The Progress., 1893-09-16

the best security; they circulated false
petitions. passed absurd and alarm
ing resolutions, predicted the direst dis
aster attacked the credit of the gov
ernment, sought to exaGt a premi-
um upon currency ana attempt
ed in every way to spread dis
trust broadcast throughout the land.
The best financial system in the world
could not stand such an organized and
vicious attack upon it. These disturbers
these promoters of the public peril
represent largely the creditOe class. the
men who desire to appreciate the gold
dollar in order to subserve their own
selfish interests, men who revel in hard
times, men who drivefharsh bargains
with their fellow men in periods of finan-
cial distress and men wholly unfamiliar
with the true principles of monetary
science"
Can any sane man believe that the
senior senator from New York. convers-
SAINT with the daily transactions of our
great money center, was just talking to
hear himself talk when he penned that
paragraph? Whatever his motive, he
certainly did not bid for popularity in
that statement. An astute politician
would hardly be guilty of telling an un-
popular lie for the fun of it.
THE REIGNING PLUTOCRACY.
The man who for the past year has
studied with any degree of care the
sources of public opinion, real and man
ufactured, is driven to the same conclu-
sion.
The present panic could have been pro
duced by but one power-the reigning
plutOcracy of the world 1t was inter
national in its movements. 1t amounts
to conspiracy against humanity.
1t is useless of us to make observations
from the end of our nose and ignore this
tremendous primal fact. If ignored, our
conclusions must be all in error. Jules
Verne tells us in one of his stories of
party accompanying a noted astronomer
to spot near the north pole to take
observations on certain heavenly bodies
They found the location defined by lati-
tude and longitude All went well for
a time, but at length the astronomer
discovered that there was something
radically wrong. He found that the To-
cation had been ignorantly made upon
an immense field of stealthily moving
ice and not on the continent. To make
observations on the present status and
ignore its primal causes is simply to take
your reckoning from a shifting base and
ignore the continent.
THE PURPOSE OF THE CONSPIRACY.
Second-Such a conspiracy further
manifests itself in the purposes sought
by the present agitation.
1t has been apparent from the begin
ming of the present movement of ruin in
financial centers that the purpose of the
agitators was to decrease the stock of the
worlds money and increase the premium
exacted for its use.
To this end they have determined first
to demonetize silver and make gold, the
scarcer metal, the only standard money
After months of successful manipula-
tion of the ruling powers of public opin-
ion and government they succeeded in
closing the mints of India to silver
Their next movement was against the
money of America. They demanded the
repeal of the silver purchase clause Of
our present law. And they demanded
its unconditional repeal-that is, that
gold should for the time be only recog-
nized as fully money. They forced the
president of the United States to call
congress together and recommend this
By all means let it be done. The law
gta 10 fa.1, Il
satisfies no one.
Repeal it at once for a more important
reason. 1t is the price Shylock demands.
You have no choice. lie has you on the
hip. You must. He will make his bill
ions in the transaction, manipulating his
gold. and business will then resume its
normal sway.
Let this be done at once that Shylock
may lie satisfied for the moment, and
we may breathe easier for brief season
But let the masses of the nation under
stand it clearly To establish a gold
standard for money is to deliver the ma
ton. bound hand and foot. to the money
hucksters. Gold is the easiest commod.
ity to cover. 1t has never served the
needs of a great people and never will
1t is the money of the rich man. 1t is
the enemy of the poor. It always has
been So 1t always will be so. Better
demonetize gold than silver. There is
really no intrinsic value to either.
MoNOMETALLIsM A CRIME.
The masses of the people will never be
emancipated from the dominion of Shy
lock until both gold and silver are de-
monetized and relegated to the arts and
sciences, where they belong in a condi-
ton of true civilization. Both gold and
silver are utterly inadequate to the needs
of commerce today as a mechanism OF
exchange. The worlds commerce has
long ago outgrown their combined ca.
pacity. and more than 90 per cent of the
transactions of the present commercial
world are consummated with paper not
recognized as currency.
R,,n l1;oy, 10 ,xftarlxy ,pa1ar-ata