The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-08-09
rHE CHEAP GOLD THHoRY-nI.

when the United States legalizsd and
converted into q gold bond q fraudulent
Wild cat paper bono, and made that the law
for the circulation. Of Q two-fold interest
money in the hands u monopoly, they
not only converted such watered govern
ment stock into gold, but they made such
demand for gold for the payment of prin-
cipal and interest a. entirely unssttles the
gold market. The semi-annuAl interest on
these bonds nearly equals the whole annual
gold and silver produce of the country.
This legal, added to the natural demand
for gold, makes very large premium on
gold. The government, BY means Of gold
tariffs, to ease this enormous amount of
gold gambling, gathers for them, over
one hundred millions of dollars annually.
This accumulates nearly half Of the specie
in the nation into the commercial centers,
very largely in New York. Thus sccumu-
lated by taxation and at the expense of
labor it N ready for the bond-holding class
TO receive premiums on, either by its use,
or is supposed to be more generally on
gold certificates. Eventually it paths out,
and is again gathered from the people who
are engaged in their daily occupations, as
IN tread mill, to raise gold for the inter
esting purposes Of being perpetually Aeeced
by their task-masters. But not under
standing the operation, they suppose they
are performing a solemn duty in the sup
port Of government, when they are only
feeding ld-gambling.
When the people complain, they are told
they have been too extrsvagant, that they
have too much paper paper money, that it
is too inflated, and won't bring gold that
It's volume must be reduced until it can be
redeemed in gold then, that everything in
the commercial world will move on smooth
ly. But, alas, the people find to their cost
that this tresd-mill operation is becoming
altogether too regular, has too much sys-
ten about it, and its chains cut down too
deep in the living flesh.
But if the want Of redemption of cur
rency in gold is the cause of the premiums,
how does it happen that this same ire
deemable paper may be made to cut the
same premium antics Paper money may
be, and has been instituted without the
agency of gold, which robbed the people
in-premiums Just As effectually as gold does
under a similar gold law-robbing system.
This ia no mere theory, but well establish
ed fact
Venice was once the centre OF the com
merciAl world, and was made 20, by de-
monetizing gold, and monetizing paper.
For FIVE hundred years and over the Bank
of Venice bore premium of twenty per
cent. on specie. At one time this premium
reached forty per cent. But the Venetian
Government abated somewhat the pre-
MUM nuisance, by providing for payment
in specie, instead of paper money, if the
premium asked on paper exceeded twenty
per cent This sslutsry act held bank pa
per at a premium of twenty per cent, not
varying one, two or three per cent from
that amount for period Of over two hun
bred years
Let the gold-coinage, legal-tender sys-
tenn, with its gold, interest, and gold prin-
cipal paying bonds, cease. Let the watersd
railroad stocks, and Newfoundland State bonds,
be reduced to their actual amount and vol
ume. This done, and the people may be
assured that Wall street will not be able
longer to hold up their premiums on gold.
We shall hear no more of Black Fridays,
nor of the learned discussions about the
influence upon the market which the de-
probation of some five hundred millions of
paper money has in deranging prices Of the
peoples products. The people would soon
learn, In the use Of an honest government
money, that when the Government collects
over three hundred, and the rAilroads over
five hundred million dollars annually, that
five hundred million dollars of currency,
or tina. scanty portion Of it which gets into
circulation among the people, and which
represents, or should represent thirty bill
lions Of property, cannot be very badly in
hated.
In conclusion, then, it is affirmed, without
fear of successful contradiction, that there is
an imitation in the price Of gold and Of all
commodities, by means of land and State
system that the reason why gold is now
the commodity in the commercial centres,
with which to settle balances in the foreign
trade is, that the gold and its demand at
the commercial centres is, by its aggrega-
ton there at the expense of the people by
taxation, and that it is held at a higher
rate and at stesdier prices throughout the
world by similar government action.
2. That the low price of the pro
ducts Of labor in the country, and
the high prices in the city is the
result of a double interest paper
money, and of wstered stocks of railroads,
express, telegraph, warehouse, elevator,
stock yard, and other commercial and cor
p0rAte mOnopolies, aided by the gold bond
robbery, before explained. This corporate
monopoly has representative capital of
over four billions Of dollars, not represent
ing one billion of bonside capital invested.
These instrumentahties, to pay interest on
that bogus capital, raise the price of
freights, storage, commission and discounts
50 high that the bulky products Of the
farmer cannot be exported. The cost of
transportation, alone, without any other
agency, excludes them from the markets of
the world. And it il to this rotten sys-
en- OF government and of fin ance that the