The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 4, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, February 21, 1896 Page: 1 of 10
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HsroKK the law wm written down with
parchment or with pen;
Before the law made citiieni. the moral
law made men.
Law stand* for human rights. but when
it fail<(th«Mte ritfhU to give.
Then let law die. my brother, but let hu-
man t emirs live.
®he Uwjrles
out.
"Our Republic can only exist
so Long as its citizens respect
and oIh-v their self iui|K>«ed laws."
Labor T.s The Parent Of Capital, Encourage Labor, and You build Up Capital-
VOL. 4.
NORMAN. CLEVELAND COUNTY OKLAHOMA. FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21. 18%.
NO 30.
THE UOM) ANI) THE DOL-
LAR.
John Clark Rid path In Arena.
War preys on two things—life
and property; but lie preys with a
partial appetite. Feasting on life,
he licks his jaws anil says? "More
by your leave." Devouring proper-
ty, he says, beiween grin ami glut:
"This is so good that it ought to be
paid for!" Into the vacuum of the
wasted life rush the moaning winds
of grief and desolation, into the
vacuum of the wasted property
rushes the goblin of debt. The
wasted life is transformed at length
into a reminiscent glory; the wasted
property becomes a hideous night-
mare. The heroes fallen rise from
their bloody cerements into ever-
lasting fame; the property destroyed
rises from the red flame-swept field
as a spectral vampire, sucking the
still warm blood of the heroic dead
and of their pc^thumou babes to the
tenth generation!
The name of the vampire is Bond.
On the ist of March, 1866, the
national debt of the. United States
entailed by the civil war reached
the appalling maximum of neaily
three thousand millions of dollars.
The American people were inex
perienced in such business. They
had never known the incubus before.
Europe had known it, but not Amer
ica. For'a long time the public
debt of the nation had been to
small as to be disregarded. Now,
all of a sudden, with the terrible exi-
gencies of war, the debt expanded
and settled over th? landscape like
a cloud from Vesuvius, darkening
from shore to shore.
So far as the people and the gov-
ernment were concerned, it was an
honest debt. The method and in-
tent Of Lincoln and the great men
around him in 1862 3 were as sincere
and just as they wtre humane and
patriotic. As for the American
people, they vere always honest.
The nation was in deadly peril and
must be rescued at whatever, cost.
The war was a devouring demon.
With the explosion of every shell
the product of a hundred toiling
hands was instantly vaporized, for
the bomb is not filled, as many-
suppose, with powder and iron and
death, but with the potatoes and
biscuit of mankind. At intervals
the expenditure was more than a
million, and sometimes more than
two millions of dollars a day. The
government had nothing of its own,
did not venture to take anything as
its own, and therefore must support
itself by loans or perish. Conform-
ing to the method of the age, the
nation borrowed from the accumu
lations of the rich and gave them
therefor tneir promise to pay.
The promises to pay got them-
selves into a bond.
It is the order of modern society
that he who has may lend to him
who has not and receive his own
with usury. The principle was
adopted by the American republic
in the day of trial. The means
necessary for the prosecution of the
war were not taken—as the life was
taken—but were borrowed. The
quadrennium was an epoch of pro-
digious borrowing. A great part of
the lending was patriotic; but much
of it, even at the lirst, was interested
and was mixed with contrivance and
ulterior designs.
The currency that had to be pro-
vided to meet the startling emer-
gency that had overtaken the Ainer
ican people was, in the nature of
the case, made to be a legal tender
in the payment of debts. T he gov.
eminent must needs have such a
money. All metallic money—as is
its invariable habit under such cir-
cumstances—-slunk away and hid
itself in it irk coffers, mostly beyond
the sea. What did gold care for
liberty, for the waste of human life,
for the republic, for the Union
made sacred by the sacrifices and
blood of our fathers?
t It was intended by those who con-
trived the legal tender currency that
it should be absolute money in the
payment of all debts of whatever
kind. The supreme court of the
United States has since decided by
a voice of eight to one that congress
possessed—and still posesses—the
right and power to make such a
money, whether in law or in peace.
The validity of the legal tender act
is now as much a part of the consti-
tutional history of the United States
as is the oboliiion of African slavery
But they who were skillful in watch-
ing their own interests, even in the
throes of our national breakup and
impending catastrophe, adroitly con-
trived that the national currency
should have an exception in it in
favor of those who should lend their
means to the government. They
who should make such lo^ns should
receive therefor a bond, and the in-
terest on the bond—as also the du-
ties on imports of foreign goods—
was exempt from the legal tender of
paper and reserved for coin.
T hus came the bonded debt of
the United States. The debt grew
with the progress of the war, until it
seemed to approach infinity. T he
nation swayed and struggled through
the bloody sea and came at last to
the shore. The process of debt-
making had acquired so great mo-
mentum that it was difficult to get it
checked and reversed. In the early
summer of 1865 the'soldiers of the
Union army were mustered out and
remanded to their homes. By Au-
gust the work was done; the grand
army was no more; but such was the
confusion that for fully six months
longer the expenditure rolled on
without abatement.
The great question which con-
fronted the nation at the beginning
of 1866 was the management of the
debt. There were bonds galore; a
seven thirty series of $250,000,000,
by act of July 17, 1861, then 515,-
000,000 of five-twenties, by act of
Feb 22, 1862; becoming more than
$1,200,000,000 by subsequent issues;
then ten-forties in several series—
7.3 per cents., 6 per cents., 5 per
cents , 4-5 per cents., 4 per cents.;
plain bonds at first and coin bonds
finally—short loans and long loans
and longer loans, but always be
coming longer, until a measure of
calm ensued, and the nation found
opportunity to take account of its
losses and consider the question of
payment.
If governments had the same care
for the life of the people as for the
property of those who possess prop-
erty, then national debts would not
be made, or at least not perpetuated
by the event of war. It had been
an act of infinite mercy on the part
of the government of the United
States in that day to take directly
whatever was necessary—as it did
take whatever men was necessary—
for the suppression of the rebellion.
1'hat course would have ended it.
Had that almost unprecedented pol-
icy been temperately and success-
fully pursued, the cost of the war
would hardly have been one-fifth of
what it has become, the bond would
never have existed; the wealth of
the people would not have been con-
centrated in the hands of a few, the
present harrowing and dangerous
conditions of American life would
not have supervened, and the vic-
torious defense of the Union would
long ere this have become a glorious
and unclouded reminiscence.
Strange as it is, however, that our
vaunted and , vaunting civilization,
even to the present day, prefers
property to man. It exalts the one
and tramples on the other. In this
particular we have been even as the
rest. Judging by the facts, there is
no government on earth to which its
mules are not dearer than its men!
Strange, too, that whoever appeals
on behalf of the man as against the
mule and urges the protection of the
one at the expense of the other is
held to be an enemy of society!
Property in this particular having
no conscience, or only the con-
science of being always in the
wrong, fortifies itself with every cas-
uistical and fallacious argument
known to the category of self-inter-
est, and puts down both the man
and his advocates. The "sacred
rights of property," meaning the
right of something that belongs to
life to seize that life by the throat
antl strangle it, are promulgated and
upheld with constitution anil rtatute
ami bayonet; while the "rights of
man," so much in vog le in the
gieat epoch of regeneration at the
close of the eighteenth century, are
at the close of the nineteenth cen-
tury, positively under the ban of
every civilized state of the world.
According to the plutocratic lexicons
of at least two continents, the
"rights of man" have come to sig-
nify merely—anarchy.
Our staggering nation arose and
stood. The horizon cleat ed. The
government of the republic was pre-
served for posterity. It found itself,
however in the grip of a python from
which, after thirty years of writhing,
it is less able to free itself than ever
beforesince.the close of the conflict.
In the course of the war and just af-
terwards it was discerned by those
who held the national debt, as it had
discerned by some of them from the
beginning, that it was a good thing
for the possessors. A great interest
had been created by the battle of
the natonal union for its life—the
interest of the bond.
It were vain to conjecture how
many sincere patriots found them-
selves possessors of the intereslbear-
irig obligation of the nation. For all
such there is no animadversion, but
rather praise. It were equally vain to
conjecture how many held those ob-
ligations simply for the profit and
advantage and power that were in
ihem, and with no concern about the
welfare of the government or of the
people of the United States; but the
latter class, whether many or few,
increased, and the former class de-
creased, until the fundholding inter-
est was consolidated in the hands of
a party having its bifurcations in
New York and London.
The party of the bond became
skillful and adroit. It began immed-
iately to fortify itself. It took ad-
vantage of the inexperience of the
American people and of their legis-
lators. It profited by the mistakes
and misplaced confidence of both.
They who held the bonds were wise
by ages of training in the Old
World and the New. They under-
stood the situation perfectly, and
adopted as their method a policy
embracing two intentions: First, to
perpetuate the bond and make it
everlasting by the postponement
and prevention of payment; second
to increase the value of the curren-
cy in which all payments were to
be made; that is, to increase the val-
ue of the units of such payments as
the payments should become due, so
that whatever might be the efforts
of the people to discharge the debt
it should increase in value as rapid
ly as they could reduce it! And the
honest people, abused to the soul by
the politician and by Shylock, knew
not that it was so.
For thirty years this game lias
been persistently, skillfi; ly and suc-
cessfully carried out. It has been
a play worthy of the greatest game-
sters that ever lived! We do not
call to mind an other such stake
among the nations as that placed
upon the issue; and the bond-players
have won on every deal. They
have succeeded on both counts of
their policy. They have turned
over the debt into new forms of
bonds, and these again into newer
under the name of refunding, per-
suading the people that the process
was wise and needful, and cajoling
with the belief that the rate of inter-
est was each time reduced for the
benefit of the nation. It was done
' in the interest of the people!" We,
the holders of the bond, being pa
triots, labor only for the interest ol
the people!
It is true that each act of refund-
ing and transforming the national
j debt has lowered somewhat the
! nominal rate of interest, but at tlie
i same time it has lengthened the
period of payment. At the begin-
ning the date of payment was at the
option of the government. Then it
was at five years from the making
of the bond; then it was at ten
years; then at twenty years; then at
thirty years. Now the period of
possible payment has been extended
until the second decade of the next
century cannM witness the end of
the game. If the treasury should
have today, or in the year 1900, a
surplus of $6,000,000,000 of gold
the government could not cancel its
bonds. They were not made to be
called and cancelled, but to be re-
funded and perpetuated.
Besides, the reduction of interest
has been a reduction only in name.
In no case has the reduction been
made until the value of the dollar of
the payment has been so enlarged as
to more than balance the reduction.
I The same thing is true of principal
as well as the payment of coupons.
For thirty years the American people
have been pouring into that horrid
maelstrom the volume of their great
resources. They have paid on their
debt, or at least they have paid in
this long period such a prodigious
j sum that arithmetic can hardly ex-
press it. The imagination cannot
embrace it. And yet it is the truth
of the living God that in the year
1895, at its close, the national debt
of the United States, in its bonded
and unbonded forms, will purchase
as its equivalent in value as much of
the average of twenty five of the
leading commodities of the Ameri-
can market, including real estate
and labor, as the same debt would
purchase at its maximum on the 1st
of March, 1866. l'he people have
paid and paid for thirty years, and
at the end have paid just this—
NOTHING.
The gold-bug press of this coun-
try have much to say about the so
c;.lled popular loan recently made
by the government. The facts
about this loan are that it was in no
sense a popular loan Morgan's
bid was received about 10 minutes
before the time for submitting bids
was up and after nearly all the bids
| received had been opened and con-
! sequently he gets about 60 millions
! of the bonds and it is estimated
clears about 6 million in the deal.
When the bonds are all taken up
I the gold reserve, for which they
j were, ostensibly issued to replenish,
j promises to be in a mire deplet-
| ed condition than before they were
j issued and within three months time
I you may look for another "popular
J loan" of joo million. Senator Pef-
fer has introduced a resolution in
the Senate to have a commission ap
pointed to investigate the transact-
ions connected with the recent loan:
but as the Senate is Republican, and
as the policy of the National Re-
publican party seems to be the same
as the policy of the Republican par-
ty in this territory as laid down by
Ex-Governor Seay. to-wit: to sup-
port Democratic scoundrels and
keep them in office, as good politics
for the Republican party, Senator
Peffer's resolution will be pigeon
holed or vjted down. T he Repub-
licans of the Senate, by their refusal
to pass the resolution of Senator
Butler which would have prohibited
all future bond issues without the
sanction of Congress, have made the
Republican party equally responsi-
ble with the democrat party for the
bonds that are being saddled upon
the American people and if we do
| not mistake the intelligence of the
1 American voters; both old parties
1 will be so held at the ballot box
next November. A party having
j the power to prevent a crime and
refuses to do it, becomes an acces-
I sory and equally guilty.
♦ —
1 The Democrats in Washington,
since Tillman made his great speech
have been engaged in a general fam-
ily row, and they will, perhaps,
spend the rest of this session expos-
1 ing the cussedness of each other.
When they finish the job the Demo-
I cratic party will cease to have a
I cause to exist.
To (lie People of CleYelHIlrt
County.
In compliance with the request iimi
instruction* of the Territorial Board
of Education of Oklahoma Territory.
1 take thin method of making known
the plana that have been adopted liy
said Hoard to hold Graduating Exami-
InatiniM of th< pupils In tliu common
schools throughout the territory and
more especially, the plan adopted by
myself for the execution of this work
In Cleveland County. I will nay briefly
that the object of tills examination Is
to determine the proficiency of the pu-
pils attending our common school*, and
all the candidates in these examina-
tions who make the required percen-
tage will he granted Diplomas of grad-
uation from the common schools.
These diplomas will be signed by the
Territorial Sup't., the County Super-
intendent and the Director of the dis-
trict from which the candidates grad-
uates. They will be evidences of thor-
ough proficiency in the cumin >n school
branches, and will entitle the holder
to entrance Into any High School,
College or University in the territory,
without further examination. For con-
venience in holding these examina-
tions, Cleveland County is divided into
seven (7) examination precincts, as
follows:
Precinct, No. 1, composed of school
districts. No's. 21, -2, 2.'t, 24, 25, 26, 27,
28, 2D,30, 81, 38, 30 and 64.
Precinct, No. 2, composed of school
districts. No's, 5, 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,
18, 14, 15, 16, and 62.
Precinot, No. 3, composed of school
districts, No's., 1, 2, 3, 4, 17, IS, 19, 20,
65 and 66.
Precincts, No. 4, composed of school
districts, No's. 33. 34, 80, 42. 4:t and 44
Precinct, No. 5, composed of school
districts, No's., 86, 37, 38, 40, 41, 63, 48,
and 49.
Precinct, No. 6, composed of school
districts, No's., 4o, 46, 47, 52 and 53,
Precinct, No, 7, composed of school
districts, No's. 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57 , 58,
59, 60 and 61.
The examination for precinct, No. 1,
will be held at Norman; No. 2, at Moore;
No. 3, at the school house in Dial. 18;
No 4, at school house in Dist. 42; No.
5, at Noble Academy; No. 6, at school
house in Dist. 46; No. 7, at Lexington.
Ail these examinations will be held
on til" Ist and 2nd days of next May, at
the above designated places. The fol-
lowing branches will be embraced;
Orthography, Penmanship, English
Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography,
Physiology and U. S. History.
To obtain adiplomi, the pupil must
make a general average ol 8'j per cent,
with no branch below 60 per cent.
Each precinot will be under the su
pervision of a Precinct Examiner ap-
pointed by the County Superintendent.
The questions for examiiiaton will he
prepared by tile Territorial B (aril of
Education and sent to the several Pre
cinet Examiners with full instructions
for procedure. The above is, in sub
stance, an outline of the plan for our
co nmon school examinations.
Alter the manuscripts have been
graded, and the successful candidates
determined; the diplomas will be pre-
sented al a Commencement which will
he held especially for this purpose.
A lull program of the Coin-no cement
Exorcises will be published in due
time. 1 trust that every teacher in the
county will Lake an active interest in
this work and spare no pains to make
it a success. Present as many pupils
to the precinct examinations as you
think will be ao!c to pass and ,f any
should fail, they will not h ive labored
iu vain, for it will be a good review for
them. Be sure to have your school
represented, f will tjheerfullv commu-
nicate and correspond with every one
who desires further information upon
tbis subject. Very Truly,
L. j. Peterson,
County Superintendent.
CAMPAIGN OFFER.
Realizing that the coming cam
paign will be one of the fiercest po-
i litical battles ever fought on Atneri
can soil and that the future welfare
I of generations yet unborn will de-
pend much upon how the voters by
their ballots decide the conflict at
the ballot box next November and
further we believe that if the people
could be made to see and realize
that the conflict will be a battle roy-
al between wealth and common-
wealth, the people struggling to per-
petuate the American Republic and
free it from the grasp of a heartless
money power and a Plutocracy
| seeking to subvert the constitution
and build a Bondocracy on the
| Ruins of the Republic; wherein the
'people will be vassals and Shylocks
their masters, we believe that the
great body of the producing and
thinking class of American citizens
will be found casting their ballots
for the commonwealth next Novem-
ber and further that w« believe the
distribution of reform literature is
the most effectual means of causing
the people to see and realize the
character of the struggle and that
while the People's Voick may not
be as effective an instrument in this
work as the jawbone Sainson used
on the Philistines, it will not be an
unworthy weapon in the fight. We
have concluded to make it so easily
obtainable that all may be armed
with it for the campaign and the
following is our proposition for ob-
taining it for the remainder of the
year. To new subscribers we will
send this paper until Jan. 1, 1897
for 50 cents in cash. Kvery Popu
list in this county should try and
have his old party neighbor avail
himself of the above proposition.
Over the Country.
W.O.Jacks is on the sick list at
this writing threatened with Pneu-
monia; also other members of his fami-
ly have the mumps.
The event of the week was the se-
lect party at D. C. Eckers and we learn
that iMiss Evan Montgomery and
friends of Little River Falls, were in
attendance.
From conversation oyerheard we be-
lieve the trend of the country literar-
ies is in the direction of nigger min-
strels or rather in aping the same it
seems quite strange ti) an outsider, why
a man or men will take for their pnt-
tern of what is elevating and enter-
taining, the race that they consider so
inferior and one that they look down
upon as u'lllt for social equality, what
a high standard to attain and what
grand educational advantages for the
young.
Little H irry Daniel is very sick at
this tune and has been for several days
past,
Mrs. J. T. Brown, of Franklin, is
seriously ill. Dr. Hudson Is the at-
tending physician.
Prospecting for the precious metals
continues. Prof. J. Bnsto is now iu the
field and talks of an Oklahoma syndi-
cate unlimited back of him.
The wife and little daughter of Rev.
Snyder, of Moore, have been spending
the week al Mrs. S. parents; (S. P.
Beards ley's) hut returned to Moure on
Friday.
Farmers all over the country are
improving the lively weather and
some are nearly done spring plowing
at this time.
Rev. H. H. Everett will remove to
Noble in the near future to bo nearer
the center of his circuit.
S. P. Beardsley and wife transacted
business iu Norman, Saturday.
OlISEKVER.
wuiliiiigteu's ISirt Inlay.
'1 he Pierian Literary Society will
celebrate Washington's Birthday by
giving an entertainment iu the Uni-
versity Chapel 011 Feb. 22nd 1896.
They will be assisted by the Band
which will appear 011 the street in
Revolutionary Costoine. This will be
a treat ill the way of entertainments
as heretofore the Society have suc-
ceeded in doing some very tine work
lu this line. VVe hop.- tiie people will
go out and encourage these young peo
pie by their presence.
The following is the program of the
evening.
Music Norman-University Band.
Drill A Marllm Washington Tea
Parly.
Debate Resolved, That the
pending controversy between Eng-
land and Venezuela involves the
principles of the Monroe Doctrine.
Affirmative; N. T. Pool, J. P.
Evans. Negative: D. B. Phillips,
J. A. Overstreet.
Music Orchestra.
The Hatchet Slory Miss Walchir
and Mr. Djiiii.
I'lie Continental Congress.
Music Glee Club.
Tableau Sperit of '76.
Recitation The Black Horse and
His Rider, N 1'. Pool.
! Music
I Tableau Valley Forg.;
I Music.
Seed Potatoes.
We have just received a carload of
Minnesota seed potatoes, Early Rose
Snowllake, and Beauty of Hebron and
will make you the closest prices 011 the
same. McGlNLEY & Berry,
Upcoming Pages
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 4, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, February 21, 1896, newspaper, February 21, 1896; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc116817/m1/1/: accessed March 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.