Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1892-08-26
Not A New Dollar.

NJ
Those who deride silver as money
metal are free to indulge in feeble at
tempts at sarcasm by inquiring why we
do not advocate the use Of tin and brass
money. They pretend that the idea Of
using silver as money is a new invention
Of people engaged in silver mining.
They ignore the fact that the standard
silver dollar of the United States which,
with much satisfaction they stigmatize
as 81 cent dollar, requires a gold dollar
to obtain. They try to ignore the fact
that we are advocating the dollar Of our
daddies," and that the opposers of silver
are only advocating a scarce money, no
matter what it be made of. They want
few dollars, cheap products, cheap
wages, cheap men, while the peoples
party is advocating an abundant supply
of money, higher products, higher wages
and a higher standard of manhood. We
propose to continue the system of money
regarding gold and silver, the same as
adopted and advocated by our forefath-
ers, while the old parties want to strike
down silver and adopt the systems of
finance that are desired by Wall street
and London. The great injustice done
our people by the act which demonetized
silver will probably never be known, but
enough is known to bury any anti-silver
party out of sight so deep it will never
rise again.
The farmers of the northwest, who, in
1878, owed $1,000, could have paid it
with 873 bushels of wheat; today it
would require 1906 bushels of wheat to
iiquidate the debt. The laborer of the
northwest who in 1878 owed $500 on his
home could have paid it with 200 days
labor, while at the present low wages
brought about by a scarcity of money
and railroad robbery, it would require
1888 days labor, and added to that he can
not be sure of more than three or four
days work each week, while previous to
the demonetization Of silver such thing
as idle men was not known in America.
The property of this country is fast
passing into the hands of the creditor
class, and if the inlquitous system ..of
finance, the damnable system of corrup-
tion by railroad owners, the alien system
of landlords, is not remedied, the condi-
tion Of the American people will soon be
as low as that of the European peasants.
Farmers will be peasants, wage workers
will be tenants and will be begging for
work, our children cannot be educated,
our children's children will be born
slaves. our condition will be reduced at
the point of bayonets, backed by the
gigantic money power of the world,
whose force is so tremendous that it can
not be successfully resisted by any
nation on the globe unless by the Ameri-
can people.
The brigandage of the middle ages was
criminal and in defiance of law. The
brigand took his life in his hands. He
knew that his calling was unlawful, and
although ruthless IN his work, the
method by which, he exacted ransom of
his occasional victim was less destructive
to the prosperity of the community than
the legalized brigandage of today, by
which, through vicious system of
government, the great mass of the people
are dlspoiled and robbed of their prop
erty. The demands of the brigand were
enforced with guns and pistols; those of
the creditor are enforced with bonds and
exactions cruel and un-
just-one by violence the other by law.
These wrongs are wrong, whether in the
name of unjust laws or not, and they
must be righted. Public.
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