The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1892-04-07
WHAT IT MEANS.

Sam Clark, In his Gate city, discusses
the silver fraud in his clear and able
manner-so able that all should care
fully read it. We gladly give it entire:
"lf the Bland bill which the demo-
Gratis in Congress, or rather the major
ity of them, are so strenuously trying
to pass would become a law, 1t would
be the most disastrous financial policy
ever inflicted upon the people. The
value Of the silver in a Bland dollar
during the last week has been 81 .96
cents. Now what does that meanp 1t
means that under that law working.
man instead of getting a dollar for
each dollar for which he works for
would get sixty-ssven aud fraction
cents. 32.14 cents would be taken
from him and given to the silver mine
jobbers to pay them because silver is
not worth what it once was. The val
ue of a pension now $12 month
would then be SS.14; the difference
would be taken from the pensiOner
and given to the rich silver jobbers.
The working man or woman, the school
teacher, the clerk, or anybody who is
now getting $40 month, would under
the Bland bill get q IA a month. They
being robbed of the difference to pay
the balance of the $40 as a bonus to
the silver jobbers to make up for them,
because silver is not as high as they
want it to be. People in KeOkuk and
everywhere have been getting twenty
pounds of sugar for a dollar; they
would take the Bland dollar to the gro-
Ger and get but little over thirteen
pounds Of sugar for their dollar, and
in this proportion as to everything. 1t
is amazing that any party or any peo-
pie would be for an hour willing TO
swindle the sixty-five million Ameri-
can people for the benefit of the silver
jobbers gin this way. 1t is the most
iniquitous legislation ever seriously
proposed.
ANY person can easily see how this
swindle works if he would apply it to
other matters. There is shoe factory
in Keokuk; suppose all the people of
Keokuk were made by law to buy all
the products of that factory whether
the people want the shoes or not and
at thirty-three per cent more than the
shoes are worth. Everybody could see
for themselves whether that would be
profitable for the people of Keokuk or
nOtl And yet it is precisely the equiv
alent of the Bland silver policy. There
is a cracker factory in Keokuk. Sup.
pose the people of Keokuk were made
by law to buy ali the products Of that
factory at thirty-three per cent more
than the crackers were worth, whether
they wanted the crackers or not; that
would be a swindle upon the people
that they could calculate for them
selves; but it is the precise equivalent
of the Bland silver policy. There is
stove factory in KeOkuk. Suppose
each family in Keokuk was made to
buy a new cooking stove each month
at thirty three per cent more than it is
worth, without having any need for
the new cooking stove. Everybody
could see what a swindle upon the
people of Keokuk that would be, yet it
is precisely what Bland and the demo-
Gratis are trying to do as to silver. The
silver mine owners are trying under
the Bland bill to get this sort of force
sale for silver at thirty-three per cent
more than it is worth. Yet in fact it
would be really more profitable to the
people to buy boots and crackers and
stoves and every other product of the
shop and farm beyond their needs and
for thirty-three per cent more than
they are worth than to buy silver at
this rate. Because silver is noe as
valuable as shoes and crackers and cook
stoves and the other products of the
farm and factory and cannot be used
for so useful purposes"