Wichita eagle., 1890-03-13
COIN BASIS.
Unlimited Acquisition Of Property In
Lard

| To the Editor OF the Eagle.
It is quite amusing to listen to the
| numberless causes that are assigned as
| bringing about the ever recurring depres-
| sions in agriculture, in manufacture and
commerce that this glorious country of
ours is periodically subject to. and the
various quack remedies that are offered
-gratuitously. on every hand as pana-
ceas for all the ills that suffering society
! is tangled up in. On one hand we are
confronted with bewildering.. array of
nusty statistics to convince Us that the
real cause of our poverty is because we
are producing too much wealth TO the
individual, and we can't meet our obi
| cations. because we have too much to
sell. Another tells us that we are not
producing enough that our Salvation
| depends upon pouring into our state a
| tide of migratIon-somc race Of people
with wooden shoes-to cause these vast
and fertile plains of ours TO smile with
more abundant harvests. Again, we
are told that the only thing that can
| help US is free trade with other
nations; that unless we send
our money to foreign countries
| to purchase our supplies of manufactur-
ed goods, and let our own mines and
mills remain in idleness, we will always
have idle and hungry people and hard
! times and scarcity OF money. And
again-but enough. They are too nu-
merous to mention.
| The fact OF the matter is. there is
! plenty of work to be done on this earth
and plenty of willing hands to do it.
! But under modern customs of progress
| it requires money to make the mare go.
! Too many mistake ''stagnation" for
''ovsrproductiOn.? There has never been.
/ IN any country. an overproductIon OF
! the materials which 90 to furnish the
| necessaries and comforts and luxuries of
mankind. But there never has been an
age when there did not exist al over
production of ignorance and prejudice
| TO use the language of prominent
! Sedgwick county farmer, ''lts an over
production of damphools that ails us.
| The operations of the age-workers NAV
| be suspended or they may be compelled
to labor for SO small q recOmpense as to
debar them from the pleasures of con-
sumption for time, and men may call
| this what they please, but it will require
! the diligent labors of a hundred
generasions Of people. devoting their
entire energies and skill and genius to
digging and ditching, blowing, sowing,
reaping and moving, planting and
plucking, producing and consuming
ornamenting and identifying, building
up monuments, keeping weeds and re-
newing the waste places, before this
world we live in becomes a perfect para
disc and q lit habitation for civilized
man.
But our whole energies must be cir
cumscribed and paralized, and periodi-
cally remain in a state of stagnation.
| The wheels of progress must not turn:
the procession can't move and the great
caravan of trade and industry must
stand still until things are ''manipu-
| lated" and controlled" and "a big
steal in it," to satisfy the gangs of
| natural-born pirates who are allowed to
| to infest society and go unhung.
! We want free trade but not with
| foreign nations. What we want is free
trade with the United States of America.
! But we'll never have it SO long as Cir
culating medium of the country is
| limited to ''coin basis" and the I'M
limited acquisition Of property IN land is
recognized and maintained, which is the
prime causes of the wealth of the Coun-
| try accommodating in the hands Of a few
powerful organizations. giving them full
control over the products OF the
farms, the factory, the forests
and the mines, and enables them
| to establish toll gates across the avenues
| of trade and transportation. and to col
lect tariff from producer and consumer
alike.
| The history of 'coin basis" and the
unlimited acquisition Of property in
| land, is history of crime, of blood, of
raplne, Of devastation and panic. No
one can point to the past and show
where any enduring fabric of national
prosperity was ever erected upon the
+ system. The dawn Of perpetual pros
| perity will be ushered i'll when the
mintage and coinage laws and regula-
tions, which give to gold and silver their
| mysterious and imaginary value and an
undue advantage over all other commO-
/ dities, will have been repealed and the
money OF civilization, of stability and
progress shall have been adopted. Based
upon this broad and productive land,
guaranteed and secured by its tolling
millions and its everlasting resources,
and when the lands shall be owned and
| occupied only by those that the Lord in
| tended should inherit it, and not before.
| Until then let the crusade OF the wreck
| ers proceed. Let the bloody struggle
| for existence rage with all its furious
! din and clamor between the two great
| contendIng forces. The feeble many, on
| the defensive, striving TO hold their own
and the powerful few, forging ahead on
| the aggressive. urged on by the fascinat-
! ing inducement held out tu.them, of I'M
! limited conquest, and striving to acquire
/ the earth
- = Because the good old rule
Suficeth them; the simple plan.
| That they should take, who have the
power,
And they should keep who can"
As long as this condition of injustice is
sanctioned and maintained among men,
our boasied religion and civilization Is
nothing but burlesQue. We set aside
the planest and simplest truths of crea-
ton, that IMAM is endowed by his Creator
with certain inalienable lights, among
(which Is life. liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" 50 that when a man arrives
in this world of 'coin basis and unlim-
tied acquisition of property in land. and
brings along with him his endowment
from his Creator, and boldly asserts that
he has birthright to enough of this
earth to guarantee to him life, liberty,
ETC., we tell him that he is liar: that if
his Creator sent HIM here with any such
independent expectations harboring in
his bosom. there must be some mistake
about 1t: that the earth and the treasures
under the earth. and the beasts OF the