jobe that paper money
was legal tender in sich bizness as this.
.bn 156.png
.pn +1
.il id=i156 fn=i-156.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Jobe he got mad and called Billot a Populist.”
Jobe told him that we was on a “gold basis,” and that
he had to have gold to pay Banker Vinting his interest.
Billot said he had nothin to do with Jobe’s interest or
Banker Vinting; that Jobe could take that paper money
or nothin.
Jobe he got mad and called Billot a crank and a Populist
and all sich terrible names.
Then Billot ordered Jobe out of the mill, and Jobe went
off and sued Billot for $37.60 in gold.
Jobe says he’ll teach Billot that gold is the money of
this country. He says that Billot thinks that jist because
.bn 157.png
.pn +1
he is a old farmer that he haint good enough to pay
gold to.
Do you think Jobe will git the gold from Billot?
I will have to go to the trial next Monday and help Jobe
inforce the law agin Billot.
Jobe is a full-blooded American citizen and has voted
the strait ticket since he was twenty-one, and Billot will
learn by the time he gits done with that lawsuit that this
gold basis bizness is for the low-toned people as well as
the high-toned people.
The idea of paper money bein money!
.il id=i157 fn=i-157.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 158.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXIX. | “INFORCIN THE LAW AGIN BILLOT.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
WHEN we got to the trial, on Monday, we found our
witnesses and the witnesses and lawyers of Billot
a talkin, and a laffin, and a whisperin together.
They seemed to have some deep subject which Dimicrats
and Republicans were both in earnest about.
So I told Jobe to git around among them and listen, and
see if they wasent layin some plan to gain the lawsuit for
Billot.
Soon arter Jobe he come in a smilin and said:
“They haint a talkin about the lawsuit at all; they are
jist talkin together how to beat them Populists at the
election next month.”
Jobe seemed tickled. He said them lawyers and editors
are smart fellers, and when they git out among them
ignorant farmers and laborin class they’d soon settle all
that Populist argament.
“There wont be any change in this country,” says he,
“as long as them editors and lawyers can help it.”
He said they were goin at it purty soon, and from what
he could hear it dident make any difference to these leadin
fellers who beats, jist so them Populists dont git in.
Says I to Jobe:
.il id=i159 fn=i-159.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=r
.ca “Lawyers a talkin and a laffin.”
“They had better git at it, for if them Populists elects a
farmer for representative, a farmer for treasurer, a farmer
for commissioner, a coal miner for sheriff, and a mechanic
for infirmary director, and they all make good officers, the
.bn 159.png
.pn +1
chance of them
lawyers and town
polerticians holdin
all the offices
herearter will be
slim.”
“Why, sich
people was never
made to hold
office,” says Jobe.
The squire
come in at that
time and stopped
the argament between
Jobe and
me.
The case was
begun.
The fust witness for our side was Sam Moore, editure of
the Times. I questioned him.
Question. “What is your bizness, Mr. Moore?”
Answer. “Editure and polertician,” says he.
Q. “Do you believe in the free coinage of silver?”
A. “If we can git it inside the Dimicratic party, I do.
If we cannot, I do not.”
Q. “Mr. Moore, is a treasury certificate issued by the
United States treasury money?”
A. “Well, now, Betsy, I—I—that is, I am not prepared
to answer that question at this time. Cal
Bri——”
“Hold! hold!” cried Lawyer Jim Patrick, jumpin to his
feet. (Patrick is Billot’s lawyer.) Gittin red in the face
and pintin his finger at Sam, says he:
“Moore, we dont want Cal Brice’s name mentioned
.bn 160.png
.pn +1
durin this camp—cam—or, or lawsuit, I mean. You know
as well as I do that he can never git back to the Senate if
we let the people know that he is after the office.” Then,
turnin to the squire, says he:
“I object to the gentleman answerin the question.”
I argued that all we wanted was to git at the truth; that
we was intitled to the truth, if gittin it defeated Mr. Brice
or any other canderdate for office.
But Jim he out-talked me, and the squire ruled that “the
less said about Cal in open meetin the better for his
chances.” As much as to say that sometimes things could
be done better by suppressin the truth than by tellin it.
I perceeded:
Q. “Mr. Moore, how long has it been since you quit
advocatin the issue of ‘good old-fashioned greenback
paper money’? How long has it been since you said time
arter time in your noosepaper that ‘the greenback was the
best money we have ever had’?”
A. “Well, Betsy, I haint advocated paper money for
nigh onto a year. Not since we decided that we wanted
Cal Bri——”
“Hold, hold!” shouted Jim Patrick agin. Says he,
jumpin to his feet:
“Moore, what do you mean? Dont you know you are
injurin our cause? Dont you know that if it gits out that
Cal is a canderdate he will be defeated? Dont you know
if he is defeated none of us will git an office? Sam, I want
you to bring his name in this matter no more.”
That made Sam mad. He riz up and says, says he:
“Mr. Patrick, I want you to understand that I am
under oath now, and not a editin a free silver paper
in the interest of a gold-bug canderdate, nor am I under
the control of the Dimicratic Executive Committee while I
am on this stand.”
.bn 161.png
.bn 162.png
.pn +2
.il id=i161 fn=i-161.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “‘Mr. Moore, how long has it been since you quit advocatin the use of good old-fashioned greenbacks?’”
Sam was gittin madder every minit.
So I riz to my feet and says:
“Hear, hear, gentlemen, dont lets drag family affairs
into this suit agin Billot.”
I saw they was likely to give away the secrets of my
party.
Seein that Mr. Moore was excited, and, if pressed, was
liable to swear agin us instid of for us, I excused him.
Then Jim took him.
Q. “Mr. Moore, what is money?”
A. “Money is anything the law says is legal tender for
debts.”
Q. “Mr. Moore, are not United States treasury notes
legal tender? and then are they not money?”
Sam begin to color up agin. Answerin, says he:
“Well, now, look here, Jim, you know what shape our
party is in—that all the big fellers are for a gold basis—and
you know, too, that there is no chance for any of us to
git appinted to office if we dont come out for gold. You
know I edit one of the leadin papers; and you know it
takes a great effort to hold the party together. Now, Jim,
dont you think you had better not make me answer that
question—under oath? Or if you want me to answer it,
dont you think you ort to git this case abjourned till after
election day?”
Jim studied a minit, looked wise like, and says:
“Mr. Moore, youre excused.”
Sam got down and went out, mutterin as he went somethin
about it bein “hard, these times, for a truthful man
to be a Dimicrat.”
My next witness was Buckannan.
Q. “Buck, what is your bizness?”
A. “Lawyer—Dimicratic lawyer and polertician.”
Q. “Buck, what is money?”
.bn 163.png
.pn +1
A. “Gold—gold is money.”
Q. “Who makes money, Buck?”
A. “God—God makes money.”
That was all I wanted. Thats the kind of swearin I
wanted to inforce the law agin Billot. So I turned Buck
over to Patrick.
Jim he looked Buck in the face a minit. Buck he
dropped his eyes shamed like.
Then Jim perceeded:
Q. “Buck, what is your bizness and polertics?”
A. “Ime a lawyer—a Dimicratic lawyer and polertician.”
Q. “Buck, did you ever study the money question?”
A. “No, sir; never did; never want to; never will. I
know enough. Ime a Dimicrat—a Dimicratic lawyer—and
that suits me.”
Q. “Buck, dont you know that anything that the law
says is legal tender for debts is money? and dare you
swear here under oath that a paper bill issued by the
United States treasury is not money?”
Buck colored up and looked hurt like. Says he:
“Patrick, you know the condition our party is in, and
you know that our names would be Dennis if Cal——”
“Hold, hold!” cried Jim, jumpin to his feet—and, pintin
his forefinger strait at Buck, vicious like, says he:
“Here, Buck, dont you know that Brice has instructed
us to mention his name as little as possible. Now, I want
you to answer this question without any reference to Cal
or anybody else: Is paper money money?”
Poor Buck, he filled up, and, trimbling like, says:
“It is, Patrick—it is.”
And great big tears rolled down his manly cheek and
dropped on the lapel of his Prince Albert coat.
The squire asked him what was the matter.
.bn 164.png
.pn +1
.il id=i164 fn=i-164.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “‘Lawyer—Dimicratic lawyer and polertician.’”
He said he was ruined; that
he had been tellin everybody
that “nothin was money but
gold,” and now if it got out that
he swore in the case of Gaskins
agin Billot that paper
money is money, nobody would
believe him hereafter. And,
poor man, he cried like a child.
Well, as I had examined what
I considered my strongest witnesses,
and they dident swear
as they talked
to the voters,
but jist to the
contrary, I concluded
to end
the case and let
the squire decide it. I argued that nothin was money but
gold, showed how all the noosepapers said so, and how
all the lawyers and polerticians said so (except when on
oath). I showed how Jobe had delivered good wheat and
hay to Billot and took his note for it, how Billot offered
Jobe jist common paper money when the note was due;
showed how Jobe demanded gold money and nothin else,
because gold was the recognized money of the world, and
closed by askin the court to give us judgment agin Billot,
payable in gold, and to make Billot pay the costs. I
sot down.
Jim Patrick got up and said they had no testimony to
offer except Jobe Gaskins’ own statement that Billot had
offered to pay him with paper money, and now he tendered
to the court the same money Billot had offered to Gaskins,
and asked for judgment agin Gaskins for the costs.
.bn 165.png
.pn +1
The squire took the money, counted it and stuck it in
his pocket, then hemmed and hawed a minit and said that
Billot had made a full legal tender of the amount due
Gaskins, as in his court paper money allers had been
good and he hoped it allers would be. He then said:
“My judgment is in favor of the defendant Billot, with
the costs of this case charged to the plaintiff Gaskins.”
It nearly took my breath.
The costs was $18.60, all told.
The squire said that paper money made by the United
States was real money, and if a man offered to pay a debt
with it, and the man he offered it to refused it and tried to
make him pay gold, he would have to pay the cost for
tryin it.
Instid of us inforcin the law agin Billot, it looks to me
that we have had the law inforced agin us.
Jobe says that Squire Reed is a anacrist and ort to be
hung.
.il fn=i-096.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 166.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXX. | BETSY DISCUSSES “FIAT” MONEY.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
LAST Sunday, arter I got my dinner dishes washed up
and the kitchen swept, I went out in the front yard
where Jobe was. I found him a settin at the foot
of the big apple tree, sound asleep.
He had took the noosepaper with him and sot down there
to read why it is better to borrow money from Urope
than to make it ourselves, and had went to sleep over it.
Besides he had been out all the nite before to a big
Republican rally and had carried a banner sayin:
.if h
.dv class='dottedbox boxwidth40'
.nf c
GIVE US MONEY
GOOD IN UROPE.
.nf-
.dv-
.if-
.if t
.nf c
+————————-+
| GIVE US MONEY |
| GOOD IN UROPE. |
+————————-+
.nf-
.if-
And the poor man had to tramp three or four miles through
the mud to git to do it; so I suppose he was tired—tuckered
out, as it were.
Well, I looked at him a minit a sittin there with his
head throwed back agin that apple tree, his legs stretched
out, his boots a shinin with the fresh lard he had rubbed
on them jist afore dinner, and his honest old face turned
up toward me, and I says to myself, says I: “There sets
one of God’s noblemen, injoyin the sleep of innercence.”
And then I thought if I could only git him and his likes to
understand that they are a part of this government, and
that the government belongs to them and not to those only
who are rich and high-toned—I say, I jist thought that if
.bn 167.png
.pn +1
I could only git them to see that they had rights that ort
to be respected and the power to inforce them rights, what
a different country this might be.
.il id=i167 fn=i-167.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “He carried a banner.”
Thinking this and feelin the importance of my duty, I
decided to begin to edicate him then and there.
He has a habit of gittin up and leavin me when I begin
to talk to him on things; so I made up my mind that I
.bn 168.png
.pn +1
would fix him this time so he couldent git away, and would
give him some plain talk on the money question.
I got the rope I use as a clothes line, and, slippin up
behind him, I wound it around and around him and the
tree from his waist to his neck. He never flinched. Then
I got the check lines from the barn, and, fastenin them to
his feet, I tied one to one gate post and one to the other,
and with the hitchin strap I tied his hands behind him.
Then I got a straw and tickled his nose.
You ort a seen him try to jump; but he couldent move.
He opened his eyes and says to me, skeert like:
“Betsy, what does all this mean?”
I think he was afraid I was a goin to kill him, but,
answerin, says I:
“It means, Mr. Gaskins, that I propose to discuss the
money question here without interference and without my
audience a leavin before I git done, as is its usual custom.”
Says he: “Betsy, wont you let me loose?”
“Not till I git done,” says I.
Says he: “Why, I cant sit here and listen to you for
an hour?”
“You cant?” says I. “But you will. You can spend
all nite, and nite arter nite, a listenin to argaments in favor
of continerin the laws that makes prices low and interest
and taxes high—laws that keeps you poor and the polerticians
rich—but you think you cant spend a hour listenin
to a argament for a law that would make it easier for you
to live; that would give you better prices and lower
interest.”
Then, puttin my hands on my hips and lookin, lovin
like, down at him, says I:
“Jobe, dear, I guess you will listen this time, and you
wont leave till the speaker dismisses, will you?”
Says he, half laffin, half cryin:
.bn 169.png
.pn +1
“It looks that way, Betsy.”
So I went and got me a chair, brought it out and sot
down in front of him. When I got seated says he:
“Betsy, is it Dimicrat or Republican argament that you
want me to listen to?”
Says I: “It is neither, Jobe. It is neither. It is
female—female argament, based on common sense and
bed-rock experience. It is the argament of a lovin wife to
a errin husband. The argament of one who knows there
is somethin wrong and has tried to find somethin better
than what we have got. Are you ready?” says I.
Jobe tried to nod his head, but couldent. He looked
real interestin.
“Perceed with the argament,” says he.
So, leanin up strait in my chair and foldin my arms across
my boozum, I perceeded. Says I:
“Jobe, what is money?”
“Money?” says he. “Why, money is—is—is—why,
Betsy, money is jist money.”
Says I: “Is that all the answer you can give?”
“I guess so,” says he.
Then a thought seemed to strike him, and, lookin up
sudden like, says he:
“Why, money is gold—thats what money is.”
I looked at him a full minit. Then says I:
“Jobe Gaskins, if money is gold, how much money have
you seen since you was a baby? If money is gold, how
much have you handled since you become the husband of
Betsy Gaskins?”
“Why—why,” says he, “I haint handled much gold,
but I have——”
“Hold on,” says I. “Then you haint seen much
money, or else somethin is money besides gold—haint
that so?”
.bn 170.png
.pn +1
“Yes, I guess there is some money besides gold,” says he.
“Then you agree that paper money is money, do you?”
“Yes, I reckon it is,” says he.
“Well, then,” says I, “we will perceed with the argament.”
Jobe looked worried. If it hadent a been for them ropes
and straps, about this time Jobe would a had bizness somewhere
else. It seems that some men get very bizzy about
the time one is ready to show them how they can help
themselves. But, havin full confidence in that clothes
line, I went on.
“Money,” says I, “is somethin made by one’s government
that we git when we dispose of somethin we have.
If you sell somethin direct to the government and the
government gives you money for it, it is the same as a
receipt from the people that they have received from you
somethin of so much value—and it at the same time is an
order on all the people for them to give you whatever you
want of equal value. The officers that make the money
and do the bizness is merely the agents of a big company
of people known as the United States, and each man, be
he rich or poor, is a member of the firm. Instid of havin
our money (that is these receipts) signed by every member
of the company, which would require a very large piece of
paper, we have a stamp, and say to our agents or officers
for them to put that stamp on our money and we will stand
by it. The placin of that stamp on a piece of paper by
the right officers is the same as if all the twelve million
men had signed it, and the women too.
.il id=i171 fn=i-171.jpg w=66% ew=66%
.ca “I got a straw and tickled his nose.”
“So, if you sell the government say $10 worth of oats
to feed our army mules on, or if you do $10 worth of work
a keepin books or a holdin office or a bankin up the
Mississippi River, and you git a $10 bill for it—that bill,
or your havin of that bill, says that you as a individual
.bn 171.png
.pn +1
have delivered to all the balance of the seventy million
people—to the company, if you please—$10 worth of value,
and hold their paper for it. Now, if, arter you git that $10
from all the people, you go to Alick Smith and buy his
.bn 172.png
.pn +1
Chester White brood sow and give him the $10 for her,
your claim aginst all the people has passed from you to
him—he has the receipt for the value you delivered the
government and you have his sow. And, bein a good
citizen, he takes the paper $10, because the value you gave
the government was in part for him, and the $10 is an order
to him as one of the twelve million or more pardners.
And you bein one of the twelve million, you are one of the
firm also, and stand ready to accept that same $10 for anything
you may have to sell that Alick Smith might want.”
Jobe seemed to be a gittin interested.
“Then,” says I, “we will say that Alick would go to
town and buy two gallons of John Schwab’s rye whiskey.
John takes the bill for the same reason that Alick did.
Well, John bein a licker dealer, we—that is, all the people—charge
him $25 a year for sellin rye whiskey and sich. So
John sends that same $10 to the revenue collector at Cleveland
for his revenue tax. The revenue collector sends it
to the treasury at Washington, where it was made, and
where it fust come from. Haint it been redeemed? Haint
that money? John Schwab paid for the work you done, or
for the oats the government mules eat, and paid for it with
the receipt you got for the oats or the work.
“Now, suppose nothin was money but gold, and the
government couldent issue sich receipts or orders, or
whatever you want to call them, and suppose the government
dident have any gold—so then you couldent sell your
oats, nor you couldent git the work to do on the river
bank, and you wouldent git any money. If you couldent
git the money you couldent buy Alick’s sow; if Alick
couldent sell his sow he couldent buy Schwab’s whiskey;
if Schwab couldent sell his whiskey he couldent pay
revenue tax, and when people cant pay revenue tax the
government gits hard up and has to borrow money.
.bn 173.png
.pn +1
“Now, Jobe,” says I, “honest injun, which do you
think would be the best: to make what money this firm of
the United States needs or to keep on a goin deeper and
deeper in debt a borrowin money?
“Speak out,” says I. “Haint that good money?”
Jobe studied a minit.
“Y-a-s,” says he, “but haint that fiat money?”
“Yes, sir,” says I, “that is fiat money, and fiat money
is the only honest, true money we can have. Any other
kind is a deceit and a fraud.”
Jobe twisted and would have got away if he hadent a
been tied. As he couldent git away he snorted out:
“What good would that money be in Urope?”
“The very best that could be made, so far as you and
your likes are concerned,” says I.
“Whats its basis? Whats its basis?” says he, “a
hundred cent gold dollars or fifty cent silver dollars?”
“Neither,” says I. “And as long as we have so many
grains of gold or so many grains of silver or so many
grains of both as a basis, you and your likes will be a payin
high interest with low-priced grain.”
“What!” says he, “no standard! How are you to tell
what your dollar is worth?”
“We will have a standard, Jobe, and the best standard
in the world, and the dollar will always be worth
one hundred cents, and each cent will be worth ten
mills.”
Jobe looked puzzled, but inquirin like.
“Now, Jobe,” says I, “dont you know that the law that
says that the dollar shall be of the value of so many grains
of silver or so many grains of gold is what makes everything
you raise low in price? Rich people can make the
gold or silver scarce and dear, and that makes every dollar,
either paper or metal, dear also, and the dearer the dollars
.bn 174.png
.pn +1
the more of your grain or the more of your work it takes
to git them.
“Now, what ort to be done is this: Make a law callin
in all the gold and silver money, and redeem it in paper
money, dollar for dollar, the same kind of money I spoke
about a while ago; give them only six months to turn it in,
and therearter let neither gold nor silver be money or a
legal tender. And if any of them Wall Street gold sharks
want to hang on to their gold money let em hang, and
they will find that they will have to sell it for old metal.
Arter the government gits it redeemed let us sell it to the
jewelers and spoonmakers to make watches and spoons
out of.
“And instid of the law a sayin that each dollar shall be
of the value of so many grains of useless metal, let it say
that ‘The Dollar shall be of the value of sixty pounds of wheat
in the Chicago market.’[B]
.fm rend=th
.fn B
Note.—This may strike the ordinary reader as a strange proposition.
Some of those who have studied the philosophy of money may differ from
Betsy and claim that the unit of value should be a day’s labor. There are
various good reasons, however, which make Betsy’s suggestion appear not
only plausible, but expedient and logical.
By making a bushel of wheat the unit of value we could establish not
only the value of the dollar, but also the price of wheat, and of nearly all
other commodities. As a rule a bushel of wheat is worth two bushels of
corn, three bushels of oats, four pounds of wool, ten pounds of cotton, etc.
This price ratio of wheat to other commodities varies very little. Prices of
other things rise and fall with the price of wheat.
Betsy’s plan would raise the price of wheat and of all other farm products,
and, consequently, would make farming more remunerative. By
making farming more profitable it would start more people farming, and
thus relieve the overcrowded labor markets of the great cities. The farmers,
obtaining better prices for their products, would be able to consume
more of the products of the factory. The increased demand for factory
products would give work to the unemployed and raise wages in all the
industries. Under these conditions, with our money system on a proper
basis, and with trusts and monopolies obliterated, as they soon would be,
we would need no labor unions to maintain the wage scale. Labor would
no longer crouch at the feet of its creature, Wealth, and strikes would be a
thing of the barbarous past. On the other hand, the workingman of the
city cannot prosper so long as the farmer is not prosperous.
Again, if one day’s labor will produce two and one-half or three bushels
of wheat, and each bushel is of the value of one dollar, then a day’s labor
will be worth $2.50 or $3.00. Then will wages begin to go up, more help
will be employed, more products will be consumed, and soon “surplus
labor” and “overproduction” will be heard of only in the reminiscences
with which we as grandparents will entertain the curious of the next
generation.
It is a remarkable coincidence that at the time this chapter is being put
into type (May, 1897) news comes over the wires that the Russian minister
at Washington has submitted a proposition that the governments of the
United States and Russia jointly fix the price of wheat.—Ed.
.fn-
.fm rend=th
“Now, Jobe,” says I, “if the law said that the dollar
should be of the value of sixty pounds of wheat in the
Chicago market, what would be the value of a dollar?”
Jobe studied a minit and then looked up sudden like, as
.bn 175.png
.pn +1
if something had broke loose in his mind, and says he:
“Why, it would be of the value of sixty pounds of
wheat.”
“Well, then,” says I, “what would be the value of
sixty pounds of wheat in Chicago?”
“Why—why,” says he, “it would be worth a dollar.”
“What would be the price of wheat west of Chicago?”
says I.
“A leetle less than a dollar,” says he.
“What would be the price of wheat east of Chicago?”
says I.
“Why, a leetle more than a dollar,” says he.
“You are a good scholar,” says I. “You are a larnin.”
He tried to git loose agin, but failed.
“But—but,” says he, “what good would sich money be
in Urope? Would that money be good anywhere in the
world?”
“There you go agin,” says I. “I haint got to Urope
yit. We’ll go to Urope purty soon.”
“Yes, but that would be fiat money,” says he.
“Yes, sir, it would,” says I, “and the sooner you and
your likes git up to that word ‘fiat,’ and touch your
.bn 176.png
.pn +1
nose to it and smell of it—the sooner you pick it up and
look at it and examine it, the sooner you will find that
instid of bein a curse it will be a blessin to you.”
“Fiat money is money made by you and the balance of
the people that makes this government. You make it by
puttin your great stamp on it, and each one of you what
are fit to be citizens stand ready to defend it and uphold
it with your lives if need be. It is made by you havin
printed and stamped on money paper the followin:
“‘This is one dollar, a full legal tender for all debts,
public and private, receivable for all taxes, duties and
customs; and any money-lender, bondholder or other
citizen of these United States who attempts to dishonor or
discredit this bill shall be deemed a traitor, and if found
guilty of such attempt shall be hanged by the neck until
dead.’”
“Dont you think that would be a little seveer, Betsy?”
says Jobe.
“Seveerness of that kind—seveerness for them what are
bound to rule this country for their own benefit or ruin it—is
what we need, and the sooner we git it, and the more
of it that we git, the better,” says I.
So, perceedin with the argament, says I:
“Now, Jobe, we’ll go to Urope.”
“Well, hold on,” says Jobe, “lemme loose fust.”
“Not till we git through Urope,” says I, determined like.
“Well, shove off, then,” says he.
I did so by sayin:
“Jobe, would it skeer you if I was to tell you that the
money what is good anywhere in the world is the very
money that we as a people dont want?”
I put my elbows on my knees and leaned over and
looked him square in the eyes to note the effect of my
question.
.bn 177.png
.pn +1
He looked at me, starin like, for a whole minit.
Says I: “How does it strike you, Jobe?”
Says he: “Betsy, have you been a drinkin?”
“Yes, sir,” says I, “Ive been a drinkin—a drinkin in
the sad, hard experience of the last thirty years—a drinkin
the dregs of poverty, hardship and trouble caused by low
prices and high interest—caused by havin money so good
anywhere else in the world that the only way we can git it
back when once it gits away is to borrow it back, and put
ourselves in bonds to do it. And, Jobe, when I say that
the ‘money thats good anywhere in the world’ is the very
money that we as a nation dont want to use, I am a talkin
sober, hard sense. We want money that will come back to us
and buy our wheat and corn and oats and sich, instid of
goin to Roosia and Germany and France and India and
buyin their stuff. What we want is money that is the best
for America, whether it is good for any other part of the
world or not.
“As it is now, Jobe, when we pay the $300,000,000 a
year interest to Urope, or when our high-toned people buy
their Uropean clothes and sich and give our gold and silver
for them, them Urope fellers takes that gold and silver and
go to Roosia and Germany and France and India and other
countries and buy what wheat and flour and oats and corn
and meat and cotton and cattle and wool and manufactured
goods they need, while our wheat and our cotton and our
wool and sich lays in the warehouses along our seashores
a waitin a market. And while it lays there a waitin a
market our farmers are gittin lower prices and our workinmen
lower wages, or goin idle, which is worse.
“Now, if we paid that interest with money that was not
good in Roosia and Germany and France; if our rich
people had to pay for their fine stuff with common everyday
paper money, each dollar of which was of the value of
.bn 178.png
.pn +1
sixty pounds of wheat—money that couldent be melted up
and made into Roosian money or French money or Dutch
money or Indian money—if them Urope fellers would have
to send the money they git from us back here to git its
value in breadstuffs or grub or clothes or somethin our
workinmen make, dont you think our warehouses would
be emptied? And when our warehouses are emptied
wouldent it require work to fill them agin? And haint
honest work what our people need and ort to have?
“So, Jobe, you can see that if them three hundred
million interest money was made out of paper and sent to
Urope to pay that interest; if the money spent there by
our rich people and all was good greenback paper money,
redeemable in wheat and flour and corn and oats and
cotton and manufactured goods of all kinds made, raised
and produced in the United States, and they had to send
it back here to git its value, instid of sendin to Roosia and
them other countries to buy their stuff, and them warehouses
would be emptied, you would find more demand
for the wheat you raise to fill them agin, you would find
prices a raisin and times a gittin better.”
Jobe was a thinkin hard.
Says I: “Jobe, can you see the cat?”
Jobe was silent. The wheels in his head was a beginnin
to turn and he was a listenin to their moosic. Finally
says he:
“Why, Betsy, if each of them dollars was worth sixty
pounds of wheat at Chicago and sixty pounds of wheat
was worth a dollar, what would our leadin men what make
a livin and git rich a speculatin in wheat do? They
couldent force it up nor force it down. What would they
do?” says he.
Says I: “They would be like lots of fellers who haint
leadin citizens are to-day—they would be a huntin a
.bn 179.png
.pn +1
job, and would have to ingage in some honest okepation.”
“Well, Betsy,” says Jobe, “is that Populist argament?”
“No, Jobe,” says I, “it haint Populist argament; it is
the argament of a plain, old-fashioned female woman—the
one that thinks more of you than all the polerticians
piled in one pile—and I hope you will think on it.”
“Well, Betsy,” says he, “if it haint Populist it seems
to me that it is worth thinkin about.”
So, havin for one time held Jobe down to a finish and
got him to thinkin, I unloosed the rope and straps, kissed
him out loud on the cheek and let him up.
He riz up, stretched out his legs and arms, gapped a
time or two and says:
“Betsy, Ime glad you tied me down.”
Then he went out to do up the evenin chores.
Now, if I could only keep Jobe away from them office-seekers
and polerticians; if I could only keep him a
thinkin, I would have some hopes; but as it is, no tellin
how soon the good lesson of his wife may be overcome by
a smooth-tongued canderdate.
.il id=i179 fn=i-179.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 180.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXI. | JOBE BLOWS A FISH-HORN.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE has been so busy tryin to git Mr. Bushnell, the
millionair, elected governor, that he forgot about his
interest bein due at the bank. He stayed to town the
nite of the election till the chickens were crowin for daylite.
It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds
of the fish-horn.
I got up and looked out of the winder, and there was
Jobe a comin up the lane, with his breadbasket stuck out
and his head throwed back, blowin that fish-horn as though
his life depended on it, and every now and then he would
stop, take off his hat and holler for Bushnell, jist as loud
as he could holler.
Well, he come in and acted the fool worse nor a drunk
man, till he nearly wore my patience out.
He said the gold basis bizness had succeeded and now
one dollar was jist as good as another, and asked me if I
wasent ashamed that I was a Dimicrat, and all sich fool
questions.
Well, he got to bed at last and went to sleep, and in the
mornin dident want to git up; so I jist let him lay.
.il id=i181 fn=i-181.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “It was nearly mornin when I heerd the patriotic sounds of the fish-horn.”
About 9 o’clock a feller rid up to our gate and hitched,
come to the door and asked if this is where Mr. Gaskins
lives. Says I:
“It is where Jobe Gaskins lives.”
He handed me a paper and told me to give it to Mr.
Gaskins.
I took it in and waked Jobe up and got him his “specks.”
.bn 181.png
.bn 182.png
.pn +2
.il id=i182 fn=i-182.jpg w=30% ew=30% align=l
.ca “He looked kind a pale.”
He unfolded the paper and
read it over to hisself. I saw
he was worked up. Says I:
“What is it, Jobe—an appintment
from Bushnell?”
He looked kind a pale.
Says he:
“No, Betsy, its a summons
to court in the case of Vinting,
the banker, agin Gaskins; he
has begun foreclosin proceedins
agin us, Betsy.”
I looked at him a minit.
He dident look up.
Says I: “The official returns
are comin in quite airly,
haint they?”
I then went back to the
door, and the court officer was
gone.
Poor Jobe got up in a little bit, lookin worried.
When he come out in the kitchen I handed him his
fish-horn and says, says I:
“Give us a tune, Jobe.”
He dident offer to toot a toot. He jist looked hurt.
Well, from that day to this he has been tryin to raise
the money to pay Vinting, the banker, his interest. After
payin all them costs in the Billot lawsuit there was very
little left out of that wheat and hay money, sich as it was.
He sold our cow, and nearly all our pertaters, and then
sold old Tom, our only hoss, and borrowed $5.50 from
Widder Baker, when she got her penshun money, and took
that $63 down to Banker Vinting and handed it to him at
his bank. Vinting pushed it back to Jobe and says, says he:
.bn 183.png
.pn +1
“This is not accordin to contract. The contract, Mr.
Gaskins, says you must pay the interest in gold. I must
have gold. Gold—Mr. Gaskins.”
Jobe told him he “had no gold, that this money was all
good, legal tender government money, and he would have
to take it.”
Banker Vinting told him, “Gold or nothin.”
.il id=i183 fn=i-183.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘Give us a tune, Jobe.’”
Jobe went around to all the stores in town and to all his
friends and tried to git gold for the paper money, and not
one of them had a dollar in gold to help him out with.
Everybody said they “hadent seen any gold for a long
time;” that “paper money was good enough for them; that
they was glad to git even it, these times.”
So Jobe come home, and he haint got that gold yit, and
the Lord only knows when and where he can git it. I dont.
Jobe he is nearly distracted.
Now, if the law makes Jobe take Billot’s paper money
for wheat, I dont see why the same law wont make the
.bn 184.png
.pn +1
banker take the same paper money for interest, especially
when a feller cant git any other kind. If the banker wont
take Jobe’s paper money, all I know is for him to go on
with his lawsuit to foreclose us—until the court makes him
take it.
We cant do anything else. It jist seems the world is
full of trouble and sich.
.il id=i184 fn=i-184.jpg w=75% ew=75%
.ca “‘This is not accordin to contract.’”
.bn 185.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXII. | AT COURT AGAIN.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE lawsuit to foreclose us out of our home is bein
tried to-day. We borrowed Ike Hill’s gray mare
and driv to town airly, and found the lawyers hangin
around like buzzards waitin for the arrival of a dead beast.
They begin to meet us and shake hands from the time
we hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry-goods store until we
got clear inside the fence that surrounds the judge’s seat
and divides the high-toned cattle from the low-toned breed.
They all wanted to know if we had “ingaged counsel.”
When I told them that our family had counsel of its
own blood, in the person of myself, Betsy Gaskins, wife of
Jobe Gaskins, the defendant, they would kind a sneer and
walk off. They looked hurt like, jist as a feller does when
he loses a ten-dollar bill.
These lawyers seem kind a anxious that the people who
are bein foreclosed should have “counsel,” but I could
never see where “havin counsel” changes the foreclosin
act any.
Well, we got inside the lawyers’ field, the officer opened
court and the judge called the case of “Vinting, plaintiff,
vs. Gaskins, defendant, for money only.” Says he:
“Are the parties to the case ready for trial?”
Jim Patrick, the lawyer, nodded his head and says,
“Ready,” without even takin his feet off the table.
I dident have my feet on the table. But when the judge
looked our way I nodded and says, “Ready.”
I hadent that word out of my mouth till Lawyer Porter
riz to his feet, and, addressin the court, says:
.bn 186.png
.pn +1
.il id=i186 fn=i-186.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “We hitched in front of Urfer’s big dry goods store.”
“If your honor please, on behalf of the ‘bar’ of this
county, I object to Mrs. Betsy Gaskins a practicin law
before this court.
“I object for three reasons: First, because she is a
woman; second, because she has not been admitted to
practice in this court; third, because it interferes with the
legitimate profits of the legal fraternity of this county.
“If your honor please, as you well know, the lawyers of
this county have no other source of income than from the
parties to the cases brought to this court, and if women
and persons who have not been admitted to the bar are
permitted to practice in this court, our bizness will be
ruined, and some of us, at least, will have to go to workin
for a livin; therefore I object to permittin this woman to
farther participate in this case, and in doin so I voice the
sentiment of every member of this bar.”
I riz up.
.bn 187.png
.pn +1
.il id=i187 fn=i-187.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘Ready.’”
The judge looked at me, steady like, over his specks, as
if he was a goin to tell me to set down. Says I:
“Mistur Court, may I speak?”
He looked around at the bar. Several heads went east
and west. The judge thought a minit and says:
“You may speak.”
Perceedin, says I: “Mistur Court, I am the lawful wife
of Jobe Gaskins, the man you are asked to foreclose and
turn out of the home he has tried hard to hold. We are
old people. We are poor. Times are hard and money is
scarce, and, bein called here without our choosin, we came
without money to pay anything toward the support of the
‘bar’ the lawyer spoke about.
“All we ask, Mistur Court, is to be heard. We want to
save our old home if we can do so. All I ask is, if there
is any speakin that can be done to persuade you that we
hadent ort to be turned out, that you let me do that
speakin, because I feel that I can tell you what we would
suffer, and why we hadent ort to be turned out, as honestly
and as earnestly as any lawyer could who was talkin for
only a few dollars pay.
.bn 188.png
.pn +1
“God knows, Mistur Court, that what I shall say to you
will not be prompted by a few dollars, but by the love I
have for the roof that has sheltered us, for the fire that
has warmed us, and those things about the place that has
caused a lump to come up in my throat whenever I think
we may soon have to leave them forever, or when I wonder
where we would go if you say, Mistur Court, that we must
be foreclosed.
“I know I am a woman—a old woman. I haint a
regular lawyer, but I ask to do the speakin in this case,
because we haint the money to pay any of these regular
lawyers to do it, and God knows we have always tried to
pay for everything we have ever got or had done for us.”
I sot down.
The judge set a studyin; finally says he:
“Mr. Sheriff, adjourn court until 1:30 o’clock p.m.”
And that is where the lawsuit is at this hour. I am
waitin to see if I will be allowed to speak. Yours at court.
.il fn=i-088.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 189.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXIII. | JUDGMENT RENDERED.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE lawsuit is over. The decidin is done, and we
are foreclosed. My heart has been so heavy and
Ive been so troubled that I jist couldent set down
and write a letter with any sense to it till to-day.
You dont know how bad it makes a body feel to know
the place you have looked on and loved as home is a gittin
away from you—slippin from under you, as it were.
Everything seems to change. Jobe, poor man, he jist
sets and studies.
Well, that day at court, arter dinner, the judge come in,
took his seat, ordered court opened, and says, lookin at me:
“Mrs. Gaskins, I have decided to let you argy this case.”
At that all them lawyers except Jim Patrick, the one
doin the foreclosin, got up and left the house.
When everything was ready Jim he got up and handed
in the mortgage and the notes, and stated that he would
prove by those papers that last Aprile Jobe and Betsy
Gaskins executed notes and a mortgage to Mr. Vinting,
the banker, for the sum of $1,800, with interest at seven
per cent., payable semi-annually “in gold;” that a few
days after the interest fell due Jobe Gaskins tendered to
Banker Vinting $63 in paper money as said six months’
interest, and refused or neglected then or at any other
time to tender gold in payment of the interest as the
contract provided, and upon this evidence he would ask
the court to foreclose the mortgage and sell the premises
to satisfy the claims of his client.
.bn 190.png
.pn +1
.il id=i190 fn=i-190.jpg w=40% ew=40% align=l
.ca “‘I am a banker, sir, a banker.’”
He then called Banker Vinting
to the stand and had him
hold up his hand and swear.
Then he examined him as
follers:
Question. “Mr. Vinting,
what is your bizness?”
Answer. “I am a banker,
sir, a banker.”
Q. “Did Jobe Gaskins,
the defendant here, tender you
the interest due on this mortgage
as the mortgage provides?”
A. “No, sir, he did not.
He offered paper money—nothing
but paper money—while
the mortgage and notes
call for gold.”
Q. “Is this interest still
due and unpaid?”
A. “It is, sir. It is.”
“You may have the witness,” says Jim.
Then I examined the banker. He looked very witherin
like at me, but I dident wither.
Q. “Mr. Vinting, what kind of money did you give for
this mortgage and notes?”
A. “Paper money, paper money.”
Q. “Then why haint paper money good enough for
interest on them?”
A. “The contract says ‘gold,’ Mrs. Gaskins—it calls
for gold.”
Q. “Well, haint paper money as good as gold—now,
since the election?”
.bn 191.png
.pn +1
“I ’bject,” says Jim, and then he got up and argyed
that my question was leadin, &c., and the court decided
that he needent answer it.
“We rest,” says Jim.
Then I got up and stated our case. Says I:
“Mr. Court, we will prove that Jobe Gaskins sold hay
and corn to Billot, the miller, to git the money, or a part
of it, to pay this interest, and took Billot’s note; that
when the time come to pay it Billot offered to pay it in
paper money; that Jobe refused to take it, jist as the
banker refused; that Jobe sued Billot before Squire Reed
for the amount ‘in gold;’ that Mr. Patrick, who is now
the lawyer a tryin to foreclose us for not payin gold, was
the lawyer agin us when we was a tryin to git the gold to
pay with. We will prove that the law made Jobe take
paper money or nothin, and made him pay the costs for
tryin to collect gold. We will prove that Jobe took some
of that money the law made him accept for wheat, and
more jist like it, to the banker, and offered to pay his
interest; that the banker refused, and on this testimony we
ask you to render judgment agin Mr. Vinting, the banker,
for costs, and make him take this $63 in paper money that
I now tender in open court as payment of the six months’
interest due.”
At that I handed the $63 to the clerk. He took it and
gave me a receipt for the amount.
Then I put Jobe on the stand and proved that he had
taken the same money the law made him take for his wheat
to the banker and offered it to him; that the banker
refused to take anything but gold; that he had tried to git
the gold, but couldent find anybody that had any gold, and
that he had done all he could to raise the gold and couldent.
I then proved by Squire Reed that Jim Patrick was
Billot’s lawyer, and had argued and proved by Sam Moore
.bn 192.png
.pn +1
and Lawyer Buchanan and others that paper money was
money and was a legal tender for debts, and that Jobe
was beat in his lawsuit agin Billot and had to pay the costs
and take paper money.
Then I “rested.”
Then Jim Patrick got up and made a short speech, statin
that “gold was God’s money;” that He had hidden it
away in the vaults of nature for the use of mankind as
money. He showed how Banker Vinting was a Christian
and one of our leadin citizens, and all he asked the court
to do was to inforce his contract agin Jobe Gaskins. He
showed how all the bankers and bondholders and other
money-lenders was in favor of gold and gold contracts;
then he showed that it was dishonest for Gaskins to
attempt to pay that interest in any other kind of money
than gold as stipulated in the contract.
“It is in fact repudiation,” says he, and he made sich a fine
argament for gold and agin other money that I put on my
specks to make sure it was Jim Patrick, the same Jim what
argyed so loud and long for paper money and agin gold the
other day, in our case agin Billot for wheat money.
His argament was so fine and patriotic that I felt half
ashamed for askin the court to make Banker Vinting take
the same kind of money for interest as the law made Jobe
take for wheat.
.il id=i193 fn=i-193.jpg w=55% ew=55% align=r
.ca “He made such a fine argament for gold and agin other money.”
Well, arter Jim got done I riz up and stated that we was
aware that the interest was due and unpaid; that I knowed
the contract called for gold. I told the court how I kicked
agin signin the mortgage last Aprile, when it was made, jist
for the reason that it called for gold. I showed how it
was the banker’s doins, and not ourn, that it called for gold.
I told the court how Jobe and the others laughed at me and
called me an anacrist and all sich names for refusin to sign
a gold mortgage. Then I told him about havin to raise the
.bn 193.png
.pn +1
money then to pay Congressman
Richer to keep
from bein foreclosed at
that time, and about my
succumbin to their ridicule
and signin at last,
hopin agin hope that in
some strange way we
might raise the gold and
save our home.
I told the judge that
I dident believe “gold
was God’s money;” that
I dident think God would
make a metal to be used
to turn people out of
home with; that if it was
made for any sich purpose
it must a been the “other feller’s” doins.
I showed how government officers, through the influence
of the rich people, had called in the paper money and
burned it up; how they had issued bonds agin Jobe and his
likes to git it to burn. I showed how the same men had
demonitized silver and brought us to a “gold basis,” all of
which had reduced prices, made money scarce and hard to
git, and kept up interest. I showed him how sich laws had
throwed people out of homes and turned all their earnins
over to the money-lenders and sich.
I showed him how we had paid $3,800 toward our farm,
and how, if he dident make the banker take Jobe’s wheat
money, we would be sold out, and, at the low price
land is sellin for, we would have nothin left in our old
age.
I begged him with tears in my eyes to make the banker
.bn 194.png
.pn +1
take Jobe’s wheat money and give us one more chance to
save our old home.
Then I sot down, and my eyes would water, no matter
how often I would wipe them.
Well, the court cleared his throat a time or two and then
said:
“It is a common occurrence for us judges in our official
positions to do unpleasant things. I am sorry for the old
people, but the law must uphold the sacred rights of contract.
The contract calls for gold. I will therefore render
judgment agin Gaskins, the defendant, for full amount
of mortgage, accrued interest and costs of this case, and
order the sheriff to sell the premises to satisfy the judgment.”
When them words was spoke I jist felt smothered. I
felt so queer I hardly knowed where I was.
Jobe he jist sot there a starin, with a pleadin look on his
face. We both sot there numb like till the officer come
around and told us the case was over.
We kind a come to then and got up. Then I thought of
the clerk havin that paper money, so I told Jobe to go and
git it.
He went, and the clerk told him he couldent surrender
the money till the case was settled; that that money was
part of the court record, and the land might not sell for
enough to pay the judgment and all costs.
So we come home and left our wheat money and hay
money and cow money and the money for poor old Tom
and all with the officers of the court.
Jobe, poor man, from the time he left that court-house
till now he has jist moped around, sighin and moanin.
.bn 195.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXIV. | THE LITTLE WHITE ROSE-BUSH.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
WHEN Ike Miller brought Jobe’s paper, the Advercate,
to us day before yisterday, the fust thing my
eyes fell on was:
“SHERIFF’S SALE.—Isaac Vinting, plaintiff, vs. Jobe
Gaskins, defendant.”
I tried to look away from it, but, all I could do, I couldent
git my eyes off from them lines. I turned the paper over,
but it jist seemed to me that I could see them words all
over that paper.
I never had anything make me feel so queer in all my
life. My head seemed to be goin round and round, and I
couldent see anything but “Sheriff Sale”—“Vinting—Gaskins—Gaskins—Vinting—Sheriff
Sale.”
“Sheriff Sale.” I had seen them same two words hundreds
of times before, but they never looked like they did
that day.
I was all alone at home, and I thought I would never
live to see another livin bein—I felt so queer.
Well, I laid that paper down and went out in the yard.
Arter a while I begin to feel better, though nothin seemed
to look like it use to—nor dont to this day.
When I got out in the yard I could see the trees, and
bushes, and fences, and the house, and the big road, and
the little stream down over the bank; but they looked so
queer. Though I had lived by and among them for years,
they dident look like they did when I use to think they
would be around me and near me when I should die. No,
.bn 196.png
.pn +1
they now looked like somebody
else’s trees and
bushes and fence and road
and sich.
.il id=i196 fn=i-196.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=l
.ca Little Jane.
I felt as though I was
not at my own home, but
intrudin on other people’s
property, “trespassin,” as
them court-house lawyers
calls it. That “sheriff
sale” in that paper had
changed the looks of things.
I went over to the little
white rose-bush—the bush
my little Jane planted the
day she was four years old—the one she had watched and
called hers till she was taken from me two years arter.
I thought, as I stood there by that little bush, planted
by her little hands, that I could nearly see her little form a
squattin down and her little dimpled fingers pattin the dirt
around the roots of that little bush. I remembered how
she plucked the first rose and come a runnin to me with it,
sayin:
“Mamma, mamma, my bush raised this. How pritty!”
.il id=i197 fn=i-197.jpg w=60% ew=60% cw=120%
.ca “I could nearly see her little dimpled fingers pattin the airth around the roots of that little bush.”
I thought how, every spring, Jobe would pull the weeds
and leaves from around it, and how a many a time I saw
him wipin his eyes as he stood by our baby’s rose-bush.
And as I was thinkin this I thought that before long somebody
else would own this ground and that bush, and we
could not take care of it any more for our little girl that
is gone. I wondered if anybody would stand there arter
we are turned out and weep for the child that planted
it. I wondered why it was that the law could tear people
away from everything they love. I wondered why there
.bn 197.png
.bn 198.png
.pn +2
couldent be some way fixed to make it easier for people to
git homes and pay for them. I wondered why interest was
never less than six per cent., and sometimes more. I
wondered why people who paid interest had sich a hard
way of gittin along, while the people who got interest got
along so easy.
.il id=i198 fn=i-198.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “‘Mamma, ... how pritty!’”
And as I stood there by our baby’s rose-bush I thought
of all the interest Jobe has paid on this place, of the taxes
he has paid year in and year out, and I got to figurin, and
I found he had paid for the farm nearly twice over.
And then I thought of that dream I had nearly a year
ago, when I dreamt that Jobe could borrow money of the
county treasury at only two per cent. And I kept on a
figurin, and I found that if interest had only been two per
.bn 199.png
.pn +1
cent. since we bought this farm, the difference between the
interest we have paid and what we would have had to pay
at two per cent. would have let us out. We would have
had our farm nearly paid for, and we could have stayed
here and taken care of baby’s little rose-bush and carried
the roses to her little grave each year as long as we lived.
But interest haint two per cent., and we must leave the
little bush, leave the trees, leave the flowers, leave all and
go. Oh! that nearly chokes me. Where shall we go?
Who will take care of baby’s grave? I cant rite any more.
I feel so queer.
.il id=i199 fn=i-199.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.bn 200.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXV. | JOBE TALKS OF THINGS THAT ARE GONE.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE is down sick with “brain fever and nervous
prostration.”
The doctor says it all come from his worryin over
bein foreclosed.
Jobe jist lays and moans and talks to hisself. He is
out of his head most of the time.
.il id=i200 fn=i-200.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca “Jobe jist lays and moans.”
Last nite he thought he had Betty, our drivin mare,
back (the one we parted with last spring to git money to
pay interest to Congressman Richer). He thought our
.bn 201.png
.pn +1
little Jane was livin
agin, and he was
holdin her on Betty’s
back, a lettin her
ride.
.il id=i201 fn=i-201.jpg w=275px ew=50% align=r
.ca “I have to chop all the wood.”
He jist kept a
talkin fust one thing,
then another, all
nite.
I dident git to
sleep any, and since
he has been sick I
have to chop all the
wood and do the
chores and wait on
him till I am nearly
wore out and not
able to write.
I dont know what
I will do if they foreclose
us and put us
out before Jobe gits
able to go about.
It jist seems one trouble brings on another. If the law
would make the banker (contract or no contract) take the
same kind of money for interest as it makes Jobe take for
wheat, Jobe wouldent be down with brain fever and sick
from worryin.
I wonder why laws haint made as much in favor of hard-workin
poor people as rich people who sets in offices and
dont do any hard work.
I see Congress and Mr. Cleveland are a goin to issue more
bonds on the people, and sell them at the post-offices to
the popular people. Jobe and me cant invest.
.bn 202.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXVI. | BILL BOWERS IS ON THE FENCE.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE is able to be up. We have been foreclosed, and
ex-Congressman Richer has the farm back.
We have a notice in writin to vacate these premises
on or before the first day of March.
Jobe bein sick, neither of us was to town the day our old
home was sold by the sheriff.
I felt bad all that day—felt jist like somethin awful was
about to happen. Jobe seemed weaker and more restless
than usual.
Bill Bowers rode by our place in the evenin, stopped at
the gate and hollered.
I went to the door, hopin agin hope that maybe for
some unknown reason the foreclosin hadent been done.
But as soon as I laid eyes on Bill I knode our home was
gone.
He hemmed and hawed and stammered, tryin to say
somethin that was hard for him to say. Says I:
“Out with it, Bill; we are prepared for the wust.”
“Well, Betsy,” says he, “its gone. Congressman
Richer bought it in, at jist what the mortgage and interest
amounted to, and you people will have to pay the costs.
Mr. Richer seemed pleased to get the old farm back
agin.”
.il id=i203 fn=i-203.jpg w=300px ew=60% align=r
.ca “‘Out with it, Bill; we are prepared for the wust.’”
“Yes, Bill,” says I. “I allow he was glad to git it
back. He ort to be. He has some $3,800 of interest and
principal we have paid him on the farm, before he forced
.bn 203.png
.pn +1
us to borrow the
money from Banker
Vinting to pay him
last spring. You
see, Bill, we paid
him $3,800 interest
and principal up to
last Aprile; then
last Aprile we paid
him $1,800 that we
borrowed from the
banker, and some
$300 of Jobe’s legicy
money from his
dead aunt, makin
in all some $5,900.
Now he takes $1,863
of that money
and buys it back,
givin him the same
farm we got from
him and $4,000
nearly of money besides that Jobe has airned by hard
knocks.”
“Well, Betsy,” says Bill, “it does look kind a tough.”
“Yes,” says I, “and it dont look any tougher than
it is.”
“I spose not,” says Bill.
“No, Bill,” says I; “if the lawmakers only knew how
hard it is to be sold out and turned out of your home, they
would surely make laws to make money plentier and easier
to git; they would surely reduce interest.”
“They ort to,” says Bill.
“Yes, Bill,” says I, “we have done all we could to hold
.bn 204.png
.pn +1
the farm, and hoped to have a home to stay in in our
old age.
“We have give all we raised to Congressman Richer in
payments and interest and taxes and sich.
“We have done without many a thing we ort to a
had tryin to keep our payments up, hopin that our old age
might be spent here among our neighbors; but every year
since we bought the farm times have got harder, prices
lower and money scarcer.
“We have raised good crops, Jobe has worked hard,
and now, arter all the years of hard work and good crops,
we have $512 less than we had when we bought the farm
seventeen years ago.
“They kept a tellin Jobe that it was ‘better to have less
money and lower prices than to have more money and
higher prices,’ and Jobe and his likes have kept a votin
for the fellers that told him sich until to-day he is sick and
sold out.
“He has done the votin and the other fellers has got the
money. They held the bag, and Jobe and his likes
poured in the grain.”
“Well, Betsy,” says Bill, studyin like, “Ive about
made up my mind that none of us farmers have much to
show for our past votin. It looks as though, while we
have been workin hard nite and day, economizin and
savin; while we have been a tryin to lay up somethin for
ourselves in old age, and for our children; while we have
been doin all this, and doin the votin, there has been a lot
of schemers and rascals seekin office and gittin laws made
to redeem one kind of money in another, and then cornerin
the redeemin kind, and contractin and destroyin this kind
and that, even issuin bonds on us to git it to burn, and
doin everything so they would be able to take from us
what we were a raisin and savin.”
.bn 205.png
.pn +1
.il id=i205 fn=i-205.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “‘Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them Populists hereafter.’”
Then, leanin over on his horse, says he:
“Betsy, step up closer to the fence.”
.bn 206.png
.pn +1
I walked out to the fence.
Says he, whisperin like:
“Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them
Populists hereafter. I see they have some purty smart
men in the United States Senate. But for the life of you,
Betsy, dont say anything to any one about my changin.”
I jist stepped back a step or two and looked at Bill
Bowers for a whole minit. He looked at me. Then
says I:
“Bill Bowers, I am surprised! I am surprised that you,
a full-blooded American citizen, a grown-up man, a man
who has made up his mind to do what he believes to be right,
and then hasent the manhood to let the world know that
you are independent, but are afraid that some officeseeker
or polertician who lives off of you will turn up his nose at
you! Bill Bowers, I thought you had more firmness in
you than that. If the party you have been votin for has
betrayed you, if the officeseekers you have helped to elect
have used you as a tool, haint it your dooty as a man and
a citizen to let it be known that you are a goin to quit the
gang? Instid of bein afraid of them, you should make
them afraid of you. Thats your dooty, Bill.”
“Well, Betsy,” says he, “I dont know but what youre
right, but Ide ruther you wouldent say anything about it.”
Then, changin the subject, says he:
“Betsy, where do you think of goin to?”
“Where do I think of goin to?” says I. “The Lord
only knows. I dont.”
At that Jobe hollered for me, and, biddin Bill “good
day,” I come in.
Yourn, nearin the close.
.bn 207.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXVII. | BETSY FAINTS. A VISION.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE other day ex-Congressman Richer’s lawyer
brought a man out to look at the farm. They driv
into the gate, out through the bars back of the
barn, across fust one field then another, the lawyer a pintin
and layin it off, the feller a lookin and noddin his head.
Arter a while they come back and come up into the
yard, the lawyer still a pintin, the feller still a lookin and
noddin. I heerd the lawyer say:
“We want you to clear this all up. Clear away these
bushes, and sow the yard down in lawn grass.”
As soon as I heerd that word “bushes,” I thought all of
a suddint of poor “little Jane’s white rose-bush.”
I felt faint like—smothered—and a tear came a rollin
down my cheek and dropped on the floor before I could
git my apron to my eyes, and they kept a comin, no matter
how hard I wiped.
When I use to read and hear of “sheriff sales” I dident
take time to think what an awful thing it is to have the
only place one knows on airth as “home” sold away from
you. But now, when I know of what it is, I think of all
the tears and sobs and heartaches and sich that has been
a goin on around us, and we dident know anything about it.
Sometimes I find myself stoppin and standin still and
lookin up in the sky and sayin:
“O Lord, is there no other way to do? Is there no way to
save the women and children and hard-workin men from
bein turned out of their homes, where they have lived
and loved and been born?”
.bn 208.png
.pn +1
And every time I think I can hear a whisperin voice, jist
a little piece away from me, a sayin:
“Yes, by reducin interest.”
And then in a minit or so it seems as though I hear a
ringin in my ears, in words jist a little further away than
the other, a sayin:
“It—will—be—done. It—will—be—done.”
If I only knew where we are to go to, and what Jobe can
git to do, I might bear it easier. It seems as though an
old man haint wanted to do work, and it seems every
place is taken up.
Jobe has been out, ever since he has been able to go
about, lookin for work and some place to move to.
Everybody seems to a heard of our bein foreclosed,
and they dont seem to trust Jobe like they use to, though
God knows he is as honest as he ever was.
Well, arter the lawyer had gone all around the place,
givin his orders to the feller, he come up to the door
and knocked. I opened the door and says:
“Come in.”
“No,” says he, “I jist wanted to know if you intended
to git out by March the fust.”
Says I: “We will if we can find a place.”
“Well, you must git out whether you find a place or
not,” says he, “as we want this gentleman to move in and
commence spring work.”
“We will, Mistur Lawyer, if we can possibly find a
place,” says I.
“Well, look here, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he, short like,
“we dont want any ‘ifs’ about it. I notify you now, in
the presence of this gentleman, that if you are not out by
March the fust, I will see that the law puts you out. Now,
take warnin.”
And at that he turned on his heel and walked off.
.il id=i209 fn=i-209.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “‘O, Lord, is there no other way to do?’”
.bn 209.png
.bn 210.png
.pn +2
I am an old woman, and have had many hardships, but,
Mistur Editure, in all my life I never had anything to
strike my heart like them words did. It jist seemed like
everything turned black before me, and I sunk down in
the doorway and must a fell to sleep, for arter a while I
woke up, or come to, as it were.
I had a dream while I lay there that I will never forgit.
I thought that a great, large man stood before me, and
jist behind him stood two other good-sized fellers. The
big man said to me, in a cruel, coarse voice: “Ive come
to turn you out.” I thought I bursted out a cryin, and
turned my eyes up toward the sky, as I had done before,
and right there, a flyin through the air, come my dear
little Jane, lookin jist as she did years ago before she died.
I thought she throwed her little arms around my neck,
and laid her little soft face agin my cheek, and says:
“Dont cry, mamma. If no one else cares for you, I do,”
jist as plain as I ever heerd her little voice in life.
I clasped my arms around her, and begin to feel a thrill
of happiness as I once did, when the big sheriff stepped
up and grabbed her by the neckband of her little dress,
and, with a mighty jerk, threw her behind him, sayin:
“Stop this sentimentalism. The law must have its way.”
I paid no attention to his cruel words, but jumped
toward my little Jane, who laid there with the blood a
runnin out of her little head jist above the left eye. Her
eyes were open and starin, and, with a scream of agony,
I cried: “Oh, my child! My child is dead!”
I was so shocked that it woke me up, and I found myself
a layin there in the door, and, bein cold, I got up and
went in, all a shakin.
From that day to this I can hardly think of anything
but my little girl a comin through the air and throwin her
baby arms around my neck.
.bn 211.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXVIII. | THE PARTING.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
JOBE is gone. Last Monday morning bright and
airly he started for Lorain to find work. He had
hunted and hunted far and near, high and low, around
here for work, but couldent find any. Some one told him
there was lots of work at Lorain, and poor Jobe decided
he would go there.
He only had $2.95. He said he would take the railroad
to Medina and walk the rest of the way.
Ile never forgit the mornin he left.
We sot up late the nite before, talkin. We talked over
our whole lives—about when we were fust married; about
how different times were then and now; about the happiness
we had then, and the plans we laid. Jobe was strong
and healthy, and so was I. Money was plenty, and
people were always lookin for somebody to work for them.
We talked of little Jane; of how we loved her, and how
she used to love us. We talked of when she died, and how
it nearly killed us; and then we both jist cried as though
our hearts would break. We talked of how hard we had
worked to try to git along in the world, and how our plans
had failed.
Arter we had talked a good long while, and cried, and
felt like cryin, Jobe he moved his chair over near to mine,
and took my hand in his, and says:
.il id=i212 fn=i-212.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “He drawed me over in his arms and kissed me.”
“Betsy, weve had our little differences. I know sometimes
I have been tryin. Ive had so much to trouble me that
at times I was peevish. But, Betsy, I want you to look over
.bn 212.png
.pn +1
all my failins. You
have been a good
woman. You have
done your dooty, and
more than your dooty.
It nearly breaks my
heart to go so far
away and leave you
behind; but we have
to give up the old
farm, Betsy, we have
to give up the old
farm, and I must find
some place to go to,
and something to do.
We must live, Betsy,—we—must—live,—and
I must find something
to do, to live.
I hope to be able to
find work, and have
you to come to where
I am before long.
“I surely can find
something to do some
place. I heerd Jonas Warner, that rich man in town, tell a
feller the other day that anybody could find work that wanted
to work. God knows, Betsy, I want to work, and if Mr.
Warner is right, I surely can find somebody willin to give
me something to do.”
We dident sleep much that nite. Jobe wanted to ketch
the five o’clock train on the C., L. & W. Railroad, and
was afraid of oversleepin hisself. He had to git up airly
so as to git to town in time to ketch it.
.bn 213.png
.pn +1
.il id=i213 fn=i-213.jpg w=45% ew=45% align=r
.ca “He was wipin his eyes and blowin his nose as he went towards town.”
That mornin I had his
clothes done up in a neat
bundle. I had washed and
ironed all his clothes the
day before, so he would
have enough to do him till
I could go to him.
He dident eat much
breakfast. He said he
“dident feel hungry.”
When he got ready to start
he come up to the winder
where I was a standin, and,
seem that I was choked up,
my eyes full of tears, he
drawed me over in his arms
and kissed me; then,
turnin, walked out of the
door without sayin a word.
The moon was a shinin
bright, and I stood a lookin
at him as far as I could see
him. He was wipin his
eyes and blowin his nose as
he went towards town.
When he was gone from
my view I still stood a lookin for some time, then sot
down and cried, and kept a cryin every little bit all
mornin. Everything seemed so lonesome like. Wherever
I looked it seemed I could see poor Jobe a standin there
lookin sad like.
He said he would rite as soon as he found work. I am
lookin for a letter every day.
Poor Jobe! Little did he think, or me either, some
.bn 214.png
.pn +1
thirty-six years ago, that in our old age we would be turned
from our home by the law of our country. Little did we
think that when we got old Jobe would have to go
hundreds of miles from home, and out among strangers,
a beggin for work to feed us by.
.il id=i214 fn=i-214.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “Then sot down and cried, and kept a cryin every little bit all mornin.”
Jist to think of all the interest money and payments we
have give Congressman Richer—some $3,800 all told. If
interest had been less we would have had our home, and
.bn 215.png
.pn +1
had it nearly paid for, and Jobe would not be gone out
into the world to hunt work. If we had half or a quarter
of that interest money we could buy us a little home to stay
in the few remainin years of our lives.
But, then, interest must be kept up, and the law
inforced, so as to enable Mr. Richer and his likes to live in
style and assert the dignity of their citizenship. It has to
be done, no matter if the hardworkin poor people are
turned out of their homes and those that love each other
are parted.
If Jesus was here and a makin laws, I wonder if he
would have interest, and foreclosin, and turnin out, and
all that?
.il fn=i-037.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 216.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XXXIX. | THE PREACHER AND THE SALOONKEEPER.
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
MY heart is so broke that I hardly know how to rite.
This is March 3d, and yisterday arternoon they put
me out.
I had about give up their comin, and was tryin to feel
better, when all of a suddint I heerd a knock at the door.
I opened it, and there stood three strange men.
Said the one who acted as leader: “Is this where the
Gaskinses live?”
Says I: “One of them is stayin here, and the Lord
only knows where the other one is.”
“I am a deputy sheriff,” says he, “and have orders to
set you out.”
Says I: “Where is Mr. Richer?”
“In Washington,” says he.
“Where is his agent—his lawyer?” says I.
“In town,” says he.
“Well, dont they have to be here to put me out?” says I.
“No,” says he; “the law puts you out for them.”
“Well, Mistur,” says I, “couldent you let me stay a
little longer? Jobe’s gone to hunt work and a place to
move to. If you will let me stay, as soon as he finds it
Ile go out without your botherin.”
“I cant do it, Mrs. Gaskins,” says he; “the law must
be inforced. The law is no respecter of persons.”
Says I, pleadin like: “You see, I am a old woman,
and not stout. Jobe is away, and I am here alone. If the
law is no respecter of persons, why should it come here
.bn 217.png
.pn +1
and put me out of a home that we have paid over $3,800
toward, jist to please the man that we have paid the
money to?”
He shook his head.
“Where are you a goin to put me?” says I.
“I am goin to put you out,” says he; “out in the big
road yonder, off these premises.”
Says I: “Mistur, please dont be so cruel as that. It
would kill me to sleep out there all nite. Please let me
stay a little longer—jist a little longer.”
“No use a talkin,” says he. “Ile have to do as the law
says. Its not me a puttin you out, Mrs. Gaskins—its not
me that is cruel. It is the law, the law, that is doin it.”
“Come on, men,” says he, speakin to the other fellers.
So they come right into the house, the house I had loved
so well, walkin over the floor I have scrubbed on my hands
and knees thousands of times, and begin to tear up my
things and carry them out in the big road.
I jist felt so queer I could hardly breathe.
They tore down my stove and tore up my carpet, and
carried out fust one thing, then another, and sot them down
beside the road, till all I had was out there.
When they got it all out, the deputy come in and says:
“Why dont you go out there where your things are?
You have no right here. You must git out, so I can lock
up the house.”
Says I: “Mistur, is Congressman Richer a goin to
move in to-nite?”
Says he, sneerin like: “Why, Lord no; Mr. Richer
wouldent live in sich a house as this—he lives in Washington;
he lives in a fine house.”
“Well, then, Mistur, let me stay in here till I hear from
Jobe.”
“No,” says he, “you must git out.”
.bn 218.png
.pn +1
.il id=i218 fn=i-218.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “They pulled me away from the winder.”
Says I, chokin like: “Mistur, I cant go.”
“Well, youve got to go,” says he. “Are you a goin?”
“I cant,” says I.
“Here, men,” says he, “take her out of here and out
yonder, where she belongs.”
So one of them big men took hold of one arm, and the
other hold of the other arm, and pulled me away from the
winder where I was standin (the same one where I was
standin the mornin Jobe left), and pulled me out of that
dear old kitchen door and across the yard and out into the
big road, where they had piled my things, and sot me
down on a chair.
The sheriff had locked the house and follered them out.
.bn 219.png
.pn +1
When he came out he says, as though he wanted to be
friendly: “Where do you think of goin to, Mrs. Gaskins?”
I looked at him to see if he was crazy or what, but I
couldent speak, I was so full.
Says he: “Do you want the boys to put up your bed
for you?”
I nodded my head.
They set my bed up and put two jints of pipe on my
stove, and then got in their buggy and went to town. It
was nearly sundown when they left me.
Soon arter they had gone Tom Osborne come a ridin by
and brought me a letter.
As soon as he said “letter” my heart leapt. I knew it
was from Jobe.
Tom said he was sorry to see me out here in the road,
and the man really shed tears. He lives some eight miles
from here, and wanted me to go home with him for the
nite. But I jist couldent go. So he rode on.
Arter he was gone I got a lamp and sot down by the fire
I had built in the stove, with some quilts around me, to
read poor Jobe’s letter. And every word seemed to be
another knife stuck in my heart.
Poor Jobe he is havin it hard too. I jist cried like my
heart would break as I read what he writ. I send it to
you to read. I want you to return it, as it is from the only
person in the world that cares for me. Here it is—you
can read it for yourself. You see it was writ at different
times and places.
.pm start_quote
.ce
JOBE’S FIRST LETTER.
.ll 68
.rj
Elyria, O., Feb. 22, 1896.
.ll
.ti 0
To Betsy Gaskins.
My Dear Wife:—I have put off ritin to you thinkin I
would be able to rite you somethin to make you happy,
but to date I cant.
.bn 220.png
.pn +1
I got into Lorain the third day arter leavin you. I
found a big iron works there and lots of men at work, but
on the sides of the door to their office and at all the gates
around the big fence they have signs stuck up, readin:
.if h
.dv class='dottedbox boxwidth40'
.ce
NO HELP WANTED HERE.
.dv-
.if-
.if t
.nf c
+———————————+
| NO HELP WANTED HERE. |
+———————————+
.nf-
.if-
I went into their office, and asked them if they couldent
give me something to do.
They said: “No, we have all the men we need.”
I told them how I wanted somethin to do at any price;
of our bein foreclosed and havin to git out and all. They
shook their head and said they “had to turn away hundreds
of men every day,” and told me to “look around,” I
“might find work somewhere else.”
So I left and went from one place to another, and everywhere
I went I saw them signs and was told the same
thing.
I found lots of men huntin work.
On nearly every street, and down along the river and
over by the lake, were men a campin and a sleepin in
railroad cars and outdoors; cookin by fires built along the
banks and on the shore; “waitin,” they said, “till they
could git a job.”
I got my supper with three fellers that nite that done
their cookin that way. They seemed to be nice fellers.
They was from different parts of the country.
.il id=i221 fn=i-221.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=l
.ca “At all the gates around the big fence they had signs stuck up.”
That nite I got a bed for fifteen cents, and had forty-three
cents left.
The next day I walked and walked and walked to find
work, but couldent.
At nite I had twenty-four cents left. Not wantin to git
clear out of money, I got into an empty box-car and slept
the best I could. It was cold, and most of the nite I had
.bn 221.png
.pn +1
to walk
from one
end of the
car to the
other,
back and
forth, to
keep myself
warm.
So this mornin I
come down here to
Elyria, and have been
from one end of the
town to the other
tryin to find work;
but nobody seems to
want to hire me.
I find men stayin
out around town here
too. They say they
have been all over
the country, and cant
find work anywhere.
I dont know what I
will do. Ile go over to
Berea and see if I cant find somethin there. I will not
send this letter till I git there.
.ll 68
.nf r
Cleveland, O., Feb. 26, 1896.
Box-car 1406, Valley Railway.
.nf-
.ll
.il id=i222 fn=i-222.jpg w=325px ew=60% align=l
.ca “I asked him for something to eat.”
Betsy:—I am here. I will finish my letter. God only
knows what it is to be out of work, out of money and out of
home. I am not well. Ive had to sleep outdoors, in cars
and barns and around lumber piles so much that I have a
.bn 222.png
.pn +1
bad cold. I have
not had anything
to eat since yisterday
mornin.
This cold weather
has nearly
used me up. I
got one day’s
work cuttin ice,
and got a dollar
for it. That nite
I got me a warm
supper and slept
in a bed.
I run out of
money at Elyria,
and come from
there to Berea.
The first beggin
I done was
from the farmers
on the way. I
got one warm
meal and a cold lunch. I was in Berea a whole day and
nite without anything to eat, so I jist had to go to beggin
agin. I went to the Methodist preacher’s house one of
them real cold mornins. I knocked, and the preacher come
to the door. I asked him for somethin to eat. He
called to the hired girl and told her to hand me a lunch,
and went in, shut the door, and sot down by the fire. I
could see him a settin there a readin the Cleveland Leader,
with his feet restin on a plush foot-stool, and while that girl
was a gittin that lunch and I was a standin out there in the
.bn 223.png
.pn +1
wind a lookin at that good big fire I thought I would freeze.
My teeth shook.
When the girl brought that lunch I was so cold that I
could hardly take it. It was two pieces of cold bread, with
some cold beef shaved off and laid between.
I was hungry and tried to eat it; the bites seemed to
stick in my throat, it was so dry and cold. What I did
swallow seemed like chunks of ice in my stomach, and
made me colder. I shook from head to foot. I couldent
eat it, I was so cold. So I put what I couldent eat in my
pocket, thinkin I would eat it when I got warmer.
I thought Ide die with cold. No matter how fast I
walked, I dident get warm. I went on and on till I got
down where the bizness houses were. I could smell
coffee and warm meat a fryin. It jist seemed as though I
had to go in and take some, but I knew I darent. It
seemed to make me colder. Finally I saw a sign sayin:
.if h
.dv class='dottedbox boxwidth40'
.ce
FREE HOT SOUP.
.dv-
.if-
.if t
.nf c
+————————+
| FREE HOT SOUP. |
+————————+
.nf-
.if-
When I got up to it a man opened the door, a sweepin.
I stopped, told him I had no money and was cold, and
asked him if I could go into his place and warm.
“Certainly,” says he, “go right in. Ile be in in a
minit.”
I went in—yes, Betsy, went into a saloon, the fust time
in my life. Dont blame me. I had to—I was so cold.
The stove was red-hot. When the feller come in and saw
how I was shakin, says he:
“Old man, this is pretty cold weather to be out.”
“Yes,” says I, shiverin.
He brought me a chair and told me to set down. Then
he felt my hands and ears and says:
.bn 224.png
.pn +1
“Why, you are nearly froze.”
I told him about havin to stay out all nite, and about not
havin anything warm for breakfast, the best I could, I
shook so.
He went and got a big woolen cloth, held it to the stove
till it got hot, and wrapped my ears up. Then he went
and got a little glass full of liquor, and told me to drink it
and it would warm me up. I told him I hadent any
money, and had never drank a drop of liquor in my life.
“Well,” says he, “I know you have no money, and, if
you had, a old man like you, in your condition, shouldent
pay for it. If you dont wish to drink it I wont insist, but
I thought it would warm you up.”
So he set the glass down on the counter and says:
“Ile make you a hot cup of coffee, and then I think you
will feel better.”
When the saloonkeeper set the glass of whiskey down
and went to gittin me some hot breakfast, I seemed to git
colder inside as I got warmer outside. So, Betsy, I jist
made up my mind that Ide drink that glass of whiskey if it
killed me. And I did. Soon after I drank it I felt a warm
feelin inside; and as I sot there it jist seemed as though I
could feel myself a thawin out, with that big fire outside
and that glass of whiskey inside. I sot there till the feller
had my coffee and breakfast ready. It was the best coffee
I ever tasted,—though, Betsy, I always loved the coffee
you made,—and the fried eggs and the ham and the hot
cakes jist seemed to melt in my mouth.
Well, arter I had my breakfast the saloonkeeper came
around and sot down and asked me all about myself, and
you too.
.il id=i225 fn=i-225.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “‘Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be.’”
And as I told all our trouble, about our foreclosin and
sellin out, and my huntin work and not findin it, big tears
would every now and then leave his big blue eyes and roll
.bn 225.png
.bn 226.png
.pn +2
down his cheeks, and he kept a swallerin every little bit.
When I had told him all, says he:
“Well, old man, sich things hadent ort to be.”
So, when I got ready to go, he shook my hand and
wished me good luck in findin work; and when he took
hold of my hand I felt somethin hard in his, and when he
let go I had a silver dollar in mine. I handed it back to
him, and told him I dident know as I could ever return it
to him.
“No matter, pap,” says he, “keep it. If you are never
able to return it, all right, and if you are able and never see
me, ‘do unto some other human brother as I have done
unto you,’ and the debt will be paid. Times are hard, and
I have sich high taxes to pay that it makes money scarce
with me, or I would give you more. I hate to see you go
out in this cold; you are welcome to stay if you wish.”
But, Betsy, I was so anxious to find work and git a place
for you that I couldent stay. So that day and nite I made
it to here. This is a big town, but so far I have found no
work.
.ll 68
.nf r
Your lovin husband,
Jobe Gaskins.
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
When I got done readin that letter I was cryin out loud.
Poor Jobe. I wonder where he was last nite.
Oh, how I love that man that took Jobe in and warmed
him and fed him!
I love him though he is a saloonkeeper. I could throw
my arms around his neck and cry on his shoulder with love
for him and for his kindness toward Jobe.
Well, this mornin the world seems strange to me. Last
nite arter I had gone to bed and could look up in the clear
sky at the bright stars, it jist seemed to me, while I laid
there in my bed beside the big road, that every star was a
eye lookin down on me with pity. And, thinkin that they
.bn 227.png
.pn +1
looked that way, I was not a bit afraid and went to sleep,
and slept till daylite.
Hopin God will forgive them for makin and havin laws
to put sich people as me out of home, I am
.ll 68
.nf r
Your troubled and homeless
Betsy Gaskins.
.nf-
.ll
.il fn=i-064.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 228.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XL. | “THEM ROOMS.” THE “DIRECTOR OF CHARITIES.”
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THAT mornin arter I wrote you the last time—arter I
had built me a fire in my stove and got my breakfast
and washed up my dishes and made my bed—I sot
down on a chair out there by the big road. I never felt so
queer in all my life. Not a sound could be heard, except
over on the hill near Jake Stiffler’s I could heer a cow a
bawlin. It was awful lonesome. No one to speak to,
nothin to look at, except my things piled up there beside
the road.
I couldent help thinkin of poor Jobe—his beggin, and
bein cold, and starvin, and sleepin in box-cars, and sich.
Well, arter I had sot there a while a thinkin, I felt so
bad that I jist thought I would go up to the house and
take a look at them rooms and the place we had so long
loved as our home.
I felt afraid like to go, but I thought it might cheer me
up to look into them rooms that I had cleaned and papered
and swept—the rooms where Jobe and me had set in and
slept; the rooms that had sheltered us in sickness and
in health.
So I jist throwed a shawl over my head, and walked up
the walk that I had walked up thousands of times.
There were the currant bushes, the lilac, the dead poppy
stalks. And all the weeds and posies, that used to appear
to wear a smile for me, now seemed to turn from me as if
to say, “We haint yours any more. You have no bizness
here now.”
.bn 229.png
.pn +1
.il id=i229 fn=i-229.jpg w=55% ew=55% align=r
.ca “I slipped over and put my face agin the glass.”
And as I looked at
them and felt that
feelin, a lump would
raise up in my throat,
no matter how much I
swallered and tried to
keep it back.
Well, I walked on
until I got up to the
kitchen winder.
When I got there it
jist seemed that I
couldent look in, but,
knowin I had come
there to see them
rooms, half afraid like
but determined, I
slipped over and put
my face agin the
glass.
Everything was
silent and still. There
was my kitchen, all
empty. Not a thing
to be seen but that
dear old kitchen—empty—no
stove, no
table, no chairs, no
nothin. There was the winder where I stood cryin the
mornin Jobe left. There by that winder I had set a combin
my little Jane’s hair years ago, while she drew pictures on
them same winderpanes with her little fingers. There were
the nails Jobe had drove in the wall when we fust moved in;
there was the same floor over which we had walked for
.bn 230.png
.pn +1
years. Oh, how I longed to be a walkin over it agin! I
was locked out—I couldent git in.
So I went from one winder to another, lookin in at them
rooms. There was the same grate that had warmed us;
there in that corner, evenin arter evenin, Jobe had set and
studied; there in the other corner I had set and knit, or
set and read. It seemed that I could see Jobe there now.
Oh! how I would love to see him there. Poor Jobe! I
wonder if he thinks of the evenins weve spent beside that
fire together. There was our bed-room—empty, silent
and still—no bed, no nothin. There in that room I had
set, nite arter nite, with little Jane when she was sick;
there she had throwed her little arms around my neck and
put her fevered face agin mine the last time. From that
room Ellen Jane Moore had carried her arter she was
gone. It was empty now. I was locked out. I couldent
go in.
Turnin from them rooms, I walked around the yard,
lookin at the fence, the well, the coal-house, and the things
that had been mine. Then, comin to the front yard, I
come to the little white rose-bush; it seemed to look at me
pleadin like. I started to go on, but I couldent. That
rose-bush seemed to call me back. So I jist got me a
sharp stick and dug it up, and took it down to where my
things were and wrapped it up in a cloth.
When I got back to the big road, and was settin there
wonderin what Ide do, how long Ide have to live there in
the big road, where Ide go to and sich, Constable Bill
Adams come a ridin by.
When he got up to me, says he:
“Why, Mrs. Gaskins, what are you a doin with all this
stuff piled in the road?”
“Ime livin here,” says I.
“Well, youle have to git this stuff out of the road,” says
.bn 231.png
.pn +1
he. “You darent obstruct the public highway. Its
dangerous to have a pile of stuff like this in the big road;
its liable to scare horses, and somebody might git hurt or
killed. Its aginst the law, Mrs. Gaskins, its aginst the
law, and you will have to move it.”
“The law put it here,” says I.
“No matter,” says he; “youle have to git out of here,
or youle be arrested.”
“Where will I put it?”
“How do I know?” says he. “Youle have to look out
for that yourself. Git it out of here, and that mighty
quick, or you will git yourself into trouble.”
And he rode on towards town.
Well, as he rode away I sot down and begin to think.
Here I was, a old woman, set out in the big road by the
Law—put out of the house we had paid $3,800 towards;
the house empty, and now comes the Law and orders me
to even git away from where the Law had put me. What
to do I dident know. I jist sot there a cryin and helpless,
when I heerd wagons comin down the road. I looked up,
and there come two wagons and four men down the hill.
They drove up and stopped, and there was Tom
Osborne, and Charley McGlinchey, and that fat black-smith,
and Jones the baker, all from Mineral Pint. They
had come to move me.
Tom Osborne had went home the night before and told
them about me bein put out in the big road, and they went
together and got teams and come and moved me to
town here.
They seemed to be nice, kind men, but talked like them
Populists.
They dident talk much to me, but I heerd them talkin to
each other, sayin: “Its a shame,” “a disgrace to civilization,”
“wrong,” “wouldent be if the people could borrow
.bn 232.png
.pn +1
money from the government like they do in Switzerland,”
and all sich. They even said: “The time haint fur off when
it can be done, and the likes of this wont be.” And then
they said a good deal agin the money power and polerticians,
and sich, until I was glad Jobe wasent there to flare
up. I was glad he wasent there, though Ide give the world
to know where he is, or to have him with me.
Well, they brought me to town and rented me this house
here at 1412 West Front Street, and paid the rent for a
month; then two of them drove off, and soon brought me
a load of coal. While them two were gone for the coal the
other two set up my stove, and fixed up my bed, and set
things around in pretty good shape for men; then, wishin
me good luck, and hopin Jobe would soon git work and I
would git to go to him, they drove off. They all looked
pityin like as they left.
I went to the post-office the next mornin to tell them
I had changed my place of livin. I got this letter from
Jobe. It jist seems there is no end of trouble for the
people who are poor.
Poor Jobe, how my heart bleeds for him. Here is his
letter. Read it for yourself:
.sp 1
.ce
JOBE’S SECOND LETTER.
.pm start_quote
.ll 68
.nf r
Cleveland Work-house,
Cleveland, O., March 5, 1896.
.nf-
.ll
.ti 0
To Betsy Gaskins.
My Dear Wife and Only Friend:—I am here in this
prison—put here by the law. God only knows my feelins.
I am not a criminal. Ive done no wrong. Betsy, don’t
blame me. Pity me. I am a old man. I have worked
hard. Ive been honest. Ive tried to do right. To-day I
am in prison, wearin stripes. I was hungry. I had no
money. I asked for bread. They arrested me.
.bn 233.png
.pn +1
.il id=i233 fn=i-233.jpg w=65% ew=65% align=r
It was day before
yisterday. I
had hunted for
work all day. I
had had nothin
to eat for a whole
day and nite. I
was passin up
Ontario Street,
near Hull & Dutton’s
big clothin
store. I saw a
well-dressed
man, with a high
silk hat on, with
a hand full of
paper money,
talkin loud and
offerin to bet
$500 that McKinley
would git
the delegates
from Allegheny County. There were several fellers standin
there a listenin and talkin, and two policemen. I stepped
up and asked the feller with the money if he could give me
enough to git me a supper and bed. I was so hungry and
nearly sick by sleepin outdoors.
The feller turned around and looked black at me. Then,
turnin to the policemen, he ordered them to arrest me, sayin:
“Ime d—d if I dont intend to break up this beggin on
the streets.”
The policemen took hold of me and jerked me out of the
crowd and pulled me down Champlain Street hill to the
city prison, and locked me in a iron cage.
.bn 234.png
.pn +1
I asked one of them who the big man was that ordered
me arrested. He said it was “the Director of Charities,
one of the leadin city officers.”
You may have read in the papers of him a havin a tramp
arrested for askin him for somethin to buy bread with.
That tramp, Betsy, was me.
They say he gits $5,000 a year for bein “Director of
Charities.”
Well, they tried me next mornin and found me guilty.
I am up for ten days. I cant find any work or a place
for you till I git out.
They brought me out here in a wagon with a cage on it.
They call it the “Black Mariar.” There was a lot of us in
it. Betsy, pity me. Dont blame me.
.ll 68
.rj
Your lovin husband,\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Jobe Gaskins.
.ll
.pm end_quote
Mistur Editure, I cant comment. I feel so bad.
.il fn=i-068.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 235.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XLI. | A SORE HAND.
.dc 0.2 0.4
I AM sick. I have been sick since day before yisterday.
I have a high fever. My head bothers me. I cant
rite. Here is another letter I got from poor Jobe. Oh!
how I wish he was here. I know he would care for me and
watch over me and do for me while Ime sick. Read his
letter and return it. They seem so near to me. I havent
been able to be out of bed much to-day. If Jobe was only
out of that dreadful place.
.sp 1
.ce
JOBE’S THIRD LETTER.
.pm start_quote
.ll 68
.nf r
Cleveland Work-house,
Cleveland, O., March 9, 1896.
.nf-
.ll
.ti 0
To Betsy Gaskins.
Dear Wife:—I got your letter yisterday. I cant tell
you how I felt when I read of them a puttin you out.
Betsy, I little thought, the day you stood beside me and
become my wife, that the time would come when you would
have to sleep outdoors in the big road.
I felt then, Betsy, as though I was strong enough, and
God knows I was willin, to provide a home for you as long
as we both lived. Dont blame me, Betsy. Ive done the
best I could. You know Ive worked hard, and we have
lived savin, but by some unknown reason all I have aimed
is gone. Mr. Richer has $3,800 of it. Ive done the best
I could.
I have to work hard here in this place, but Ime not
complainin, nor wouldent complain if I was gittin paid for
what work I do, so that I could help you.
.bn 236.png
.pn +1
.il id=i236 fn=i-236.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “I have to work hard in this place.”
Ime a wheelin coal to the furnace and a wheelin hot
cinders away.
It keeps me bizzy.
There are lots of men in here. A great many for
beggin—jist as I am. Betsy, dont let the neighbors know
they have me locked up. I feel so disgraced.
I feel that if that “Director of Charities,” that had me
arrested and put in here, had known that I had feelins; if
he had known that I was a honest old man; if he had
thought of the difference between a old man, hungry, away
from home and out of money—I say, Betsy, if he had
thought of the difference between sich a man as I was and
a man drawin $5,000 a year as a leadin city officer, like
hisself, I dont think he could have had the heart to have
had me arrested and sent to prison.
Lots of the fellers in here seem to be honest, kind-hearted
people, but poor and away from home. Not bein
known to the officers, they are arrested and sent out here.
.bn 237.png
.pn +1
Betsy, I long to see you. When I git out I will come
back. I cant find any work up here. Nobody seems to
want to hire me.
My hand is sore. I can hardly use it. But then the
feller what watches me work keeps me a goin. He dont
allow me to stop a minit from the time they let me out of
my cell in the mornin till they lock me in it agin at nite.
The way I come to hurt my hand was—I had a dream.
Ive been a dreamin more or less for some time. Ime so
tired and my bed is so hard. I suppose I dont sleep sound
is why I dream so.
I dreamed I was in this work-house and there was more
than a thousand other men in, and a comin in from ten to
thirty a day—mostly for bein hungry and beggin.
Well, I thought one bright mornin one of the guards
come through the buildin a hollerin and poundin on a big
gong, and tellin all the fellers “to come into the big yard”
that is in this place. He said that they had some good
news for us. “Glad tidings of great joy,” says he.
I thought we all stopped work and went a hurryin to
that big yard, and when I got there the yard was alive with
people, men waitin to hear them “tidings.”
Well, when we all got into that yard two nice-lookin
men climbed up on the platform that is in the middle and
one of them says:
“Fellow-Citizens, Gentlemen and Brothers: We are
delegated by the proper authority to declare unto you this
beautiful morning a new law that has been made by our
brothers, the law-makers at Washington. We solicit your
undivided attention for a few moments.”
He then read:
“Be it resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives,
in Congress assembled: That the chief aim of human government
should be to secure to each individual member of
.bn 238.png
.pn +1
such government contentment and happiness; that this
can be done only by securing to all the unrestricted opportunity
to employ the means intended by the Creator for
earning a livelihood—i. e., labor.
“Therefore be it enacted, That a fund of $500,000,000 be
provided (by the issue of said sum in full legal-tender
greenback notes, in denominations of one, two and five
dollars) and set apart for the purpose of giving employment
to such American citizens as may have no other employment,
and who may go before any board of county commissioners
in the United States and certify under oath that
they are American citizens, are out of employment and
desire to perform manual labor in the service of this
government.
“Thereupon it shall be the duty of said county commissioners
to assign to such citizens work in improving
any of the public highways in said county, or in constructing
and equipping any public utility in and for said county.
The wages due each citizen for said services shall be paid
to him, weekly, by the treasurer of the county in which
the services are performed, on the warrant of the county
auditor and order of the said commissioners. A monthly
statement of the amounts so paid out shall be sent by the
treasurer of the county to the Treasury Department at
Washington, and thereupon the sum thereof shall be
repaid from the fund aforesaid into the treasury of such
county.
“On and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful
for any person to beg or ask alms in the United States
except in cases of physical disability.”
Arter he had read this law says he:
“Gentlemen, we are aware that most of you are here
because you are victims of the system that has heretofore
prevailed—many for asking for bread when hungry, others
.bn 239.png
.pn +1
for other offenses, which you may have been forced to
commit in consequence of having no employment and
being in want.
“Our county commissioners have assigned and set apart
work, on the Shaker Hill road and Kinsman Street, sufficient
to give employment to three thousand men for several
months, and Governor Bushnell has, by proclamation,
given their liberty to all inmates of the penal institutions
of the State (except the penitentiary) who desire to avail
themselves of the opportunity to work as provided by the
law I have just read. You, gentlemen, are excused from
making the oath mentioned.
.il id=i239 fn=i-239.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “One nice little place that I thought I would rent as soon as I got my first week’s pay.”
“Now, all you who desire to work on these public
improvements will form in line and pass out through the
office, giving your correct names and addresses, as you
now become once more respected American citizens.
Form in line, two abreast, out on Woodland Avenue,
facing east, and we will take pleasure in conducting you
to the places of employment. There you will be supplied
with the necessary tools, and arrangements will be made
at different places where you can get accommodations until
you receive your first pay for services. Your compensation
will be $1.50 each per day.”
.bn 240.png
.pn +1
At that he stopped. Every man in that yard was in line.
It seemed as though a cloud had rose up off from that
crowd. Every one looked happy, cheerful.
Well, Betsy, we marched out into the open air onto
Woodland Avenue, and each one gave his real name and
address to the clerk as we passed out.
Then we all went out to the place where they were at
work.
There they were—hundreds of them—a plowin, and a
shovelin, and a haulin, a talkin and a laffin, a whistlin and
a singin.
I looked at several houses as we were on our way out,
and saw one nice little place that I thought I would rent
as soon as I got my first week’s pay.
When the week was up I went, and sure enough it was
empty. I hunted up the owner, and got it for $5 a month.
I used $3 of the other four to pay my board.
I worked there three weeks, makin $27, and had sent
for you. I was lookin for you on Saturday, and could
hardly wait until you come. I felt young agin.
.il id=i241 fn=i-241.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “I worked there three weeks.”
Well, when I got to my boardin place on Thursday
night, I went in and up to my room, thinkin that in two
more days you would be with me. When I opened the
door, there you was a comin toward me with your arms
stretched out. My heart leaped. I jumped towards you,
throwin out my arms to embrace you, when——
I struck my hand agin the iron bed-post in my cell and
nearly broke it. It woke me up. Everything was cold
and dark. You was not there. I felt so queer that I sot
up in bed, and I sot there a thinkin of that dream—thinkin
of how glad I was to git work; thinkin of that law, and
what a grand country this would be if sich was the law;
thinkin of that little house with green winder-blinds;
thinkin of you doin your cookin and sweepin, your dustin
.bn 241.png
.bn 242.png
.pn +2
and cleanin in that little house; thinkin of me a makin $9
every week, and a countin the money out to you every
Saturday night in new, crisp greenbacks; thinkin of all
these things, and then thinkin of you a sleepin out there
in the road, you a goin hungry and without shelter because
I cant git any sich work; thinkin how happy we might be
and how troubled we are. I jist had to cry. I had to,
though Ime a man. I sot there on the side of that iron
bed till I nearly froze; then I laid down and went to
sleep and slept till half-past five, when the watchman
came around to waken me up to go to wheelin coal and
cinders for another twelve hours for nothin.
.il id=i242 fn=i-242.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca “Everything was cold and dark.”
I will git out a Monday, and will start back as soon as
they let me out. Somethin tells me I ort to be there; and
its no use me tryin to find work in this place or any other.
They either have “all the help they need,” or else “dont
want to hire a old man.”
.bn 243.png
.pn +1
Hopin this will find you well, and that some kind
person has taken you in out of the big road, I am, Betsy,
.ll 68
.nf r
Your lovin but discouraged husband,
Jobe Gaskins.
.nf-
.ll
.pm end_quote
Mistur Editure, the more I think of that letter, the more
I think of that poor old man a carin for me, and a dreamin
about me, the worse it makes my head ache and the higher
it makes my fever. If I had the money I would send for a
doctor, but I haint got it; and if I had, I haint got anybody
to go. I jist have to lay here. No fire, no one to
look at, no one to talk to—jist lay here and look at the
ceilin and think. Ile have to quit.
.ll 68
.nf r
Hopin your folks are all well,
BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat),
Wife of
Jobe Gaskins (Republican).
.nf-
.ll
.il fn=i-157.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 244.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XLII. | HATTIE MOORE.
.sp 2
.ll 68
.nf r
Tuscarawas County Poor-house,
Near New Philadelphia, O., March 15, 1896.
.nf-
.ll
.di i-244.jpg 150 125 1.0
MR. EDITOR:—My name is
Hattie Moore. My age is
seventeen. My father was
a soldier. My mother is
a widow. I was betrayed
by one of the leading city
officials, and while he
to-day is performing the
duty and drawing the salary
of an office of trust
and honor, his child and I, its girl mother, are inmates of
this poor-house.
I write to let you know about Betsy Gaskins. They
brought her here yesterday. She is very sick. She is
delirious and talks a great deal in her sleep, about somebody
by the name of Jobe, and about their home and high
interest, and $3,800, and being turned out, and all such
things. Judging from the wrinkles on her face and the
hard places in her hands, she must have been a hard-working
old woman.
I pity her so much that every now and then I steal into
the room where they put her. I stayed in there nearly all
night last night, though I knew it was against the rules.
But my baby slept well, and I hated to let the poor woman
lie in that room all night sick and alone.
.bn 245.png
.pn +1
I just thought that if my old mother was sick and poor
and taken to a place like this, I would love any girl who
would be kind to her and pity her. I would love her even
though she had been betrayed and was in the poor-house
to get away from the taunts of a heartless world.
I asked the man who brought her here who she was and
where she came from.
He diden’t seem to know much about her. He said that
some people found her sick and delirious in a small house
in the west end and notified the township trustees; that
the trustees went to the prosecuting attorney and wanted
to know what was best to be done with her and if the law
would permit them to hire somebody to go to her house
and take care of her. The prosecuting attorney asked if
she had any money or property. The trustees told
him that she had not; that she was very poor—had
nothing.
“Send her to the poor-house,” says the prosecutor,
“send her to the poor-house. The best thing to do with
such people is to get rid of them.”
So, the expressman said, they came and got him, and
they drove out and loaded her into his express wagon, and
he brought her out here.
“Her name is Betsy Gaskins,” says he.
It was cold and stormy, and the poor old soul was in
great pain all night.
A few minutes ago I went in, and she was breathing so
weak that I put my hand in her bosom to see if her heart
was beating, and I found this letter from “Jobe Gaskins.”
It seems she is a married woman, and he has been away
from home and is coming back. I send it to you, and, if
you see him, tell him where he can find his wife.
Now, Mr. Editor, you had better send this old man’s
letter back, so that if the old lady gets better she will have
.bn 246.png
.pn +1
it. But I don’t know as she will ever be much better; she
seems to be sinking.
Send the old man out as soon as he gets there.
.ll 68
.nf r
From a friend to Betsy Gaskins,
Hattie Moore.
.nf-
.ll
.sp 1
.ce
JOBE’S FOURTH LETTER.
.ll 68
.rj
Akron, O., March 12, 1896.
.ll
.ti 0
To Betsy Gaskins.
Dear Wife:—They let me out last Monday. I felt very
strange when they opened them big doors and told me to
go. When I got out onto the street I felt jist like a feller
does when he is lost in a big woods. I dident know
which way to start. But I wanted to git back to you. I
saw a depot marked “Woodland Station,” and I went over
there—went in and sot down. Pretty soon a passenger
train come in headed south. Everybody got up to take
it, and, I dont know why, but I went with the crowd and
into the car. When the train got started, I thought of
havin no ticket or money.
The conductor dident get around to me until we had
passed Newburg.
I was lookin out at the big buildin where they keep crazy
people, when he teched me on the shoulder and says,
“Ticket.”
I told him I had no ticket nor money; that I was a old
man; had been out tryin to find work and couldent; that
my wife was sick and I was wantin to git back.
He said: “You cant ride on this train. Youle have to
git off.”
I asked him if he couldent let me ride; that I would pay
him some time if I ever got the money.
“No,” says he, “my instructions are to carry no one
without a ticket or the money.”
.bn 247.png
.pn +1
I told him the people what owned the railroad was rich
and wouldent care if he let a old man ride to Bayard.
“No,” says he, “you must git off at Bedford. Ime not
permitted to carry you.”
Well, when they got to Bedford I jist sot still, thinkin
he might forgit me. But when he come in I saw he was
mad. He rang the bell, and the train stopped; then him
and the brakesman come and took hold of me and dragged
me out of that train, and when they got me out they give
me a shove, jumped into the train, rang the bell and went.
.il id=i247 fn=i-247.jpg w=80% ew=80%
.ca “He teched me on the shoulder.”
They shoved me so hard that I fell down and struck my
knee agin a big iron pin that laid beside the track, and
hurt it so bad that I can hardly walk. Then I come on
till I got to Hudson; then I got onto a freight train
between two cars and rode to Cuyahoga Falls; there they
arrested me for it and was a goin to send me to the work-house
agin. But when I told them all they let me go if I
would agree to git out of town in thirty minits. They
went through all my pockets, to see if I had any money,
.bn 248.png
.pn +1
before they told me that. I got out, and now I am walkin.
I will git there as soon as I can. The soles are off my
boots, and my feet are wet nearly all the time.
Hopin this will find you better,
.ll 68
.nf r
I am your lovin husband,
Jobe Gaskins.
.nf-
.ll
.il id=i248 fn=i-248.jpg w=60% ew=60%
.ca “I got onto a freight train.”
.bn 249.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XLIII. | A FAMILY REUNION.
.sp 2
.ll 68
.nf r
Tuscarawas County Poor-house,
Near New Philadelphia, O., March 25, 1896.
.nf-
.ll
.dc 0.3 0.4
MR. EDITOR:—Your letter asking more about Betsy
Gaskins received. I will tell you all I know.
Whether Betsy Gaskins is living or dead I cannot
say, and I never will know, though what I do know I
never can forget.
The strange things I have seen since I last wrote you
are mysteries that can only be guessed at; they cannot be
solved.
Betsy had been growing worse every day till the night
of that terrible storm. The rain and sleet and snow, the
wind and hail, made it one of the most dismal nights I
ever saw. The roaring in the woods on the hill back of
the poor-house sounded like a storm on the ocean. In
every direction cattle and sheep were bawling. It was so
cold, and the noise, I suppose, kept them awake.
That night Betsy was worse. She had smothering spells
that it seemed she would die in, and her suffering was
terrible. I couldn’t leave her, though my baby was fretful
and kept awake till after ten o’clock. I was with her
almost all the time.
I had let the window down from the top to let in fresh
air, as she seemed to need it. I had no light except what
came in over the transom of the door from the hall.
It was about two o’clock that I was sitting there all
alone. Betsy seemed to be getting worse very fast.
.bn 250.png
.pn +1
.il id=i250 fn=i-250.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “Pushing back the hair of the sick woman, leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.”
The roaring of the storm, the bellowing of the cattle,
the creaking of the window shutters and the moaning of
that old woman made it sad and lonesome.
I was sitting there, thinking of what an awful thing it is
to be poor and homeless and sick and friendless,—thinking
of the wrong and misery, the cruelty and crime that is
going on in the world against the weak and helpless,—when
for some reason I looked toward the window, and there
was the face of the most beautiful little girl I ever saw,
looking in just over the sash. Her face seemed to shine,
it was so bright. Her hair was the color of gold. I
couldn’t speak.
That face (for the face and shoulders were all I could
see) seemed to float in at that window, and for a minute
stood still, like a humming-bird in the air, in the middle
of that room, with its eyes steadily fixed on the old woman.
Then it moved slowly and quietly downward and lit on the
.bn 251.png
.pn +1
bed beside Betsy, and, pushing back the hair of the sick
woman, leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. At
that Betsy opened her eyes and clasped the little girl in
her arms, saying:
“Oh, my child!”
The head said, “Mamma.”
They held each other there a minute or so, when Betsy
all of a sudden threw her arms in the air, half rose up
and screamed at the top of her voice:
“See! see! Look yonder! Your father’s burning! Go,
child! Go!”
The little girl turned her head, and they both looked
toward the west wall a second, as though they saw something
terrible to behold. Then the child rose as quick as
thought, and, like a flash, went out at the window, screaming
in a tone that made the chills run over me, “Oh, my
papa!”
Betsy fell back upon the bed, and seemed to be greatly
troubled and in much pain.
I had set there possibly an hour, watching the sufferings
of that poor woman, and thinking of that little girl, when
all of a sudden I looked toward the window, and there
again was the face of that little girl and the face of an old
man. The little girl was pointing with her chubby finger
toward the sick woman; the other arm she had around the
old man. He was looking to where she was pointing,
troubled like.
I can’t say I was scared. I just felt speechless.
When they had looked a little bit, both of them came in
at that window—just floated in—and stood in mid-air.
Betsy was resting easier, and it seemed they didn’t wish
to wake her.
.il id=i252 fn=i-252.jpg w=65% ew=65% align=r
.ca “There lay Mrs. Gaskins.”
I could see more of the little girl than before. Both their
faces were bright, and the lower down you looked the
.bn 252.png
.pn +1
dimmer they
got, till they
became colorless.
I thought
I could see their
feet, as clear as
glass.
Well, after
they had rested
there in the air
a few seconds
the little girl
took her arm
from around the
old man, and they both settled down beside the old woman,
one on one side of the bed, the other on the other side,
and they each stroked her hair back with their hands.
Pretty soon Betsy opened her eyes, and looked up,
happy like, first at one, then at the other; then she
stretched out her arms, and they both laid their faces down
beside hers, one on one side and one on the other.
She seemed to rest easier then, only her breathing was
slower and each time farther apart. Pretty soon I saw a
mist or something gathering over her between the old man
and the little girl. I watched it, and it kept growing
brighter and brighter, till I could see the form of a woman;
then I could see that it appeared alive and looked like
Mrs. Gaskins, only happier. Mrs. Gaskins began to
suffer now, and was getting her breath hard.
.il id=i253 fn=i-253.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “There again was the face of that little girl and the face of an old man.”
Finally the old man and the little girl rose up, and each
put an arm around this form. The form would first look
at one, then the other. Then Mrs. Gaskins gave one long,
hard gasp, and straightened out, and the form broke loose,
and all three rose up in the air and floated to the middle
.bn 253.png
.bn 254.png
.pn +2
of the room, stopped, turned, and all looked at the bed.
Then they turned and gazed at me. I couldn’t move. They
kissed each other and began to move slowly toward the
window, each with an arm around another. As they went
out through the window the little girl began to sing the
prettiest song I ever heard, in a low, sweet tone.
When they were gone I got up and ran to the window.
There they were, going up through the sky above the barn,
the little girl singing at the top of her voice.
I stood there looking as long as I could see them. I
heard that little girl still singing as they went out of sight
over the hill back of the poor-house.
.il id=i254 fn=i-254.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.ca “In the morning there was found a white-haired man.”
I felt so weak that I don’t know how long I stood there,
but finally I thought that I must run and tell the superintendent
that Mrs. Gaskins had gone. With that thought
in my mind I turned from the window, crossed the room,
and was just opening the door, when I happened to look
toward the bed. And there lay Mrs. Gaskins as she had
lain all evening, only stiller.
I was scared. I could hardly believe it. I went to the
bed. She was cold. She did not breathe. I rubbed my
eyes and hands and face to try to bring myself to realize
what it all meant. Then I went into my room and lay
down beside my baby till morning.
.bn 255.png
.pn +1
I straightened out Betsy’s clothes the next morning
before they put her in the box. While doing so, I found
a little rose-bush, tied up neatly in a rag and pinned fast
to her skirt.
This, Mr. Editor, is all I know of Betsy Gaskins.
Of Jobe Gaskins I know very little, unless it was he that
came with the little girl.
In yesterday’s daily paper, however, I noticed this item:
.pm start_quote
“New Philadelphia, O., March 22, 1896.—Last night a
supposed tramp entered the Canal Dover rolling-mill in an
almost frozen condition and asked for shelter from the
storm. In accordance with his instruction from the company,
the night watchman ejected him. In the morning
there was found a white-haired man, apparently sixty
years of age, lying cold in death on the ash-heap. The
initials ‘J. G.’ were marked on his shirt. His face was
burned so that it scarcely looked like a human countenance.
His feet and body were covered with ice and snow.
“The coroner’s jury, judging from the time the man was
refused shelter in the mill and from the amount of snow
on his feet and body, decided that he must have died
between two and three o’clock the night before.”
.pm end_quote
Could this tramp, Mr. Editor, have been the old man
who was trying to get back to his sick wife?
.ll 68
.rj
Hattie Moore.
.ll
.sp 1
P. S.—The rose-bush which I found pinned to poor
Betsy’s skirt I have planted on her grave.
.il id=i255 fn=i-255.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 256.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER XLIV. | AFTER THE WOE, THEN COMES THE LAW.
.sp 2
.di i-256.jpg 250 234 1.0
BETSY GASKINS’ sad history
and the terrible fate of
poor Jobe—for he it was
whose body was found
on the cinder-pile—caused
great excitement, not only
in Tuscarawas County,
but throughout Ohio, and
even in many other sections
of the country. One
Chicago paper devoted a
whole column to portraying the awfulness of turning
an old man from a friendly shelter on such a cruel night
as the one when Jobe Gaskins froze to death. Other
papers in different parts of the Union expatiated on the
hardships of the old couple from the time the hard hand
of the law began to push them from their home until death
took pity on them and removed them beyond the reach of
man’s cruelty to man. The lesson of their humble lives
was made the subject of sermons and of editorials everywhere.
By the time of the campaign of 1896, the people of the
United States had become so wrought up that there seemed
to be a spontaneous demand for the restoration of the
conditions which prevailed when it was possible for Jobe
Gaskins and his likes to pay off their debts. So universal
was the demand that three parties nominated the same
.bn 257.png
.pn +1
candidate for president. He made a brilliant campaign;
but, owing to his being handicapped by a plutocratic,
mortgage-holding, interest-taking running mate, he was
defeated.
Out of the campaign and the knowledge gained by the
people, however, much good resulted. In many States
legislatures were elected that were above the corrupting
influence of the money power. The people were awake to
their needs, and many laws were enacted for the betterment
of the conditions of the common people, particularly the
poor and homeless.
Ohio, especially, was active in this direction. It seemed
that nearly every member of the legislature had learned
the story of Betsy and Jobe Gaskins, and had come to
Columbus determined, if possible, to provide laws that
would stay the hands of Ohio sheriffs from turning honest
people out of the shelter they had erected by their own
industry and economy, and to make it easier for people to
pay for homes.
It was only the second day of the session when sixteen
bills were presented in the House and four in the Senate,
all designed to lessen the hardships of debtors and the
burdens of the oppressed.
There seemed to be a unanimity of opinion that county
treasurers should be authorized to receive money on
deposit in order to protect the depositor from loss; that
money so deposited should be exempt from taxation, and
that legal interest should be reduced to four per cent.
There was some diversity of opinion as to whether or not
the treasurers should do a general banking business; all
agreed, however, that money should be loaned out on first
mortgage real estate security at not to exceed four per cent.
interest. The bills were referred to a committee appointed
for the purpose, and the following is the bill reported back
.bn 258.png
.pn +1
by the committee, the chairman of which, Mr. L. W.
Chambers, of Ashtabula County, became its champion:
.sp 1
.ce
THE BILL.
.pm start_quote
“Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:
That on and after the first Monday in April, A. D. 1898,
any person so desiring may deposit money in any sum
from one dollar ($1) up, with the treasurer of the county
in which he resides, and receive therefor a certificate of
deposit or a credit on a pass-book, and all such money
may be withdrawn on demand unless otherwise stipulated
in the certificate of deposit. The treasurer may require a
notice of sixty days for the withdrawal of any sum exceeding
one hundred dollars ($100).
“Sec. 2. The county treasurers of Ohio are hereby
authorized to receive on deposit money from the citizens
of their respective counties; keep the same separate from
the other funds received by them; place the same in a
special account, to be called the People’s Savings Fund;
provide such extra clerk hire as may be necessary to attend
to the business; lend the money of such fund on first
mortgage real estate security to such citizens as may apply
for same, at a rate of simple interest not to exceed four (4)
per cent. per annum.
“All securities and title of property shall be certified to
the treasurer by the auditor and recorder, and shall be
appraised by a board of appraisers residing in the township
where the property is situated.
“Not more than ninety (90) per cent. of the appraised
value of any property shall be loaned thereon.
“The trustees of the respective townships of Ohio are
hereby constituted a board of appraisers of the property
on which loans may be asked in such township. For such
appraisement, whether the loan is granted or not, the
applicant shall pay said appraisers a fee of two dollars
.bn 259.png
.pn +1
each. At least two of such appraisers shall go upon and
assess the value of any such property.
“The borrower shall pay all incidental charges connected
with any loan. The treasurer shall not receive
more than one per cent. per annum on the money loaned,
as his compensation for conducting and caring for said
business; all interest received, less expense to said treasurer,
shall be distributed pro rata to the depositors in
accordance with the amount and time of deposit.
“A failure to pay interest for three years shall work a
forfeiture of any loan made under the provisions of this
act, and the property shall revert to the county without
process of law further than order of court upon sworn
statement of the treasurer as to such delinquency; and
the mortgagee shall be permitted to occupy such premises
for such a length of time as the payments made thereon
shall amount to a yearly rental of four per cent. and taxes,
after which the said property may be rented at not less
than four per cent. and taxes, or sold at private sale at not
less than appraised value.
“Any losses sustained by the depositors, through the
defalcation or dishonesty of the county treasurer, or any
other officer of a county, shall be paid by the county in
full, and the said officer apprehended, his property, as well
as any and all property transferred or assigned by him
during his incumbency, shall be confiscated, and he shall
be hanged by the neck until dead, without benefit of trial
except to ascertain the certainty of such defalcation or
dishonesty. In such cases there shall be no appeal, pardon
or reprieve.”
.pm end_quote
No sooner was this law proposed than the telegraph
wires were put in use to notify every banker in Ohio, as
well as the principal bankers in Chicago, New York and
other great centers.
.bn 260.png
.pn +1
Their hired agents were there. In two days the lobbies
and corridors of the State-house at Columbus were crowded
with well-dressed, well-fed, diamond-studded gentlemen
from all parts of the country, crying out against such a
law and picturing the direful results that would follow its
passage.
Legislators were buttonholed, wined and dined, threatened,
abused, coaxed, cajoled, persuaded and bribed for
some five or six days. The newspapers of the country
denounced the bill as “revolutionary,” “socialistic,”
“destructive,” “ruinous,” and suggested that “the militia
should be called out to drive the anarchistic law-makers
not only from the State-house at Columbus, but out of the
State of Ohio.” They bemoaned “the terrible disgrace
that had already been brought upon the fair name of
Ohio,” and claimed that “to uphold the honor and
integrity of the State the bill must be overwhelmingly
defeated.” Brilliant lawyers and leading business men
were summoned to Columbus to oppose the bill and to
tell the law-makers how bitterly the people were opposed
to it.
All this time from ten to a hundred homes were being
sold weekly by the sheriff of each county. Thousands
were starving in Chicago, New York and other cities and
towns, and all because during all their lives they had been
paying directly or indirectly from six to ten per cent.
interest to these same fat, well-dressed fellows who were
now at Columbus trying to prevent legislation for the
relief of the people.
For days it looked as though the bill would be defeated.
Very few spoke in its favor, but one could hear criticism
almost anywhere. Two days before it was to come up for
third reading a thing happened, however, that gave it new
life. Bill-posters in all parts of the city of Columbus
.bn 261.png
.pn +1
filled the bill-boards and store windows with brilliant
posters announcing that on the following night the famous
actor James A. Herne and his company would play
.nf c
“BETSY GASKINS (Dimicrat),
WIFE OF
JOBE GASKINS (Republican),”
.nf-
at the Grand Opera-house, for the benefit of the poor of the
city, and that the members of the General Assembly of the
State of Ohio had been invited to attend free as the guests of
Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland. The large posters in the
windows and on the bill-boards showed “Betsy Set Out
in the Big Road,” “Jobe in Berea,” “The Cinder Pile,”
and “Little Jane at the Family Reunion.”
Crowds gathered before the windows and about the bill-boards,
studying the pictures. Strong men and brave
women were seen to wipe away the tear of sorrow as they
recalled and rehearsed the sad tale of Jobe and Betsy
Gaskins.
In the afternoon word got out that the legislature had
under consideration a bill that would make it easier for
people to get homes. By morning of the next day it was
the talk of the town.
The night of the show the large theater could not hold
more than one-fourth of those who had come to see. The
doors were closed at seven o’clock, and the performance
began at once, word being sent to the disappointed crowd
outside that Mr. Herne would give two shows that night,
the doors to open for the second performance at nine
o’clock, and, further, that seats would be free to all, only
those paying who desired to contribute to the fund for the
needy.
Immense enthusiasm, tears, and at times laughter,
.bn 262.png
.pn +1
followed the players. As the hardships, trials and disappointments
of poor old Betsy and innocent Jobe were
made vivid and real by the actors, like conditions in the
lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or friends came
to the memory of nearly every one in the audience, and
tears and sobs proved the interest with which the people
were drinking in the great lesson that was passing before
them. Finally, when the curtain fell on the last act,
instead of the crowd rising and hastening to the exits, as
crowds usually do, they sat for some moments as if spell-bound.
Then individuals began to rise in their seats here
and there, and, leaning over, to converse with their nearest
neighbors in words and tones of consolation and hope, as
though some great pall hung over them. Women were
crying; the men looked earnest and thoughtful.
This was the condition of the audience when a great
tumult was noticed in the front of the house; loud shouts
of men filled the room, while above all others and on the
shoulders of two brawny men there was lifted a middle-aged
man, pale, nervous, yet seemingly calm. Every one seemed
to be trying to reach his hand or touch his garments. He
smiled. He was borne forward to the stage and placed
upon it. At the same time two other men climbed on with
him. When the larger of the two, who I afterward learned
was the representative from Seneca County, vigorously
pounded for order, the crowd settled back in their seats
and quiet reigned. Then the big legislator said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed to-night one
of the most wonderful plays ever presented to an intelligent
public—wonderful in the fact that it is so true to life
that nearly every one in the vast audience knows some near
or dear one who is only Betsy or Jobe Gaskins under
another name; wonderful in the fact that this proud nation
of the United States, after an existence of over one hundred
.bn 263.png
.pn +1
years, should have a system of laws that works such
terrible hardships on her citizens, and then claim to be
civilized or advanced; wonderful in the fact that these
conditions exist on every hand, in every direction, and yet
a nation of Christians has not risen up against them. But,
good people, my heart swells with joy when I tell you that
sitting by my side, carried here in the arms of admiration,
is a man who has set out to relieve the people of Ohio
from such slavery—who has introduced in the legislature a
bill which will come up for a third reading to-morrow, and
which will relieve the poor of many of such hardships as
poor Betsy and Jobe Gaskins had to bear—a bill, if you
please, that will make it easier for us and our children to
buy and pay for a home.
“Fellow-citizens, I present to you the Hon. L. W.
Chambers, of Ashtabula County, the chairman of the committee
and champion of the bill I have just referred to.”
The audience arose en masse, climbed on seats, cheered,
stamped and whistled, while Mr. Chambers, without
a smile, but calmly and courteously, bowed and sat
down.
Then the big legislator, after getting the crowd quiet
again, said that the bill he referred to would enable any
one with reasonable security to borrow money from the
county treasury at not more than four per cent. interest,
and that in his opinion the play they had just seen had in
part offset the influence of the lobbying bankers who had
been hanging around the Assembly hall like buzzards for
nearly a week.
Mr. Herne then came out and requested the audience to
disperse, stating that four thousand other people were
waiting outside for a repetition of the play.
The audience left reluctantly. No sooner was the theater
cleared than the second audience made a rush for admission.
.bn 264.png
.pn +1
It was only a few moments until the house was filled again
from pit to gallery.
The interest manifested was fully as great as that evoked
by the first performance, and the acting again was superb.
At 11:20 o’clock the curtain fell on the last act for the
second time that night.
The next morning early people from all parts of the city
could be seen traveling in the direction of the State-house,
in street-cars, carriages, on bicycles and afoot. All seemed
to be intent and anxious. Fully fifteen thousand people
were on the State-house grounds by nine o’clock. They
talked, whispered, argued and made speeches. The sole
theme was Betsy Gaskins and the new law. The antiquated
crank was there, claiming that it “can’t be done,” “better
leave things as they are.” Every now and then a lobbying
banker could be seen, slipping along, eyes cast downward,
as though he felt his guilt.
When the session opened the galleries of the Assembly
room were filled with people. The State-house was full.
The gavel of the speaker fell. The chaplain offered
prayer. He prayed that right might prevail; that the
poor and heavy-laden might be unburdened; that the
bribe-taker, together with the bribe-giver, might perish
from the land; and, above all, he invoked the blessings of
Divine Providence on the acts of that particular day.
After prayer silence reigned a while. It was broken
when a tall, partly bald, large-faced, keen-eyed law-maker
over in the northeast corner of the hall arose in his seat,
took a general survey of the house and galleries, took a
large roll of money from his pocket, and, waving it above
his head, said in thunder tones:
.il id=i265 fn=i-265.jpg w=60% ew=60% align=r
.ca “Behold! See that money!”
“Behold! See that money! There sit in this house
fifty-three men who know where that money came from,
and what it was given for. They know it because they
.bn 265.png
.pn +1
each have received
from the same hand
like sums. They
came here sworn to
represent the people
who elected
them; they would
sell them into slavery
instead. They
are bribe-takers,
and have sold their
votes and influence
against the bill that
comes up to-day.
This hall for the
last week has been
surrounded by a
horde of lobbying
bankers and bankers’
lawyers, buying
the manhood of
men that the poor
may continue to be
oppressed.”
Then, turning and pointing toward a banker from Cincinnati
who sat in the south gallery, he said:
“There is the man! I defy him to deny that he paid
me the five hundred dollars I hold in my hand to vote and
work against this bill!”
The banker was livid. All eyes were turned toward
him. He sat looking straight at the legislator, who pictured
the banker as a “thief,” a “murderer,” a “corrupter
of justice,” a “despoiler of government,” and closed by
waving his hand over the hall and exclaiming that such
.bn 266.png
.pn +1
criminals had by their own acts put themselves beyond the
pale of the law.
By this time the crowd had become furious. The Assembly
arose as one man, many with rolls of money in their
hands, and a cry went up that was awful to hear—a cry of
lost manhood found.
There were repeated calls for order, but there was no
order to be had. Well-dressed, sleek men could be seen
hurriedly making their exit from all the doors of the State-house,
and hastening at full speed in all directions. For
more than an hour the tumult continued.
In the meantime some of the spectators had caught the
Cincinnati briber and a lobbying lawyer from Findlay, and,
securing a rope, tied them together, took them out on
High Street, and made them run a gauntlet of some three
hundred yards’ length through a maddened concourse of
American citizens. Some had staves, straps, switches;
others, lamp-black, flour, Venetian red, and whatever they
could get to deface and besmirch the fine clothes, fair
faces and dignified appearance of the two corrupters of the
law. The pair trotted up and down that space until they
became so fatigued and crestfallen that they fell prostrate
and begged for mercy. They were permitted to go on
sworn promises never again to come to Columbus to bribe
or influence the people’s legislators.
After the tumult had subsided and when quiet had been
restored at the State-house, some forty-eight members,
seemingly under the influence of a stricken conscience, took
from their pockets various sums of money and sent them
up to the clerk as a contribution to the fund for the needy.
In all there was $21,468. Many admitted that it was bribe
money, and many others, while not openly admitting it,
said so by their convicted looks. It was a solemn occasion.
It seemed as though money and dishonor had been routed
.bn 267.png
.pn +1
and the spirit of human justice reigned in that hall, touching
each heart with unseen hand.
The bill that would make it “easier for the poor to live
and secure homes” had come to life again. When the bill
was read there was a murmur of general approval. Its
champion made one of the most eloquent and pathetic
speeches ever delivered in the State-house at Columbus.
He showed how, at six per cent. interest, all the wealth of
the nation may pass into the hands of the money-lenders
every sixteen years, and leave of the annual increase only
enough to support the great mass of the people with a
meager living. He showed how the bankers had conspired
together to rob the nation in time of peril; how
they had robbed the business men, robbed the masses,
robbed everybody by their contraction of the currency and
their thieving, unjust laws. He said:
“We have had demonstrated here in this hall to-day
the manner in which the bankers have looked after the
interests of the country for the last thirty-five years. They
know no god but money, and with money they have corrupted
the world. They are of no service to either God or
man, and yet they demand that both man and God bow
before their will.”
He showed how hundreds of millions of dollars had been
stolen from depositors in the banks of the United States
by suspension and failure, the result of the most dishonest,
the most unsafe system of banking known to the world.
“The American banker laughs when asked for security;
takes all the money he can get; breaks up at pleasure, and
mocks the grief of the poor depositors.” Closing he said:
“Fellow-legislators, I appeal to you for the passage of
this bill. I appeal to you in the name of common honesty;
I appeal to you in the name of thousands of hard-working
citizens who, desiring to save their earnings, now have no
.bn 268.png
.pn +1
safe place to put them. I appeal to you in the name of
the millions of husbands and fathers whose shoulders are
stooped under the burdens of high interest and money
contraction heaped upon them by this conspiring horde of
money-mongers. Let our motto be: ‘Justice to mankind;
equality before the law.’ And let human rights and
human liberty be our ever-burning beacons of guidance.”
Then followed the member from Sandusky County. He
took up the feature of the bill that favored the exemption
from taxation of money deposited in the county treasury.
He showed how a tax on money always fell on the borrower
in the way of increased interest; how, if we take
taxes from money and give the people a safe place to
deposit, thousands of dollars, now kept out of circulation
and hidden in the homes of the people, would come out
and be used in the channels of trade to the benefit of all.
He then appealed to the legislators to be men and patriots,
and to spurn with contempt the influence of the lobbying
money-lenders and corruptionists.
Many others spoke in favor of the bill, and only one or
two offered any opposition. It was evident from the
beginning that the opponents to the measure were routed,
and when it came to a vote the bill passed with only
fourteen votes in the negative.
When the result was announced the scene on the floor
and in the galleries was one of joy beyond description.
Liberty, long chained, had broken her bonds. Men grasped
each other’s hands, and women wept with joy. They saw
the dawn of the new day of liberty—freedom from debt.
The bill passed the Senate the same afternoon and
became a law on the 18th day of March, 1898.
The news was telegraphed all over the world. The
county treasurers of Ohio were instructed to begin on the
first Monday of April to receive the people’s money on
.bn 269.png
.pn +1
deposit and to loan the same to the people at four per cent.
In every county seat, in almost every town, post-office
or store, around nearly every fireside, the new law was
discussed. When the first Monday of April came scarcely
a man could be found who did not thoroughly understand
this “law for the common good of the common people.”
As soon as the doors of the banks were opened, men began
to draw out their money, carry it over to the county treasuries
of the State, deposit it and depart for home. Others
called at the county treasuries, signed mortgages bearing
four per cent. interest, and borrowed money to pay off
their mortgages, held by the banks, drawing seven or eight
per cent. interest, returning home feeling a thrill of new
life and new hope.
No sooner would one borrower pay off an old seven or
eight per cent. mortgage at the banks than would some
depositor withdraw the money, carry it to his county
treasurer, deposit it, and another borrower would deposit
a new four per cent. mortgage and pay off an old seven or
eight per cent. mortgage at possibly the same bank.
This continued for nearly six months, by which time
most of the loans on which the people had been paying
seven or eight per cent. had been converted into four per
cent. mortgages, payable to the various counties. Most
of the bankers were honest and continued to take in
money on old mortgages and pay it out to the depositors
until their business was settled up in full.
In Tuscarawas County the aggregate of the mortgages
held by the six banks was $1,048,692. On this amount the
people saved by the new law an average of three and one-half
per cent., or $37,703.22. This sum, instead of being
paid to the bankers of the county each year, was saved by
the borrowers, and, being applied on the principal, helped
pay off the burdens of the people.
.bn 270.png
.pn +1
The first man in New Philadelphia to withdraw his
deposit was Clem Waltz. He had $2,200 in the First
National. He drew it out at 9:10 a. m., took it to the
county treasurer, deposited it at 9:28 a. m.; and at 9:52
a. m. Seymour Grimes borrowed $1,600 of it on his River
Bottom farm, and paid off a mortgage against him held by
the same First National. About the same time Jacob
Moore borrowed $500 on his house and lot on Eighth
Street for the same purpose. So by 10 o’clock $2,100 of
that $2,200 taken out by Waltz was back in the bank, and
two hardworking, honest, industrious citizens were paying
only four per cent. interest instead of seven or eight. And
Clem Waltz had all of Tuscarawas County back of him as
security for his $2,200, and would receive three per cent.
interest on his money clear of taxes.
About 11 o’clock Robert Witt came into the county
treasurer’s office with $2,000 of the same money that had
been paid to the bank by Moore and Grimes, and by noon
it was loaned out to other persons who would rather pay
four per cent. interest than seven or eight. In the afternoon
business was still brisker.
The first day there was $38,000 withdrawn from the
various banks; deposited with the county treasurer;
loaned to the same people that owed the banks; paid back
into the banks; taken out and placed in the treasury, etc.
The first week loans to the amount of $356,828 were
thus changed. Everybody seemed to be happy except a
banker here and there. Many bankers, however, admitted
that they were pleased to see the poor have more chance
in life.
In six months’ time all the banks except the First
National had closed up their business and quit. Business
in all other lines has picked up. Two of the ex-bankers
are clerks in the county treasurer’s office, while
.bn 271.png
.pn +1
the others, being rich, have decided not to engage in any
business for a while, feeling that it is due themselves and
the community that they take a long-needed rest.
Betsy’s dream has, at least in part, come true. Jobe’s
dream still remains to be realized. Millions of men are
still out of work. But the people have been aroused.
They are thinking hard, and soon they will act. They
will act at the ballot-box, and by their votes they will
declare that “the chief aim of human government should
be to secure to each individual contentment and happiness,
and that this can be done only by securing to all the
unrestricted opportunity to labor.”
“Work for the unemployed” is the issue on which the
people will fight and win the battle of the ballots.
There is much talk that a memorial be erected to Betsy
Gaskins—not to perpetuate the memory of her hardships,
but to ever keep the people in mind of the fact that every
liberty or right we enjoy has cost much suffering, distress
and woe, and, further, that every advance toward a perfect
state of human society as taught by Jesus Christ has been
in spite of selfish and ignorant wealth, and never by its aid.
Long may the spirit of human justice live, is the
prayer of
.ll 68
.rj
The Editor.
.ll
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.bn 272.png
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.ce
BROTHERS ALL.
.il fn=leaf.jpg w=5% ew=5%
.pm start_poem
BROTHER of mine, if one should come,
Should come to your door to-day,
With the marks of the nails in His hands and the scars
Of the thorns on His brow, and say:
“Brother of mine, I stand in need;
I am He who was crucified;
Will you help me to-day in word and deed?
Will you stand to-day at my side?”
Brother of mine, I know that you
Would give Him this answer true:
“You died for me, and what can I do
But die, if I may, for you?”
Brother of mine, if one should come,
Should come to your door to-day,
With the scars of toil on his hands and the marks
Of the sweat on his brow, and say:
“Brother of mine, I stand in need;
I am being crucified;
I have sought for work from door to door;
I am everywhere denied.
“Brother of mine, I ask not alms;
I have asked no man to give;
I but ask for work to earn my bread;
I ask the right to live.”
Brother of mine, what would you say,
What would your answer be
To this lowly brother of Him who said:
“Even so unto me.”
.pm end_poem
.rj
Henry Benson.
.bn 273.png
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.sp 4
.ce
Part II
.sp 4
.bn 274.png
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.pb
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.ca The world’s oppressor.
.bn 275.png
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.pb
.sp 4
.h2
PART II
.ce
Present Day Problems
.sp 4
.ce
Edited by K. L. ARMSTRONG
.sp 4
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.h3
CONTENTS OF PART II.
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| | PAGE
I.| The Impending Revolution | #277#
II.| The Philosophy of Money | #283#
III.| A Bird’s-eye View of American Financial History. By Samuel Leavitt | #307#
IV.| The Eight Money Conspiracies | #345#
V.| Financial Authorities | #352#
VI.| Interest and Usury | #380#
VII.| Debt and Slavery | #387#
VIII.| The Laws of Property. By Lyman Trumbull | #393#
IX.| Direct Legislation | #401#
.ta-
.bn 277.png
.pn +1
.h3
I. | THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION.
.pm start_citation
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou? Speak
unto the children of Israel that they go forward.”—Exodus 14:15.
.pm end_citation
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE purpose of the following pages is to present in
compact form a series of articles on money and
kindred subjects from the point of view of one
who, realizing that a world-wide economic revolution is
imminent, hopes that this revolution will be accomplished
by reason and in peace, not by treason and violence—by
book and ballot, not by bullet and bayonet. It is not
intended to make a special plea for the doctrines of any
particular school of economics, or of any political party.
The object is rather to place in concrete the arguments and
principles of many branches of Reform thought which,
while widely divergent in respect of methods, have a common
aim in the emancipation of industry.
The many elements which make up the great and growing
army of Reform may be segregated into two divisions—individualists
and collectivists. In the early history of
this nation the men who had battled for its independence
were similarly divided into two great parties—one advocating
the centralization of power in the national government,
the other demanding for each State sovereign
independence. The flexibility of our Constitution is
ascribed to the wisdom of the fathers, who sought out and
adopted what was best in the ideas of both. So out of the
apparently conflicting elements of the Reform movement
will come the ultimate solution of economic problems.
.bn 278.png
.pn +1
The editor is in thorough accord with the collectivists,
whether they be known as socialists, nationalists or co-operators,
in so far as they advocate the public ownership of
monopolies. The people should own and operate the
railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, etc., as they
already own the post-office. The people should also own
and operate the street railroads, water-works, gas-works,
electric light plants, etc. The notorious corruption of our
law-making bodies is due almost wholly to their power to
grant special privileges and to sell public franchises to
private individuals or corporations. Legislative reform
that ignores the cause of corruption is never remedial and
seldom even palliative. Public ownership of natural monopolies
will abolish the bribe-taker by making impossible the
bribe-giver.
The editor believes also that it is the duty of the government
to provide for every citizen willing to work full and
free opportunity to earn a livelihood, and therefore advocates
government employment for the unemployed.
The editor further believes that reforms in these directions
can only be accomplished by direct legislation, and a
special chapter is therefore devoted to that subject.
The problem which now presses most persistently for
immediate solution is that of money. The crying need of
the hour is to provide work for the unemployed. Tinkering
with the tariff will not do this, because you cannot make a
people prosperous by taxation. You can set the wheels of
industry in motion, however, by putting money in circulation.
And what is money?
Money is the public credit, stamped or imprinted upon, or
represented by, metal, paper, or any other convenient
substance recognized by law or usage, and employed as a
medium of exchange and a measure of values.
.bn 279.png
.pn +1
Money is money only so long and in so far as it represents
the public credit. Moses, as well as the early fathers
of the Christian Church, undoubtedly adopted this view
of money when they denounced usury, which is the device
whereby the drones in humanity’s bee-hive, monopolizing
the public credit, have in all ages exacted tribute from the
workers.
We have seen what money is. Now let us see how we
can best circulate it.
Suppose that this country were governed by a czar, an
autocrat, with absolute power to make what laws he pleased
for the government of his people. Suppose this autocrat
should issue an order increasing the standing army to one
million men, these one million men to be armed, not with
muskets and swords, but with pickaxes, shovels, etc., and
to be set to work improving roads, reclaiming desert and
waste lands, etc. Suppose these men were paid $1.50 a
day in money issued for that purpose by the government.
What would be the result?
One million of men would be taken from the overcrowded
labor market, and at the end of each week nine million
dollars would be put in circulation.
Would it be necessary to pay these men in gold and
silver? No. Would not mere paper money inscribed
something like this, in denominations of one, two, five,
ten, twenty and fifty dollars, answer all purposes?
.dv class='dottedbox boxwidth80'
This certificate, to the amount of its face
value, will be received by the government
of the United States in payment of
all public dues, and is a full legal
tender in the payment of all debts,
public and private.
.dv-
.bn 280.png
.pn +1
Would not these certificates pass everywhere for their
face value? Would they not have back of them all the
power of the law?
And would they not have the same power if they were
issued and ordained, not by an autocrat holding merely
a fictitious authority, but by the will and the vote of a
sovereign people? Would they not be backed by all the
wealth of the nation?
The right to issue money is a sovereign right and should
be jealously guarded by a sovereign people. To delegate
this power to banks and money-lenders is as grave an error
as it would be to confer on a class the privilege of making
laws for the whole community.
The volume of money should be regulated to suit the
requirements of all the people and not the greed of those
who thrive on usury.
The use of metals for money is unscientific, and they
will eventually be relegated to obscurity with the shells,
pelts, tally-sticks and other cumbrous mediums of exchange
employed by our ancestors. But great reforms cannot be
accomplished at once. Gold and silver are the money of
the Constitution. The act of 1873, which made gold alone
the basis of credit, and which, by reducing the volume of
money, doubled the burden of debt, was a violation of the
fundamental law of our government. The wrong perpetrated
in 1873 must be righted now. This is the first
great step in monetary reform.
Following this, the issue of interest-bearing bonds must
be stopped forever. The careful student will find that
interest is at the bottom of all our financial ills. Unselfish
patriotism must abolish usury by substituting the credit of
all the people for that of the banks.
Every physical or moral ill is the result of some breach
of natural or divine law. For generations we have
.bn 281.png
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violated the laws of God as they relate to money and to
land.
“And if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay
with thee, then thou shalt relieve him; yea, though he be
a stranger or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
Take thou no usury of him or increase; but fear thy God,
that thy brother may live with thee.” (Lev. 25: 36-37.)
Moses, the inspired law-giver, the great soldier-poet-statesman,
who led a semi-barbarous people from the
slavery of Egypt and made of them a nation which endured
the longest in the world’s history, wrote these words.
We also read: “The land shall not be sold forever;
for the land is mine [saith the Lord]; for ye are strangers
and sojourners with me.” (Lev. 25: 23.)
Let the Christian world cease bickering over questions
of dogma and study again the inspired law of Moses, the
law which Christ came to fulfill, and a solution of all the
many questions which now vex us will soon be found.
Under the Mosaic law, slaves were emancipated, human
life was made sacred, debtors were liberated every seven
years, inherited property was divided and paternal inheritances
were alienated, luxury and extravagance were
discouraged, and by forbidding land-monopoly and usury
(in the Bible usury and interest are synonymous) disproportionate
fortunes and vast accumulations of wealth,
which have caused the decline of the world’s great empires
and are now threatening the foundations of modern
civilization, were made impossible.
Chattel slavery no longer exists in any part of the
civilized world, imprisonment for debt has been abolished,
the right of the people to rule is established, but humanity
is still bound in chains of servitude as galling and oppressive
as in any period of its history. The rule of kings is
passing away, but the autocracy of money and monopoly
.bn 282.png
.pn +1
is seated on the throne and swaying a more imperious
scepter.
But the people have it in their power to overthrow their
oppressors. In this country, at least, we have the ballot.
The duty of the hour is to study political economy, so that
this weapon may be wielded intelligently and effectively.
“Education” must be our watchword. It is only by
education that we may hope to gain the three great essentials
for perfect liberty and equality: direct legislation—direct
money—direct taxation. These will establish forever
the sovereignty of the people.
.il fn=i-157.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 283.png
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.h3
II. | THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY.
.pm start_citation
“The American people must learn the lesson of money
or they are lost.”
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE word “money” is derived from the Latin moneta
(from moneo, to warn), meaning “warned” or
“admonished.” Moneta was a surname for Juno,
because she was believed to have warned the Romans by
means of an earthquake to offer sacrifice. In the temple
of Juno Moneta coins were made; hence moneta, meaning
either a mint, or coin, or coined money.
The English word “money” is defined by Webster as
“any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying
and selling;” and the word “currency” is defined as “that
which is in circulation or is given and taken as having or
representing value.”
.h4
Varieties of Money.
Until recent times many substances entirely foreign to
our modern ideas of money were used as measures of
value, among which were:
Leather. In Rome and Sparta 700 B. C., and in Persia,
Tartary, France and Spain as late as the sixteenth century.
Bark. China used the inner bark of the mulberry tree
in the fourteenth century.
Base Metals. Iron was used by the ancient Spartans,
Romans and Hebrews; tin was used in ancient Syracuse
and Britain, while lead is still used in Burmah and brass
in China.
All of these forms of money were stamped with some
.bn 284.png
.pn +1
sort of design indicating their exchangeable value and by
whose authority they were issued.
Wood. Several ancient governments used money made
of wood. From the time of Henry I. (A. D. 1273) up to
the foundation of the Bank of England, in 1694, a period
of over four hundred years, England circulated a legal-tender
money make of wood, called “exchange tallies.”
The “tally” issued by the British Exchequer was a stick
or bit of peeled rod upon which notches were cut, indicative
of an account, pledge or other commercial transaction. It
was split in such a way as to divide the notches. One-half
the “tally” was given to the payer and one-half was
retained by the Exchequer; and the transaction might be
verified at any time by fitting the two halves together,
when the notches would be found to “tally” with each
other if the check had not been tampered with. Jonathan
Duncan said that these wooden representatives of value
circulated freely among the people and sustained the trade
of England.
Wampum. One of the prevailing forms of money in use
among the New England colonies was wampum. This
was simply strings of white and black beads made from
sea-shells found along the New England coasts. In 1641
Massachusetts made these beads a legal tender at the rate
of six for a penny up to the sum of £10; and they were
receivable, at that rate, for all judgments and taxes. In
1643 the limit of this legal tender was reduced to 40
shillings. In 1649 the colony passed a statute forbidding
the receipt of wampum for taxes, and its use as money
rapidly declined, though it still circulated in a limited way
in several of the colonies as late as 1704.
Tobacco. The people of Maryland and Virginia, before
the Revolutionary war and for some time after, in default
of gold and silver, used tobacco as money, made it money
.bn 285.png
.pn +1
by law, reckoned the fees and salaries of government
officers in tobacco and collected the public taxes in that
article.
Peltries. In an early day several of the Western States
made peltries a legal tender. In 1785 the people of the
territory now called Tennessee organized a State called
“Franklin” and passed the following act, which is
illustrative of similar acts in other States:
.pm start_quote
“Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
Franklin, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the
same:
“That from the first day of January, 1789, the salaries
of the officers of the Commonwealth be as follows:
“His Excellency the Governor, per annum, 1,000 deer
skins.
“His Honor the Chief Justice, per annum, 500 deer skins.
“The Secretary to His Excellency the Governor, per
annum, 500 raccoon skins.
“The Treasurer of the State, 450 raccoon skins.
“Each County Clerk, 300 beaver skins.
“Clerk of the House of Commons, 200 raccoon skins.
“Members of the Assembly, per diem, 3 raccoon skins.
“Justice’s fee for signing a warrant, 1 muskrat skin.
“To the constable for serving a warrant, 1 mink skin.
“Enacted into law the 18th day of October, 1788, under
the great seal of State.”
.pm end_quote
Gold and Silver have been used as money metals from
the earliest times of recorded history. The Bible has
many references to the use of both gold and silver as early
as the age of Abraham.
Paper. The first printed bank notes of which we have
any record were issued by Palmstruck, a banker of Sweden,
in 1660.
.h4
Intrinsic Value.
No kind of money, as such, has any intrinsic value, for
the instant the material of which the money is made is
.bn 286.png
.pn +1
used for another purpose it ceases to be money. As
money, the sole value of the material arises from its function
as a circulating medium; and even the value of gold
and silver as used in the arts and sciences will be largely
determined by the demand for them for money purposes.
Of recent years the general demonetization of silver by the
principal nations has depreciated the value of that metal
about one-half, and there is but little doubt that if gold
were similarly demonetized it would correspondingly
decline in value. This was the opinion of Cernuschi. He
says: “If all nations should demonetize gold it would be
worth more than copper, but it would not be worth much
more.”
Appleton’s American Encyclopedia (XI, p. 735) says:
“After the discovery of gold in California, Austria, the
Netherlands, Belgium and Germany all demonetized gold
and adopted silver as the legal tender at a fixed rate. In
those countries gold only circulated as a commodity, subject
to daily fluctuations in value; and as a consequence,
deprived as it was of legal support as money, it was but
little used.”
Upon the subject of intrinsic value the following authorities
are cited:
.pm start_quote
“Congress shall have power to coin money and regulate
the value thereof.”—Constitution of the United States.
“To coin money and regulate the value thereof as an
act of sovereignty involves the right to determine what
shall be taken and received as money; at what measure
or price it shall be taken; and what shall be its effect
when passed or tendered in payment or satisfaction of legal
obligations. Government can give to its stamp upon
leather the same money value as if put upon gold or silver
or any other material. The authority which coins or
stamps itself upon the article can select what substance it
may deem suitable to receive the stamp and pass as money;
and it can affix what value it deems proper, independent of
.bn 287.png
.pn +1
the intrinsic value of the substance upon which it is
affixed. The currency value is in the stamp, when used as
money, and not in the material independent of the stamp.
In other words, the MONEY QUALITY is the authority which
makes it current and gives it power to accomplish the purpose
for which it was created.”—Tiffany, Constitutional
Law.
“Whatever power is over the currency is vested in Congress.
If the power to declare what is money is not in
Congress, it is annihilated.... We repeat, money is not a
substance, but an impression of legal authority, a printed
legal decree.”—U. S. Supreme Court (12 Wallace, p. 519).
“The gold dollar is not a commodity having an intrinsic
value, but money having only a statutory value; and every
dollar has the same value without regard to the material.
The gold dollar has not intrinsic value.”—Supreme Court
of Iowa (16 Iowa Rep., p. 246).
“Money is the medium of exchange. Whatever performs
this function, does the work, is money, no matter
what it is made of.”—Walker, Political Economy.
“An article is determined to be money by reason of the
performance by it of certain functions, without regard to
its form or substance.”—Appleton’s Encyclopedia.
“Money is a value created by law. Its basis is legal,
and not material. It is, perhaps, not easy to convince
one that the value of metallic money is created by law. It
is, however, a fact.”—Cernuschi.
.pm end_quote
.h4
Specie Basis.
Where paper money is made redeemable in gold or silver
the paper money is said to rest on a “specie basis.” This
monetary scheme now prevails throughout the civilized
world. In almost every commercial nation a large portion
of the currency in use is paper money, convertible in theory,
at least, into metallic money, at the option of the holder.
This financial system is framed upon the violent hypothesis
that real money can only be made of the precious metals
and that paper bills are not money, but only representatives
of money. Those who are addicted to this theory
.bn 288.png
.pn +1
are in the habit of designating coins made of the precious
metals as “primary money,” “redemption money” or
“standard money;” while paper bills are called “secondary
money,” or “credit money,” and are worthless except
as they may be redeemed in “primary money.” The
specie basis may be gold or silver or both. Since the
world-wide demonetization of gold only is the basis
in the leading nations of the earth.
The specie basis theory is open to the following weighty
objections:
1. It is contrary to the fundamental law of the United
States—the Constitution.
Judge Tiffany, in his work on Constitutional Law,
expounding the right of Congress “to coin money and
regulate the value thereof,” says:
.pm start_quote
“The authority which coins or stamps itself upon the
article can select what substance it may deem suitable to
receive the stamp and pass as money; and it can affix
what value it deems proper, independent of the intrinsic
value of the substance upon which it is affixed.”
.pm end_quote
This learned opinion, which annihilates all necessary
distinction between “primary” and “secondary” money,
was followed by the United States Supreme Court in the
celebrated Greenback cases, and hence has all the authority
of law. (See 12 Wallace’s Reports, p. 519.)
2. The specie basis theory is contrary to the facts of
history, some of which will be recited in succeeding pages.
Many instances are recorded in which paper and other
material have been successfully used as money where no
redemption in coin was promised or possible.
3. The specie basis theory postulates that a certain
amount of “redemption money” will support or float a
proportional amount of “credit money;” as the specie
increases the paper money may be safely increased; and
.bn 289.png
.pn +1
as the specie decreases paper money must also be
decreased—a philosophy that would lead to the absurd
conclusion that when all specie disappears the people can
have no money of any kind. Mr. R. H. Patterson, a
distinguished English economist, truly puts the paradox
as follows:
.pm start_quote
“The gospel of monetary science now is, that when a
country does not want paper money, it ought to have a
great supply of it; and when it does require paper money
it shall have none. When a country has enough of specie
it ought to double its currency by issuing an equal amount
of bank notes; and when there is no specie there should
likewise be no notes. Is it necessary to discuss such a
theory? In order to be rejected it needs only to be stated;
in order to be rejected it only needs to be understood. It
is a theoretical monstrosity against which common sense
revolts—a burlesque of reason which even the present
generation will live to laugh at.”
.pm end_quote
4. The specie basis is insufficient in volume to redeem
the credit money which is necessarily used in business.
The entire circulating medium of the United States is,
approximately, sixteen hundred millions of dollars, of
which about one-third is gold, one-third silver and one-third
paper. Since silver was demonetized it is now only
credit money; hence we have but one dollar of redemption
money (gold) with which to redeem two of credit money,
or, taking into consideration, as we should, the vast
volume of checks, drafts and other credits which must
finally be redeemed in gold, it is perfectly apparent that
the United States has not one dollar of redemption money
with which to redeem one hundred dollars of credit—and
thus the whole theory of redemption becomes a mere
figment incapable of practical realization. And what is
true of the United States is true of all other countries.
5. The specie basis is a breeder of panics. In times of
prosperity and confidence credits are safely increased to
.bn 290.png
.pn +1
accommodate the increasing volume of business, and the
specie basis is sufficient merely because it is not put to the
test, the people preferring paper money because of its
superior convenience. But at such a time a pebble may
start an avalanche. A startling failure occurs somewhere,
creditors press for liquidation, the banks are besieged, and,
being unable to redeem their promises to pay gold, they
suspend—and the panic is complete. Such is the recurrent
history of finance in all civilized lands.
Charles Sears, an eminent authority, says of the gold
basis:
.pm start_quote
“Within the last fifty years, say, a money crisis has
come quite regularly every ten years. Something—any
one of a dozen causes, few know what—sets gold to flowing
out. Fifty millions withdrawn in a short time from its
usual place of deposit is quite sufficient to make the whole
volume of coin disappear from ordinary circulation as completely
as if it had never existed. The metallic basis is
gone—slipped out; the pivot of the system is dislocated;
somebody wanted it and took it, and the pyramid tumbles
down, burying in its ruins three-fourths of a business
generation.”
.pm end_quote
To the same effect is the opinion of the famous American
jurist, Judge Walker. He says:
.pm start_quote
“The whole paper scheme is founded on the presumption
that the holders of these bills will not generally ask
for specie at the same time; and, therefore, the amount of
specie kept in reserve bears but a small proportion to the
notes in circulation. And this is the great evil of the
system. A general and simultaneous demand for specie
cannot possibly be met, and disaster must follow. To
enforce a universal performance of these promises is to
insure their being broken. Every sudden panic, therefore,
must produce wide-spread calamity.”—Walker’s American
Law, p. 152.
.pm end_quote
6. The specie basis affords a means by which greedy
speculators work “a corner” in gold and thus extort large
.bn 291.png
.pn +1
sums in profits which the people eventually have to pay.
The laws and official rulings, for instance, which require
the maintenance of a gold reserve in the Federal treasury
and the payment of duties and interest on the public debt
in gold, create a special and imperative demand for the
yellow metal; and as the supply for that kind of money is
almost entirely in the hands of a few great banking firms,
the latter can, at their pleasure, extort such terms as they
please when applied to for gold. An instance of the kind
occurred on Feb. 8, 1895. On that day, in order to maintain
its gold reserve, the United States government
purchased of M. Rothschild & Sons and J. P. Morgan &
Co., bankers of London, 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold
coin of the United States at the rate of $17.80441 per
ounce, and paid for it in United States four per cent.
thirty-year coupon or registered bonds, interest payable
quarterly. These bonds were taken by the British bankers
at $1.04, and were sold by them within ten days at $1.18,
by which the foreign gold exploiters made a net profit of
about eight million dollars—to be eventually paid by the
people.
7. The specie basis must inevitably become more and
more insufficient with the lapse of time, and the disasters
due to it in the past become more frequent and distressing.
The population of the world is increasing, barbarous
nations are becoming commercial, and commercial nations
are extending their commerce with unexampled rapidity
from year to year. With this increasing business must
come a necessity for a corresponding increase in the
medium of exchange—money. But no material increase
of the precious metals is possible. On the contrary, as the
mines successively become exhausted, or deeper and more
difficult to work, it is clear that the annual supply of gold
and silver must become increasingly insufficient to replace
.bn 292.png
.pn +1
that which has been lost or consumed in the arts and
sciences; and hence the difficulties of the specie basis will
of necessity become more and more aggravated as time
goes on.
Considerations such as the foregoing have led to the
rapid development of a new school of finance which, rejecting
the specie basis as antiquated and no longer tenable,
professes to find a sufficient guarantee for the stability of
money in
.h4
The Legal Tender Basis.
President Grant said:
.pm start_quote
“My own judgment is that a specie basis cannot be
reached and maintained until our exports exclusive of gold
pay for our imports, interest due abroad, and other specie
obligations, or so nearly as to leave an appreciable accumulation
of the precious metals in the country from the
product of our mines.”—Message, Dec. 1, 1873.
.pm end_quote
Plentiful experience has demonstrated that a paper
money based upon the authority, faith and credit of the
government and made by law a full legal tender for all
debts will serve all the purposes of a staple circulating
medium as effectually as gold itself.
The effectiveness of legal-tender paper depends upon
two circumstances:
1. Government can by law compel the people to take
it in satisfaction of private debts, by refusing to enforce
contracts payable in any other kind of money.
2. The government may receive such legal-tender paper
in satisfaction of all kinds of taxes and duties, thus giving
such money a positive value equal to gold.
The United States Supreme Court, in the celebrated
Greenback cases, says:
.pm start_quote
“Making these notes legal tender gave them new uses
(or functions), and it requires no argument to prove the
.bn 293.png
.pn +1
value of things as in proportion to the uses to which they
may be applied.”—12 Wallace Reports, p. 519.
.pm end_quote
Benjamin Franklin, defending the Pennsylvania colonial
paper money before a committee of the English Parliament,
in 1764, said:
.pm start_quote
“On the whole no method has hitherto been found to
establish a medium of trade, in lieu of coin, equal in all
its advantages to bills of credit founded on sufficient taxes
for discharging it at the end of the time, and in the meantime
made a general legal tender.”
.pm end_quote
Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to Mr. Epps, said of
government paper money:
.pm start_quote
“It is the only resource which can never fail them, and
it is an abundant one for every necessary purpose.
Treasury bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing
interest, as may be found necessary, thrown into circulation,
will take the place of so much gold or silver.”
.pm end_quote
President Jackson, in his message, 1829, said:
.pm start_quote
“I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether a
national one [currency] founded on the credit of the
government and its resources might not be devised.”
.pm end_quote
John C. Calhoun, in a speech in the United States
Senate, December 18, 1837, said:
.pm start_quote
“It appears to me, after bestowing the best reflection I
can give the subject, that no convertible paper—that no
paper that rests upon a promise to pay—is suitable for a
currency. It is the form of credit paper in transactions
between men, but not for a standard of value to perform
exchanges generally, which constitutes the appropriate
functions of money or currency. No one can doubt but
that the credit of the government is better than that of any
bank—more staple and safe. I now undertake to affirm, and
without the least fear that I can be answered, that paper
money issued by the government, to receive it for all dues,
would form a perfect circulation which would not be abused
by the government; that it would be uniform with the
metals themselves.”
.pm end_quote
Legal-tender paper money is usually issued in times of
.bn 294.png
.pn +1
war, when gold and silver are or exported from the
country; and, as a consequence, such legal tender is put
to the severest possible tests, those of an imperilled government,
disturbed industry and impeded foreign trade.
Nevertheless, history abounds with instances to prove the
entire sufficiency of this kind of money.
In 1156 the Republic of Venice established a system of
paper credits which served as the principal circulating
medium of that country until 1797. This money was
always at par and frequently at a premium. In 1770 the
Russian government issued its own notes, which sustained
the government through two wars and commanded a
premium over coin. In 1797 to 1823 England issued
$225,000,000 full legal-tender paper with which to carry
on war against Napoleon. In his “Political Economy,”
John S. Mill says of these notes: “After they were made
a legal tender they never depreciated a particle.”
During the colonial period of American history several
of the colonies issued and successfully maintained legal-tender
paper money. One instance is illustrative of them
all. In 1739 Pennsylvania issued $400,000 in legal-tender
paper not redeemable in coin, but receivable for taxes,
which was loaned directly to the people on security of
land and plate. This money continued in circulation until
it was prohibited by the British government in 1775.
Commenting on the success of this system, Dr. Franklin
said: “Between the years 1740 and 1775, while abundance
reigned in Pennsylvania and there was peace in all
her borders, a more happy and prosperous population
could not, perhaps, be found on this globe.”
During the Franco-German war France issued an enormous
volume of legal-tender paper money, of which Victor
Bonnet, the eminent French economist, says: “In the
midst of the greatest calamities that ever befell a nation,
.bn 295.png
.pn +1
with an enormous ransom to pay a foreign nation, and
with great domestic losses to repair, a credit circulation
was maintained four times as large as its base, without
depreciation. This circulation reached $600,000,000.”
During the war of the rebellion in the United States
(1861-5) the government issued a volume of legal-tender
“greenbacks” which, on July 1st, 1865, was outstanding
to the amount of $432,687,966.
The first $60,000,000 of this paper money, issued under
authority of the acts of July 17th and August 5th, 1861,
and February 12th, 1862, called “demand notes,” was
made a full legal tender for all debts public and private.
This issue never fell below and often was above par as
compared with gold. In a speech delivered in the United
States Senate, July 4th, 1862, Hon. John Sherman said of
these “demand notes”:
.pm start_quote
“The notes are now held and hoarded. The first issue
of $60,000,000 were issued with the right of being converted
into six per cent. twenty-year bonds and with the
privilege of being paid for duties in customs. They are
now far above par and hoarded.”
.pm end_quote
In Schuckers’ Life of Salmon P. Chase, p. 225, the
author says:
.pm start_quote
“The demand notes, being receivable for customs the
same as coin, kept pace with the advance in the price of
coin.”
.pm end_quote
All of the greenbacks except the first $60,000,000 were
purposely depreciated by the “exception clause;” that is,
they were made a legal tender for all debts, public and
private, except duties on imports and interest on the public
debt, which latter were required to be paid in coin. This
exception clause created a special demand for coin, and as
a consequence metallic money rose to a great premium, at
one time (July, 1864) being at a premium of $2.85 in
greenbacks to $1 in coin. That these greenbacks were
.bn 296.png
.pn +1
purposely depreciated stands upon the evidence of Hon.
John Sherman, who, in a report as chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, made on the 12th of November, 1867,
said: “But it was found that with such a restriction upon
the notes the bonds could not be negotiated, and it became
necessary to depreciate the notes in order to make a
market for the bonds.”
Speaking of the amendment by which the “exception
clause” was passed, Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, said in a
speech delivered in the House, February 20th, 1862:
.pm start_quote
“It has all the bad qualities that its enemies charged in
the original bill and none of its benefits. It now creates
money and by its very terms declares it a depreciated currency.
It makes two classes of money—one for the banks
and brokers, and another for the people. It discriminates
between the rights of different classes of creditors, allowing
the rich capitalists to demand gold, and compelling the
ordinary lender of money on individual security to receive
notes which the government had purposely discredited....
But now comes the main clause. All classes of
people shall take these notes at par for every article of
trade or contract unless they have money enough to buy
United States bonds, and then they shall be paid in gold.
Who is that favored class? The bankers and brokers, and
nobody else.”
.pm end_quote
This conspiracy of the lawmakers, by which the soldier
in the field was paid in depreciated greenbacks while the
Wall Street usurer received gold, did not deprive the paper
money of its splendid functions. While coin rose to a
great premium, owing to the special use made of it in
payment of customs and interest on the public debt, the
legal-tender money carried on the great war and conducted
the business of the most prolific and prosperous epoch in
the history of the United States.
As a matter of fact the greenbacks, discredited by legislation
as they were, did not depreciate in comparison with
.bn 297.png
.pn +1
commodities, but gold appreciated owing to the special
demand created for it by law. The people never lost
confidence in the government paper money, even in the
darkest hours of the panic of 1873, as shown by the
language of President Grant. He said:
.pm start_quote
“The experience of the present panic has proven that
the currency of the country, based, as it is, upon the
credit of the country, is the best that has ever been devised.
Usually, in times of such trials, currency has become
worthless or so much depreciated in value as to inflate the
values of all necessaries of life as compared with currency.
Every one holding it has been anxious to dispose of it on
any terms. Now we witness the reverse. Holders of
currency hoard it as they did gold in former experiences of
like nature.”—Message, December 1, 1873.
.pm end_quote
.h4
The Functions of Money.
The functions or uses of money are three-fold:
It is a measure of value.
It is a medium of exchange.
It is a means of storing wealth.
As a measure of value money determines in what proportion
commodities and services shall be interchanged. The
yardstick measures the quantity of fabrics; but some
fabrics are more valuable than others. A bolt of silk, for
instance, is more valuable than a bolt of muslin—a difference
which the yardstick, alone, cannot indicate; it merely
measures quantities, not values. Here the money measure
becomes necessary. The abstract unit which we call a
dollar measures the values of both silk and muslin, and
determines how many yards of muslin should be exchanged
for a yard of silk.
Money is a medium of exchange. Smith has a horse and
buggy which he wishes to exchange for a piano belonging
to Brown. Brown is willing to part with the piano, but
does not want a horse and buggy; he does want, however,
.bn 298.png
.pn +1
a gold watch. Jones has such a watch, but wants to dispose
of it for clothing. Wilson has clothing, but he wants
coal. For these four parties to find out each other’s
wants and effect an exchange of actual commodities and
adjust the difference in value between the articles would
involve time and labor and make so many difficulties that
the transactions would be greatly delayed, if not defeated.
Here money performs its beneficent offices as a medium of
exchange. Smith sells his horse and buggy for money,
and with it purchases Brown’s piano. Brown buys the
watch he wants, and thus money goes from hand to hand,
effecting innumerable exchanges, not only in the small
neighborhood, but in great commercial circles, thereby
bringing the antipodes together and enabling them to supply
each other’s wants with the least possible loss of time
and labor.
Money is, also, a means of storing wealth. Jackson has a
valuable farm, but is getting too old or infirm in health to
work it. He might exchange it for a great quantity of
food, clothing, and other necessaries sufficient to last him
the remainder of his life; but these articles could not
safely be stored so as to preserve them for future years,
and some representative, that can be stored, must be
found. Money is that representative. Jackson sells his
farm for money, and with the money purchases from time
to time the necessaries required.
From a brief study of these three great functions performed
by money may be readily determined what should
be the characteristics of a perfect currency, one that would
most effectually and justly serve mankind.
As a measure of values and as a means of storing wealth
it is clear that money ought to be stable, that is, it should
as nearly as possible have the same purchasing power from
year to year and in all sections of the country; for when
.bn 299.png
.pn +1
money fluctuates in purchasing power it is obvious that
some men will gain and some will lose without any merit
or fault upon their part, but simply in consequence of the
fluctuations in the value of money. This is particularly
true in case of debt, for if a debt be contracted when
money is cheap, and paid when money is dear, the debtor
will evidently lose by the change, and if the circumstances
be reversed the creditor will lose.
To secure such stability or uniformity of purchasing
power no measure or method is so effectual as for the
government to make all its money a full legal tender for
all debts, public and private.
As a medium of exchange the volume or quantity of
money in circulation should be sufficiently large to accomplish
the transaction of business without waste or delay.
In estimating the necessary volume it is proper to take
into consideration the numbers of population, the magnitude
of business transacted, and, since a nimble dollar will
perform the work of several slow ones, the “effectiveness”
or rapidity with which money circulates; and, since population
and business are, upon the whole, constantly increasing,
and the rapidity of circulation (until some swifter method
of locomotion be discovered) remains unaltered, the
volume of money, clearly, ought to be increased from year
to year. Few who have not patiently studied the problems
of finance understand the mighty effects of an
expansion or contraction of the money volume upon, not
only the material, but the moral well-being of mankind.
The very heart of the complex money question, the
center of all its divergent issues, is the question of
.h4
The Volume of Money.
The volume or quantity of money in circulation is
always hard to determine, principally because banks,
brokers and their allies in official and journalistic positions
.bn 300.png
.pn +1
are generally interested in concealing or misstating the
facts on purpose to mislead the public; so that, not
infrequently, a period of financial disaster steals upon the
people unaware and they are compelled to endure all the
miseries of such an event without being able to detect the
cause or apply the remedy. In such circumstances the
masses may dimly perceive that they are being robbed,
yet, unable to detect the means of their spoliation, they
attribute it to every cause but the real one, and thus the
spoliators are enabled to repeat their robbery again and
again, undetected by any save a few whose complaints are
regarded as the extravagances of uninformed or fanatic
minds.
To fully comprehend how the exploiters of money may
enrich themselves and impoverish others by merely
manipulating the currency, it is necessary to understand
the primary fact that an increasing volume of money brings
rising prices and business activity, while a diminishing volume
of money causes falling prices and business stagnation. Upon
this proposition the following authorities are cited:
David Hume, the English historian, in his essay on
“Money,” says:
.pm start_quote
“We find that in every kingdom into which money
begins to flow in greater abundance than formerly, everything
takes a new face; labor and industry gain new life,
the merchants become more enterprising, the manufacturers
more diligent and skillful, and the farmer follows
his plow with greater attention and alacrity. The good
policy of the government consists of keeping it, if possible,
still increasing as long as there is an undeveloped resource
or room for a new immigrant, because by that means there
is kept alive a spirit of industry in the nation which
increases the stock of labor, in which consists all real
power and riches. A nation whose money decreases is
actually weaker and more miserable than other nations
.bn 301.png
.pn +1
which possess less money but are on the increasing
hand.”—Essays and Treatises, vol. I, p. 283.
.pm end_quote
Henri Cernuschi, an ex-banker of Paris, and recognized
as, perhaps, the most eminent of the French writers on
finance, says:
.pm start_quote
“The value of money depends upon its quantity. It is
the same with gold as with greenbacks. If the stock in
circulation is augmented the purchasing power of every
greenback is diminished; and so with gold and silver.
The purchasing power is always in relation to the quantity
of the money.”—Nomisma, p. 15.
“That commodities would rise and fall in price in proportion
to the increase or diminution of money I assume
as a fact that is incontrovertible. That such would be the
case the most celebrated writers on political economy are
agreed.”—Ricardo, Political Economy.
“If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices
would double. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices
would rise one-fourth. The very same effect would be
produced on prices if we suppose the goods (the uses for
money) diminished instead of the money increased; and
the contrary effect if the goods were increased or the
money diminished. So that the value of money, all other
things remaining the same, varies inversely as its quantity;
every increase in quantity lowering its value and every
diminution raising it in a ratio exactly equivalent.”—J. S.
Mill, Principles of Political Economy.
.pm end_quote
Wm. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, in his
report, February, 1820, says:
.pm start_quote
“All intelligent writers on currency agree that when it
[money] is decreasing in amount poverty and misery must
prevail.”
.pm end_quote
By joint resolution of the United States Congress, August
15th, 1876, a “United States Monetary Commission” was
appointed to inquire into the prevailing “hard times.” It
consisted of Senators John P. Jones, Lewis V. Bogy and
George S. Boutwell, and Congressmen Randall L. Gibson,
George Willard and Richard P. Bland; to whom were
.bn 302.png
.pn +1
added Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck of Ohio, Prof. Francis
Bowen of Massachusetts, and Geo. M. Weston of Maine,
the three latter acting as secretaries of the commission.
On March 2, 1877, the commission reported. The following
extracts are taken from the report:
.pm start_quote
“While the volume of money is decreasing, though very
slowly, the value of each unit of money is increasing in a
corresponding ratio, and property and wages are decreasing.
Those who have contracted to pay money find that
it is constantly becoming more difficult to meet their
engagements. The margins of securities melt rapidly, and
their confiscation by the creditor becomes only a question
of time. All productive enterprises are discouraged and
stagnate because the cost of producing commodities to-day
will not be covered by the price obtainable for them to-morrow.
Exchanges become sluggish, because those who
have money will not part with it for either property or
service, for the obvious reason that money alone is increasing
in value while everything else is decreasing in price.
This results in the withdrawal of money from the channels
of circulation and its deposit in great hordes where it can
exert no influence on prices. Money in shrinking volume
becomes the paramount object of commerce instead of the
beneficent instrument. Instead of mobilizing industry, it
poisons and dries up its life currents. It is the fruitful
source of political and social disturbance. It foments
strife between labor and other forms of capital, while
itself, hidden away, gorges on both. It rewards close-fisted
lenders and filches from and bankrupts enterprising
producers. An increasing value of money and falling
prices have been and are more fruitful of human misery
than war, pestilence or famine; they have wrought more
injustice than all the bad laws ever enacted.”—Report of
United States Monetary Commission, vol. I, p. 10 et seq.
.pm end_quote
Pointing out how a contraction of the money volume
increases the debt obligations of the past, R. H. Patterson,
especially commended by Gladstone as one of the ablest
of English writers on finance, says:
.pm start_quote
“And what is such a dearth of money and rise in the
.bn 303.png
.pn +1
measure of value but an injustice to the many to the gain
of the few—an unfair exaltation of the power of the past
over the present, an unfair and undesirable aggravation of
the poverty of the poor and the wealth of the rich—a
stereotyping of classes according to wealth, until they tend
to become permanent? We have seen how powerful and
beneficial was the influx of the precious metals from the
New World four centuries ago in breaking the social
bondage which had settled over Europe during the long
night of the Dark Ages, enabling that generation to escape
from the heritage of the past and bound forward upon the
new career then opening to mankind. Such times come
from the hand of Providence, and with an exceeding rarity
even in the long career of civilized mankind. But at least
let us avoid the opposite and never allow successive generations
to be unfairly—nay, most unjustly, though it may
not be so meant—handicapped, each in its own race,
owing to a growing dearth and dearness of money.”—The
New Golden Age, vol. II, p. 500.
.pm end_quote
President Grant said:
.pm start_quote
“To increase our exports sufficient money is required to
keep all the industries of the country employed. Without
this, national as well as individual bankruptcy must
ensue.”—Message, December 1, 1873.
.pm end_quote
Hon. John Sherman, in a speech in the Senate, January
27, 1869, said, in opposition to a bill to contract the currency
by retiring the greenbacks:
.pm start_quote
“It is not possible to take this voyage without the sorest
distress. To every person except a capitalist out of debt,
or a salaried officer, or annuitant, it is a period of loss,
danger, lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of
enterprise, bankruptcy and disaster.... It means the
ruin of all dealers whose debts are twice their business
capital, though one-third less than their actual property.
It means the fall of all agricultural productions without
any great reduction of taxes. When that day comes every
man, as the sailor says, will be close-reefed; all enterprise
will be suspended, every bank will have contracted its
currency to the lowest limit; and the debtor, compelled to
.bn 304.png
.pn +1
meet in coin a debt contracted in currency, will find the
coin hoarded in the treasury, no representative of coin in
circulation, his property shrunk not only to the extent of
the depreciation of the currency, but still more by the
artificial scarcity made by the holders of gold. To attempt
this task by a surprise upon our people, by arresting them
in the midst of their lawful business and applying a new
standard of value to their property without any reduction
of their debts, or giving them an opportunity to compound
with their creditors, or to distribute their losses, would be
an act of folly without an example in evil in modern
times.”—Congressional Globe, 1869, p. 629.
.pm end_quote
In a speech in the United States Senate, March 17,
1874, General John A. Logan pointed out the cause of the
panic of 1873 as follows:
.pm start_quote
“But, sir, that the panic was not due to the character
of the currency is proved by the history of the panic
itself.... No, sir, the panic was not attributable to the
character of the currency, but to a money famine, and to
nothing else. In the very midst of the panic we saw the
leading bankers and business men of New York pressing
and urging the President and the Secretary of the Treasury
to let loose twenty or twenty-five millions more of the
same paper for their relief—the very same men who to-day
denounce it as a disgrace to our government. It was good
enough for them when they were in trouble.
“Why is it that representatives forget the interests of
their own section and stand up here as the advocates of the
gold-brokers and money-lenders and sharks, the same class
of men whose tables Christ turned over, and whom he
lashed out of the temple at Jerusalem?... Carry out the
theory of the contractionists, and what must be the inevitable
result? Every enterprise and industry must be
dwarfed in like proportion. The busy hum of the spindle
will cease its sound in many a mill which now gives
employment to hundreds of active hands and supplies the
comforts of life to many a happy home. The bright blaze
of many an iron foundry which gives life and cheerfulness
to the grand scenery along the streams of Pennsylvania
will cease to gild the night with its rays. And the same
.bn 305.png
.pn +1
industry in my own State, and that of the Senator from
Missouri, which has been so rapidly increasing of late, will
be crippled, and hundreds who now find employment
there will be compelled to seek a home elsewhere for want
of work. The undeveloped resources of the South and
West, which we have just begun to appreciate, will rest in
abeyance until a wiser policy shall bring them into use....
Why, sir, the people were never freer from debt in
proportion to the business done than in 1865, at the close
of the war, when Mr. McCulloch began his system of contraction,
and at the very time when eleven million more
people were to be supplied. Was it to be supposed that
the activity and energy which the adequate supply of money
had put in operation, and which was giving prosperity and
happiness to the country, would suddenly dwarf itself to
suit financial notions without a struggle? The inevitable
result was an expedient to meet the consequent want, and
credit was expanded. At the very moment above all others
when adequate supply was needed, the opposite course was
adopted; and right here lies the true cause of the late
panic, which resulted from a money famine and not from
an excessive supply.... Sir, turn this matter as we will,
and look at it from any side whatever, and it does present
the appearance of being a stupendous scheme of the money-holders
to seize the opportunity of placing under their
control the vast industries of the nation. Therefore I warn
Senators against pushing too far the great conflict now
going on between capital and labor.... Capital rests
upon labor; but when it attempts to press too heavily on
that which supports it in a free republic, the slumbering
volcano, whose mutterings are beginning already to be
heard, will burst forth with a fury that no legislation will
quell.”
.pm end_quote
From the foregoing, which is but a small fragment of
the immense literature in harmony with the opinions cited,
the following conclusions may be digested:
1. A diminished volume of money always causes a
proportional diminution in the price of labor and commodities—or,
.bn 306.png
.pn +1
to express it otherwise, money becomes dear
and everything else cheap.
2. This redounds to the advantage of the capitalistic
class, who are thereby enabled to exact more for their
money in services and commodities, to purchase all kinds
of stocks and properties at diminished rates, and to foreclose
mortgages and collect other forms of debts under
such conditions as to make “hard times” a harvest for
the creditor class.
3. The debtor class is compelled not only to yield more
services and commodities for the money which it receives
or has previously received, but suffers the further hardship
of languishing business and enforced idleness or diminished
wages; and it should be remembered that every producer
is a debtor, even though he has no specific obligations
outstanding; for he will have to aid those who have such
obligations by receiving less prices and wages and by
paying relatively increased taxes, salaries, rents and profits
to those members of the debtor class who are immediately
above him in the social scale, and who will seek to save
themselves by shifting the burden of their obligations onto
those who are below.
.il fn=i-048.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 307.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
III. | A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY.
.nf c
By Samuel Leavitt,
Author of “Our Money Wars,” “Dictator Grant,” etc.
.nf-
.pm start_citation
“I am astonished at nothing in our business life so much as the
absence of an earnest, determined endeavor on the part of our
men of brains to find the cause of these chronic crises and hard
times and then set upon the track of some remedy therefor.”—Rev.
Heber Newton.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
WHAT may well be called the American system of
money has been gradually evolved, during three
hundred years, from the bitter experiences of the
most practical people that ever trod this globe. Franklin,
Jefferson, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, Gallatin and Benton
were its prophets. But it first began to take definite shape
during our civil war under such men as Edward Kellogg,
Thaddeus Stevens, Henry C. Carey, Stephen Colwell,
Pliny Freeman, Ben Wade, Oliver P. Morton, Henry
Wilson and John Thompson; and later, Warwick Martin,
Peter Cooper, Thomas Ewing, Wendell Phillips, John E.
Williams, George Opdyke, John G. Drew, John P. Jones,
William D. Kelley, B. F. Butler and others.
What first strikes the observer in a bird’s-eye view is
that the whole modern movement toward a rational money
system was started by that much-maligned genius, John
Law, in France, in 1715. His system was one of the first
recent revolts against the tyranny of metal money. He
was the real founder of the Bank of France and the present
French system. The Encyclopedia Britannica calls him an
“unequaled financier.” His great thought was plenty of
.bn 308.png
.pn +1
government paper money, and France has kept that
thought. Law was finally beaten by politicians and the
King’s mistresses when he tried to improve his system.
Turning homeward, we find the first American coin
money, succeeding the wonderfully useful wampum, came
very curiously—coin usually does. In 1652 a mint was set
up in Boston to coin silver into “pine tree” money. The
silver came mostly from the West Indian trade. Our
rulers in England then, as now, only busied themselves in
stealing from us any good money we could get hold of.
Singularly enough we depended largely then upon another
class of pirates—the buccaneers of the Spanish main, who
spent most of their plunder on our shores, where were
the nearest civilized ports. This was a great blessing—“a
blessed providence”—to our Puritan ancestors and the
coin money economists of those days.
In 1745 we had another blessed influx of silver. Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, and his pious Puritans,
went over and captured Louisburg, Cape Breton, from the
French, with fire and sword, and made a big loot. This
so tickled Mother Britain that, for once, she sent us a lot
of silver to “ransom” Louisburg. This enabled Massachusetts
to steal away the trade of Rhode Island.
In 1690 the first issue of paper money was made in Massachusetts.
This was before the establishment of the Bank
of England. It was for £7,000. In 1703 £15,000 was
issued, which was made a legal tender for private debts.
In 1716 another issue to the amount of £150,000 was
authorized. Mark the style of it, as compared with the
wild-cat projects of the present Congress, and see which is
the most reasonable and conservative, and then inquire if
the Farmers’ Alliance plan is so foolish: “The bills were
to be distributed among the different counties of the
province, and to be put into the hands of five trustees in
.bn 309.png
.pn +1
each county, to be appointed by the legislature, to be let
out on real estate security in the county, in specific sums,
for the space of ten years, at five per cent. per annum.”
Another act for £50,000 in bills was passed in 1720,
“which resulted in clearing of debt in 1773.”
In 1723 Pennsylvania led a number of States in issuing
paper money. In this year a great crisis occurred in
England and the Bank was suspended. The coin of the
American colonies was required, and drawn over, in
England’s selfish and peremptory way, to prepare the bank
for resumption. All coin left Pennsylvania, though the
State possessed laws raising its value. Then the State issued
treasury notes, and kept them in use until 1773, when
English jealousy caused Parliament to make all such issues
void. Some of the money was issued, says Adam Smith,
on land security of double the value, and redeemed in
fifteen years. It was made legal tender and remained at
par with coin for forty years. The necessary notes were
redeemed, by their payment for taxes, without loss to any
one. This is the familiar history of Pennsylvania and the
statement of Franklin. The cutting off of this money was
the chief cause of the Revolution. The tea-party in Boston
harbor was only a side-show.
Continental money was issued by Congress when we had
no government—no power to tax. Yet if made full legal
tender, with no mad promise of coin, fifty million dollars
might have been enough. Gallatin says: “It saved the
country.” Jefferson: “It expired without a groan.” Calhoun:
“It is the ghost conjured up by all who wish to give
private banks control of government credit.” It was used
in place of a war tax, and the people so regarded it.
French assignats broke the spell of royal tyranny in
Europe. Such is the power of a live nation to use and
absorb money that nine billion dollars’ worth of it was
.bn 310.png
.pn +1
issued before it broke down. Even then the cause of the
tumble was that it had no suitable foundation. It was
founded on land taken from the priests, and naturally fell
when that land was returned to the churches.
.h4
Our Coin for a Century.
We come now to the coin money of the last half of the
eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century.
Through ignorance of it, some silver advocates are dismayed
by the fact that so little silver was coined here before 1878.
The great point to be shown is that we had no need to
coin, because so much came from abroad. The way metal
money flowed here during the wars between England and
Spain reads like a fairy story. The treasures of Mexico
and South America passed through here and gave many
temporary and flitting coin deposits. Then from the opening
of the Napoleonic wars until 1820 the most of Europe,
including England, was using paper money. So coin came
and stayed here. In fact, coin stayed back in our Western
wilds often when it was scarce in Eastern sections and
large cities. Through all smashes and wild-cat times,
Western banks paid coin until 1820. Those were good
times for planters on new soil. The old Virginia planter,
in his blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, and his
ruffled shirt, always had a pile of doubloons in his desk.
He did not know that European war and paper money put
them there.
The banks, warned by wild-cat experiences, grasped at
all coin as they do now at gold. One bank sucked all there
was in North Carolina and owned the State. It was so
plenty in the twenties, in New England, that they shipped
it to Europe.
A point never to be forgotten by silver men, in answer to
the gold man’s statement about small coinage of silver, is
that from the foundation of the United States money laws
.bn 311.png
.pn +1
were passed giving legal value to foreign coins. Our
mistaken ratio of 16 to 1, instead of 15½ to 1, made it
generally useless for us to coin silver, when we could have
plenty from abroad that was legal tender. One fact alone
shows how immensely we were using our own silver and
foreign silver and gold—viz.: the panic of 1857 was largely
due to the demonetization of our small silver and those
foreign coins. In 1853 Congress demonetized all silver
halves, quarters and dimes in sums of over $5.00. Much
of the reserves of the banks was in these fractional silver
coins, which had been full legal tender, and in larger gold
and silver coins of the United States and other countries.
The silver dollars of Spain, Mexico, South America and
the United States were worth a premium over gold, and
were bought by the Rothschilds and sent out of the country,
though they did big service while they stayed here.
But the banks did not hold them as reserves. So the
demonetization of our small silver deprived the banks of a
large portion of their reserves and of paying their circulation
therein.
Up to February, 1857, all foreign gold coins and the
silver coins of most nations were, in the United States, full
legal tender with our coins at the values fixed by our laws;
and gold being, since 1834, overvalued in the United
States, immense quantities of these gold coins came here
and remained. Another reason why we did not coin silver
dollars is found in this fact: gold was superabundant.
These gold coins were also held by the banks as reserves
in large quantities.
But on February 21, 1857, Congress demonetized all
foreign coins. This took them out of the banks. They
went abroad never to return. And this was one chief cause
of the panic of 1857. The facts above given, properly
circulated, should forever silence the quibbles of the gold
.bn 312.png
.pn +1
men about the non-use and non-coinage of silver up to
1878. From 1861 to 1878 we used but little coin.
The gold men sneeringly ask if we want to go on a
50-cent dollar like Mexico. It is true they have worked
their diabolical will on some of those weak nations, where
the currency is thrown into horrible confusion thereby, and
foreign business is made almost impossible by the rise in
the gold dollar to a $2.00 dollar. They have come near
Mexicanizing us in this respect, but have failed as yet.
Their plea for the deposits of workingmen in savings banks
is like the howl the mortgage people are always raising
about the poor widows and orphans of the East, to whom
the Western farmer should willingly pay high interest.
Wise nations legislate for producers, rather than for
interest-suckers—male or female.
.h4
United States Banks—Wild-Cat and State Banks.
Ever since the Revolution there has been war between
Jefferson’s treasury notes and the sharp fellows who wish
to collect interest on their debts. In the lush wild-cat
times bankers did not care whether they made their scoop
by shoving out bank notes so far that they would hardly
ever come back, or lending interest-bearing credit to their
neighbors. Now the telegraph, railroad and redemption
banks would make hard sledding for State wild-cats.
The United States banks (private) were so mixed with
the wild-cats for fifty years—1791 to 1841—that they need
describing. The first, in 1791, was got up by Federals
who hated treasury notes. But fortunately there was much
honesty then, and it was so managed that its notes were
like full legal-tender greenbacks. Those were halcyon
days. The wild-cats were around, but got little game.
They made their first big inflation in New England.
The Yankees thought they could swing out to any degree
.bn 313.png
.pn +1
when the Anglo-Spanish and the Napoleon wars made coin
so here.
There was a great rush of banks between 1811 and 1816,
when the second United States Bank came in. It was a
fraud from the start, violated its charter and was founded
mostly on personal notes. But it swung its twenty years.
The great plan of the wild-catters was to get its treasury
notes, good as gold, and drawing interest, for their red
dogs. Right here let us affirm that, for short, all State
bank money may be called wild-cats, red dogs and shinplasters.
For such it always proves in panic times. The
Chicago Tribune says that the Democrats are “committed
upon both principle and tradition against a Federal currency—committed
also to State banking.” Not so. Jefferson
was strong for Federal money, i. e., treasury notes.
The Whigs were always as much given to wild-cats as the
Democrats. Again the Tribune tells of 34,000 who took
the benefit of the bankruptcy act in 1841-2-3, but says nothing
of the hundreds of thousands who failed between 1873 and
1890, under the crush of Republican gold resumption,
without any such release. Intelligent Democrats could
show billions of loss from Republican financiering against
hundreds of millions under Democracy. Give the poor
devil Democrat his due. He makes a clumsy attempt now
to cover his rascality in voting against silver bills by all his
talk of returning to wild-cats. The cheeky Republicans
offer no shadow of a real remedy for our financial ills.
To return to the time of the twenties. The new, hopeful
country kept having booms in spite of bad money. After
the close of the war of 1812-15, “blessed peace,”
said Matthew Carey, “came and brought two thousand
merchant buyers to Philadelphia.” Fortunes were made.
It was funny as a circus. The brokers stuffed the United
States treasury full of shinplasters, not good thirty miles
.bn 314.png
.pn +1
from home. Congress said “resume” in 1817. Banks
said, “Go to the devil.” With twenty-two millions “on
hand,” Congress had to borrow half a million to keep
house on. The big bank was given over to favorites,
bribery and corruption, but ruled the land. There was a
whirligig between the branches of the big bank and the
little banks. The latter bought, with their red dogs,
from the branches, drafts on Eastern cities. The drafts
bought European goods. Meanwhile the branches socked
it to the wild-catters up to five and ten per cent. a month,
till they redeemed their red dogs with the proceeds of
another crop.
In 1818 the president of the big bank resigned when it
was near ruin. A new president, Cheves, saved the bank,
in the Bank of England fashion, by ruining a lot of small
banks and merchants. In 1820 came “stay laws” and a
“relief system.” Men could redeem their lands and
negroes in two years by paying ten per cent. down. North
Carolina had an awful time. Robber bankers of Newbern
became the practical owners of the State and sucked its
blood. Were ruling still in 1833.
In 1825 the great Nick Biddle took the presidency of
the bank, and ran the whole country, till knocked out by
Jackson. Biddle was the biggest boss yet; moved crops;
lent ten millions at a time to the government. Some
thought he gave the rising sun a boost. When there was
a run, he only allowed his branches to cash their own
drafts. In 1832 was high water time for this fine old
Philadelphia gent. President Jackson, who hated all
undemocratic high kicking, made him pay the government
debt from his government deposits. Jackson stopped the
abnormal boom in wild lands by his “specie circular,”
ordering only specie to be taken for United States lands.
Then, to check the torrents of extravagance, he ordered
.bn 315.png
.pn +1
the useless thirty-seven millions that he had foolishly put
in State banks distributed back to the people of the
States. The wild-catters paid eighteen millions, and then
all broke, beginning in New York in May, 1837. That was
a grand smash. Jackson had a glimpse of the greenback
remedy in his muddled head. Jefferson and Calhoun always
had it.
Parallel with all this was the Mississippi tomfoolery of
1830 to 1840. That State borrowed thirty millions on the
old personal note plan from Holland, and fooled it away in
ten years. Slaves were then the only good assets. These
were run off to Texas, and “Gone to Texas” (G. T. T.)
was a familiar inscription.
.h4
The College Professor and the Facts.
Prof. Laughlin of Chicago University said in his recent
speech before the Sunset Club and the Bankers’ Association:
.pm start_quote
“It seems to me that one of the greatest misfortunes
that this country ever suffered was that temporary, and to
the present time lasting, intoxication connected with the
issue of United States notes or greenbacks. From the
foundation of our government, in 1789, to February, 1862,
the United States government never issued any paper
money.”
.pm end_quote
The Chicago Herald of December 10 voiced the same
falsity thus:
.pm start_quote
“In fact, the government never did anything of the kind
until 1862, when Congress authorized an issue of legal-tender
notes.”
.pm end_quote
Are these men simply reckless liars, or are they ignorant
of the facts? Here are the facts: From 1812 to 1860 U. S.
treasury notes were issued at least twenty times; that is,
in every time of emergency, when the bankers’ wild-cat
money could not possibly keep business going. These
.bn 316.png
.pn +1
notes were receivable for all debts due the government,
including interest on the public debt and custom-house
dues; and that fact made them universally acceptable by
the people—better than gold. In these respects they were
better than the greenbacks; for never until the infernal
exception was put upon them, in 1862, did the government
refuse to receive its own treasury notes.
Here are most of the dates and amounts of those issues—all
by acts of Congress readily traced: June 3, 1812,
$5,000,000; February 25, 1813, $10,000,000; March 4,
1814, $10,000,000; December 26, 1814, $25,000,000;
February 14, 1815, $25,000,000; October 12, 1837, $10,000,000;
March 21, 1838, $10,000,000; May 31, 1840,
$5,000,000; June 30, 1842, $5,000,000; August 31, 1842,
$6,000,000; July 22, 1846, $10,000,000; June 28, 1847,
$23,000,000; December 23, 1857, $20,000,000; December
17, 1860, $10,000,000.
Is that lie nailed? The above treasury notes were
hampered in various ways. The money-lenders persuaded
Congress that it would be “contrary to the laws of the
Medes and Persians” if the notes drew no interest. So
they were generally heavily handicapped in that way.
Sometimes they only drew one mill per annum, sometimes
nothing. When they drew none the Shylocks at once
cried that the country was ruined. They liked them well
enough plus interest, because they were sharp enough to
get hold of them and pull in the interest, while they
managed to cram the United States treasury full of their
wild-cat stuff.
To thoroughly verify these serious statements, let us
look at the statutes under which these issues were made
and the particulars of their issue:
Act of June 3, 1812 (Statutes 2, p. 366).—This law authorized
the issue of $5,000,000 treasury notes, to run one
.bn 317.png
.pn +1
year, bearing five and two-fifths per cent. interest. They
were made receivable for all debts due the government,
and were to be paid to such public creditors and other
persons as were willing to receive them. They might also
be used to procure loans, or might be placed to the credit
of the treasury in banks at par and accrued interest.
Act of February 25, 1813 (Statutes 2, p. 801).—This law
authorized the issue of $10,000,000 treasury notes to
mature in one year, bearing five and two-fifths per cent.
interest per annum. Terms same as act of June 3, 1812.
Act of March 4, 1814 (Statutes 3, p. 100).—Authorized
an issue of $10,000,000 on same terms as above. No
charge to the government was to be made by the banks
which credited the notes.
Act of December 26, 1814 (Statutes 3, p. 161).—Authorized
the issue of $25,000,000 treasury notes in place of a loan
of $25,000,000 previously authorized. Ten millions of
these notes were to be applied to the payment of
$10,000,000 previously borrowed. Otherwise they were
like the above.
Act of February 14, 1815 (Statutes 3, p. 213).—This law
authorized the issue of $25,000,000 treasury notes in
addition to other issues. Up to this time the Secretaries
of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Crawford, had complained
that the treasury notes so far issued were made too
large for common circulation, though their standing among
the people was good and the people were desirous of
having them. They said treasury notes had taken the
place of coin and equalized the exchange throughout the
country. To meet the wishes of these secretaries and of
Jefferson and Madison, as well as the people, these
$25,000,000 treasury notes for circulation were authorized
and issued. The most of them were required to be less
than $100 in denomination, and to be payable to bearer,
.bn 318.png
.pn +1
while those of $100 and over were to be made payable to
order and to pay by indorsement, and were to bear five
and two-fifths per cent. interest. The smaller ones were
to bear no interest. They were also, for the first time,
made receivable for six per cent. bonds. They were made
to circulate as money, and to have the characteristics of
coin, but they were not redeemable therein. They were
legal tender to the United States. These notes, after
being paid into the treasury, were to be reissued.
When these $25,000,000 treasury notes of small denominations
were made to circulate as money, and to bear no
interest, the indignation of all the banks in the country
was aroused. They saw that if those notes went out
among the people, and became the money of the country,
there would be an end to the circulation of bank notes.
Such was the truth. There was, therefore, a general
combination in New England, New York, Delaware and
Pennsylvania to kill them off. The old Bank of the
United States, chartered in 1791, the charter of which
expired and which was not renewed in 1811, was then, as
the law allowed, closing up its affairs. The debts of the
people to this bank were very large. The bank was pressing
for payment. The people presented these treasury
notes, which did not bear interest, in payment. The bank,
to destroy the credit of the notes, and to force the recharter
of a national bank, refused to receive the notes of the government
in payment to the bank. As the bank would not
receive the notes from the merchants, the merchants were
reluctantly compelled to refuse to receive them for debts
due and for goods sold. The New England banks, and
those of Delaware, were also deeply involved in this conspiracy
to destroy the credit of these treasury notes, as all
such are now. The embargo and non-intercourse laws of
Jefferson and Madison had destroyed the carrying trade of
.bn 319.png
.pn +1
New England, and had caused a suspension of the New
England banks in 1809 and 1810. The people of New
England were, therefore, greatly opposed to the war with
England. They did all they could to cripple the government
in carrying it on. They refused all loans, even of
bank notes, and were very hostile to all treasury notes,
especially to those intended to take the place of bank
notes, as were those of 1815.
By a general combination between State banks, the old
national bank bondholders and bullion brokers, these notes
of the United States were forced to a discount for a short
time. One of the strongest arguments in favor of having
all treasury notes made full legal tender is here presented.
Had they been legal tender to the people, as well as to
the government, all the efforts of the banks and brokers to
reject them and reduce their value would have been fruitless.
If the legal tender character were removed from the
greenbacks the national banks would at once discredit
them to-day.
Immediately after these efforts of the banks to discredit
treasury notes, an application was made to Congress for a
charter for another United States bank, which proposed to
take from the government, as part of its capital, $15,000,000
of these same treasury notes, to withdraw them from
competition with bank notes. (Just as the rascally conspirators
at Washington are now trying to do with three
hundred and forty-six million greenbacks.)
Mr. Madison vetoed the bill, principally on account of
this provision. But $28,000,000 of bonds were substituted
for treasury notes, as capital of the bank; and by a
combination of the Federal party and a few Democrats it
was chartered. The charter provided that no other such
bank should be chartered by Congress for twenty years.
This implied, also, that all treasury notes intended to circulate
.bn 320.png
.pn +1
as money should be withdrawn, and that this bank
should furnish all the national paper circulation for twenty
years.
For this privilege the bank paid $1,500,000. The contract
on the part of the government was disgraceful, but,
having been made, it had to be carried out; and it was
carried out, as the following acts of Congress show:
The Act of March 3, 1817 (Statutes 3, p. 377).—The
second Bank of the United States had just gone into
operation. Congress was compelled to comply with its
part of the contract. It, therefore, passed this law, which
repealed all laws authorizing the reissue of the “treasury
notes of 1815.” But the people had these government
notes, and they preferred them to bank notes or coin. They
knew that the repeal of the law authorizing their reissue
could not affect the value of those then in their hands,
for a valuable consideration paid the government. They,
therefore, held on to the notes (as our people should now,
in spite of Sherman, Gage & Co.) Instead of paying
them into the treasury, where the law required them to be
destroyed, the people held on to them, and used them in
business, greatly to the annoyance of the bank and of the
Secretary of the Treasury, then a bank man (Mr. Dallas).
This officer ordered the collector of revenue to refuse to
receive these notes for duties on imports, that
by this means he could injure their credit and force their
presentation at the treasury for payment in coin or national
bank notes, that they might be canceled. This gave rise
to a suit in Boston. A firm presented treasury notes in
payment of duties on imports, for which the law creating
them provided that they should be received. The government
refused to receive them, and brought suit for the
duties. The defendants pleaded a tender of treasury notes.
The government answered that they were not legal tender.
.bn 321.png
.pn +1
Judge Story, in 1819, heard the case, and decided for the
defendants. The decision is that “Treasury notes are
legal tender for everything for which the government
makes them receivable.” This decision is in 2 Mason,
pages 1 to 18. This decision, though against the government,
was never appealed to the Supreme Court. It,
therefore, stood as the law of the land.
The Act of May 3, 1822 (Statutes 3, p. 675).—Treasury
notes still remained out among the people, to the annoyance
of the bank and the Secretary. The decision of
Judge Story raised instead of depreciating them in the
estimation of the people, and increased the anxiety of the
bank and the Secretary respecting them. The notes did
not come to the treasury for destruction. (Just so the
people acted when John Sherman tried to make them take
5-20 bonds and give up the greenbacks.) They remained
among the people until May 3, 1822, when Congress again
came to the rescue of the bank and passed the law of that
date, which provided that these treasury notes should not
be received by any collector of revenue in the United
States, and that they should be received and paid at the
treasury only. All that came into the treasury were to be
destroyed. The people wished to retain these notes; but
the bank forced Congress to act against them; and Congress,
by destroying their receivability, compelled their
surrender by the people. We hear no more of treasury
notes thereafter until 1837, when, as usual, the necessities
of the government again called them into being.
The Act of October 12, 1837 (Statutes 5, p. 201).—The
banks had all suspended, with nearly $40,000,000 government
bonds. Not one year before the law had made these
banks public depositories, with their promise that they
would always pay coin for all liabilities. The government
had, in 1835, paid off the last dollar of the national debt.
.bn 322.png
.pn +1
The surplus then in the treasury was nearly $40,000,000.
This was in the banks. The government had no money to
pay ordinary expenses, unless the treasury used suspended
bank notes. This Mr. Van Buren, the President, refused
to do. He called Congress together to meet the emergency.
Its remedy for the emergency was treasury notes
(as it should now be), which Jefferson says are the only
reliance of a nation. This act of October 12, 1837, provided
for the issue of $10,000,000 treasury notes, in denominations
not less than $50, running one year. The law left
the interest which they were to bear discretional with the
President and the Secretary of the Treasury; but in no
case was it to exceed six per cent. Congress appeared too
timid to make these notes money bearing no interest. The
Secretary, knowing that the people needed them as money,
complied with the law by making many of them bear one
mill interest per annum. As such they circulated freely as
money, and the people were delighted to get and use them.
They answered all the purposes of coin, and equalized the
exchanges throughout the country. The banks did not, at
that time, possess sufficient power to injure them. Men
now living remember them and their usefulness, although,
imitating the foolishness of the Bank of England, they were
never paid out of the treasury but once.
The Act of May 21, 1838 (Statutes 5, p. 228).—This act
authorized the reissue of the $10,000,000 treasury notes
issued under the act of 1837, which had been canceled.
They should have been used till worn out, and then
replaced ad infinitum. It has taken time and a great war
to open the eyes of the people and Congress to see what
Jefferson saw in 1813. And now, again, many are forgetting
the facts.
The Act of May 31, 1840 (Statutes 5, p. 370).—This law
renews the act of 1837, relating to the issue of treasury
.bn 323.png
.pn +1
notes, and makes the following modifications: 1. That they
were to be issued in place of those redeemed; not to
exceed in this issue $5,000,000. 2. They were to be
redeemed in less than a year, if the treasury was in a condition
to redeem them. 3. When ready to redeem them,
the Secretary of the Treasury was to give notice. 4. After
due notice, these notes should cease to bear interest, if
they remained out. This act was to continue only one
year. It is evident that Congress supposed the necessity
for issuing treasury notes would soon cease. But it was
mistaken. Treasury notes continued to be issued up to
1848.
The Act of July 4, 1840 (Statutes 5, p. 385).—This was
the first independent treasury act of the days of Van
Buren. It had good features, but was badly bungled. The
money of the government was to be kept by the government
(instead of the banks), in the mints, custom-houses,
post-offices and treasury building. The fool part of it was
that after January 3, 1843, no payment should be made to
the government in anything but gold and silver coin. The
banks were suspended. The government was being sustained
by treasury notes. But still this law provided that
after January 3, 1843, treasury notes should be excluded
from the treasury as well as bank notes. An appeal was
made to the people, in that year’s election, upon this law,
and Van Buren and his coin payments were knocked out by
Harrison with wiser plans.
The Act of July 21, 1841 (Statutes 5, p. 438).—This was
among the first Whig acts, and they in turn made fools of
themselves. They favored a national bank, but opposed
treasury notes. The law provided for the issue of $12,000,000
six per cent. bonds. The principal purpose was to
redeem the good treasury notes of the Democrats. A
Pittsburg man was sent to England to sell the bonds.
.bn 324.png
.pn +1
Though the United States had paid its national debt in
1835, the bonds were no go. The Whigs, having failed to
found a bank and sell these bonds, were compelled to rely
upon the much-despised treasury notes of the Democrats.
The Act of April 15, 1842 (Statutes 5, p. 473), was a final
effort to shove the bonds. They were increased to $17,000,000,
the time extended indefinitely up to twenty years.
They could be sold at less than par. The rich, strong
young nation could not do it, though taxes and duties were
pledged for payment. The war was going on between the
Whig Congress and sensible President Tyler. The latter
advocated the issuing of all the paper money as well as
metallic money by the government; but Congress wished
the money issued by a national bank. The President
vetoed the bank bill. Congress, by way of heading him
off, passed the act to make treasury notes bear six per cent.
interest, to hinder their being used as money.
The Act of June 30, 1842 (Statutes 5, p. 766).—This provided
for $5,000,000 treasury notes to run one year. Interest
five per cent. Otherwise like most of the others, as to
legal tender, payment to public creditors and placing them
in banks.
The Act of August 31, 1842 (Statutes 5, p. 581), shows a
lingering hope of selling the bonds. If not successful, the
government was to issue $6,000,000 more of treasury notes
(trotting out the despised pack-mule again), which might
even be reissued. What a let-up! Br’er Fox Shylock, he
lie low!
The Act of March 3, 1843 (Statutes 5, p. 614), authorizes
the issue of new treasury notes to supply the place of those
redeemed.
The Act of July 22, 1846 (Statutes 5, p. 39).—The
resumed power in 1845. This act authorizes $10,000,000
treasury notes in place of those destroyed.
.bn 325.png
.pn +1
The Act of August 6, 1846 (Statutes 9, p. 59), finally
established the independent treasury on a sensible basis.
It made all treasury notes and gold and silver coins equal
in payment of all debts to the government. This held till
1861, and many of the provisions are still law, but badly
enforced, as when our recent Presidents deposited many
millions in banks.
The Act of January 28, 1847 (Statutes 9, p. 118), authorized
$23,000,000 (more than $500,000,000 now) to fight the
Mexican war. No interest was fixed. They mostly drew
one mill, and the people gladly used them as money.
The Act of December 23, 1857 (Statutes 11, p. 237), provided
for $20,000,000 treasury notes to take the place of
coin, the banks having suspended with the coin in their
vaults. (Heaven, or something, generally saves the
banks.) These were, like most of the previous issues,
with nominal interest. The plain people took them gladly.
The Act of December 17, 1860 (, p. 121), provides
for $10,000,000 treasury notes, running one year, at
six per cent. The interest was to run and the notes remain
out until sixty days after notice of readiness to redeem.
Otherwise they had the old provisions.
The Act of February 8, 1861, authorized the issue of
treasury notes, or a loan of $25,000,000 to take up treasury
notes.
The Act of March 2, 1861 (Statutes 12, p. 178), provides
for a loan of $10,000,000 to take up treasury notes and for
government expenses. Same old story. If bonds not
sold, then more notes.
This brings us to the act of July 17, 1861, when the
gigantic $250,000,000 of loans and notes came up. The
further history is well known. That just given will surprise
those who thought treasury notes began with the
rebellion.
.bn 326.png
.pn +1
.h4
Safety Fund—Suffolk and Redemption Banks.
As many of the foolish propositions now put forth for
“reforming the currency” are only feeble imitations of the
Safety Fund, Suffolk System and Redemption Bank System
that arose before the Rebellion, a brief account of
them will be given here. In the thirties and forties there
were as many so-called systems as there were States. The
Suffolk System of Massachusetts, among those first started,
alone deserved the name of system. In 1829 that State
decreed that no bank should operate unless fifty per cent.
of its capital was paid in coin. Notes must not exceed
twenty-five per cent. of the capital. Liabilities, except
deposits, must not exceed twice the capital. Such provisions,
however, amounted to little, because, much of the
loans being simple credits, there was small inducement in
the strong banks to overissue notes. As no provision was
made for reserves, the coin to set a bank in motion could
be bought and sold again right after the organization. The
Redemption system, afterward adopted, was much better,
but, as will be shown, only a harm in panic times.
The New York banks were placed mostly in New York
City and the Hudson River towns. In 1829 the Safety
Fund System arose there. It allowed the banks under it
to issue notes to twice the amount of their paid-up capital,
and loans to twice and a half the amount. Every bank
under it had to pay the State Treasurer, annually, one-half
of one per cent. upon its share capital—these payments
to continue till each bank had a sum equal to three
per cent. of its share capital. The amounts so paid were
to be held as a common fund for the discharge of notes or
other liabilities of any bank of the system.
In 1841 and 1842 eleven of the Safety Fund banks failed,
making a loss to the creditors of $2,588,933. The fund was
then $86,274. The whole amount of the fund to September
.bn 327.png
.pn +1
30, 1848, was only $1,876,063. The balance of the loss
was provided by the State, which was to be reimbursed by
further additions to the fund. That was very nice for the
banks. In 1842 the act was so amended that the fund
became chargeable only with the losses to the public on
the note circulation, just as it is the case with the national
banks now.
In 1838 New York founded the “Free Banking System,”
by which banks could be formed without application to the
legislature. These associations were required to deposit
with the State Comptroller United States or State stocks
equal to a five per cent. stock, or bonds and mortgages on
improved real estate worth twice the sum secured, and
equal in amount to their note circulation. The Comptroller
issued the notes to them. Up to 1843 twenty-nine of these
banks failed—circulation, $1,233,374; nominal value of
securities, $1,555,338. These produced $953,371, or 74
per cent. of the circulation secured. The law was then
amended to exclude all but United States stocks, and those
of the State, which must be equal to six per cent.
A wiser provision had been adopted in 1840, requiring all
the State banks to redeem their notes, either in New York
City, Albany or Troy, at a discount of one-half of one per
cent. In 1851 this discount was reduced to one-quarter of
one per cent. After 1851 two New York banks started the
Redemption System. The notes of such of the country
banks as kept deposits with them were returned, the
redeeming banks dividing the discounts between themselves
and the issuers. This system was useful, as it
forced a constant redemption; but see how it worked in
1857.
After 1838 no more Safety Fund banks were chartered,
and the system gradually lapsed. But a curious story
could be told of how it ran through the West. That
.bn 328.png
.pn +1
region was deluged with “safety” money—all but the
safety. In 1846 the new Constitution of New York took
from the legislature all power to pass any act granting any
special charter for banking purposes; such organizations
to be under general laws. After 1850 bank stockholders
were to be liable to the amount of their shares for all the
debts, and holders of notes to be preferred creditors.
Now, for the redemption banks in 1857. These banks,
useful in their way in ordinary times, did harm in that
panic. A few years before a new source of profit was
suggested to some New York banks. If the redemption
that was distributed among the money-brokers could be
monopolized by one or two institutions it would yield a
rich revenue; and it could easily be attracted by reducing
the rates of redemption so low as to exclude individual
competition. The system was based somewhat upon the
Suffolk system. Coupled with the payment of interest
on country deposits, it had grown into astonishing activity
before 1857. It worked admirably as a piece of machinery,
with the popular commendation that it restricted the bank
currency by enforcing prompt redemption, and saved the
merchants a heavy brokerage. It was a great convenience
in the first days of the panic, when private capital was
withdrawn from the purchase of currency, and when the
merchants, but for the redeeming banks, would have been
overburdened with unavailable notes.
But the redemption system, like everything else that
was susceptible of abuse, was turned aside from its legitimate
purpose and made to answer a mischievous end.
The low rate at which the bills were taken in New York
accelerated their return in bulk, as a basis of exchange, or
for credit in account. Thus their distinctive character as
circulation was in a great measure destroyed. The cheap
redemption, so desirable in a common state of the market,
.bn 329.png
.pn +1
became virtually a premium on the currency of New York.
The tendency, then, was to take it out of a healthful
circulation and throw it back to its source, whereby it
profited nobody so much as the stockholders of the express
companies. The country banks might keep their own bills
in a perpetual circulation, by exchanging them with each
other, and thus creating a trade in them. The same
packages were not unfrequently kept unopened in the
circuit, and reissued in bulk, as often as they were needed
to supply balances.
In a panicky time such redeeming banks must either put
more capital into the service or reject the bills. In 1857,
in spite of the best management, the currency circuit was
kept up; the bills of one bank were paid for the bills of
all the others.
Another evil arose from these banks. The credit given
to an unsecured currency by their indorsement gave it a
wide circulation, to the displacement of bills that were
based upon State and United States stocks. It was now
seen that this credit had no other basis than a current
deposit by the issuing bank, which deposit was in very
small proportion to its outstanding bills; and that the
redeeming bank was prompt to the hour in repudiating
those bills if the deposit was not maintained. This was a
fallacious credit, entirely independent of the separate
ability of the issuing banks. The general result was that
bills were likely to fail in transit, and they would not then
be admitted as a deposit, which would involve the rejection
of others. And so the row of bricks began to tumble
in both directions.
There was no incident of that panic that spread its
terrors abroad with such sure and rapid steps as the rejection,
by the redemption banks, of bills which they had
been accustomed to receive on deposit. If it had been
.bn 330.png
.pn +1
possible to remove all other causes of excitement, that
alone would probably have involved the suspension of
specie payments. It filled all the shops of the country
with alarm. It created mobs in the savings banks, and
pushed forward the panic, by exciting the fears of the
multitude.
.h4
The Example of France.
Professor Laughlin has the gall, as few of his confreres
have, to appeal to “the example of France,” after the
Prussian war of 1871, in not “interfering with her media
of exchange.” It is hard to tell whether his statement is
based upon impudence or ignorance. She interfered with
all the ideas of propriety entertained by his clique in a
way that has been secretly their despair ever since. Yet
hear his glorification of a scheme that cuts all the ground
from under him. He says:
.pm start_quote
“France borrowed largely, collected large amounts of
capital by the creation of her national debt, and, on the
other hand, retained her circulating medium in so perfect
a condition that the moment the war was over she slipped
along smoothly upon the wheels of industrial success and
prosperity, without any derangement of her business.
And, during that time, she carried through one of the
most magnificent schemes of exchange, in the form of the
payment of indemnity, that has ever taken place in history.
She actually paid that foreign indemnity of the war to
Germany practically without deranging the rate of exchange
in France.”
.pm end_quote
He don’t tell how. Don’t tell that she flooded all the
avenues of trade with her paper money, and thus made her
goods so plenty and cheap that Germany bought them
instead of her own, and was then in turn nearly bankrupted;
so that France paid three quarters of the
“milliard” in French goods!
But hear the true story from Wendell Phillips, an
all-round, up-to-date reformer, whose motto “Act in
.bn 331.png
.pn +1
the living present.” When the monopolizers of black men
were beaten he turned to face the monopolizers of all men
and women. Here is his eloquent picture:
.pm start_quote
“France has just paid Germany one billion dollars.
Her chief cities have been sacked and plundered.
Humiliated by defeat, torn by civil dissensions, she
laughs, while all the rest of Christendom wade through
the mire of bankruptcy. Her ships are full busy, and
what little other nations do is in carrying to and fro her
manufactures. Her homes are happy, her streets crowded
with passing trains loaded with goods; all her mills hurrying
night and day to get even with her demand upon them.
Labor walks rejoicing and capital sleeps easy, fat with its
gains. What magician has done this? Paper money.
Like the rest of the nations, she ran to its protection
during the stress and strain of her German war. Unlike
and wiser than the rest of us, she has not hurried back to
coin. Wiser than we, she received the paper she offered
to others. This honesty has its reward. Her paper is,
to-day, more valuable than gold.”
.pm end_quote
Among the great results of this policy were an abundance
of gold and silver coming from abroad, until
$1,200,000,000 was found to be in the country.
Lest some may doubt the statement about the Germans
only getting a little gold for that indemnity, an extract is
here given from “Our Money Wars,” p. 152.
.pm start_quote
“Ivan C. Michels says: ‘The indemnity from France
to Germany, after the war of 1870-71, including interest at
five per cent. per annum, amounted to $1,060,209,015.
After crediting France with the value of certain railroads
in Alsace and Lorraine, the amount of due Germany
was $998,172,069, or 4,990,860,349 francs, which was
paid by the French government through the Bank of
France. At my request the Bank of France furnished to
me several years ago the following statement as to the
mode of having paid said indemnity:
.ta l:55 r:15 w=80%
| Francs.
In bank notes of the Bank of France | 125,000,000
In French gold coins | 273,003,050
.bn 332.png
.pn +1
In French silver coins | 239,291,875
In German bank notes | 105,039,045
Bills of exchange drawn in thalers | 2,485,513,729
Bills drawn on Frankfurt in florins | 235,128,152
Bills drawn on Hamburg in marksbancs | 265,216,990
Bills drawn on Berlin in reichsmarks | 79,072,309
Bills drawn on Amsterdam in florins | 250,540,821
Bills drawn on Antwerp and Brussels in francs | 295,704,546
Bills drawn on London in pounds sterling | 637,349,832
| ——————-
Total francs | 4,990,860,349
.ta-
“‘The patriotic people of France raised the vast sum
by a loan in less than six months from the time the government
appealed to them. Germany expected to receive
for years to come five per cent. per annum on the indemnity
bonds; but the Bank of France, through the French
bankers, drew on Germany, England, Scotland and Belgium,
and in four months’ time the whole indemnity was
paid. Never in the history of the world has this financial
transaction been equaled, and I doubt that any other
banking institution could have succeeded so well as the
Bank of France. Germany expected the payment in gold
coin or bullion, having previously and purposely demonetized
silver. But the fact remains that actually in
gold only 273,003,050 francs, equal to $54,600,610, was
paid by the Bank of France, and that sum only left
France, was remelted in Germany and coined into reichsmarks.
England, with her gold standard, had to part with
her gold to the amount of 637,348,832 francs, equal to
$127,469,964. Bills of exchange on the German bankers
throughout the German empire, especially on Hamburg,
Berlin and Frankfurt, came to 3,064,901,180 francs, equal
to $612,986,236, nigh on two-thirds of the whole amount
of the indemnity. This magnificent stroke of finance on
the part of the Bank of France and the French bankers
came near ruining the leading German bankers; and
forty-one banking houses throughout the German empire
had to suspend temporarily, not being able to honor the
drafts made upon them. The extravagance of the German
people during the war of 1870-71 brought them into debt
to France for luxuries, wines, etc., to an enormous extent;
.bn 333.png
.pn +1
and when the Bank of France purchased bills of exchange
from the French bankers, who drew on their German correspondents,
a panic ensued, and the Germans suffered
more than is generally supposed.’”
.pm end_quote
The above from Michels shows that he saw but dimly
what Phillips saw so plainly, that government paper
money, nourishing all industries, gave France that victory.
Michels catches a glimpse of the truth when he speaks of
luxuries, wines, etc.
To get a clear view of the French financial genius we
have to go back to 1848, when Louis Philippe abdicated
and the republic was founded amid great confusion. The
French have an instinct for finance far superior to anything
yet shown—by our rulers at least—in England and America.
“Paris,” says Victor Hugo, “is the city of the initiative.”
It is not afraid to start things. It is not, like Washington
and New York, always asking what London would do or
think. Taking Louis Blanc’s advice in 1848, it started
national work-shops to insure the employment of surplus
labor. Those did good for a time, but they were soon
perverted and destroyed by a treacherous Jew who got
hold of them.
Another new departure was more successful. “Besides
its regular financial operations,” says the London Times of
February 16, 1849, “the Bank of France made vast
advances to the city of Paris, to Marseilles, to the Department
of the Seine, and to the hospitals, amounting in all
to 260,000,000 francs. But even this was not all. To
enable the manufacturing interests to weather the storm,
at a moment when all sales were interrupted, a decree of
the National Assembly had directed warehouses to be
opened for the reception of all kinds of goods, and provided
that the registered invoices of these goods so deposited
should be made negotiable by indorsement. The
Bank of France discounted these receipts. In Havre
.bn 334.png
.pn +1
alone 18,000,000 francs was thus advanced upon colonial
products, and in Paris 14,000,000 on merchandise. In all
60,000,000 francs was thus made available for all the purposes
of trade. Thus the great institution had placed
itself, as it were, in direct contact with every interest of
the community, from the Minister of the Treasury down
to the trader in a distant part. Like a huge hydraulic
machine, it employed its colossal powers to pump a fresh
stream into the exhausted arteries of trade, to sustain credit
and preserve the circulation from complete collapse.”
How like “a grimacing dance of apes” our American
way of handling financial crises looks, in comparison with
the above.
.h4
The Bank of England.
Prof. Laughlin showed the usual gold-bug worship of
British finance in this:
.pm start_quote
“In the Bank of England the first moment of stringency
the rate of discount is raised. That has the effect of preventing
all unnecessary loans. The borrower who has
good collateral will get the money if he is willing to pay
an increased rate. Our system is such that we can loan
until we come to the legal limit; and is deficient in that
respect, as we cannot loan at a greater discount because of
the iniquitous action of the usury laws. You can help a
customer by increasing the rate. Just at the moment of
the greatest stringency our American system is deficient.”
.pm end_quote
Ordinary decorous language would fail to characterize
that infamous statement. The fact is that the British
system is utterly brutal. Our “iniquitous usury laws”
prevent a man from giving everything he has to the banks
in hard times. The British system is that of Jay Gould in
his gold corner of 1869. He settled with his debtors by
“taking all they had.” He was merciful, and forgave
them the balance; which is the usual stock exchange
style.
.bn 335.png
.pn +1
In coin-paying eras corrupt governments and Shylocks
have debased coins to make them go further. In these
credit-mongering times they try to bring their coin basis
down to one metal, gold, and clamor for extreme fineness
of that, in order to make their inverted pyramid of credit
go further and sell dearer. The policy of Great Britain,
for instance, has been to make gold, its standard, so dear
and inaccessible to the foreigners and debtor class that
they would find the other commodities in the market
cheaper than the gold in the market, so that settlements in
other commodities would be preferable. The retention of
gold in the Bank of England, by raising discounts in
panicky times, though murderous (“kindness,” says Mr.
Laughlin) to individual active business men, is a necessary
factor in this piratical scheme, and the fulcrum upon
which England derricks into her treasure vaults the
plunder of the whole world. Business is made a lottery,
turning out dazzling prizes that keep merchants from
rebellion. Long-headed American Shylocks hope to see
the United States as much more successful in plundering
the globe, in this way, as our country is larger than
England.
Finally, as to Laughlin, with what bitter scorn this statement
from the “closet scholar” will be greeted by the
thousands of manufacturers who, during panics, have had
to shut their factories for lack of cash “to pay the
hands”—though they had all but gilt-edge collateral:
.pm start_quote
“The monetary function has to do solely with exchanges
of goods; it hasn’t anything to do with their production.”
.pm end_quote
.h4
The Washington “Currency Reformers.”
In finishing this bird’s-eye view of the financial history
of this country, a brief review of the current financial plans
cannot well be avoided. It may be said of them, in a
general way, that no other set of robbers ever before
.bn 336.png
.pn +1
attempted to secure a law guaranteeing them unrestricted
right to plunder with unlimited government protection.
The out and out black-flag pirates, as represented by
Walker of Massachusetts, have a plan as simple and
explicit as a patent medicine. It runs thus: “Retire the
greenbacks, kill silver once for all, and let the bankers
manage the currency.” This obsolete idea, that banks
should issue money, is showing all the vim of a death
struggle. But a thousand columns of speeches in the
Congressional Globe on the safety of the national bank system
are answered by this solitary fact: In the year 1893, three
hundred and sixty banks west of the Alleghanies, owing
$125,000,000, went to smash, and about a dozen bankers
are now in prison or exile, while many more escaped as by
fire.
The Baltimore Plan, which a while ago had the sanction
of the Comptroller, Secretary of the Treasury and the
President, is, in a word, a scheme for issuing circulating
notes by both national and State banks, otherwise than
upon the pledge of government bonds as now. The banks
are to issue notes upon their own assets, supplemented by
a deposit of a certain amount of greenbacks, as a safety
and redemption fund. The theory of this plan is that
when any special demand for currency arises the banks
will make a special issue of notes to supply it; and that as
soon as this demand ceases the banks will retire the notes
it has called out. Thus the quantity of currency available
will, it is assumed, never be either deficient or excessive;
and there will never be at any point either a monetary
stringency or a monetary plethora. Were the function of
currency exclusively that of facilitating exchanges, such a
system (like that of 3-65 interconvertible bonds) might be
useful. But currency serves the additional purpose of
measuring the price of commodities; and since its relation
.bn 337.png
.pn +1
to those commodities is determined by its volume, any
change of its volume changes its value also, and consequently
impairs its stability as a measure of prices.
Again, as to the State bank feature of the Baltimore
plan, the idea prevails extensively in the agricultural
districts of the West and South that the chief business of
a bank is to lend money to borrowers. That is why they
clamor for the removal of the ten per cent. tax on State
banks. An abundance of greenbacks and silver would do
away with most of the need of borrowing from banks.
That’s what’s the matter with the banks.
No further mention is needed here of the schemes of
Carlisle, Springer, Vest and others. They seem all dead
at this writing, and they certainly should be damned.
Even the New York Tribune, a monopolists’ own, says of
one of the safety-fund schemes:
.pm start_quote
“The bankers are to have free issue; and when one fails
the government is to collect from the other banks and
redeem its currency. But in time of panic the government
would not and could not do that.”
.pm end_quote
On the other hand, the New York Sun, edited by a man
who was a radical socialist in his youth, and now a bitter,
hardened, cruel cynic, although lately a Greenback paper,
is as rabid as the New York Evening Post in advocacy of
gold and gold only. It says of the latest safety-fund
humbug:
.pm start_quote
“The new bill, like the old one, authorizes an inflation
of our paper currency, by at least $550,000,000, without
providing for its redemption in gold, and without any
effectual provision for diminishing the volume of outstanding
legal tender. Our New York financial magnates, who
have put up, this year, $116,000,000 in gold, to save the
treasury from suspending gold payments, ought to bestir themselves
in opposition to this latest administration folly, if
they would not see all their efforts go for naught and the
.bn 338.png
.pn +1
catastrophe which they have labored to avert rendered
inevitable.” [!!]
.pm end_quote
In Chicago we have Lyman Gage’s plan. Mr. Gage is
a man of intellect who resembles some of those orthodox
clergymen who, by a long course of theological dissipation,
i. e., reasoning from false premises, have impaired
their naturally fine faculties. Mr. Gage, if we must credit
him with sincerity, has come to the same condition by
financial dissipation. But his plan is not as vicious as
some. To furnish the needed foundation for national bank
circulation he would have the treasury issue $250,000,000
of 2½ per cent. bonds, for which greenbacks or Sherman
notes should be paid. The money paid would not become
an asset of the government. It would be canceled,
destroyed, burned up. Of his scheme the Chicago Times
well says:
.pm start_quote
“Like other bankers, he thinks the chief end to be
sought is to relieve the government of the duty of issuing
the circulating medium of the country. Upon this point
we must note an emphatic disagreement with Mr. Gage,
and with the whole school of financiers of which he is a
type.”
.pm end_quote
A specimen of the demoralization and danger of the
times is seen in a recent statement of Senator Gorman,
that he and Quay had settled in their minds that a certain
government bond scheme, like that of Mr. Gage, in eight
items, including some about silver, was about the only
proposition that could pass the present Congress. No. 3
among the eight items coolly dismisses the greenback
thus: “The legal tenders to be retired and canceled as
the bonds are put out.”
On the other hand, the Chicago Inter Ocean, which is
repenting of some of its financial sins, and remembering
what a good Greenback paper it was in 1878, says:
.pm start_quote
“One of the perils of the present financial situation is
.bn 339.png
.pn +1
the disposition shown to reopen the greenback question.
It took fifteen years to fight the great battle. Secretary
McCulloch attempted to take snap judgment against legal-tender
notes, paying them off at a rapid rate. Illinois,
through one of its Congressmen, E. C. Ingersoll, stepped
in the very first day Congress convened after that payingoff
process had begun with a resolution which stopped it.
Then began the intriguing of the Eastern bankers to
destroy the greenbacks, and when the last decisive conflict
occurred Illinois was again in the leadership, G. L. Fort
being the especial champion of the greenback cause as
against both the contractionists and the expansionists.
There was a great victory. For half a generation the anti-greenbackers
have been quiescent. They have come to
the front again with this session of Congress. The knock-out
received in caucus Monday ought to satisfy them that
the greenback is here to stay. There never could be a
better money. It is good for its face the world over. In
that uttermost end of the earth, China or Japan, the United
States legal-tender note is good for its face value, and,
whatever changes are made, that part of our currency
should remain intact. Should the current of Congressional
events occasion a show of hands in the Republican party
on this question, no doubt an overwhelming majority
would say, as did the Democratic caucus, let the greenbacks
alone.”
.pm end_quote
An extraordinary scene in the House between Representatives
Hepburn and Hendrix so fairly illustrates the
muddled stupidity and impudence of the gold-bugs that it
deserves notice here as a sign of the situation. Mr. Hepburn
described Mr. Hendrix as a self-heralded national
banker, who came here with oracular utterances to tell the
House what to do. Mr. Hepburn said his self-laudation
was impaired by the recollection of his speech sixteen
months ago, when the same conditions existed. Mr.
Hendrix then found the panacea for all financial ills in the
repeal of the Sherman silver law.
Before describing this discussion, attention should be
.bn 340.png
.pn +1
called to the fact that the panic of 1893 was immediately
brought on by the bankers because Secretary Carlisle
undertook to perform about the only good deed he has
ventured upon as Secretary, i. e., to pay the Sherman
treasury notes according to the letter of the act of July 14,
1890, in silver, just as France would have done. Now mark
how Hendrix “opened his mouth and put his foot in it,”
and how, finally, Hepburn tripped him.
Mr. Hendrix described at some length the process by
which the gold was withdrawn by speculators for shipment
abroad, and then proceeded to contrast this with the
situation in France, where the Bank of France refused to
pay, except where actually necessary, more than five per
cent. of gold on its demand obligations. These aggressions
on our gold reserve must be stopped, and if the pending
bill would stop them, afford relief, take the government
out of the banking business, as it has been taken out of
the silver business, he would vote for it.
“Does the action of the Bank of France, in refusing to
pay more than five per cent. in gold,” asked Mr. Hepburn,
“impair the credit of that bank?”
“No.”
“Then would the credit of the United States be
impaired if the United States should exercise its discretion
and redeem the Sherman notes in silver?”
“Yes, I believe it would at this time,” replied Mr.
Hendrix.
“Why?”
“Because of the general distrust of the government’s
ability to pay in gold. One hundred and fifty-nine million
dollars of Sherman gold promises [?] to pay cannot be met
without gold.”
“But the notes are redeemable in coin, not in gold,”
was Mr. Hepburn’s parting shot.
.bn 341.png
.pn +1
Mr. Hepburn declared that Mr. Hendrix had pointed
out unwittingly the remedy for the present evil when he
told the House that the great banking houses of Europe
exercised their discretion about depleting their gold vaults.
“Why will not the Secretary of the Treasury exercise the
same discretion?” he asked, amid a round of applause.
“The exercise of this discretion did not impair the credit
of European banks. Who dared to say that the credit of
this country, with 65,000,000 people behind it, and an
unlimited taxing power, would be impaired because it
refused to kneel at the demands of the Shylocks?”
“Why have not the Republican Secretaries of the
Treasury exercised that discretion?” asked Mr. Pence of
Colorado.
“I have not been Secretary of the Treasury,” replied
Mr. Hepburn hotly. “When I am I will answer. I am
as fully convinced, however, as I am that I am alive, that
if the Secretary of the Treasury were now to exercise his
discretion and pay gold when legitimate redemptions were
asked, and refuse it to sharks and speculators, the evils
from which we suffer would cease to be.”
A broader view is that the prime motive of the Secretary
in exercising his discretion should be the welfare of the
government; and gold should be refused where its payment
is likely to hurt the treasury.
.hr 15%
In the foregoing pages we have attempted to give such a
bird’s-eye view of American money and finance as would
serve as an example and warning for the future. We
behold in this short story how our finances were continually
run upon the rocks and shoals of a false “political
economy,” so-called, and how they were occasionally
pulled off—though remaining most of the time stuck fast
in the most dismal way.
.bn 342.png
.pn +1
As to the general aspects of the money question this is
added:
Our financial kings have kept two purposes in view.
First: To have our money issued by and for the special
use of private institutions called banks; and to have this
money scanty in quantity and of fluctuating value. Second:
To issue, foster and maintain, by all possible means, bonds
and other interest-bearing obligations, as the most convenient
means of transferring to the few the product of the
industry of the many.
To maintain these humbugs, they use learned language,
like doctors writing prescriptions in Latin. All the expert
handlers of money, stocks, etc., hate nothing so much as
that which is best for the other classes, viz., steady values.
Their delight is in ups and downs; and then, if speculators,
their effort is to be on the winning side. With
brokers, every change is profitable. With them it is:
“Heads I win, tails you lose.” Copernicus said of the
work of these traitors: “It is not by a blow, but little by
little, and through a secret and obscure approach, that it
destroys the state.” Further back in the ages Plato,
Lycurgus and Solon saw this most plainly.
The new American system of money is plainly and
briefly this: Abundant government fiat paper money—founded
upon the wealth and credit of a great, stable
nation; such money be kept at a steady purchasing
power by the increase and decrease of its volume; and to
be quite void of intrinsic value, and quite free from particular
commodities as bases for the monetary units.
For the present we wish free coinage of gold and silver
at 16 to 1. The ultimate of gold and silver will probably
be free coinage for all who bring them to the mints, into
suitable coins stamped with their weight and fineness, and
returned to the owners to be used as they choose. And
.bn 343.png
.pn +1
no one will lie awake nights for fear the metals will go
abroad.
When we get that “honest” fiat paper dollar, nothing
will call for an extra session of Congress quicker than any
prospect of a change in its purchasing power, after we
have once got it to a generally satisfactory point, say about
the buying power of our dollar in 1866. While any kind
of a change, up or down, suits many gamblers and speculators,
the steady increase in the buying power of the
dollar, for thirty years past, has been destroying the producers
of this country and largely creating the pestiferous
breed of millionaires.
The bulk of our money wars have been crowded into
the past thirty years. We might call them “Our Thirty
Years’ War.” Its history has been utterly, wofully and
willfully misrepresented by such pseudo-historians as
Sumner of Yale and David A. Wells.
Those years nearly cover the great and little panics of
1837, ’47, ’57, ’60, ’73, ’84, ’85, ’90 and ’93. Vast tomes
might be written concerning the manifold causes. One
cause has always been foremost in them—scarcity of legal-tender
money.
At times our rulers have tried to deceive us by a great
show of abundant currency. Such were the fifteen kinds
of money thrust upon the nation to confuse it during the
civil war, by McCulloch and Sherman.
Why need we here repeat the many-times-told tales of
the craft of the national banks, demonetization of silver,
the mystery and raised value of gold, Rothschild tricks,
the control of our finances and politics by Europe, and the
gradual merging of the gold Democrats and Republicans
into practically one party?
The bankers’ rebellion of 1881, which conquered President
Hayes. The whirling of stock values up two billions
.bn 344.png
.pn +1
then and down again in 1883. The deluge of trusts and
syndicates in full tide in 1887. The bogus silver bill of
1890. Cleveland’s object-lesson of ruin and misery in
1893. The counting out of victorious Bryan in 1896.
And now the ghostly attempt to bring prosperity by tariff
bills and Lyman Gage “currency reform,” while millions
of deceived, disappointed, dazed, discouraged, almost
maddened Americans suffer all the tortures of poverty.
And the end is not yet.
.il fn=i-088.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 345.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
IV. | THE EIGHT MONEY CONSPIRACIES.
.pm start_citation
“When I stand in the United States Treasury, I stand on
English soil.”—Nathaniel P. Banks.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
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“HUGH McCULLOCH hamstrung the whole nation.
His management of the finances, while
it enriched him and made him a great London
banker, has cost the American people more than the war
did.” These words were uttered by Hon. William D.
Kelley, and they are true as gospel. They would be
equally true if the name of John Sherman were substituted
for that of Hugh McCulloch.
That the constant aim and object of the manipulators of
our financial legislation since the war has been to contract
the currency and to burden the people with interest-bearing
debt, thereby enriching the usurers and impoverishing
the producing classes, is evidenced in the following brief
summary of the eight principal enactments affecting money
which passed Congress since 1861:
1. The Exception Clause. (Feb. 25, 1862.) In 1861
and 1862 demand treasury notes to the amount of $60,000,000
were issued by the government and made legal-tender
money for all debts, public and private—equal to coin.
Wall Street could not gamble in legal-tender paper money;
so, as soon as the legal-tender act passed the House and
was sent to the Senate, the Shylocks placed on the greenback
what is known as the “exception clause”—“Except
duties on imports and interest on the public debt.” This
practically demonetized the United States treasury note,
.bn 346.png
.pn +1
and cost the producing classes millions of dollars. The
greenback “went down,” or, more correctly speaking, gold
“went up,” until $1 in paper money was valued at only
37 cents when with gold. John Sherman said:
“We purposely depreciated the greenback, to get sale for
our bonds.” He was willing to destroy the people’s money
to appease the greed of gold gamblers at home and abroad.
2. The National Bank Act. (Feb. 25, 1863.) This
scheme was introduced in the Senate and advocated by
John Sherman in the interest of bondholders and capitalists,
just one year after legal-tender notes were authorized
by law, and before sufficient time had been given to test
their utility. The express object was to have the bank
notes supersede the legal-tender notes, after the investment
of legal tenders in bonds.
“I look upon the national bank, as now recognized by
law,” says Myers in his “Money, Its History and Functions,”
“as one of the most gigantic schemes for robbing
the people ever devised by man. I cannot conceive of a
single reason for perpetuating the system one day beyond
the time required to settle its affairs. The national banks
of this country have cost the people, in thirty years of
their existence, over $6,000,000,000. The credit which
the banker sells at from 7 to 15 per cent. costs him only
1 per cent. on actual circulation; hence it is virtually a
present to him. He draws interest on this credit; on what
he himself owes. His note is not money, nor is it in any
sense a legal tender between man and man. It is simply a
‘promise to pay.’ The banker lends his credit, with which
he has supplied himself by gift from the government, and
the borrower pledges his wealth; the banker being far more
secure than the holder of the banker’s paper. The banker
takes pay for something he does not furnish; for the capital
(wealth) is furnished by the borrower. So the banker
.bn 347.png
.pn +1
gets something for nothing, and the borrower pays for that
which he never receives.”
Banks are run on the deposits, rather than on any capital
the banker himself may have. The patrons of the bank
furnish the capital, and also the security. The banker
lends other people’s money to other people; on this he
draws interest; he conducts his business on your money
and his credit, which you furnish him.
Now, if the government can afford to let the banker have
credit at 1 per cent. on actual circulation, why can’t the
treasury supply all the people with legal-tender money at
the same rate? Why not issue the money direct to the
people and then pay interest into the United States treasury,
instead of into the coffers of corporate institutions?
National banks are expensive luxuries which we don’t
need. So let the people unite in demanding their abolition
at once, and then institute in their stead United States
banks, sub-treasuries if you please, backed by all the
people, and hence absolutely safe. This would make a
government for the people, instead of for the corporations.
Let us do business on the credit of the people—on the
credit of the government; not, as we are now doing, on
the credit of banks and bankers.
3. The Funding Act. (April 12, 1866.) Commonly
called contraction. This law authorized the Secretary of
the Treasury to retire the legal-tender notes by investing
them in 6 per cent. bonds. Contraction continued until
some $1,500,000,000 were destroyed, and a corresponding
amount of 6 per cent. bonds issued. The treasury notes,
or legal tenders, were nearly all non-interest-bearing.
This reduction of the currency was an outrage upon
the people. The volume should have been increased
to keep pace with an increasing population. But Shylock
must have interest.
.bn 348.png
.pn +1
4. The Credit-Strengthening Act. (March 18, 1869.)
This law provided that the legal-tender treasury notes
be paid in coin, as also all interest-bearing obligations
of the government. Prior to the passage of this law
public obligations had been payable in the lawful money of
the country; the greenback was lawful money, redeemable
the same as gold and silver coin, except duties on imports
and interest on the public debt. The credit of the nation
was good, and needed no strengthening. The war was
over, and the country was prosperous and the people contented.
Why, then, add another burden?
5. An Act Refunding the Public Debt. (July 14,
1870.) This act authorized the issue and sale of $1,500,000,000
United States bonds, to refund 5-20 bonds and
make them conform to the law of 1860. To fund means to
put public into stocks and securities, making
them interest-bearing.
The public debt should have been paid, as at first provided,
in the lawful currency of the country, gold, silver
and treasury notes. The law of 1869 added $500,000,000
to the 5-20 bonds, by making them payable in coin; then
to refund the bonds, just to please English Shylocks,
is villainy unnamed and .
6. The Demonetization of Silver. (Feb. 12, 1873.)
The act of 1869 had made all public obligations payable in
coin, gold or silver; while the act of 1873, clandestinely
passed, by omitting the silver dollar from the list of coins
enumerated, practically demonetized silver, making the
public debt, interest and all, as well as the paper currency,
payable in gold coin—a further contraction of the volume of
currency.
The silver dollar was created by the Congress of the
United States on April 2, 1792, and made the unit of value.
It contains 412½ grains of standard silver, nine parts pure
.bn 349.png
.pn +1
silver, one part alloy. At that time the mints of all the
principal nations of the world were open to the free coinage
of both gold and silver. That is, all of such metal
presented to the mints could be converted into money
without any charge except the actual cost of coining. The
ratio then was about 15½ to 1; that is, one ounce of gold
was equal to 15½ ounces of silver. January 18, 1837, the
ratio between gold and silver coins of the United States
was changed to 15.988 to 1, commonly referred to as
16 to 1.
The act demonetizing silver was understood by few, and,
in fact, many of those who voted for it, and President Grant,
who signed the bill, were unaware of its actual meaning and
effect. The money speculators of England, backed by
cupidity and ignorance on this side, were its real instigators.
There was every reason in the world why England should
desire the demonetization of silver here. She is a creditor
nation, and her capitalists hold vast amounts in government
and other securities abroad. From this country alone the
capitalists of Great Britain derive each year more than five
hundred millions of dollars for interest on their investments,
all of which is paid in gold or its equivalent. The
United States produces an enormous quantity of silver,
but we very humbly to the gold standard as set up
by Great Britain. We deny ourselves the right to use a
metal of which we have an abundance and adopt one more
scarce and, consequently, more expensive. By this policy
we are forced to purchase gold abroad, thus adding constantly
to the burden of a perpetual, interest-bearing
national debt.
By accomplishing the demonetization of silver in this
country, England gained a double victory, for the governments
of the Latin Union, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland
and Greece, were soon afterward forced to suspend
.bn 350.png
.pn +1
silver coinage. The gain to England and the loss to the
other countries involved, especially to the United States,
by this general demonetization of silver, can hardly be
estimated. The loss, of course, was the heaviest in this
country, where the production of silver is very large,
where so many are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and
where a large and freely circulating volume of money is so
essential to commercial activity.
Before silver was demonetized, we were under the burden
of an enormous national debt, but every dollar of this was
payable in silver. The stimulated demand for gold, and,
consequently, its increase in value, was not the only gain
to England. She now buys our cheap silver bullion,
exchanges it at its coinage value for products in the silver-using
countries of Asia, Africa and South America, and
nets a profit of over one hundred per cent. by the transaction.
We then buy from her at gold prices and pay with
gold or products at prices which, by forcing us into competition
with the world, England fixes herself.
7. The Resumption of Specie Payment. (January
14, 1875.) This law provided for the retirement of the
fractional currency ($45,000,000) and the legal-tender
treasury notes, their places to be supplied by national
bank notes, which are not a legal tender between man and
man. The name “specie payment” is simply a blind; it
does not mean anything; to get rid of the much despised
greenback was the real object of the act. The moneyed
aristocracy had long ago confessed their inability to “control”
the “greenback as it is called.” Had the provisions
of this law been carried out, it would have added to our
annual interest charge about twenty millions of dollars.
8. The Sherman Purchasing Clause. (July 14, 1890.)
This act was a miserable makeshift or substitute for a free
coinage bill. It provided for the purchase of not less
.bn 351.png
.pn +1
than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,500,000 ounces of silver
bullion per month, 2,000,000 ounces of which was to be
coined each month into silver dollars until July 1, 1891.
Instead of redeeming the treasury notes issued in the purchase
of silver with their equivalent in silver, upon the
demand of the holder, the Secretary of the Treasury was
required to redeem these notes in gold or silver coin at his
discretion. The legal-tender power of the silver dollar
was modified so as to read: “Except otherwise expressly
stipulated in the contract.” In 1893 President Cleveland
called Congress together in extraordinary session to consider
the financial condition of the country. November 1,
1893, the Sherman law was repealed, leaving us on a single
gold basis.
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.bn 352.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
V. | FINANCIAL AUTHORITIES.
.pm start_citation
“Above all things good policy is to be used, that the treasures
and money of the state be not gathered into a few hands; for,
otherwise, a state may have great stock and yet starve. And
money is like muck, not good unless spread. This is done by suppressing,
or at least keeping a strait hand upon the devouring trade
of usury, engrossing, great pasturages and the like.”—Bacon.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
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THE following is a carefully prepared collection of
quotations from the writings and speeches of eminent
statesmen, jurists, financiers and economists,
ancient and modern, foreign and American. It will be
found not only interesting and instructive to the casual
reader, but of extreme value to the student for reference:
Alexander Hamilton (report on the mint, 1791): “To
annul the use of either of the metals as money is to abridge
the quantity of the circulating medium. It is liable to all
the objections that arise from a comparison of the benefits
of a full with the evils of a scanty circulation.”
Benjamin Franklin, April 3, 1792 (Jared Sparks, page
255): “Want of money in a country reduces the price of
that part of its products which is used in trade. A plentiful
currency will occasion the trading produce to bear a
good price.”
Page 185 of his autobiography (speaking of his pamphlet
on “The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency,”
for the purpose of increasing the circulation): “It was
well received by the common people in general, but the
rich men disliked it, for it increased as well as strengthened
the clamor for more money. The utility of this currency
by experience became so evident as never to be
.bn 353.png
.pn +1
much disputed, so that it grew soon to be £55,000, and
in 1879 to £80,000, since which it rose to £350,000,
trade, buildings and inhabitants all the while increasing.”
Daniel Webster: “A contraction of the currency, even
if not sudden, contracts business, discourages enterprise
and restrains the commercial spirit. A sudden contraction
aggravates these circumstances.”
Henry Clay (debate on the sub-treasury, 1840): “The
proposed substitution of an exclusive metallic currency to
the medium with which we have been so long familiar is
forbidden by the principles of eternal justice. Assuming
the currency of the country to consist of two-thirds paper
and one of specie, and assuming, also, that the money of
a country, whatever may be its component parts, regulates
all values, and expresses the true amount which the debtor
has to pay his creditor, the effect of the change upon that
relation, and upon the property of the country, would be
most ruinous. All property would be reduced in value to
one-third of its present nominal amount, and every debtor
would, in effect, have to pay three times as much as he
had contracted for. The pressure of our foreign debt
would be three times as great as it is, while the six
hundred millions, which is about the sum now probably
due to the banks from the people, would be multiplied to
eighteen hundred millions!... A man, for example,
owning property to the value of $5,000, contracts a debt
of $5,000. By the reduction of one-half of the currency
of the country, his property in effect becomes reduced to
the value of $2,500. But his debt undergoes no corresponding
reduction.... But if the effect of this hard
money policy upon the debtor class be injurious, it is still
more disastrous, if possible, on the laboring classes....
Of all the subjects of national policy, not one ought to be
touched with so much delicacy as that of the wages—in
.bn 354.png
.pn +1
other words, the bread—of the poor man. In dwelling, as
I have often done, with inexpressible satisfaction, upon the
many advantages of our country, there is not one that has
given me more delight than the high price of manual
labor. There is not one which indicates more clearly the
prosperity of the mass of the community....
“The revulsions of 1837 produced a far greater havoc than
was experienced in the period above mentioned. The ruin
came quick and fearful. There were few that could save
themselves. Property of every description was parted
with at sacrifices that were astounding, and as for the currency,
there was scarcely any at all. In some parts of the
interior of Pennsylvania the people were obliged to divide
bank notes into halves, quarters, eighths, and so on, and
agree from necessity to use them as money. In Ohio,
with all her abundance, it was hard to get money to pay
taxes. The sheriff of Muskingum County, as stated in the
Guernsey Times, in the summer of 1842, sold at auction
one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 6¼ cents each;
two horses (said to be worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2
each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50,
and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Missouri,
as stated by the Hannibal Journal, the sheriff sold three
horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12½ cents; five
cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25; twenty sheep
at 13½ cents each; twenty-four hogs for 25 cents for the
lot; one eight-day clock at $2.50; a lot of tobacco, seven
or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay at 25 cents
each.”
Horace Greeley (“Political Economy,” page 65): “They
[false economists] assume that if half the money in a
country leaves it for goods imported, the residue will perform
the functions previously devolved on the whole, save
only that there will be a general reduction of prices. I, on
.bn 355.png
.pn +1
the contrary, issue an appeal to the experience of mankind
to sustain me that in such cases the remainder, so far
from subserving the end formerly answered by the larger
volume of currency, will not even subserve half of it, for
it will all but cease to circulate at all.... In its absence
the people will quite generally be driven back to barter, a
discouragement of industry and a long stride on the downward
road to barbarism.”
Treasurer Spinner (that portion of his report for December,
1873, which was suppressed by President Grant):
“When ... legitimate money becomes more and more
abundant, credits are asked for and given on shorter and
shorter time, until the time comes when there is money
sufficient to transact all the legitimate business and to
effect all necessary exchanges of the merchantable commodities
of the country; then private credits will be
almost entirely unknown, as will commercial revulsions
and consequent panics.... Inflation can only be when
the people are excessively in debt. Such is not the
position when money is plentiful; for when money is
plentiful people get out of debt and acquire habits of
promptness, punctuality, and pay as they go.”
George S. Coe (“Financial History of the War”): “As
the war progressed and the country became poorer, the
currency increased. It is strange that all other property
was eagerly sought for in preference to this, and that
prodigal expenditure became the law of the land.”
Report of George S. Coe, John J. Knox, James Harsen
Rhoades and W. P. St. John (committee of New York
Chamber of Commerce, 1891): “The enlarged volume [of
legal-tender money], besides disturbing the equitable
relations of men to each other, at once adjusts itself to the
prices of all commodities and relatively enhances their
cost, so as to absorb at once whatever advances their
.bn 356.png
.pn +1
cost.... This is why thoughtful men see in any issue of
legal-tender notes the way to inevitable destruction.”
Robert G. Ingersoll: “We have passed through a period
of wonderful and unprecedented inflation. For years every
kind of business has been pressed to the very sky line. A
wave of wealth swept over the United States. Tatters
became garments and garments became robes. Walls
were covered with pictures, floors with carpets, and for
the first time in the history of the world the poor tasted
all the luxuries of wealth. But monopoly changed that
paradise into hell by creating a money famine.”
John J. Ingalls: “No people in a great emergency ever
found a faithful ally in gold. It is the most cowardly and
treacherous of all metals. It makes no treaty it does not
break; it has no friend it does not sooner or later betray.
In times of panic and calamity, shipwreck and disaster, it
becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No nation ever
fought a great war by the aid of gold. In the crisis of the
greatest peril it becomes an enemy more potent than the
foe in the field.... In our own civil war it is doubtful if
the gold of New York and London did not work us greater
injury than the powder and lead and iron of the rebels.
It was the most invincible enemy of the public credit. It
was in open alliance with our enemies the world over, and
all its energies were evoked for our destruction. But, as
usual, when danger has been averted and the victory
secured, gold swaggers to the front and asserts supremacy.”
Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury (1866): “The
process of contracting the circulation of the government
notes should go on just as rapidly as possible without producing
a financial crash.”
John A. Logan (Feb. 17, 1874): “You may theorize and
argue to the farmers until you are hoarse, and you will fail
to get them to prefer low prices to high ones for their
.bn 357.png
.pn +1
products.... The people have and do realize that their
most prosperous times were when currency was the most
plentiful....
“I can see the people of our Western States, who are
producers, reduced to the condition of serfs to pay interest
on public and private debts to the money sharks of Wall
Street, New York, and of Threadneedle in London,
England. And this will be accomplished by withdrawing
the treasury notes from circulation, and destroying them
until the banks can control the entire volume of money....
It was the contraction and increased want of currency,
and not a superabundance, which produced the necessity
for running in debt.
“Falling prices and misery and destruction are inseparable
companions. The disasters of the dark ages were
caused by decreasing money and falling prices. With the
increase of money labor and industry gain new life.
“I can see benefit only to the money-holders and those
who receive interest and have fixed incomes. I can see,
as a result of this legislation, our business operations
crippled and wages for labor reduced to a mere pittance.
I can see the beautiful prairies of my own State and of the
great West, which are blooming as gardens, with cheerful
homes rising like white towers along the pathway of
improvement, again sinking back to idleness. I can see
mortgage fiends at their hellish work. I can see the hopes
of the industrious farmers blasted as they burn corn for
fuel, because its price will not pay the cost of transportation
and dividends on millions of dollars of fictitious railway
stocks and bonds.”
Preston B. Plumb (Senate, April, 1880): “The contraction
of the currency by 5 per cent. of its volume means
the depreciation of the property of the country three
billions of dollars.”
.bn 358.png
.pn +1
The Chicago Tribune (1878): “Straight along for four
and a half years the dollar has grown dearer and larger,
the debts heavier and harder to pay, and the value of
property has withered; business has been done at a continual
loss. Real estate—lands, lots and improvements,
the foundation of all wealth—has gone down year after
year in value, while the mortgages have devoured it, wiping
out equities and all that had been paid thereon, and
annihilating multitudes of fortunes.”
President Grant (message, 1870): “Immediate resumption,
if practicable, is not desirable. It would compel the
debtor class to pay beyond their contracts the premium on
gold at the date of their purchase and would bring bankruptcy
and ruin to thousands.”
Message of 1873: “The experience of the present
panic has proven that the currency of the country, based
as it is upon its credit, is the best that has ever been
devised.
“To increase our exports, sufficient currency is required
to keep all the industries of the country employed.
Without this, national as well as individual bankruptcy
must ensue....
“Prices keep pace with the volume of money.”
John Sherman (1869): “The contraction of the currency
is a far more distressing thing than Senators suppose.
Our own and other nations have gone through that
process before. It is not possible to take that voyage
without the sorest distress. To every person except a
capitalist out of debt it is a period of loss, of danger,
lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of enterprise,
bankruptcy and disaster.”
William D. Kelley (House of Representatives, Jan. 3,
1867): “The experiment [on contracting the currency],
if attempted as a means of hastening specie payments, will
.bn 359.png
.pn +1
prove a failure, but not a harmless one. It will be fatal to
the prospects of a majority of the business men of this
generation, and strip the frugal laboring people of the
country of the small but hard-earned sums they have
deposited in savings banks. It will make money scarce
and employment uncertain. It will increase the purchasing
power of money, and by thus unsettling values will
paralyze trade, suspend production and deprive industry of
employment. It will make the money of the rich man
more valuable and deprive the poor man of his entire
capital, the value of his labor, by depriving him of employment.
Its final effect will be widespread bankruptcy.”
Toledo Blade (May 17, 1877): “In financial crises the
thing men want is money; that which everybody must
receive in payment of debt or forever thereafter forego all
claim of interest thereon. What men want in such seasons
of panic and distress is that which will pay a note in a
bank, will meet the exactions of government, will avert
the sacrifice of homestead, warehouse or other property by
sheriff’s or marshal’s sale; which, being money, will, when
tendered in payment, arrest such proceedings.... The
existence and inflexibility of the law are indisputable. If
the volume of money is increased creditors complain that
the prices of commodities are further enhanced.”
George William Curtis (Harper’s Weekly, July, 1877):
“There can be no doubt that as the volume of money
decreases the purchasing power increases.... It is
unquestionably true that it is a maxim of money that the
increase of its volume decreases and the decrease increases
the purchasing power of the unit.... It may be a fair
question whether the demonetization of silver did not
increase the value of gold.”
Thomas Ewing (November 22, 1877): “No greater
wrong can be inflicted on the people by government than
.bn 360.png
.pn +1
a contraction of the volume of the currency. The prices
of commodities, whether land, product or labor, are determined
absolutely by the effective volume of the currency.
An increase of the volume raises the price of commodities.”
James G. Blaine (House, February 7, 1878): “The
destruction of silver as money and establishing gold as the
sole unit of value must have a ruinous effect on all forms of
property except those investments which yield a fixed
return in money. These would gain an unfair advantage
over other species of property.”
James A. Garfield (1880): “Whoever controls the volume
of currency is absolute master of the industry and
commerce of the country.”
Senator Mills, of Texas (House, February 3, 1886): “But
the crime that is now sought to be perpetrated on more
than fifty millions of people comes neither from the camp
of a conqueror, the hand of a foreigner, nor the altar of
an idolator. It comes from the cold, phlegmatic marble
heart of avarice—avarice that seeks to paralyze labor,
increase the burden of debt, and fill the land with destitution
and suffering to gratify the lust for gold—avarice surrounded
by every comfort that wealth can command, and
rich enough to satisfy every want save that which refuses
to be satisfied without the suffocation and strangulation of
all the labor of the land. With a forehead that refuses to
be ashamed it demands of Congress an act that will
paralyze all the forces of production, shut out labor from
all employment, increase the burden of debts and taxation,
and send desolation and suffering to all the homes of the
poor.”
Leland Stanford (Senate, March 10, 1890): “An abundance
of money means universal activity, bringing in its
train all the blessings that belong to a constantly employed,
.bn 361.png
.pn +1
industrious, intelligent people.... Abundant and cheap
money places the power in the hands of the industrious....
Cheap and abundant money means co-operation of
labor to an extent hitherto unknown.... Would go
far towards aiding his [labor’s] intelligence, toward realizing
his highest destiny. It seems to me that the
great thought of humanity should be how to advance the
great multitude of toilers, increase their power of production
and elevate their condition.... To me one of
the most effective means of placing at man’s disposal
the force inherent in the value of property is through
furnishing a bountiful supply of money.... If money
were suddenly annihilated from all business affairs there
would be a general suspension of business all over the
country. It is the duty of statesmen to furnish the means,
if possible, to find out the way by which the Creator’s
design for the highest advance of civilization is to be
obtained. Want, discomfort and misery are not necessarily
the heritage of the industrious and provident man.
So far as I can ascertain, no government has ever attempted
to furnish an adequate supply of money or establish any
standard by which its want could be ascertained.”
John G. Carlisle (in the House, February 21, 1878):
“According to my views of the subject the conspiracy
which seems to have been formed here and in Europe to
destroy by legislation and otherwise from three-sevenths to
one-half the metallic money of the world is the most
gigantic crime of this or any other age. The consummation
of such a scheme would ultimately entail more misery
upon the human race than all the wars, pestilences and
famines that ever occurred in the history of the world.
The absolute and instantaneous destruction of half the
entire movable property of the world, including houses,
ships, railroads and other appliances for carrying on commerce,
.bn 362.png
.pn +1
while it would be felt more sensibly at the moment,
would not produce anything like the prolonged distress
and disorganization of society that must inevitably result
from the permanent annihilation of one-half the metallic
money of the world.”
John G. Carlisle (speaking for the Bland bill, 1878): “It
will reverse the grinding process that has been going on
for the last few years. Instead of constant and ruthless
contraction, instead of constant appreciation of money
and depreciation of property, we will have expansion to the
extent of at least $2,000,000 a month, and under its influence
the exchangeable value of commodities, including
labor, will soon begin to rise, thus inviting investments,
infusing life into the dead industries of the country,
and quickening the pulsations of trade in all its departments.”
Secretary Windom (Jan. 31, 1891): “The ideal financial
system would be one that should furnish just enough absolutely
sound money to meet the legitimate wants of trade,
and no more. Had it not been for the peculiar condition
which enabled the United States to disburse over seventy-five
million dollars in about two and a half months last
autumn, I am firmly convinced that the stringency in
August and September would have resulted in widespread
financial ruin.”
Chauncey M. Depew: “Fifty men can paralyze the whole
country, for they can control the circulation of the currency,
and create panic whenever they will.”
Hon. G. G. Symes, of Colorado (commenting on the
demonetization of silver): “There would be truly enough
money to do the business after the shrinkage of prices and
the financial disasters. For the new order of things and
basis of values there would still be gold enough to carry on
the business. It would only require one-half after the new
.bn 363.png
.pn +1
condition and basis was reached. The monometallists,
then, would still argue that gold was not scarce.”
Henry Clews, Wall Street financier (March 16, 1895):
“Wall Street keeps a quick eye upon the prospects of the
suggested international silver conference. It sees in the
adoption of a world-wide policy of bimetallism the certainty
of a material increase in the metallic money of the commercial
nations, and assumes that, in such case, there would be
a general rise in values and a consequent speculative
boom of wide dimensions.”
Franklin H. Head, of Chicago (business man): “That
an increase in the quantity of money reduces prices, and a
diminution lowers them, as stated by Mill and other
economic writers, is the most elementary proposition in the
theory of currency, and without it we should have no key
to any of the others.”
Amasa Walker, of Massachusetts: “Other things being
equal, the amount of currency in circulation determines the
prices of everything that is for sale; and these are increased
or diminished as the volume of the currency is increased or
diminished.”
A. B. Hepburn, of the United States Treasury (Forum,
1894): “When credit is withheld a money stringency is
easily created.”
Prof. William G. Sumner, of Yale (“History of American
Currency,” page 205): “In 1872 this issue was forced out
of between forty and fifty million, reducing a redundancy
and enhancing retail prices.” Page 211: “The war being
ended, the financial question took this form: ‘Shall we
withdraw the paper, recover specie, reduce prices, lessen
imports and live economically until we have made up the
waste and loss of war? Or shall we keep paper as money?’
Mr. McCulloch proposed to contract inflated paper and
pursue the former alternative.” Page 221: “The whole
.bn 364.png
.pn +1
story goes to show that the value of paper currency depends
upon its amount.” Page 329: “If, therefore, a nation
has a specie currency, a drain upon it by an adverse
balance of trade, a foreign payment, or any other similar
cause, would immediately produce a lowering of prices and
a return of current specie until the natural level was once
more restored.”
Prof. Francis A. Walker, Yale (“Money,” page 57):
“The value of money in any country is determined by the
quantity existing. Its power of acquisition depends not
upon its substance, but upon its quantity.... That prices
will fall or rise as the volume of money be increased or
diminished is a law that is unalterable as any law of
nature.” Page 210: “Gold and silver undergo great
changes of value and become in a high degree deceptive.
Prof. Jevons estimates that the value of gold fell, between
1789 and 1809, 45 per cent.; from 1809 to 1849 it rose 145
per cent., while in the twenty years after 1849 it fell again
at least 30 per cent.... When the process of contraction
commences the first class on which it falls is the merchants
of the large cities; they find it difficult to get money
to pay their debts. The next class is the manufacturer;
the sale of his goods at once falls off. Laborers and
mechanics next feel the pressure; they are thrown out of
employment. And lastly the farmer finds a dull sale for
his produce.”
Robert Ellis Thompson, M. A., University of Pennsylvania
(“Political Economy,” page 151): “The influx of money
into a progressive country is one of the most powerful
promoters and increasers of production. When it is plenty
all sorts of productive work is stimulated. Labor is the
master of capital, and industrial enterprise gains a more
than proportionally large return for its outlay.” Page
209: “The possession of a large quantity of money
.bn 365.png
.pn +1
enables any country to organize its industries upon such a
scale as to carry its division of labor to such perfection as
will bring down the prices of all the products of industry,
while affording a larger return to both capitalist and
laborer. It therefore makes such a country a cheap place
to buy in, mainly because of that accumulation of money
which was to make everything dear.”
Professor Thompson (“Political Economy”) quotes
Thomas Tooke, page 208: “If money has increased,
industry and trade are increased.... If iron and cotton
are scarce, those who need them suffer by the scarcity, but
it has no effect upon the prices of other materials. If, on
the other hand, money is scarce, the price of everything
else is affected. Every one must make exchanges, just as
when the water falls in the rivers traffic is interrupted
because the vessels are aground.”
Professor Francis Bowen, Harvard (“American Political
Economy,” page 280): “The whole process of exchange
may be compared to the process of weighing a well-poised
balance, the money and the merchandise being placed on
the opposite arms of the lever. Increase the weight on the
money side, and the merchandise is sure to rise.” Page
281: “The equalization of money is but another name
for the equalization of prices.” Page 244: “The probability
of the notes being redeemed at some future day,
more or less remote, is not the cause even of the depreciation
in the value of paper money, ... but solely on the
relative amount of the currency compared with the needs
of business. How great are these needs? Commerce needs
money or currency enough to enable it to perform its
peculiar function; that is, to make the prices of commodities
in the home market equal or as nearly equal as possible
to the prices of the same commodities in foreign markets.”
Page 245: “If there is only $100 to buy flour with, and
.bn 366.png
.pn +1
only ten barrels of flour offered for sale, the competition of
buyers and sellers must fix the price at $10 a barrel. If
there was twice as much flour, the number of dollars being
the same, the price must be reduced to $5. On the other
hand, double the quantity of money; there would be $200
available for this purpose, and, as at first, only ten barrels
to be sold; the price would rise to $20 a barrel.” Page
301: “The general principle is that the value of money
falls in precisely the same ratio in which its quantity is
increased. If the whole quantity of money in circulation
was doubled, prices would be doubled; if it was only
increased one-fourth, prices would rise one-fourth.”
President Steel, Lawrence University: “The conventional
unit of lineal measure must not be a line which
averages a foot, though it may be fourteen inches to-day
and nine inches to-morrow; for the same reason it is
desirable that the unit of value should have the same purchasing
power next week as it has now.”
Prof. Francis Wayland (“Elements of Political Economy,”
page 297): “If there is more money in a country than is
needed for its exchanges, the price of goods is raised and
it is sent abroad for new purchases. If there is a scarcity
of money in a country, the price of goods declines, and
money comes in from other lands to be exchanged for
them.” Page 298: “If money is abundant because
business is stagnant and exchanges are few, it is a sign of
adversity rather than of prosperity.”
Edwards Pierpont (North American Review): “When
currency is small it is always easy for a few lords of corporations
and rich money-lenders to combine and lock it up,
and thus throw down the price of stocks, wheat, cotton
and other commodities, and work a corner on the currency.
Thus the market is made tight and extortion easy.”
John Sheldon (New England Yale Review, March, 1890):
.bn 367.png
.pn +1
“This is of supreme importance, for prices tend to carry
with the amount and not simply with the kind of legal-tender
money in circulation. The greater the amount the
higher the range of prices; the less the circulation the
lower the prices. Prices tend ever to follow up and down
the amount of legal-tender money in circulation; they do
not tend to fixity of the particular kind of money or
standard used.”
Alexander Baring (before the committee, House of Lords,
1819): “The reduction of paper would produce all those
effects which arise from reduction in the amount of money
in any country.”
Sir Robert Peel (May 6, 1844, speaking of the act to
regulate the currency): “There is no contract, public or
private, no engagement, national or individual, which is
unaffected by this.”
Lord George Bentinck (Parliamentary Debates, about
1847): “Of all the subtle devices which the wit of man
has contrived to despoil the community of their property,
nothing equals the contrivance of laws which limits the
currency to gold.”
Lord Beaconsfield (“Agricultural Depression”): “Gold
is every day appreciating in value, and as it appreciates in
value the lower become prices.”
Sir Walter Scott (speaking of abundant currency): “It
is not less an issue that the consequences of this banking
system as conducted in Scotland have been operated with
the greatest advantage to the country; have converted
Scotland from a poor, miserable and barren country into
one where, if nature has done less, art and industry have
done more than in perhaps any country in Europe, England
itself not excepted.”
Encyclopedia Britannica (1859): “A fall in the value of
precious metals, like a fall of rain water after a long course
.bn 368.png
.pn +1
of dry weather, may be prejudicial to certain classes. It
is beneficial to an incomparably greater number, including
all who are engaged in industrial pursuits, and is, speaking
generally, of great public or national advantage.”
North British Review (November, 1861): “Metallic
money, whilst acting as coin, is identical with paper
money in respect to being destitute of intrinsic value.”
William , F. R. S., gives statistics of the world’s
volume of money from the year 14 A. D., when it was
$1,790,000,000, to 806, when it had fallen to $168,000,000.
The price of a horse in England then was £1 15s 2d; an
ox, 7s 2d; a cow, 6s 2d; sheep, 1s 2d; goat, 4d.
Ernest Seyd (1867, speaking of a reduction in volume):
“Throughout the world a fall in prices will take place,
injurious alike to the owners of solid property and to the
laboring classes, and advantageous only, and unjustifiably
so, to the holders of state debts and other contracts of that
kind.” (“Bullion,” 1868:) “On this one point all authorities
are agreed: that the large increase in the supply of gold
has given a universal impetus to trade, commerce and industry,
and to greater social development and progress.”
Baron Rothschild (French Monetary Convention, 1869):
“The suppression of silver would amount to a veritable
destruction of values without any compensation.”
Ricardo, M. P. (high priest of the bullionists), in his
reply to Bauset, said: “The value of money in any
country is determined by the amount existing.... The
commodities would rise or fall in price in proportion to the
increase or diminution of money. I assume that as a fact
that is incontrovertible. However debased a coinage may
become, it will preserve its mint value.... A well-regulated
paper currency is so great an improvement in
commerce that I should greatly regret if prejudice should
induce us to return to a system of less utility.... By
.bn 369.png
.pn +1
limiting the quantity of money it can be raised to any
conceivable value.”
John R. McCulloch (commenting on Ricardo): “He
explains the circumstances which determine the value of
money ... and he shows ... its value will depend
upon the extent to which it may be issued compared to the
demand. This is a principle of great importance, for it
shows that intrinsic worth is not necessary to a currency.”
Speaking in favor of a gradual reduction in the burden
of debts, through the natural increase in the volume of
precious metals, McCulloch said: “It promotes industry
and diminishes the weight of obligations which press upon
the producing classes, whether employer or employed....
Thus it appears that, whatever may be the material
of the money of a country, whether it consists of gold,
silver, copper, iron, salt, cowries, or paper, and however
destitute it may be of any intrinsic value, it is yet possible,
by sufficiently limiting its quantity, to raise its value in
exchange to any conceivable extent.”
Samuel Bailey (Sheffield): “However some men doubt
the advantage of an increase of the currency, no one can
deny the ruinous effects of a decrease.”
Sir James Stewart: “Money is nothing more than a
scale of equal parts for the measurement of things
vendible.”
Sir James Graham (British statesman): “The value of
money is in the inverse ratio to its quantity, supply of
commodities remaining the same.”
William E. Gladstone (1876, speaking of the banks
issuing money): “It will be exactly the same thing, so far
as the money is concerned, to grant a legislative privilege
to a person or to pay over to him a considerable sum from
the consolidated fund.”
London Economist (1883): “England being the chief
.bn 370.png
.pn +1
creditor nation of the world, it is to her interest to keep
the volume of money as small as possible in countries from
which debts are due, in order to get more of their product
in payment of interest due to her citizens.”
The Royal British Commission, appointed August, 1885, to
inquire into the causes of the depression of business, made
world-wide inquiries and was composed of twenty-three
members, a number of whom were distinguished statesmen
and economists. They agreed that gold had greatly appreciated
in value and that the rise in the value of gold was
caused by the demonetization of silver and the falling off
in the supply of gold, and it was the leading cause of the
general depression in trade and industry. But it was
added:
.pm start_quote
“This country [England] is largely a creditor country
of debts payable in gold, and any change which entails a
rise in the prices of commodities generally—that is to say,
a demonetization of the purchasing power of gold—would
be to our disadvantage.”
.pm end_quote
Archbishop Walsh (Dublin, 1893): “Of all conceivable
systems of currency, that system is sure to be the worst
which gives you a standard steadily, continually, indefinitely
appreciating, and which, by that very fact, throws a burden
upon every man of enterprise and benefits no human being
whatever but the owner of fixed debts.”
Count Leo Tolstoi (Russian philanthropist): “Only by
means of money do some people command the labor of
others nowadays; that is, into slavedom. Money tribute
has become a chief means of the subjugation of men, and
by it are determined all the economic relations of man.”
Cernuschi (French economist): “The purchasing power
of money is in direct proportion to the volume of money
existing.”
Professor Chevalier (France), speaking of the increase of
money, says: “Such a change will benefit those who
.bn 371.png
.pn +1
live by current labor and enterprise; it will injure those
who live upon the fruits of past labor.... It has been
wisely said that there is no machine which economizes
labor like money, and its adoption has been likened to the
discovery of letters.”
Sauerbeck (German statistician): “The propositions of
some economists, that we have quite enough money in our
country, or that there is sufficient gold to carry on the
trade of the world, are valueless. They assume that there
is a certain quantity required that need not be increased.
Of course there is enough gold, and we could perhaps do
with half the quantity. It only depends upon the state of
prices.”
Fichte (German philosopher): “The amount of money
current in a state represents everything that is purchasable
on the surface of the state. If the quantity of purchasable
articles increases while the quantity of money remains the
same, the value of the money increases in the same ratio.
If the quantity of money increases while the quantity of
purchasable articles remains the same, the value of money
decreases in the same ratio.”
Herr von Barr, speaking of the loss to German
miners by the demonetization of silver, says: “This
direct loss, important as it is, is nothing, however, compared
with the indirect loss resulting from the fall of
prices.”
M. Edouard Cazalet, banker of Milan (“Bimetallism,”
page 14): “Since the value of all articles of commerce
is represented by the currency, the value of these articles
must fall in proportion to the reduction in the volume of
the currency. Otherwise the moneyed currency could not
possibly do the work which the two metals combined have
previously performed.”
Dr. Soetbeer (German statistician): “The value of
.bn 372.png
.pn +1
money has fallen through the issue of paper money as
well as through the increased production of gold and
silver.”
Leon Fouchet (1843): “If all the nations of Europe
adopted the system of Great Britain the price of gold would
be reduced beyond measure. The government could not
decree that legal tender should be only gold, for that
would be to decree a revolution, and the most dangerous
of all, because it would be a revolution leading to unknown
results.”
M. Wolowski (French Institute, 1868): “The suppression
of silver would bring on a veritable revolution.
Gold would augment in value with rapid and constant
progress, which would break the faith of contracts and
aggravate the situation of all debtors.... If by a stroke
of the pen they suppress one of these metals [gold or
silver] in the monetary service, they double the demand
for the other metal, to the ruin of all debtors.”
John Locke (“Considerations, etc., in Relation to Money,”
1691): “The greater scarcity of money enhances its price
and increases the scramble, and makes an equal portion of
it exchange for a greater of any other thing.” 1690:
“Money is really a standing measure of the falling and
rising value of other things. If you increase or lessen the
quantity of money current, then the alteration of value is
in the money. The value of money in any one country is
the present quantity of the current money in that country
in proportion to the present trade.”
Adam Clark’s commentary on II. Matthew: “The
scarcity of money in England in 1351 influenced Parliament
to pass an act fixing a day’s labor at 1d. Twenty-four
eggs sold for 1d; a pair of shoes 4d; wheat 3d; a fat
ox 80d.”
Copernicus, the astronomer (treatise “Monete Cudende
.bn 373.png
.pn +1
Ratio,” addressed to the King of Poland): “Numberless
as are the evils by which kingdoms, principalities and
republics are wont to decline, these four are, in my judgment,
most baleful: civil strife, pestilence, sterility of the
soil, and corruption of the coin. The first three are so
manifest that no one fails to apprehend them; but the
fourth, which concerns money, is considered by few, and
those the most reflective, since it is not by a blow, but
little by little, and through a secret and obscure approach,
that it destroys the state.”
Daniel Watney, of England: “I cannot suppose that
everybody is wise. Must think of the folly of the United
States, when they were a debtor nation, in adopting a gold
standard. They knew nothing about currency matters;
they did not know it was going to increase their debt
enormously.”
Paulus (Roman jurist, third century): “Money circulates
with a power which is derived, not from the substance,
but from the quantity.”
Blackstone (vol. I., page 2761): “As the quantity of
precious metals increases they will sink in value and
become less precious. If any accident were to diminish the
quantity of gold and silver they would proportionately rise.”
Faucet (“Handbook of Finance,” page 146): “The
decline of prices since 1872 and 1873 is explained by the
increased value of gold. The first effect was to cause a
collapse of speculative securities, namely, bonds of railroads,
etc.”
Professor De Colange (“American Encyclopedia of Commerce”):
“The rate at which money exchanges for other
things is determined by its quantity.”
Beasey: “Slavery is the inevitable result of poverty.
Poverty is the inevitable result of low wages. Low wages
are the inevitable result of a scarcity of currency.”
.bn 374.png
.pn +1
A. H. Gaston: “Money is simply a measure of value,
and as a nation contracts its circulation it contracts the
value of all property in like proportion.”
Colton’s Public Economy (page 224): “We hold that money
enough for the demands of trade is the tool of trade to a
nation.” Page 193: “It is very desirable that there should
not be sudden and great fluctuations, as such changes affect
the value of incomes. For example, when the products
of the American mines had raised the general prices on
comforts of life as 4 to 1.”
Silver Commission Report of 1876, page 49: “Whenever
it becomes apparent that prices are rising and money
falling in value in consequence of an increase in its volume,
the greatest activity takes place in exchange and productive
enterprises. Every one becomes anxious to share in
the advantages of a rising market, and the inducement to
hoard gold is taken away; its circulation becomes exceedingly
active; labor comes into great demand and at
remunerative wages. It not only increases production, but
increases consumption.” Page 50: “Falling prices and
misery and destitution are inseparable companions. It is
universally conceded that falling prices result from the
contraction of the money volume.” Page 50: “Money
is the great instrument of association, the very fiber of
social organism, the vitalizing force of industry, the pure,
true organ of civilization, and as essential to existence as
oxygen is to animal life. Without money civilization
could not have had a beginning.” Page 51: “It is
estimated that the purchasing power of the precious metals
increased between 1809 and 1840 fully 145 per cent....
They had come to regard money as an institution fixed
and immovable in value, and when the price of property
and wages fell they charged the fault not to the money,
but to the property and the employer. Their prejudices
.bn 375.png
.pn +1
were aroused against labor-saving machinery; they were
angered against capital.” Page 53 (effects of a decreasing
volume of money): “It circulates freely in the stock
exchange, but avoids the labor exchange. It has in all
cases been the worst enemy with which society has had
to contend.” Page 56: “However great the natural
resources of a country, fertile its soil, intelligent, enterprising
and industrious its inhabitants—if the volume of
money is shrinking and prices falling, its merchants will
be overwhelmed with bankruptcy, industries paralyzed,
and destitution and distrust will prevail.” Page 59: “All
respectable authorities agree as to the relative effects of
an increasing and decreasing money.... History records
no such disastrous transition as that from the Roman
empire to the dark ages. In the Christian era the metallic
money of the Roman empire amounted to $1,800,000,000.
By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less
than $200,000,000. Population dwindled, and commerce,
arts, wealth and freedom all disappeared.”
Henry C. Carey, LL. D. (“Social Science,” page 297):
“Money tends to diminish the obstacles interposed
between the producer and the consumer precisely as do
railroads and mills.... The most necessary part of the
machinery of exchange being that which facilitates the
passage of labor and its products from hand to hand, any
diminution of its quantity is felt with tenfold more severity
than is the diminution of the quantity of railroad cars
or steamboats.”
Before the Congressional committee: “We next find him
[Secretary McCulloch] issuing the destructive Fort Wayne
decree, by means of which we were made to know that the
currency was in excess and prices too high; that the policy
of the treasury was to be one of contraction; and that
unfortunate debtors must as speedily as possible place
.bn 376.png
.pn +1
themselves in a position to meet the shock to be thus
created. In other words, all debtors were required to sell,
capitalists meanwhile being advised not to buy, the government
being determined that labor, lands, houses, stocks
and property of all other descriptions should be promptly
reduced to gold values.”
Treatise on “Wealth”: “A period of contracted currency
is one of embarrassment, difficulty, and generally, in the
end, of insolvency to the small farmer and moderate landholder....
It will rise in price from that scarcity, and
become accessible only to the more rich and affluent
classes.”
[This greatest of American political economists, the late
Henry C. Carey, estimated the cost of contraction in order
to secure resumption between the years of 1873 and 1879
at thirty billion dollars.]
Henry Carey Baird (March 13, 1882): “The man who
has the greatest horror of the inflation of the currency
generally has no horror of the inflation of bank credits.
He likes it because it increases his power over his fellow
men. What he objects to is the inflation of the people
which causes an increase of their power.”
September 3, 1889: “People know that the expansion
of the currency means life, and equally well that contraction
means death.”
Henry Carey Baird (“Money and Bank Credit,” page 14):
“The first and greatest need of a man is that of association
and combination with his fellow men, and the daily
life of a civilized people involves such countless myriads
of acts of association or commerce that a medium having
the quality of universal acceptability is absolutely necessary
to that life. That medium is money.... In its
absence in sufficient volume in Great Britain and Ireland,
thousands of millions of dollars of labor power annually
.bn 377.png
.pn +1
in those islands perish. While the Trenholms, the Russell
Sages, the Pearsalls, the Fahnenstocks and the Seligmans
wrangle over the efforts of the people to secure a
sufficient supply of ‘current money,’ more labor power
will go to waste than will represent the value of the
capital of all the banks in the city of New York many
times over.”
Peter Cooper: “Contraction in finance is not the same
as economy in private life. Contraction in the finances of
a country means a stoppage of a certain amount of the
industry and exchanges, by reason of the contraction of the
credit by which these are sustained. Nothing can be more
certain than that a contraction of the currency by our government
has been followed by a reduction of all values, so
that a wrong has been inflicted upon all the enterprising
business men of this nation, whose property has been
virtually confiscated by this process of contraction.”
B. F. Butler (August, 1875): “I am informed that Mr.
Duncan, of Duncan, Sherman & Co., went to Washington
when the currency bill was before the President to advise
him to veto it because it was necessary to depreciate
values. The President did veto the bills. Values have
been depreciated, I trust, to an amount entirely satisfactory
to Messrs. Duncan, Sherman & Co.” [The firm of which
John Sherman was a member was bankrupted by the
depreciation.]
Solon Chase: “I bought a yoke of steers a year ago for
$60; fed them all summer and winter, and in the spring
was offered but $60 for them in the market. Who got the
hay? So long as the owners of funded wealth control the
volume of money they control the price of a day’s work
down east and the price of a bale of cotton down south.
The higher the price of hogs and corn, the easier the
people can pay the debt. The farmer cannot pay off his
.bn 378.png
.pn +1
debt on a falling market. The fight of the men who deal
in money is not for the metal, but to control the volume.”
James D. Holden (President National Citizens’ Alliance):
“So magical is the operation of this wonderful device
known as money that by simply restricting its issue
wealth is transferred from the hands that created it to the
possession of those not in the remotest degree responsible
for its production. Let the reader who does not indorse
this view give himself, if possible, a reason why a people
who by their laws create the supply of money should
limit the issue.”
A Georgia editor (speaking of the effects of contraction)
says: “In 1868 there was about $40 per capita of money
in circulation; cotton was about 30 cents a pound. The
farmer then put a 500-pound bale of cotton on his wagon,
took it to town and sold it. Then he paid $40 taxes,
bought a cooking stove for $30, a suit of clothes for $15,
his wife a dress for $5, 100 pounds of meat for $18, one
barrel of flour for $12, and went home with $30 in his
pocket. In 1887 there was about $5 per capita of money
in circulation; this same farmer put a 500-pound bale of
cotton on his wagon, went to town and sold it, paid $40
taxes, got discouraged, went to the saloon, spent his
remaining $2.30 and went home dead broke and drunk.”
Arthur Kitson (“Scientific Solution of the Money Question,”
1894, page 284): “A restricted currency means
restricted commerce; restricted commerce means restricted
production, and restricted production means poverty,
misery, disease and death.” Page 396: “The gold
standard is a device of the bankers for the measuring of
everybody else’s corn with their bushel.”
Sealy (“Coins and Currency,” 1853): “The commerce
of the country is now in the power of the Bank of England
as it was before in the legislature.”
.bn 379.png
.pn +1
Doubleday (“Financial History of England”): “We
have already seen the fall of prices produced by this
universal narrowing of the paper circulation. Distress,
ruin and bankruptcy which took place were universally
among the landholders whose estates were burdened by
mortgages. The effects were most marked. Owners were
stripped of all and made beggars.”
President Andrews (Eaton University): “Demonetization
of silver was the hardest, saddest blow to human
welfare ever delivered by the action of states. So long as
gold is the sole standard of that money, so long these
wrongs and sufferings must continue.”
James Mill (father of John Stuart Mill): “In whatever
degree the quantity of money is increased or diminished,
other things remaining the same, in that proportion the
value of the whole and every part is reciprocally diminished
or increased.”
Herbert Spencer: “Barbarians do not want any money
but hard money; semi-civilized people want hard money
and convertible paper; but when the world becomes
civilized and enlightened no other kind of money will be
used but paper money.”
.il fn=i-037.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 380.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
VI. | INTEREST AND USURY.
.pm start_citation
“It is against nature for money to breed money.”—Bacon.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE great Napoleon said, after studying a set of compound
interest tables: “There is one thing to my
mind more wonderful than all the rest, and that is,
that the deadly fact buried in these tables has not before
this devoured the whole world.” The ethical sense of
mankind saw at an early day the wrong of usury. The
Mosaic law was very explicit on the subject. Cicero mentions
that Cato, being asked what he thought of usury,
made no other answer to the question than by asking the
person who spoke to him what he thought of murder.
The Christian Church, in its early days and until the end
of the Middle Ages, utterly forbade the exaction of interest.
In the reign of Edward VI. a prohibitory act was passed,
for the stated reason that the charging of interest was “a
vice most odious and detestable and contrary to the word
of God.” It was not until the time of the Reformation
that this interpretation of the divine law was ever questioned.
Calvin was one of the first to contend that the
sentiment against exacting interest arose from a mistaken
view of the Mosaic law. A series of enactments, known
as the Usury Laws, restricted the maximum rate to be
charged in England. By Act 21 James I. this rate was
fixed at 8 per cent. During the Commonwealth this rate
was reduced to 6 per cent., and by Act 12 Anne to 5 per
cent., at which rate it stood until 1839. In the United
States the legal rate of interest varies, nearly all the
.bn 381.png
.pn +1
States having passed statutes fixing a maximum rate.
“Usury bringeth the treasures of a realm or state into
a few hands; for the usurer being at certainties, and
others at uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the
money will be in the box; and ever a state flourisheth
when wealth is more equally spread.”
This quotation is from the essay “Of Usury,” by that
wisest of philosophers, Francis Bacon. The reader must
bear in mind that while nowadays the term “usury” is
applied generally only to excessive interest, in Bacon’s
time the word was used for any rate of premium or interest
for the use of money. The word usance, now obsolete
in that sense, conveyed the same meaning, and is used
in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.” The provocation
which Antonio first gave Shylock was that—
.pm start_poem
“He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.”
.pm end_poem
All are familiar with the conditions which Shylock
exacted of Antonio:
.pm start_poem
Shylock.\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ This kindness will I show.
Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond; and, in a merry sport,
If you repay me not on such a day,
In such a place, such sum or sums as are
Express’d in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.
Antonio. Content i’ faith: I’ll seal to such a bond
And say there is much kindness in the Jew.
Bassanio. You shall not seal to such a bond for me:
I’ll rather dwell in my necessity.
Antonio. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it;
Within these two months, that’s a month before
This bond expires, I do expect return
.bn 382.png
.pn +1
Of thrice three times the value of this bond....
Come on; in this there can be no dismay;
My ships come home a month before the day.
.pm end_poem
But Antonio’s ships did not come in—just as the farmer’s
crop often fails and the artisan’s employment gives out
just when the mortgage is due—and Shylock claimed his
pound of flesh. “The Merchant of Venice” is a comedy,
and Shylock, Bassanio and Antonio are mere creatures of
imagination; but there are thousands of tragedies enacted
every day in real life in which real Shylocks play a part.
The Shylocks of to-day are quite unlike the Shylocks of
fiction, however. Banker Morgan, who negotiated with
Grover Cleveland the star-chamber bond deal by which
the American government sold to the Rothschilds at a
premium of only 4½ per cent. $100,000,000 of interest-bearing
gold bonds which were immediately after quoted
at a premium of 21 per cent., is a philanthropist. As soon
as possible after the deal was made his portrait appeared
in many of the great dailies with a fulsome account of his
many charities! It will take many a pound of human
flesh, many a drop of life’s blood, to pay the interest on
the bonds which he negotiated, and out of the sale of
which he made a cool million in one day.
The Bible has much to say on the subject of usury. The
writer has never heard a sermon preached on any of the
following texts, however—perhaps because bankers and
money-lenders rent the best pews. Remember that usury
here means simply interest—not excessive interest:
Exodus 22:25: “If thou lend money to any of my
people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an
usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.”
Deuteronomy 23:19-20: “Thou shalt not lend upon
usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals,
usury of anything that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger
.bn 383.png
.pn +1
thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou
shalt not lend upon usury, that the Lord thy God may
bless thee.”
Nehemiah 5:7: “Then I consulted with myself, and I
rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them:
Ye exact usury every one of his brother. And I set a
great assembly against them.”
Psalms 15:5 (David describes a citizen of Zion): “He
that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward
against the innocent.”
.h4
A Chapter from “Cæsar’s Column.”
I cannot do better here than quote a significant chapter
from Ignatius Donnelly’s powerful novel, “Cæsar’s
Column,” which certainly did as much as any book ever
printed to set people thinking:
.pm start_quote
“But what would you do, my good Gabriel,” said Maximilian,
smiling, “if the reformation of the world were
placed in your hands? Every man has a Utopia in his
head. Give me some idea of yours.”
“First,” I said, “I should do away with all interest on
money. Interest on money is the root and ground of the
world’s troubles. It puts one man in a position of safety,
while another is in a condition of insecurity, and thereby
it at once creates a radical distinction in human society.”
“How do you make that out?” he asked.
“The lender takes a mortgage on the borrower’s land,
or house, or goods, for, we will say, one-half or one-third
their value; the borrower then assumes all the chances of
life to repay the loan. If he is a farmer, he has to run the
risk of the fickle elements. Rains may drown, droughts
may burn up his crops. If a merchant, he encounters all
the hazards of trade: the bankruptcy of other tradesmen;
the hostility of the elements sweeping away agriculture,
and so affecting commerce; the tempests that smite his
ships, etc. If a mechanic, he is still more dependent upon
the success of all above him and the mutations of commercial
prosperity. He may lose employment; he may
sicken; he may die. But behind all these risks stands the
.bn 384.png
.pn +1
money-lender, in perfect security. The failure of his customers
only enriches him; for he takes for his loan property
worth twice or thrice the sum he has advanced upon it.
Given a million of men and a hundred years of time, and
the slightest advantage possessed by any one class among
the million must result, in the long run, in the most startling
discrepancies of condition. A little evil grows like a
ferment—it never ceases to operate; it is always at work.
Suppose I bring before you a handsome, rosy-cheeked
young man, full of life and hope and health. I touch his
lip with a single bacillus of phthisis pulmonalis—consumption.
It is invisible to the eye; it is too small to be weighed.
Judged by all the tests of the senses, it is too insignificant
to be thought of; but it has the capacity to multiply itself
indefinitely. The youth goes off singing. Months, perhaps
years, pass before the deadly disorder begins to
manifest itself, but in time the step loses its elasticity;
the eyes become dull; the roses fade from the cheeks; the
strength departs, and eventually the joyous youth is but a
shell—a cadaverous, shrunken form, inclosing a shocking
mass of putridity; and death ends the dreadful scene.
Give one set of men in a community a financial advantage
over the rest, however slight—it may be almost invisible—and
at the end of centuries that class so favored will own
everything and wreck the country. A penny, they say,
put out at interest the day Columbus sailed from Spain,
and compounded ever since, would amount now [A. D.
] to more than all the assessed value of all the property,
real, personal and mixed, on the two continents of
North and South America.”
“But,” said Maximilian, “how would the men get along
who wanted to borrow?”
“The necessity to borrow is one of the results of borrowing.
The disease produces the symptoms. The men who
are enriched by borrowing are infinitely less in number
than those who are ruined by it; and every disaster to the
middle class swells the number and decreases the opportunities
of the helpless poor. Money in itself is valueless.
It becomes valuable only by use—by exchange for things
needful for life or comfort. If money could not be loaned
it would have to be put out by the owner of it in business
.bn 385.png
.pn +1
enterprises, which would employ labor; and as the enterprise
would not then have to support a double burden—to-wit,
the man engaged in it and the usurer who sits securely
upon his back—but would have to support only the former
usurer, that is, the present employer—its success would be
more certain; the general prosperity of the community
would be increased thereby, and there would be, therefore,
more enterprises, more demand for labor, and consequently
higher wages. Usury kills off the enterprising
members of a community by bankrupting them, and leaves
only the very rich and the very poor; but every dollar the
employers of labor pay to the lenders of money has to
come eventually out of the pockets of the laborers.
Usury is therefore the cause of the first aristocracy, and
out of this grow all the other aristocracies. Inquire where
the money came from that now oppresses mankind, in the
shape of great corporations, combinations, etc., and in
nine cases out of ten you will trace it back to the fountain of
interest on money loaned. The coral island is built up of
the bodies of dead coral insects; large fortunes are usually
the accumulations of wreckage, and every dollar represents
disaster.”
.pm end_quote
.h4
How Wealth Accumulates.
As proof of the fact that it is a mighty fortunate thing for
humanity that the Rothschilds did not conduct a bank in
the year 1 A. D., I reprint from the Twentieth Century the
following article by H. C. Whitaker, which shows the
beauties of interest-drawing:
.pm start_quote
“Had one cent been loaned on the 14th day of March,
A. D. 1, interest being allowed at the rate of 6 per cent.,
compounded yearly, then, 1894 years later—that is, on
March 14, 1895—the amount due would be $8,497,840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (8,497,840,000
decillions). If it were desired to pay this in
gold, 23.2 grains to the dollar, then, taking spheres of
pure gold, each the size of the earth, it would take 610,070,000,000,000,000
of them to pay for that cent. Placing
these spheres in a straight row, their combined length
would be 4,826,870,000,000,000,000,000 miles, a distance
.bn 386.png
.pn +1
which it would take light (going at the rate of 186,330
miles per second) 820,890,000 years to travel.
“The planets and stars of the entire solar and stellar
universe, as seen by the great Lick telescope, if they were
all of solid gold, would not nearly pay the amount. A
single sphere to pay the whole amount, if placed with its
center at the sun, would have its surface extending 563,580,000
miles beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, the
farthest in our system.
“It may be added that if the earth had contained a
population of ten billions, each one making a million
dollars a second, then to pay for that cent it would have
required their combined earnings for 26,938,500,000,000,000,000,000
years.”
.pm end_quote
.il fn=i-021.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 387.png
.pn +1
.h2
VII. | DEBT AND SLAVERY.
.pm start_citation
“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty
throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”—Leviticus
25:10.
“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the
mightiest to undermine government and corrupt the people.”—Wendell
Phillips.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
FROM the earliest dawn of history debt has ever borne
a close relationship to slavery and servitude. “It
is worthy of remark,” says Grote (History of Greece,
vol. III., p. 144), “that the first borrowers must have been
for the most part driven to this necessity by the pressure
of want, contracting debt as a desperate resource
without any fair prospect of ability to pay. Debt and
famine run together in the mind of the poet Hesiod. The
borrower is in this unhappy state rather a distressed man
soliciting aid than a solvent man capable of making and
fulfilling a contract; and if he cannot find a friend to make
a free gift to him in the former character he would not
under the latter character obtain a loan from a stranger
except by the promise of exorbitant interest and by the
fullest eventual power over his person which he is in a
position to grant.”
“This remark,” says Professor Nicholson in the Encyclopedia
Britannica, “suggested by the state of society
in ancient Greece, is largely applicable throughout the
world until the close of the early Middle Ages.” The
conditions of ancient usury find a graphic illustration in
the account of the building of the second temple at
.bn 388.png
.pn +1
Jerusalem (Nehemiah 5:1-12). Some said: “We have
mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses that we might
buy corn, because of the dearth.” Others said: “We
have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon
our lands and vineyards, ... and lo, we bring into bondage
our sons and our daughters to be servants, ... neither
is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our
lands and vineyards.”
In ancient Greece we find a law of bankruptcy resting
on slavery. In Athens, about the time of Solon’s legislation
(594 B. C.), the bulk of the population who had
originally been small proprietors became gradually
indebted to the rich to such an extent that they were
practically slaves; those who nominally owned their property
owed more than they could pay, and stone pillars
erected on their land showed the amount of the debts and
the names of the lenders. Solon’s remedy for this state
of affairs was to cancel all debts made on the security of
the land or the person of the debtor, and at the same time
he enacted that henceforth no loans could be made on the
bodily security of the debtor, and the creditor was confined
to a share of the property.
In Rome’s early history practically the same conditions
prevailed as in Greece. About 500 B. C. an attempt was
made to remedy the evil by providing a maximum rate of
interest, no alteration being made, however, in the law of
debt. In the course of a few centuries the free farmers
were utterly destroyed. The pressure of war and taxes
and usury drove all into debt and into practical, if not
technical, slavery. The old law of debt was not really
abolished until the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar, who then
practically adopted Solon’s legislation of more than five
centuries before, but too late to save the middle class.
In the course of centuries and the evolution of civilization
.bn 389.png
.pn +1
chattel slavery has been abolished; but the slavery of
debt still remains, and usury is now, as it was in all the
history of mankind, the tool with which debt forges the
chains of nations. It is not the province of this work to
examine into the conditions of other countries than our
own, but the facts now to be presented will convince the
thoughtful reader that the American people are bound by
chains of debt which it will require the wisest statesmanship
to break.
Representative Warner of Massachusetts (Republican),
in a speech delivered in Congress in 1894, stated that the
interest-bearing debts of the United States, public and
private, aggregated a grand total of $32,000,000,000 (thirty-two
billions of dollars). This would be bad enough, but
careful estimates by conservative students of political
economy show that the amount is very much larger.
W. H. Harvey, author of “Coin’s Financial School,”
makes the following itemized estimate of the interest-bearing
debts of this country, public and private.
Most of the figures are derived from recognized official
sources:
.ta h:50 rb:15
The national debt, according to the official\
census of 1890, was | $ 891,960,104
State and municipal debts (census 1890). | 1,135,210,442
Railroad bonds, 1892 (“Poor’s Manual,”\
1893) | 5,463,611,204
Debt on farms and homes occupied by\
owner (R. R. Porter, Supt. Eleventh\
Census, in North American Review,\
vol. 153, p. 618) | 2,500,000,000
Mortgaged indebtedness of business realty,\
street railways, manufactories and\
business enterprises (estimated from\
partial reports of 11th census) | 5,000,000,000
Loans from 3,773 national banks (Statistical\
Abstract of the United States) | 2,153,769,806
.bn 390.png
.pn +1
Loans from 5,579 State savings, stock and\
private banks and trust companies\
(Statistical Abstract of the United\
States) | 2,201,764,292
These are figures on which something\
definite has been obtained; also the\
ratio of increase from 1880 to 1890,\
which was from $6,750,000,000 in 1880\
to $19,000,000,000 in 1890. By computing\
the same ratio of increase we\
should now add | 8,000,000,000
Mortgage debts on homes not occupied by\
owner (estimated) | 1,000,000,000
Overdue accounts due merchants, wholesale\
and retail, drawing from 6 to 10\
per cent. interest (estimated) | 5,000,000,000
Debts due pawnbrokers, drawing from 60\
to 120 per cent. per annum or 5 to 10\
per cent. a month (estimated) | 1,000,000,000
Private debts due from individuals to individuals\
and of which there is no public\
record or other data for census\
officers to obtain information (estimated)| 1,000,000,000
Maritime debts (estimated) | 1,000,000,000
Overdrafts, judgments, overdue taxes and\
miscellaneous items not included in\
the foregoing (estimated) | 4,000,000,000
| ———————-
Horrible total | $40,346,315,848
.ta-
In commenting on his figures, Mr. Harvey says: "Debts,
a non-producing industry, growing to such a magnitude
that the profits derived from all the producing industries of
the country will not more than pay the interest on these
debts, make the producers thereafter work for the benefit
of the money-lending or non-producing class. When such
a condition as to debts arises as we now have, all money
nearly gravitates into the hands of the money-lenders and
piles up in the money centers. The effect of debts upon
.bn 391.png
.pn +1
civilization has never been understood generally. A prosperous
country can carry about a certain proportion of
debt among its people without apparent injury, but when
it reaches the present proportion—a proportion only
reached three times before in the known history of the
world—it produces commercial paralysis and the financial
enslavement of the people. All the people make goes to
pay the money-lenders their interest.
“When you pay money to a merchant or a manufacturer
that you may owe, the money you pay him is paid by him
to others for material and other products of his business,
with no charge or embargo upon it; but when you pay
back to a money-lender a debt you owe him, the money
stops there until it is loaned out again to come back with
interest. When this grows to such an extent as to require
all or most of the money in the country to pay the interest
on debts, then commerce slackens and there is little or no
money among the people except as loaned out by the banks
and others whose business it is to loan money. They are
dealing in the blood of commerce, and when they take it
from the arteries of commerce there is commercial sickness
and distress.”
The Abstract of the Eleventh Census (page 189) gives
the true valuation of all real and personal property in the
United States as only $65,037,091,198. Against this we
have an interest-bearing debt of forty billions.
But Mr. Harvey’s figures are by no means complete. He
says nothing about the capital stock of the great railroad,
telegraph, telephone, insurance and other corporations,
most of which is “water.” The reader may say that this
is not debt. But it is debt, as it represents what the companies
owe to their stockholders; it draws interest; it
must pay salaries and dividends. To say that we pay
interest every year on forty-five billions is a very conservative
.bn 392.png
.pn +1
statement. And the debt is constantly increasing, for
the reason that there is not in circulation, of all kinds of
money, enough to pay this interest. Let us figure it out.
The average rate of interest is 6½ per cent. Let us say 6
per cent. At this rate we pay each year $2,700,000,000—over
$40 per capita. Think of it! Forty dollars interest
for every man, woman and child! Two hundred dollars
for every family! And this exclusive of taxation, which
adds still more to the burdens of life. The most blatant
gold-bug does not claim that there is $40 of money per
capita in circulation. There can be only one result, and
that result is abject, hopeless slavery—slavery under the
guise of freedom, but still slavery—unless this burden of
debt is thrown off before the patient people succumb
entirely.
.il fn=i-064.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 393.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
VIII. | THE LAWS OF PROPERTY.
.ce
By Lyman Trumbull.
.pm start_citation
“Property, or the dominion of man over external objects, has
its origin from the Creator, as his gift to mankind.”—Blackstone
(Dunlap’s Manual of the General Principles of Law).
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
IT is chiefly the laws of property which have enabled
the few to accumulate vast wealth while the masses
live in poverty. For many generations our laws have
been framed with a view to the claims of property rather
than the rights of man. For ages the money power has
controlled legislation the world over, and, I am sorry to
say, has exercised a controlling influence in our own land
for many years. In the language of the Declaration of
Independence: “All men are created equal and endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
If a man has an inalienable right to life, then he
has a right to the means which sustain life, and of which
he cannot be justly deprived by laws which permit one
man, or set of men, to so absorb the means of life as not
to leave sufficient to sustain the lives of all. If man has
an inalienable right to liberty, then he cannot be justly
deprived of liberty by another who assumes the right at his
mere discretion to abridge it. If man has an inalienable
right to the pursuit of happiness, then he cannot be justly
deprived of that right by laws interposed in the way of its
pursuit.
Do such laws exist, and if so, how came they into
existence?
.bn 394.png
.pn +1
In Great Britain, whence we have derived most of our
laws of property, the policy is to build up great estates.
Hence, by the laws of that country, land descends to the
eldest son, to the exclusion of the other children. The
effect of this is to limit the ownership of land to a few
persons. Thirty-four persons in that country own six
million two hundred and eleven thousand acres of land.
The Duke of Sutherland is said to own one million three
hundred and fifty-eight thousand acres, and a few other
dukes and earls own a great proportion of the land of the
United Kingdom. What has brought about this wide
difference in the ownership of land? Certainly the few
who own the millions of acres, from which they derive
revenue, in some instances of more than five hundred
thousand dollars annually, in rentals, have not earned
these vast estates by their own industry, but, on the contrary,
it is by force of statutory enactments that these vast
estates have been accumulated and perpetuated in few
hands.
In this country we have abolished the law of primogeniture,
by which the eldest son inherited the landed estate
of his ancestor, but here vast estates are being rapidly
accumulated in few hands, and this is especially true
during and since the War of the Rebellion. In 1860 there
were few millionaires and few large fortunes in this country,
but since then a rich class has sprung up, so that in
1890, according to reliable statistics, ten per cent. of the
people own as much wealth as the other ninety per cent.
In 1890 there were 12,690,182 families in the United
States, and according to George K. Holmes, in the
Political Science Quarterly, 4,047 of these possessed about
seven-tenths as much as do 11,593,887 families. Just
think of it. One family possessing the wealth of 2,000
families the country over! In the city of New York alone
.bn 395.png
.pn +1
there are said to be five men whose aggregate wealth
exceeds $500,000,000. How many hundred millions are
held by various wealthy corporations, coal and oil syndicates
and other trusts, I am unable to state. In the cities
of New York and Chicago hundreds of thousands of
men and women, willing to work, were out of employment
last winter, many of whom must have perished from want
but for charity’s aid. These conditions another winter
promise to be no better.
The richest corporations and persons on earth are probably
in the United States. How have they accumulated
their vast fortunes? Surely not by their own industry and
thrift, but by the aid of statutes regulating the rights of
property, generally statutes providing for the transmission
of property by descent or by will, or the creation of
monopolies.
It is only by virtue of statutory law that man is permitted
to make disposition of his property by will, and it
is only by virtue of statutory law that one person is permitted
to inherit property from another, and it is by virtue
of statute law that great corporate monopolies have been
built up.
No man has a natural right to dispose of property after
death, nor has one person a natural right to inherit property
from another. As Blackstone says: “There is no
foundation in nature or in natural law why the son should
have the right to exclude his fellow creatures from a
determinate spot of land because his father did so before
him, or why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel,
when lying on his death-bed, and no longer able to maintain
possession, should be able to tell the rest of the world
which of them should enjoy it after him.”
Under Illinois laws, the owner of real estate is permitted
to lease it for an indefinite period, and compel future
.bn 396.png
.pn +1
generations who occupy the premises to pay rent to unborn
generations. Leases for ninety-nine years are quite common
in Chicago. It is by no divine law that the occupant
of land to-day is allowed to compel its occupant one
hundred years hence to pay tribute for its use. The statutes
of Illinois have given to the owner of property the
right to dispose of it by will, not wholly, but to a certain
extent. If married, neither the husband nor wife can give
away the homestead or dower rights of the other, nor can
creditors, heirs or devisees take from the widow her
allowance.
The money power has governed legislation in all civilized
countries for generations. It matters not what party is in
power in the national or State governments of our own
country, the money power has exercised a controlling influence
in many instances in the shaping and administration
of our laws.
If the accumulation of vast fortunes goes on another
generation with the same accelerated rapidity as during the
present, the wealth of this country will soon be consolidated
in the hands of a few corporations and individuals
to as great an extent as the landed interests of Great Britain
now are.
What is the remedy for this state of things, which, if
permitted to continue, will make the masses of the people
dependent upon the generosity of the few for the means to
live? So far as concerns corporations of a public or quasi-public
character—and none others should exist—the remedy
is simple. They are completely under the control of
the legislatures, whence they derive all their powers.
It is entirely competent for a legislature to provide the
manner which the business of a corporation shall be
conducted. It may provide that the directors shall consist
of few or many persons, that a portion of them shall be taken
.bn 397.png
.pn +1
from the employes of the corporation, selected by them,
another part from the stockholders who furnish the capital
for carrying on its business. It may provide that the
employes shall first be paid from the revenues of the company
a certain fixed sum, graduated according to the
of the work performed by each; that a fair rate of
interest shall then be paid upon the capital invested, and
the balance be distributed upon some equitable principle
between the employes and the stockholders. In case of
loss the stockholders would have to suffer, since the
employe, having a right to live, must in all cases receive
his daily wages when dependent upon them for subsistence.
This principle receives judicial sanction from United States
Circuit Judge Caldwell, in his order entered in case
of the Santa Fe Railroad, as follows:
.pm start_quote
“Ordered that the men employed by the receivers in the
operation of the road and the conduct of its business shall
be paid their monthly wages not later than the 15th of the
month following their accrual. If the earnings of the road
are not sufficient to pay the wages of the men as herein
directed, the receivers are hereby authorized and required
to borrow from time to time, as occasion may require, a
sufficient sum of money for that purpose. The obligations
of the receivers for money borrowed for this purpose
specified in this order shall constitute a lien on the property
of the trust prior and superior to all other liens
thereon.”
.pm end_quote
Under the powers inherent in every sovereignty, government
may regulate the conduct of its citizens toward each
other, and, when for the public good, the manner
in which each shall use his own property.
Formerly, corporations having special privileges were
created by special acts, which the courts construed to be
contracts between the granting power and the corporators
which, once granted, could not be repealed or varied by the
granting power. This granting of charters to favored individuals,
.bn 398.png
.pn +1
conferring upon them privileges not possessed by
the general public, became obnoxious to public sentiment,
and, as a consequence, general laws have been passed in
this and many other States, under which any three persons
may become incorporated for any private purpose. This
has become a worse evil than the old system of granting
special charters. Under the general law enacted in this
State twenty years ago. I am informed, 27,200 corporations
have been created.
Irresponsible persons are often induced, for a small consideration,
to form corporations with a proposed capital of
millions; to subscribe for the whole stock except a share
or two, and, for a fancied, imaginary or worthless consideration,
to issue to themselves fully paid up stock, which is
subsequently transferred to the real parties in interest, who
expect thereby to escape personal liability if the concern is
a failure, and to pocket the profits if a success. Business
of all sorts is now to a great extent carried on in the name
of corporations, in order that the proprietors may escape
personal responsibility. How can the individual, who is
personally responsible for his contracts, successfully compete
with a corporation run by persons who incur no such
responsibility? Doing business in a corporate name not
only paralyzes individual effort, but leads to a concentration
of capital—the great evil of our time. The remedy
for this growing state of things would be to restrict the
formation of corporations to such as are formed for public
purposes, or such as the public have an interest in.
Seventy-eight per cent. of the great fortunes of the United
States are said to be derived from permanent monopoly
privileges which ought never to have been granted.
As before stated, the power to dispose of property after
death by will is conferred by statute, under certain limitations.
Why should this privilege be given to dispose of
.bn 399.png
.pn +1
more than a fixed amount of property to any one
individual? Say property to the value of not over five
hundred thousand dollars to the wife, of not more than
one hundred thousand dollars to each child, and of not
more than fifty thousand dollars to any other relative,
extending to the third or fourth degree, and that the
balance of the estate should escheat to the State, to be
used by it for the support of schools, charitable institutions,
the employment of laborers in making roads, and
other good purposes.
The law now provides for the escheat of estates of persons
dying without heirs. The same limitation might be
put upon inheritances where there is no will, and in this
way the accumulation of vast estates by inheritance or
devise would be checked, and property, especially landed
estates, which by nature belong to all, would be more
equally distributed. It should not be forgotten that the
method of transmitting property from the dead to the
living is entirely derived from the state. If public policy
requires that the state should give to the dying possessor,
no longer able to control or take with him his possessions,
the privilege of disposing of so much as may be conducive
to the comfort and happiness of his surviving kindred,
does it require that this privilege should be extended to
his disposition of millions to the injury of the rest of
mankind?
If it be said that to limit the privilege of disposing of
exceeding a million dollars of property by devise or descent
would check enterprise and industry, as no man would
struggle to acquire property which he could not leave to
his surviving kindred, my reply is, that man by his own
thrift and industry is seldom able to acquire more than a
million dollars’ worth of property. Fortunes exceeding
that amount are usually acquired by speculation, trickery,
.bn 400.png
.pn +1
or some device by which one man takes advantage of his
fellow-man, and which, if not illegal, is immoral; or by
members of privileged monopolies, trusts and syndicates.
I don’t mean to say that all great fortunes exceeding a
million have been acquired by immoral means, but such
as have not are the exception, and to limit the privilege of
disposing of more than a million by devise or descent
would not affect one in ten thousand of the people. In
short, such limitation would tend to discourage, not
honest enterprise and industry, but stock-jobbing, trickery
and other questionable methods of acquiring vast fortunes.
We have already abolished primogeniture, by which the
eldest son, to the exclusion of all other children, inherits
the entire landed estate of his ancestor, and no one in this
country at this day would think of restoring that right,
although it still obtains in England. If limitations should
be put upon the disposition of vast estates by will or
descent, future generations would doubtless look upon our
present laws, which allow such estates to be perpetuated
in certain families, with the same disfavor with which we
now look upon the laws of primogeniture.
Evasions of laws limiting the amount of property to be
devised or inherited, by conveyance during life, could be
prohibited in like manner as conveyances in fraud of
creditors are now prohibited.
.il fn=i-068.jpg w=90% ew=90%
.bn 401.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h3
IX. | DIRECT LEGISLATION.
.ce
THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM.
.pm start_citation
“No people can be self-governing who are denied the right to
vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on every law by which they are to be governed.”—Eltweed
Pomeroy.
.pm end_citation
.sp 2
.dc 0.3 0.4
THE Initiative gives the people the power to compel
the legislature to put in form all such laws as they
may initiate or demand by a preliminary vote.
The Referendum gives the people the power to reject or
ratify any legislation enacted by the legislature. All legislative
enactments to be referred to the people for their
ratification by vote before they become laws.
The Imperative Mandate gives the people the right to
vote out of office at any time men who fail to serve the
public or who are untrue to their pledges.
Proportional Representation secures the representation of
all parties in proportion to their numerical strength.
Representative Government means government by representatives
elected by the people, but independent of the
people after election and empowered to ignore or overrule
the people’s will.
Popular Government, or democracy, means government of,
for and by the people. It will be possible only when all
officeholders are honest or when the people’s representatives
are made subject to the people’s will by the adoption
of the referendum. History proves that permanent popular
government without direct legislation is impossible.
There is a radical difference between a democracy and a
.bn 402.png
.pn +1
representative government. Whenever a people are qualified
for self-government no power on earth can prevent
them from exercising that right. The American people
have been too busy “making money” to study their real
economic needs, and the result is that irresponsible demagogues
have made laws which have plunged the nation into
almost hopeless debt, paralyzed its business and impoverished
most of the people. The voters have several times
of late risen in their wrath and “turned the rascals out,”
but it was only to elect another set of rascals, of different
political complexion, perhaps, but equally dishonest and
equally irresponsible. The so-called “landslides” in
recent elections, while they have resulted in no real
reform, indicate that the people have begun to think.
Soon they will realize that they can control their own
government only by keeping the legislation in their own
hands—that they must not delegate their sovereignty to
representatives or servants, by whatever name they may
be known. It is only by means of the initiative and
the referendum that the people can maintain their supremacy.
The general adoption of this system is the next step
in the world’s progress.
The initiative and referendum will take the element of
partisanship out of the settlement of economic questions,
and this alone is sufficient reason why it should be adopted.
Suppose the question of tariff were submitted to the people
to vote on. Members of all parties would vote for it and
against it, and the majority would decide. It would
become a question of economics, not a partisan issue, and
would be settled on its merits. The same with the free
coinage of silver, paper money, public ownership of railroads,
prohibition, and every other great question which
the old political parties have straddled or evaded.
But the principal advantage of the referendum is that it
.bn 403.png
.pn +1
would do away entirely with the lobby—“the third house.”
There would be no inducement for any one to bribe the
lawmakers. They might sell their individual votes, but
these would be worthless, as only the people could
“deliver the goods.” The people would be quick to see
the value of the franchises and privileges which are now
being practically given away, to be used by corporations
to still further enslave the masses.
Switzerland is the home of the referendum. It is commonly
believed that that republic has existed for six hundred
years. The fact, however, is that it is the youngest
of republics. The characteristic features of the government,
those which make it a republic in fact as well as in
name, were instituted by the present generation. It is the
only country in the world to-day which has overthrown its
plutocracy and which has made it impossible for corrupt
politicians to rule the people through the representative
system. To the principle of direct legislation, as carried
out by the initiative and referendum must be ascribed the
happy conditions which surround its politics. Mr. W. D.
McCrackan, author of “The Rise of the Swiss Republic,”
who has made a special study of the subject, has published
in the Arena his observations of Swiss politics. He finds
that, as a result of the referendum, jobbery and extravagance
are unknown, and that politics, as there is no money
in it, has ceased to be a trade. Officeholders are taken
from the ranks of citizenship and are invariably chosen
because of their fitness for the work. The people take an
intelligent interest in the legislation, local and federal, and
are fully imbued with a sense of their political responsibilities.
The Westminster Review, speaking of the referendum,
expresses this opinion:
.pm start_quote
“The bulk of the people move more slowly than their
representatives, are more cautious in adopting new and
.bn 404.png
.pn +1
trying legislative experiments and have a tendency to
reject propositions submitted to them for the first time....
The issue which is presented to the sovereign people is
invariably and necessarily reduced to its simplest expression
and so placed before them as to be capable of an
affirmative or negative answer. In practice, therefore, the
discussion of details is left to the representative assemblies,
while the public express approval or disapproval of
the general principle or policy embraced in the proposed
measure. Public attention being confined to the issue,
leaders are nothing. Collective wisdom judges of merits.”
.pm end_quote
In some of the cantons of Switzerland the referendum
has been in practice since the sixteenth century. As it is
now employed it was adopted by the canton of St. Gallen
in 1830, and in 1848 it was incorporated in the Swiss federal
constitution. It has been so extended since then that
it is now in operation in all the Swiss cantons except
Freiburg.
According to the Swiss constitution all amendments
thereto must be ratified by the Swiss electors before they
become effective. Other measures, like ordinary enactments,
must be submitted to a popular vote if a demand is
made for such submission, written ninety days after their
publication. This demand must be made by 30,000 voters
or by the government of eight of the nineteen entire and
six half cantons. In Switzerland the referendum has
proved to be entirely satisfactory as a check upon hasty or
class legislation.
In his valuable book, “Direct Legislation,” J. W. Sullivan
thus recounts what the Swiss have done by direct
legislation:
.pm start_quote
“They have made it easy at any time to alter their cantonal
or federal constitutions—that is, to change, even
radically, the organization of society, the social contract,
and thus to permit a peaceful revolution at the will of the
majority. They have as well cleared from the way of
.bn 405.png
.pn +1
majority rule every obstacle—privilege of ruler, fetter of
ancient law, power of legislator. They have simplified
the structure of government, held their officials as servants,
rendered bureaucracy impossible, converted their representatives
to simple committeemen, and shown the parliamentary
system not essential to law-making. They have
written their laws in language so plain that a layman may
be judge in the highest court. They have forestalled
monopolies, improved and reduced taxation, avoided
incurring heavy public debts, and made a better distribution
of their land than any other European country. They
have practically given home rule in local affairs to every
community. They have calmed disturbing political elements;
the press is purified, the politician disarmed, the
civil service well regulated. Hurtful partisanship is passing
away. Since the people as a whole will never willingly surrender
their sovereignty, reactionary movement is possible
only in case the nation should go backward. But the way
is open forward. Social ideals may be realized in act and
institution. Even now the liberty-loving Swiss citizen can
discern in the future a freedom in which every individual—independent,
possessed of rights in nature’s resources
and in command of the fruits of his toil—may, at his will,
on the sole condition that he respect the like aim of other
men, pursue his happiness.”
.pm end_quote
.h4
Proportional Representation.
The term proportional representation has come to be
generally applied to a method of electing representatives
whereby the representation shall be in proportion to the
votes polled by the several parties, or groups of voters,
as against the present method of electing them from single
districts by a plurality vote. To effect this end numerous
plans have been put forth.
The cumulative vote allows the voter as many votes as
there are representatives to be elected and permits him to
distribute them as he pleases among the candidates. This
method is applied in a limited degree to the choice of
members of the lower house of the Illinois legislature.
.bn 406.png
.pn +1
Each district elects three members, and the voter can cast
three votes for one candidate, one and a half votes for two,
or one vote each for three.
With the limited or restricted vote the voter has a less
number of votes than the number of representatives to be
elected. Thus in the city of Boston the new law allows
the voter to vote for only seven aldermen on one ticket,
and declares the twelve candidates receiving the highest
vote elected.
The preferential, or, as it is commonly known, the Hare
vote, allows the voter to cast one ballot upon which he has
named as many candidates as he sees fit, the candidates
named being understood to represent the first, second,
third, etc., choice. The whole number of ballots cast is
divided by the number of representatives to be chosen,
and the quotient is the quota, or number of votes required
to elect one candidate. In counting the ballots the first
choices are read first; the candidate who receives a quota
is declared elected, and the remaining votes cast for him
are counted for the next name on the ballot who is the
second choice of the voter.
The free list, or Swiss vote, allows the voter to vote for a
list or ticket, as we do in this country, and to designate
preferences on the list. The total vote is divided as in the
Hare system to get the quota, and the several parties are
apportioned representatives according to the number of
quotas they have. The successful candidates are those
standing highest on their respective lists. This method is
now in use in Switzerland for the election of representatives.
The Gove system is a modified form of the Hare method.
Instead of the voter naming the candidates whom he prefers,
the candidates themselves before election announce
to whom they will give their surplus vote.
The proxy vote is simply an introduction of the corporation
.bn 407.png
.pn +1
vote into legislative bodies. The candidates who are
elected in the legislative assembly cast, not their individual
votes, as at present, but the number of proxies they hold.
It will be seen that there are three principles involved
in these several methods, the election by cumulation of
votes, the election by quotas, and the vote by proxies.
The cumulative vote was the first to be put into actual
service, being used in England for the election of members
of school boards, etc., and in this country in the
so-called three-cornered districts for the election of members
of the legislature. It still has the support of quite a
number of persons, but its limitations are now coming to
be recognized. John Stuart Mill, who was an advocate of
the cumulative vote, declared it to be merely a makeshift in
comparison with the quota system of Hare. The objection
to the cumulative vote lies in the fact that if the districts
are small only two parties can obtain representation,
and these in an arbitrary way, while if the districts be
larger, that is, if the number of representatives in the district
be made greater, the waste and uncertainty is apparent.
A party may decide to vote for four candidates when
it has votes enough to elect six; or it may try for six when
it has votes for only four. In either case it is deprived of
a part of its just share in the representation. The proxy
system contains some theoretical merits, but it is feared
that in practice it would not work well at present. The
tendency to hero-worship would prompt so many voters to
give their proxies to a few favorites that the real voting
strength of the assembly would be in the hands of two or
three men, thus destroying its value as a deliberative body.
The real strength of proportional representation lies in
some form of the quota principle, and the tendency in this
, as in Switzerland and Belgium, is toward the
free list.
.bn 408.png
.bn 409.png
.pn a1
.pb
.sp 4
.nf c
.dc 0.3 0.4
IMPORTANT BOOKS, MOSTLY WITH A PURPOSE,
Published and Sold by
THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING COMPANY.
.nf-
.il fn=leaves.jpg w=10% ew=10%
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The Railroad Question.
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By William Larrabee (late Governor of Iowa). 12mo, cloth
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A historical and practical treatise on railroads and remedies
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A manual for American voters. A complete political
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Our Money Wars.
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This is without doubt one of the most important of recent
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.pn a3
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The Science of Legal Robbery.
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Miscalled the Science of Finance. By Percy Kinnaird.
12mo, 150 pages. Paper, 25 cents.
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This book reviews the innovations upon the financial system
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No more timely or useful contribution to the financial literature
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“It gives the principles of money in the form of a story so
interesting and in such simple language that even a child can
read it with understanding. This is undoubtedly the simplest
book that has ever been written on the principles of money.”—John
B. Gill, Secretary American Economic Reform Society.
.bn 412.png
.pn a4
“No man or woman born will, after reading ‘Ten Men of
Money Island,’ deny that the money it cost was well invested.”—New
York World.
.sp 2
The Voter’s X-Rays.
.in 6
.ti -4
By Clarence T. Atkinson. 12mo, 132 pages. Cloth, 75
cents; paper, 25 cents.
.in
“This book intelligently sets forth the condition of national
affairs as they exist to-day, and its whole tendency is toward
the instruction of the great mass of voters who have not the
time to personally study the many intricate details of American
politics.”—Burlington Gazette.
.sp 2
.ti 0
A Tramp in Society.
.in 6
.ti -4
By Robert H. Cowdrey. 12mo, 242 pages; paper cover,
25 cents.
.in
“Thrilling and fascinating. No one who reads it can restrain
admiration for the man who can write a story that contains
in its warp and woof so much that is helpful and bettering to
humanity.”—Opie Read.
“We have had many novels of late with new economic
schemes for a basis, but mostly advertising state socialism. At
last we have the individualistic novel, and it ought to win widespread
favor. Mr. Cowdrey has strong conviction, a good
command of English and strong imagination.”—St. Louis
Republic.
.sp 2
.ti 0
An Indiana Man.
By Le Roy Armstrong. 12mo, 218 pages. Paper, 25 cents.
“A powerful novel, charmingly written. So true to the real
life of modern politics as to seem more like history and biography
than romance.”—Inter Ocean.
“It bears the same relation to the fight against the saloon
that ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ did to the fight against slavery.”—John
P. St. John.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Beneath the Dome.
.in 6
.ti -4
By Arnold Clark. Large 12mo, 361 pages. Cloth extra,
gilt top, stamped in black and silver, $1.25. Paper, 50c.
.in
“An attractive novel, in which the best thoughts on economic
reform are entwined with fiction, making a book that will
.bn 413.png
.pn a5
captivate and please the reader, yet turn his thoughts to the
great needs of humanity.”—Arena.
“No one can read this book without being made a better man
or woman.”—Progressive Farmer.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Cæsar’s Column.
.in 6
.ti -4
By Ignatius Donnelly. 12mo, 367 pages. Cloth, 1.25;
paper, 50 cents.
.in
A story of the twentieth century and the downfall of plutocratic
civilization. Thirtieth edition.
“As an example of the highest literary form it deserves
unstinted praise.”—Cardinal Gibbons.
“A very extraordinary production.”—Rt. Rev. Henry C.
Potter.
“The book is a plea, and a striking one. Its plot is bold, its
language is forceful, and the great uprising is given with
terrible vividness.”—Public Opinion.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Hell Up To Date.
.in 6
.ti -4
The Journey of R. Palasco Drant, Newspaper Correspondent,
through the Infernal Regions, as reported by himself.
Illustrated by Art Young. Popular edition, extra
cloth binding, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
.in
The Humorous Hit of the Age.
“Fifty years ago this book would have been viewed with
alarm by the pious community. A century ago its author
would have been ostracised for profanity: two centuries ago he
would have been imprisoned as a heretic, and when Columbus
lived he would have been burned at the stake for his risible
attack on the old belief.”—Kansas City Star.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Old ’Kaskia Days.
.in 6
.ti -4
An American Historical Novel. By Elizabeth Holbrook.
Large 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Paper, 25 cents.
.in
“A delightful picture of one of the oldest settlements west
of the Alleghenies. There is a pleasant quaintness in the style
of this novel, which is interesting as a story and as a record,
and the local illustrations are important.”—Review of Reviews.
.sp 2
.ti 0
In Sunflower Land.
.in 6
.ti -4
Stories of God’s Own Country. By Roswell Martin Field.
12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25.
.in
“A delightful volume. The title of the book refers to the
.bn 414.png
.pn a6
typical flower of Missouri and Kansas, of which two States Mr.
Field is the prose laureate.”—Chicago Tribune.
.sp 2
Francis Bacon and His Secret Society.
.in 6
.ti -4
An Attempt to Collect and Unite the Lost Links of a Long
and Strong Chain. By Mrs. Henry Pott, editor of
“Bacon’s Promus.” Illustrated with twenty-seven full-page
plates. Post 8vo, 421 pages, cloth extra, gilt
top. Price, $2.00.
.in
“Perhaps the most exhaustive study of Bacon and his works
possible to any writer of the present, or, indeed, any future
age.”—Minneapolis Times.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology.
.in 6
.ti -4
Edited by C. Staniland Wake. Illustrated. Imperial 8vo,
deckled edges, gilt top. Price, $10 net. Edition limited,
and only a few copies still unsold.
.in
“No public or private library which is designed to present to
its readers the attainments of our age, at the highwater mark
of its development, should be without this remarkable series of
reports.”—Critic.
“One of the most substantial contributions to knowledge
that have resulted from the Chicago Congresses of 1893 is this
magnificent volume.”—Dial.
.sp 2
.ti 0
The White Ribbon Cook Book.
.in 6
.ti -4
Economy and Wealth, Temperance and Health in the Household.
A Collection of Original and Revised Recipes in
Cookery and Housekeeping. Edited by Kathryn Armstrong.
16mo, 275 pages, cloth extra, 75 cents.
.in
A first-class book, prepared by a practical housekeeper.
While it is not claimed that it is in all respects superior to all
other books, we do claim that any housekeeper, even if she have
a dozen other cook books, will find this one worth to her more
than the price, and that the author has fully carried out her
purpose: “To prove that wine, brandy and spirituous liquors
of any kind may be dispensed with, and that no culinary
requirement necessitates the introduction of these poisons into
any household.”
.sp 2
.ti 0
Sex and Life.
.in 6
.ti -4
The Physiology and Hygiene of the Sexual Organization. By
Eli F. Brown, M. S., M. D. Illustrated. 16mo, cloth
extra, $1.00.
.in
.bn 415.png
.pn a7
“A very sensible book. After describing the common sex
principle in plants and animals the author enters upon the
discussion of conjugal love, heredity, the use and abuse of the
sexual passion, and other topics which seldom find a place in
a volume of general reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle.
“A modest, compact, scientific exposition.”—Chicago Times.
“How to teach such truths has been the study of many a
teacher and many a parent. There is but one proper way, and
that is by plain facts which, while teaching the truths of
science, impress upon the mind the grandeur of right living.
Dr. Brown strikes these chords admirably.”—Inter Ocean.
.sp 2
.ti 0
The Little Giant Cyclopedia
.in 6
.ti -4
And Treasury of Ready Reference. By K. L. Armstrong.
16mo, 512 pages. Flexible morocco, red edges, $1.00. A
million and one facts and figures. 84 colored maps and
charts. 2,500 useful tables, recipes, trade secrets, etc.
Over 300,000 copies sold. Each new edition revised up
to date. Sold by subscription.
.in
“One of the marvels of the day. It should be on every
writer’s table, and the familiar book in every household.”—Chicago
Leader.
“This wonderful book will add a year to any man’s lifetime,
if it may be said that time saved is time snatched from the
grave. The merchant, the mechanic, the lawyer, the doctor,
the teacher and the scholar will all find, in this compact
volume, much information pertaining to all the various interests
of life.”—Tribune.
“I have added ‘The Little Giant’ to my library, where it
has a most desirable front seat.”—John A. Cockerill, late
Editor-in-chief New York World.
.sp 2
.ti 0
Armstrong’s Giant Cyclopedia
.in 6
.ti -4
And Treasury of Practical Knowledge. By K. L. Armstrong.
Quarto, 512 double-column pages, cloth, red
edges, $2.50; half morocco, marbled edges, $3.50; full
morocco, gilt edges, $4.50. Illustrated with colored
charts and diagrams.
.in
This book answers more of the questions of everyday life
than all the cyclopedias combined, whether published in one or
twenty-six volumes. Sold by subscription.
.bn 416.png
.pn a8
.sp 2
.ti 0
Memorial to Brian Boroimhe.
.in 6
.ti -4
A Genealogical History of the Milesian Families of Ireland,
with a Chart of their Armorial Bearings. Price, $5.00.
Sold by subscription.
.in
.ti 0
Betsy Gaskins (Dimicrat).
.in 6
.ti -4
By W. I. Hood. With 120 illustrations by C. B. Falls, and
an appendix edited by K. L. Armstrong. Post 8vo,
over 400 pages.
.in
.ce
Sold by subscription only.
This wonderful book is the sensation of the last decade of the
nineteenth century, and is exerting a powerful influence in the
battle of the people against the money power. It is the most
timely and most original book which has ever come from the pen
and brain of an American author. It will make you laugh. It
will make you cry. It will make you think. It will sweep the
cobwebs out of your brain.
.il fn=decorative_line.jpg w=40% ew=40%
IT is an easy matter to “float with the tide,” but it takes courage,
ability and unceasing industry to pull against the stream. In these
degenerate times, when the book-stands and the publishing-houses are
jammed with a class of literature that can only be characterized as abominable
“rot,” it is refreshing to find one man who has the courage to
publish reform works. The man thus alluded to is F. J. Schulte, of the
Schulte Publishing Company, Chicago. At the risk of being ostracised by
the aristocrats of the business world (for there is an aristocracy in business
as well as in society) he has made a specialty of publishing what are known
as reform works. Contrary, however, to the general rule in such cases,
Mr. Schulte has made a remarkable success of his business venture. He has
published some of the best-selling books ever put upon the market. We
congratulate him and congratulate the reform movement on his good work,
and hope it will continue.—S. F. Norton (1891).
.il fn=decorative_line.jpg w=40% ew=40%
Any book on this list will be sent postpaid, or delivered by our
representatives, to any address on receipt of price.... Special
discounts in quantities to Agents, Speakers, Campaign Committees
and Reform Workers generally....
.nf c
THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING COMPANY
323-325 Dearborn Street\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ CHICAGO
.nf-
.pb
.dv class='tnotes'
.ce
Transcriber’s Note
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and
are noted here. Inconsistencies in the punctuation in the list of
illustration captions have been resolved, without any annotation
here. In that sequentially numbered list, number 126 had been
misprinted as 216, and has been corrected.
On p. #368#, the paragraph derived from William Jocob refers
to William Jacob’s An historical inquiry into the production
and consumption of precious metals, Vol. I., 1831. The statistics
given are extracted from multiple pages, which makes the mis-matched
closing quotation mark misleading at best.
Lapses in punctuation in the advertising pages have also been
silently addressed.
Hyphenation is not always consistent. Where the hyphen appeared at
the end of a line, it was retained or removed based on the usage
elsewhere in the text.
The references are to the page and line in the original.
The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.
.ta l:8 l:46 l:12 w=90%
| In this he dident do his dooty[,/.] | Replaced.
| Tur[n]in to the lot of high-toned cattle | Inserted.
| “Why, Jobe,” says[,] I, | Added.
| and as a differe[u/n]ce of $400 | Transposed.
| Since the world-wide demonetization of silver[,] gold only | Inserted.
| gold and silver are ho[a]rded or exported | Inserted.
| which resulted in clearing Massachu[s]etts of debt | Inserted.
| so [plenty] here. | sic plentiful?
| or duties on imports, supp[p]osing that | Removed.
| The Dem[o]crats | Added.
| The Act of December 17, 1860 (Statutes [11/12]) | Wrong volume.
| whose motto was[./,] “Act in the living present.” | Replaced.
| the amount of indem[n]ity due Germany | Inserted.
| such money to[ to] be kept | Removed.
| when c[a/o]mpared with gold | Replaced.
| put public obligatio[n/u]s into stocks | Inverted.
| is villainy unnamed and unnam[e]able. | Inserted.
| s[i/u]bmit to the gold standard | Replaced.
| and of Threadneedle St[r]eet in London | Inserted.
| William J[o/a]cob, F. R. S. | Replaced.
| 1[9/8]90 to more than all the assessed value | Replaced.
| manner i[u/n] which the business | Replaced.
| according to the chara[c]ter | Inserted.
| when nece[c/s]sary for the public good | Replaced.
| count[r]y>, as in Switzerland and Belgium, | Inserted.
.ta-
.dv-