The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-04-04
"THE MAN OF STRAW"

1t is wonderful to see how good some
people are between campaigns. 1t re
minds u.s. of "campmeeting christians. "
They go to a campmeeting and you
would think they had wings at least a
foot long before the meeting is over.
But just wait and you will often learn
that it was horns instead Of wings.
A few days ago the leading editorial
in the Wilmington Star started out as
follows:
There are people in this world who
spend more of their time in knocking
down men of straw that they put up
themselves. When we hear statesmen
talking about the evils of Imitation"
Of the currency, ~depreciating the pur
chasing power of money &c, we think
Of the man knocking the stuffing out
of his man of straw. This imitation
talk is all aimed at the free coinage
of silver, for there is no talk of ''infa-
ting" the currency in any other way.
If there was free coinage to day there
would be no danger of initiation, for
only a portion of the product of u
mines would be coined, other countries
CL4N BA4O "a 70 ANNtAAAS " "NAS
portion of it,"
Then it divides these c~ontenders into
three classes, as follows:
Those who have the bulk of the
money of the country and work to re.
tain control Of it ; the second of those
who believe that the Government
should make money and turn it loose
so that every man could get as much
as he wanted at a rate of interest that
would make the occupation of the in
dlvldual or corporate mOney-lender a
thing Of the past, and the third of
these who believe that money is made
for use but not abuse, that it should
be worth earning, and abundant
enough to put it within reach OF the
man who was willing to exchange his
labor for it, in other words that it's
volumes should be controlled neither
by a handful Of p~lutocrats nor by the
clamorOus mob.
Next it says it is claimed that there
is $24 per capita in circulation, but
half of this locked up in eastern banks,
etc. Again the Star says:
For thirty years the men who now
control the volume of money in this
country have controlled it and dictated
the financial policies, and there never
was a proposition made the purpose of
which was to make money more plen
tiful that they didn't object to as tend
ing to Initiation" and a disturbance
of money values. They predicted dis
aSter when the move was made to re-
monetize silver and although the vol
ume of the currency has since been
Initiated" to the extent of several
hundreds of millions Of dollars one
American dollar is as good as another
today, and there is no visible evidence
that the country or anybody has been
hurt by IT,"
How is all Of the above for calamity
howling2 This has been the arguments
of The PROGRESSIVE FARMER all its life.
Why has the Star stood on the other
side If that was it's views? Why didn't
II express these views during the re
cent campaign? This doctrine is con-
trary to the Chicago platform, con-
Crary to the views of Cleveland and his
sCa1t. In fact, he has strictly forbid
den his followers to entertain such
How is it that the Star is DISC
oeylng the boss9 If Gar Cleveland
don't grind his axe and begin to behead
mutineers he will have more than he
can attend to.