The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-07
AN IRREPREssIBLE CONFLICT,

There is an irrepressible conflict be-
tween the people and a monied pluto
crazy that seeks to control the labor OF
the country by controlling wages, and
to control wages by controlling money.
Mr.. Sherman, in the ''Forum'' fol
November, 1889, stated-and the state
ment has never been contradicted-that
$1,000 heads of families in the United
States own one-half the wealth there.
of; and very significantly added: if the
present status of taxation and manipu-
lation of Incorporated, concentrated and
protected capital continues, in thirty
years u less number than that will own
all of it,
What relation does the demonetiza-
ton of silver bear to this rapid transfer
of wealth from the many to the fewP
How does it aid the plutocrats in
forwarding their schemes to plumber
the people and despoil them of their
ownP Read and see.
The total amount of farm and other
mortgages is unknown, but q recent
official report gives the farm mortgages
in eleven leading western states ut 49,
341, 900 900! The interest on this at
8 per cent. is S267, 280, 900 per year,
nearly one-third the assessed valuation
of Missouri. In ten years, if the mort
cages shall be permitted to run so long,
these mortgaged farms will have paid
an interest debt of so, 672, SOC, 900.
By forcing silver out of circulation,
the money barons expect to increase
the purchasing power of the gold dollar,
and they know it will have that effect.
When this is done, down goes the price
of all the products of these mortgaged
farms, and up goes the price of the
money he needs to pay his interest, or
his notes, if they be due. Money be-
comes scareer and harder to get, and
the debtor finds himself overwhelmed.
His COW, once worth $50, now, owing
to the increase of the purchasing power
of a limited medium of exchange, is
worth only one-half that amount, and
he sells her for S25--but it is only a
drop in the bucket. His horse goes next,
then his other cattle and his farm tools,
III a desperate effort to raise money
enough to save his home from sale.
But his struggle, his sacrifice, are
vain-he sees his home swept from
him-swcpt into the Golfer of some
money baron who has long schemed for
Just such q result.
The experience of n man becomes
that of multitudes. 1t took but twenty
seven years for the money barons of
Great Britain to rob the people of Ire
land and England of all their lands
and il will not take the plutocrats of the
United States as long as that, accord
ing TO Mr.. Shearman,t to accomplish the
same feat here.
1t is to prevent this wholesale spolia-
ton of the masses by the few that the
democratic party must stand true in
the cause of silver coinage.
Plainly enough, ~plutocracy aspires to
put such a limit upon the volume of
money as will leave it entirely subject
to the control of the money magnates.
Limit its issue, limit its circulation,
limit its functions. Then there will be
absolute control of labor by control of
wages through the control of money.
The day when this ome to pass, the
day when the government, controlled
by a monied plutocracy, OF when q
national bank, can place its hand upon
the money volume and check its flow
at will, the cause of human freedom
will have forever set. Put it in the
power OF a bond-holding, interest gath
ering association to say how much
money business requires, and how much
the people shall have-endow it with
the power'of controlling the circulation,
fixing interest and exchange rates to
satisfy Its morbid p%arsimony, and you
sign the death warrant of every princi-
pie the fathers of the revolution bat
tied through seas of blood to perpet-