Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1885-05-09

y
more labor than here, but it also
takes more labor to make that dollar
there than here. Beside, if our gov
ernment didn't raise its money by
tariff it would have to levy an inter
nal revenue or direct tax. So in
the end the money would come out
of the peoples pockets, whether
spent for taxes, tariffor internal rev.
enue. Soyou see, Mr.. Seedy, though
our newspapers and political speakers
are prone to break the Walls of their
wrath on the head ofthe unfortunate
tariff. that it is innocent of our hard
times. Then look at the silver
question, with its partisans Tor bl-
metallic and mono metallic currency,
with those who want gold as stand
ard and those who think the present
deprecated silver dollar good enough
for them. They scream themselves
hoarse crying out that the state of
the currency is the cause Of the
hard times, and fill volumes OF the
Congressional record with speeches
claiming to possess an infallible pan
acea for these hard times, as it a
people ever did, ever will, or ever
can Iegislate themselves rich. In
America we have the silver, the
mono-metallic currency, and the cry
of hard times is always on our lips.
Tn ENGLAND France and Germany
there is the gold and silver, or BIZ
metallic currency, and yet their re-
ligious and secular papers are filled
with descriptions of poverty and sut-
fering that fairly make one shudder
to even read of. In England where
there is this bi metallic, this accord
INC to the polictician ideal currency,
their government bonds, or consals,
are five per cent. below par. while
our bonds are from two to twenty
two per cent. above par. SO it can
be no tinkering with the currency Of
the country that is to down this mon
ster of hard times.
rs it then on account OF the short
ness of our crops? Well, let US meet
this question fairly and face to face.
The cotton crop here. it is true, was
last year somewhat short, but that
would only make the times hard here,
while they are in fact hard every
where. In the Western States,
where thelr wheat and corn crop
we're actually so prodigaf in their
Weld as to make it cheaper tor the
| farmer to burn wheat and corn as
fuel than to use wood or coal, the
times are hard as here. Why, IN
Chicago, the grain-queen OF the
world, whose wharves are piled up
with golden wheat and shining corn
till they dazzle the eye like the star
ry skies, with their simmer and
spIendor, on the last national thanks
giving day there came together to
the amount of ten thousand or more,
men, women and children, who rais-
ed the black flag Of hunger, to sym
bolize their condition. While the
granaries and store-rooms were
almost bursting with the staff of life,
these people had not the money to
buy even a loaf of bread. Why is
this Why is this, ask Of our pol
iticians, our business men, and bet
ter classes, whose business it is to
know? And the only answer is,
tariff and silver, when they know
these are not the true cause OF this
want. No, Mr.. Seedy, neither
tariff nor silver nor short crops can
account are guilty Of our poverty
but there is cause that can account
for the hard times and will make
hard times though our soil is fertile
as the valley Of the Nile and laughs
with the Righteousness Of its waving
harvests, though our mines, gluttec
with iron and coal and copper and
gold and silver, yield wealth thai
is greater than Caesars or Solomon
and though "the hundred hands o
labor knock at the golden gates o
the morning and cease not from thell
toiling till the battlements of thC
West flame with the fires of the sun
set. And this cause is drunkenness
is alcoholism England spends on
billion dollars annually on drlnl
and poverty sits brooding on a thous
and hearthstones. France, too
piles her millions on the altar 0
Bacchus and her sons and daughter
daily sell their souls for bread
though like ours her crops are plen
teous and her factories are eve
t busy. We, here in the Unite
States, spend yearly 5000, ,0OO,O 90
r and more on whisky, and then W
wonder that there are hard times
We keep up 100000 saloons, the
; cry unto the Congress that the tarl
( and the currency are crushing Vi
| We support an army Of 56O,OO
5 saloon keepers, bar tenders, distll
r ers on royal salaries, we invest S22l
e 100000 in this business invented b
/ the devil, we make up into this po
J son yearly 18,64,787 bushels
: grain and 2.373,1O6 gallons Of mola
). ses, and get therefrom 75,435, "a
a gallons Of liquid damnation, of COZ
/ centrated death, and so fond Of it al
It we that there are twelve galloi
II yearly consumed to every ma
e woman, child and baby of our mo-
Ie than fifty millions Of people: Hal
le times? No wonder that there a, a
IS hard times. Hard times! M
le Seedy, don't take that drink Y
d were going to take this morning, b