Wheeling Register

WHY 400,000,000 OF BONDS?

Why? The reason is plain as daylight. These $400,000,000 of bonds are not to be issued because the government is in immediate need of money to carry on the war, or because the money could not be raised in any other way; but because the gold standard needs much buttressing to make it stand and because the national bankers desire to extend their operations and strengthen their grip on the currency of the nation. That is the why and the wherefore of this totally unnecessary bond issue and these are the influences that have complete control of Congress and the administration.

In one breath we are told from Washington that everything is looking lovely and that peace is near at hand, and in the next breath that the country will go to smash and have to "lie down" before Spain if this bond issue of $400,000,000 is not made. Now the truth must be obvious to every person of ordinary common sense that if the war is not to be prolonged then the issuance of this vast amount of bonds is unnecessary.

Yet the country has been edified by the spectacle of President McKinley reaching out for peace with one hand and with the other taking advantage of the chance to serve his masters, the moneyed aristocracy, by issuing an enormous amount of bonds, increasing the principal of the interest-bearing debt of the nation to such an extent that no one now living will probably ever see this "war debt" paid off!

It will last and keep our bond-holding and interest-reaping aristocracy with us far and away into the next century until we shall have paid the debt over again in interest.

That is Republican policy. That is the policy which this administration has forced on the helpless people under the guise of a necessary "war measure."

The administration can make short work of the proceeds of such a sale. How handy this money will come in to cover up the deficits of the ordinary Dingley bill! Then the extraordinary measure of war taxation will soon be in operation pouring money from the pockets of the people into the coffers at Washington. Yet, while the administration is setting these "war measures" afoot it is loudly talking and praying peace. Now, if the war is soon to end-as doubtless it is-there will be no need that the people be subjected to the DOUBLE EXPENSE OF IMMEDIATELY MEETING THE TAXGATHERER AS WELL AS PROVIDING FOR AN INDEBTEDNESS THROUGH ANOTHER LIFETIME OF INTEREST ON AN ENORMOUS BONDED DEBT

If enough money cannot be raised immediately by taxation under the war measure as passed, increase the taxes or add to the articles taxed until enough is forthcoming.

The people would be glad to pay these war bills at once and avoid a frightful and burdensome increase in the interest-bearing debt which is simply meant as a further bulwark for the oppressive gold standard. The immediate coinage of the silver seigniorage would go far towards settling the expenses of the war. But the goldbugs and the money-bags are horribly afraid to let the people get even this poor little taste of silver coinage, lest tasting the sweet morsel should impel them to clamor for a larger bite and to increase their clamor until they got it.

Hence the goldbugs and the moneybags ordered the administration and their agents in Congress to reduce the limit of the coinage of the seigniorage in the bill to a mere small trifle monthly, so that the increase in the country's primary money from this source will be but a mere drop in the bucket and inappreciable.

Finally, we are told that President McKinley will remain firm in his intention to COMPEL SPAIN TO PAY THE ENTIRE COST OF THE WAR TO THE UNITED STATES. THEN, AGAIN, WHY A BOND ISSUE?

Can the administration or any of its advisers and apologists answer this question? If Spain is to be made to pay our entire war debt as well as the cost of the Maine, why burden our own people for the same purpose with a $400,000,000 issue of bonds, which will require a full lifetime or longer to pay principal and interest?

We are soon to have peace, yet we must have war taxes and a war debt saddled upon us! Spain is to be made to pay for the war, yet we must pay for it ourselves! This is the illogical position of the administration

Meanwhile the extraordinary war taxes soon to be levied will be piling money in upon the Treasury at the rate of $30,000,000 a month-enough to meet the expenditure entailed by the war.

And there will be no need of increasing the bonded debt of the United States and entailing for a long number of years upon the people the expense of interest thereon, even though we should not collect the expenses of the war from Spain.

In fact, the real and only reasons for issuing $400,000,000 of bonds at this time are carefully kept in the background, namely, the necessities of the gold standard and the demand of the national bankers and the moneybags generally.

As Champ Clark said the other day, a colonization policy for this country would be "gorgeous in appearance but fatal in experience."