The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 29, 1892 Page: 4 of 16
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SOUTHERN MERCURY.
December 29, 1882
Finanoial Slavery.
Notwithstanding 'this country
exported $95,000,000 w orth of
breadstufís, cotton, provisions, cat-
tle and petroleum in 1892, during
the week ending lfith December,
1892, $3,000,000 in gold was ship-
ped to Europe. At the same time
silver bullion h«s been going from
this country to Europe in a contin-
uous and ever increasing volume.
In the teeth of such a record R
G. Dun <fc Co.'s commercial agency
reports the balance of trade as
healthy and highly satisfactory.
If draining the country of the pro-
ducts of its fields, shops, mines
and factories in the payment of in-
terest is an evidence of prosperity,
the people of this country have
great cause to thank the gods for
the blessings they enjoy. I3utsuch
proceedings evidence the slavery of
American producers to European
usurers.
All intelligent persons know that
the United States has within the
limits of her own boundaries more
of the natural elements of absolute
independence than is possessed by
any other two nations combined;
and that our people produce annu-
ally over 30 per cent more per cap-
ita than any other country; that in
the matter of economy our people
equal those of any nation. Under
such circumstances, to compel our
people to pay tribute, in the shape
of interests, to a people who can
neither feed or clothe themselves
is nothing short of a blistering
shame. The fact of the matter is,
the bank of England, which is the
defacto government of Europe
(France excepted),has either whee-
dled or bribed our government
Hence the bank of England is the
defacto government of the United
States, so far as finance is con-
cerned .
Well may Europeans seriously
say: "Any people who haven't
sense enough to use their own cred-
it, based on their own wealth, for
their own benefit, without cost,
should be forced to pay interest to
those who have."
Our people, for want of money
or credit, go to London, deposit
their collaterals, the bank of Eng-
land issues the credit, based on
these collaterals, taxes the indus-
tries of America to pay the interest,
then puts that interest into their
own pockets or reloans it on addi-
aional American collaterals.
Those who receive the income
derived from a property are the
defacto owners of it. Those who
receive tribute from "a people are
the masters, while those who pay
it are'slaves. No conquerer ever
demanded more than tribute of the
conquered. George TIT asked no-
thing but tribute from our fathers;
ere; they refused because they
desired to be free. English
usurers demand a larger tribute
from Americans now than England
did of our fathers.
To be worthy of our sires we
must elect men to congress to legis
late for Americans. Until our peo
pie rise to this eminence they will
remaim slaves to foreign usurers.
The law enslaves, the law must
liberate. Financial slavery is the
most relentless and humiliating of
all slavery. It is strange that men
will submit when a vote would
make them free.
Falaoy of Government Control.
The Southkkn Mercury desires
to go on record as asserting that
government control of railroads
has not succeeded and never will.
No instance can be pointed out
where the attempt to control rail-
roads by the state or national gov-
ernment, through a commis-ion or
otherwise, without ownership, has
been a success.
The interstate railway commis-
sion is nothing but a monumental
farce. Mr. McLeod, president of
the Reading railroad, in. his testi-
mony before the committee of the
New York legislature, admitted
that the competition of the other
railroads, that were not consoli-
dated with the Reading, was the
only thing that could prevent the
combine from advancing the price
of coal to such figures as its man-
agers saw fit to name. He also
emphatically stated that the freight
rates had in no way been regulated
or interfered with by the interstate
commission. Judge Cooley resigned
the chairmanship of this commis-
sion in disgust, because he knew
the whole thing was a farce, and
that he was drawing his salary on
a fraudulent pretense.
Of the railroad commission of
Georgia, so much boasted of by
friends in Texas, Judge Tram-
mell, long its chairman, says it is
an unmitigated fraud The reasons
are patent to any who will look
at the testimony.
All the decisions of courts
of last resort, state or na-
tional , that have ' passed upon this
question since 1876 have unani-
mously decided that the owners of
a railroad may put such a rate of
charges on its traffic as will pay—
1. The interest on the indebted-
ness.
2. Its operating expenses.
3. A reasonable dividend on its
capital stock.
The" board of directors with
the advice and consent of its stock-
holders, are the only ones who
can fix the amount of indebted-
ness, and there is no power that
can dictate to them in this matter
They can fix the rate of interest,
and none can interfere. They can
fix the wages and salaries of em-
ployes and none can prevent them
Having this power to do
these things they are in a po-
sition to fix their own rates as
completely as if there never hac
been a railroad commission in ex-
istence. These cold, stubborn facts
are enough to convince any fair-
minded person that a railroad com-
mission, state or national, or any
attempt at government control
without government ownership, is
a first-class fraud, and the money
spent on such attempts is worse
than thrown away.
Railroad charters are creatures of
law, and what the law creates it
must protect. It if folly to talk
about setting up one standard of
justice for an individual and an-
other for a railroad. The courts
cannot, and will not, discriminate
between natural and unnatural per-
sons created by law.
The trouble is in granting char-
ters. Annul them and all this
trouble, expense and confusion
will cease. Government owner-
ship is inevitable,
The Non-Conformist Criticism.
The Non-Conformist of Decem-
ber 15th takes occasion to read the
Mercury a mild lecture on its ed
itorial in a recent issue, headed,
"A Seductive Scheme " In that ed-
itorial we expressed our honest sen-
timents We knew nothing deliite of
the Industrial Legion It was the
circumstances that attended its
birth, and the doings of its origin-
ators at Memphis, that arouseiour
suspicions. Had the non-conform
ist editor been at Memphis and
seen what we saw, he would have
endorsed every word we said. The
Mercury ha-< no objection to any
person joining any organization he
chooses, but it does seriously object
to a junta of re en who are n t, and
cannot be,members of the Farmers
Alliance, hanging around the meet
ings of its supreme council, and
fixing up slates as to who shall and
who shall not be its officers, and
what shall be the policy of the
order.
That this was done at Memphis
is a notorious' fact The protest
filed by several state delegations
tells the tale. Not one delegate to
the supreme council denied the
facts set forth in that protest when
it was presented to the body. To
cap the climax, the men «ho engi
neered the plot called f.-rth that
protest projected.
The planners of Industrial Le-
gion kept the whole thing as dark
as the grave till after the adjourn-
ment of the supreme council.
Under such circumstances the
Merc ury felt convinced that the
movement was intended to throttle
if possible the Farmers Alliance.
We submit that if it was intended
as an auxiliary to the Farmers Al-
liance, why the profound secrecy
attending its birth? Why were not
the delegates to the supreme coun-
cil invited to examine its prin-
ciples and purposes? why did
those who promulgated the new or-
ganization, though not members of
the Alliance, attempt to control the
deliberations of the supreme coun-
cil?
When these pertinent questions
are frankly and fully answered,and
we find we did an injustice to any
one, we will take great pleasure in
promptly making the amende hon-
orable
The Mercury has ever been the
staunch friend of all organizations
having for their object the eleva-
vation of mankind, and their free-
dom from industrial slavery. It
has long known that it was the
avowed purpose of the enemies of
organized labor to ¡destroy the effi
cacy of their organization by de-
stroying the confidence of the mem-
bership in every leader who could
not be bought, bullied or outgener-
aled, and that they would be un-
scrupulous as to methods.
The Mercury is the property of
the Farmers Alliance of Texas Its
management is charged with the
duty of carefully guarding the por-
tals of the ordei,and«'f warning the
membership of any movement cal-
culated to cripple the organization.
From the lights before u* we yet
believe that we did our plain duty
in publishing the editorial refered
to.
With malice toward none, and
charity for all, we will ever be
found in the middle of the road.
Gould's Millions.
The opinions voiced by the press
and pulpit as to Gould's career,and
the efiect upon society of his will,
siving his millions in trust, are
very conflicting, and discloses the
fact that the people in all the walks
of life have at last been aroused
upon the unequal distribution of
wealth, and its dangers; yet, the
conflicting views expressed prove
that up to date the people have no
clear ideas what to do about it.
Many of them, led by Professor
Hardy, of Yale college,denominate
Gould's mom y as i'a trust from so-
ciety " This is manifestly errone-
ous, because it cannot be shown
that society ever trusted Jay Gould
with a cent. On the contrary, his
career proves that he simply out-
witted those he came in contact
with, and wrenched his millions
from those who owned these val-
ues
To argue that the money Gould
left in trust for the benefit of lega-
tees is "a trust fund from society"
is to assert that the scalp taken by
the savage is a trust fund for his
victim.
Gould's manipulations prove he
used the nationas and f-tate govern-
ments as an instrument through
which to spoilate the pf ople; hence,
what he accumulated, while it
might have been a great moral
crime, was of course legal, and by
all the laws of the country.was his
own, to dispose of as he saw fit,
without consulting society.
No one denies that in leaving
the bulk of his fortune intrust, cir-
circum vented prmogeniture, and
that its effects will prove ruinous
to the best interests of the people.
To say the government is power-
less to perpetuate itself on pure
democratic principles is the quint-
esence of folly. The true remedy
for this'class of evils will be found
in a graduated income tax. Such
a tax properly adjusted would pre-
vent the accumulation of such
mammoth fortunes in future, and
scatter those already accumulated.
It would remove this menace to
the prosperity and happiness of the
people. For such purposes demo-
cratic government was instituted
among men.
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 29, 1892, newspaper, December 29, 1892; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185497/m1/4/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .