The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-02-11

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of our legislators and statesmen t.
employ wisely, but ever indepen.
IDENTIFY, for the advancement OF oul
} country, and the elevation of oul
countrymen, and not for the bene
fit of a class, or subject to the will
of any other power.
| We, of all other nations, have nc
need of monetary conferences be.
sides it is exceedingly undigni6ed
in us to ask our creditors or any
one else, whether, or in what man.
ner we shall coin our silver. They
purchased our bonds when they
were payable in silver, knowing the
fact, and it is unfair and unjust to
our producers to now require them
to be paid in gold, which we must
purchase OF those same creditors
at the prices they may affix.
That the prosperity of a nation
ebbs and flows, with the ebb and
flow of its money of circulation, is
a fact 80 we'll settled that no man
of average information on the sub
ject any longer disputes. Given
an increased volume of money, and
new enterprises spring up. greater
numbers of people are employed,
prosperity becomes constantly
more and more general. With a
full and adequate circulation. en-
terprises and improvements -four
ish on all sides; all are employed !;
discomfort is unknown; prosperity
is universal and crime has almost
wholly disappeared. Withdraw
that circulation and the effect is
like reversing the engine of flying
locomotive. First there is inhar-
mony. The wheels are revolving
in one direction while the train is
moving in another. Business fail
ures and bankruptcies begin to
multiply. Enterprises and i'm
provementst languish and die. The
people are thrown out of employ
ment. Dissatisfaction, distrust of
each other, and of the government,
disrespect of the law, want, riot and
crime result. How necessary, then,
that governments should provide
their people with currency equal
to their business requirements, how
sacredly they should guard against
its control falling into the hands of
private individuals, your sense of
justice and your knowledge of
mans selfishness, and his prone
ness to use the powers given him to
benefit himself, regardless of the
injury his acts may inlict upon
his fellows, will apprise you.
We have done our duty when we
have paid our creditors according
to our original contract. Give them
the pound Of flesh. It is theirs by
right of bond, but they never were
and are not now entitled to demand
the slightest change in the terms of
that bond. Nothing in our original
contract entities them to demand
the payment of their claim in gold,
nor did they or anyone else misun-
derstand the nature of the contract
when it was entered into. Taking
advantage of the exigencies pro-
duced by dreadful civil war, they
drove the hardest bargain they
could, and its payment in gold was
an after-thought of the creditor,
who succeeded in ''ways that we're
dark" in fastening it upon the
country. Shall we, then, appeal to
your honorable body to right this
grevious wrong, and our appeals
pass by unheard and unheeded?
Are we, who have devoted our labor
and our lives to the subjugation of
our country's frontier, and have ex-
tended its civilization from the
Missouri river to the Pacific ocean,
who have fought its battles, con-
quered its savage foes, explored its
mountains, navigated it's rivers, re-
claimed and titled its valleys and
plains, and emptied hundreds Of
millions Of its gold and silver into
the channels of our country's COM
merce, of less consequence to our
than our alien credi-
tors and their handful of native CO.
adjutors at home and shall our ap-}
peal emphasized and strengthened
as it is by right, patriotism, inde-
pendence and justice, be made in
vain?