“I see signs of life and hope in the awakening of the people.”
There is no fouler chapter in the history of crime than that which is to be written concerning the manipulation of our National Debt. How many hundreds of millions have been made out of the government by the rascals who juggled with the bonds, it would stagger faith to state. The starting point, where Belmont, Rothschild, Sherman and the Bank of England compelled Congress to depreciate the Greenback, the exchange of bonds at par for Greenbacks at their full face value, the change of the terms of the bond from lawful money to coin, and from coin to gold, the huge commissions paid to favored bankers, the colossal deposits of public funds to be used in private speculations, the sudden and mysterious fortunes accumulated by Secretaries of the Treasury, like Sherman, and by Senators, like Gorman, the stealthy mission of Ernest Seyd, the covert influence of the Haggard & Buell circulars—all these are but high-points in a long journey of national shame, legalized robbery, ruinous prostitution of the powers of government to gorge the few on the life-blood of the many.
Who does not know that our Public Debt could be paid off at any time if the ruling class wanted it paid?
Who does not realize the anomaly of the richest nation on earth bearing a bonded debt as though it were a luxury?
Who does not recognize the grim irony of wearing a bondholder’s chain as though it were a string of pearls?
Wipe out the Public Debt and there would be no foundation for the National Banks. One form of privilege having been abolished, the other would follow. And then others would follow! The bonds are the keystone to the arch. The Public Debt is the nucleus of the system by means of which Wealth runs the Government for its own benefit.
Who wants the Government to economize? Not the Privileged. By no means. If the Government were to economize there would be such a surplus in the Treasury that the Government, for very shame, would have to pay itself out of debt.
The Privileged are determined to keep the Government in debt, and hence there will be no economy.
The fields of expenditure shall widen, widen, and be kept on widening. Salaries shall increase, and increase, and be kept on increasing. Offices shall be multiplied, and multiplied, and be kept on multiplying.
The Panama Canal can get all it wants; let the Philippines cost what they may; give more to the Navy; give more to the Army; give more to Rivers and Harbors; give more to Pensions; give the Railroads four times as much as it is worth to carry the mails, and then give them a special subsidy to keep the contract; give $45,000 for carrying mail to the Island Tahiti when the “cussed foreigner” offered to do it for $3,500; give with so lavish a hand that even the South will get a pull at the sugar-teat, and shall join in the Hallelujah Chorus of “O, ain’t it good!”