The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-15
tho good people Of Lancashire have recently
told us resulted from her single gold stand

the good people Of Lancashire have recently
told us resulted from her single gold stAnd.
ard.
This grand state OF Montana was 1 mar,
OF the Louisiana purchase. Was there
secret clause In that treaty that all that
grand domain added to our republic hy tie
sagacity Of the gront Jefferson, should 30
ever dominated by the financial policy 0f
the sterile and thrifty east2 And w va ses
1t has followed from tho foundation 81 tho
governments. We need another jefferson
to formulate another declaration Of frss-
dom from the biighting influences OF tho
gold bugs. to restore the dignity and yalua
OF American labor and the American dollar.
| the money OF the constitution, under which
the country prospered for eighty years.
Yet we have clackers OF Wall street. and
some honest fossils, who never have been
west OF the Mississippi except in palace
car. who arc prophesying danger to the
nation II the poor mans money liz REIN
stated. They want only a gold standard
that capital may wiring from labor thirty
per cent Of its earnings. First British greed
procured the law Of 1869 to be passed 20 nav
the government obligations in gold alone;
silver was TO remain commodity. . msrs
subject OF barter and exchange. Next tho
law OF 1873 was surreptitiousy passed by
British gold that the tale Of brick should hs
furnished without straw, which at once
dwarfed and paralyzed ths industries OF tho
entire producing class Of the country.
bureau of literature Was established and
every banker furnished FREQ with the 90
cult researches OF these plotters Of the
science of finance, and the great metfopol.
itan dailies wore set in accord to sing ths
song Of national progress as only to bs
made by aping England and Germany.
Nineteen years Of such teaching has well
nigh Frustrated the nation. The little
grain Of mustard seed sown by Ernest Sysd
has grown to be a tree in which the fowls OF
finance tvultures should say rest secure.
ly in its branches, with teeth like saws, ia
deyour the substance of the poor"
The ignorant were told it was the ONLY
road to commercial greatness; tho politician
was taught it would hasten specie payment
Good LORD! What paradox to hasten
specie gay yment by destroying one-half Of
the specie, by a robbery unparalleled in the
history of crime, while class with cunning
, devices and far-seenR ssCacity was uphold
ing the law because it would place the pollt-
lcal power in the hands of the few and en-
able that class TO dominate the nation, to
render it possible for a Philadelphia tailor
and secure one Of the highest places ia the
, government History is full Of such az
amplea; the traffic for place and power has
struck the knell Of freedom in every nation
where riches have been concentrated into
the hands of the few. Travel back only 4
century to the French revolution and thas
bloody drama should prove warning to
class legislation. The cormornnt, and
, shoddyites. who had grown rich off the i'll
! gotten gains of the war of the rebellion,
Joined hands with the politician to infiict
that great wrong on u free people.
Senator sherman, who, I believe, wus
free from foul contact with the actual
touch of corruption, saw with that
prophetic ken and deep political saRacity,
which, so eminently characterized him.
he expected to reap the benefit and would
} have done 80 ut Chicago in 1880, but like
Actean he was devoured by his own pack.
and who OF his admirers has not Witnessed
bis lmpotent efforts in the late senatorial
debate. to explain and ward OF auspicion7
But the ghost will not down. and he writhes
under 1t like Luoifer in his stygiRn prison.
We were told by gold senators and tho
great eastern journals that the Bland bill
Of 1873, which added two millions per
month. would soon drive the last dollar OF
gold out OF the country; they proved false
prophets like those OF olden times, for IL
has increased more than ten times in
amount.
That act saved the country from univer-
sal bankruptcy, and had it been free coin
age bill we would now be enjoying season
OF universal prosperity. unexampled in the
history OF this country. Thousands Of in
dustrles would spring up all over tho land,
and the mountain tops of Montana and
Idaho would echo to thousands Of blasts
from whistle of mills and smelters, where
now 1T is gloom and silence; hope and
plenty would dwell around hundreds Of
! camps now deserted, while their former
occupants are tramping over your noun
tains plnched with want and hunger.
Gold is not reliable enough to be the cur
renoy of great nation of free democrats.
It is the most cowardly of all METALS In
times of peril anu panic, it is an
instrument Of ruin. the agent
Of disaster. 1t is treacheaous and cow
ardly; breaks all treaties and betrayS all
! fria tv,< h r&r lo,~ ~ h.AA
of Bull Run. which was supposed to have
been southern victory, golden eagle
could hardly have been found west Of Wall
street without . search warrant, and that
very gold boarded in tho vaults Of New
York was more dangerous to the Union
armies than the shot aud she'll of Lee's
valiant legions. It was the enemy Of pub
lie credit: it paid neither soldier nor sailor.
It was worshiped az the golden calf in the
temple of Mammon and grew greater at
each defeat of the loyal forces. II was the
ally of the blockade runner and the French
invasion of Mexico. But AZ soon as Appo-
mattox hoisted the flag Of peace IL stag
gered to the front and claimed credit Tor
loyalty.
Banks from my own state sent their gold
to Canada in bulk with instructions to loan
it on British securities alone, and generally
during our four years of civil strife ID was
an enemy to the armies in the field and tho
councils of the cabinet. Itis not the money
to relv upon TO meet great crisis. Look
at the French indemnity fund--a billion
furnished in n few weeks in silver BY the
rural population of France. Ii enabled
that nation to pay in gold and ii at once
returned to the banks OF Paris Just be-
cause gold has not the courage to stand
alone. In 1850 when California was pour
ing its golden showers across the paths Of
commerce to the uttermost parts OF the
earth, Kothchiids proposed to the German
Dist to demonet'ze 1t and have silver an
the standard. His acute aagacity saw then
its unreliability for tho wants Of q grsas
commercial nation, and perhaps little
sefshnesa. AZ he we'll knew in times Of
panic it's influence on great credits like
| that Of his house. Silver was money in
| Egypt at the dawn OF civilization; il was
money i'll G. 'eece in the Homerio age, while
i'll each of those periods gold was used
| only for ornamentation. Abraham used
shekeis of silver to buy the grave for his
wife 1,GOO years before the Christian ora.
while tho first gold coin was cast only In
| the reign OF Phillip of Maoedon, go years
before Christ. have seen the three dollar
gold pieces. bearing the head of Alexander
| the Great. found even to the present day by
the fishermen on the shores of Tyre, and
these are among the Oldest golden coins
ever known to mankind, not ns old by
Thousand years as the white metal uasd by
| the pAtriarchs.
Ia it possible to have too much money IL
it ia in metal that cannot deteriorato2 Bnt
then some snob of Il bank clerk that looks