The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-27
BRITISH BLUFF, BLUSTER AND
"BACCARAT."

! 10 the boitor OF the Eagle.
The British government is evidently
! threatening to give us game of bluff.
With Blaine ''sick abed' and our treas
ury being drained of gold at the rate OF
| five millions week, with an old con.
gress and administration going
out, and new one coming
in, they think it a good time tc
try the basis of American securities and
if they succeed in raking in all of our
gold, they evidently think it will then be
good time to try to bankrupt cur gov
eminent and perhaps, knock it off its
base, by invading our country from
Canadian waters.
And had they succeeded in getting a
majority of our people pledged against
the naturalization of the silver coin,
they would certainly have had us in
closer quarters than we are, because
we would not have any money with
which we could buy foreign supplies in
the event of war with Britain or any
other foreign nation.
As you state in an editorial in Satur-
day mornings EAGLE, if they continue
to flood our market with American Sc
curities for which they demand pay
ment in gold-as they have a right to do
since the demonstration of silver-it
will not take long to deplete our treas
ury of its gold coin after which gold
will be at premium.
And when gold begins to go up in
price and we have no gold and our bonds
formerly sold in foreign markets still
continue to be pressed for payment,
what is our government going to do
about it. 1t certainly becomes a serious
question, and all the more serious be-
cause Mr. Cleveland has already init
mated that he would decide in favor of
a British gold basis instead of American
silver and the much broader and more
comprehensive American System of
Finance" for which we fought, bled and
suffered in the rebellion.
But, thank God, we have
the American precedent, We licked
the British 'red coats and tories" of
the revolution with a Continental paper
currency which they pronounced not
worth "a continental darn" and bought
our supplies from France and Spain
with the Spanish milled dollar" which
ds-17S3-became the standard
basis of the silver dollar of our "dads,
which the enemies of this Republic de-
monetized in 1873.
1t is hardly worth while to tell your
readers how we whipped the world, the
flesh and the British devil" and the
lion, too, with our national green
back currency and our twelve
hundred millions of currency
bonds. We did it then and
we can do it again, unless we have
more Benedict Arnolds in this country
than we had at that time.
Then if we stand for silver, the silver
basis nations of Europe will stand for us
and make the little island of Great
Britain the battle ground on which the
bible says: And the wine press was
trodden without the city, .and blood
came out of the wine press, even unto
the horses brides by the space of 5000
furlongs." And with the God of bat
ties" for Us. we have nothing to fear
though they MI the Great Lakes and
rivers with British men of war, from
Halifax TO Behring sea. But it will be
well enough to have few iron-clad
monitors, and dynamite and needle
guns to puncture the iron sides of their
reasonable vessels where they have
broken the treaty of 1917.
Respectfully,
j. :. JENNINGS.
Wichita, Kan, Dec. -, 1892.