Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-09-04

tan do Without The concurrence OF the
Senate or the approval of the executive.
Let Us do this and do il at once. and
whatever be the action u ConSress upon
the Sherman silver law, YOU .iii see the IA
ton arise Immediately from rs present
stretched state, be ihs,l-ed with confidence
and courage, ms the CHRISTIANS were o. the
vision of the Monk of Aarsaiiles At Anfioc,
and the people, assured that sbeir enter
psisrs and Industries a,e HOT TO be stricken
low with the bladgeon OF fcve u ade. which
is nos raised menxcingly over their heads,
sui start up their mills and ractofies and
foundsies and furnaces, and workshops OF
every kind. Applause on the Republican
siie.
But yon reply that the Mckinley tariff
law Is still Ii, operation. Yes. but the threat
vi evil is often potent TO cause alarm -
It's actual presence.
When the experienced shipmaster sees the
storm coming he takes In sail. lie would
ne regard a reckless captain who would
Keep all sail ou y hen he sees IL the SKY the
81 TEX cloud which portentis the iavnsoon or
the tempest.
Nolire was served on tile country last
November by the election Of a Denioerane
President and Congress that the Mckinley
law was to be II pealed or ~ amended AS 10
axe all the protection out of II. The eoun-
Try has taken notice, and mea of all pur-
suits have been preparing for the
disaster which they saw awaiting
them. When each one contracts
mis- business, withtiraws his money from
circulation, reduces his expenditures 10 the
cost of The bare necessities OF iife, III o.
Has,
shy then the storm begins. The contra. :
ton Of business and consumption b. gan 10
contract the circulation of the currency be-
fore the dearth of currency began To en-
barrass business. There is quite as much
| money and AS much to do in the country rs
there ever has been. The land is iull of
resources and wealth; our people are need
lessly forced into idleness, and men and
women are pinched for the necessities of
life in the midst of abundance, and threat
ened bad legislation is the sole cause for It,
Our free coinage Democrats are bewaii-
ing the fall of prices. They assert that
gold has appreciated, because it will buy
| more than heretofore of the worlds pro-
ducts.
They seem to have put new song into
their mouths since the last national cam
paign. Then they were all arguing for
cheapness. Cheap wool, cheap tin, cheap
lumber, cheap iron, cheap farm PRODUCTS
cheap everything except sugar, rice, and
cotton, was their evening and morning slo-
gan; and when we warned them that all
this meant cheap labor, they did not Lessen
| the volume of their song nor slacken their
efforts to bring about an era Of cheapness
in our country. Hha
To get directly at the cheap products Of
the pauperized laborers Of Europe and
Asia was the goal of their exertions and
desires.
The result of their success in this respect
| is before the world. The thousands of the
| starving and hopeless feel it and know what
| it 10. And now the free silver wing of the
Democracy say il has been the appreciation
of gold which has caused this cheapness
which they dsplore.
Vas not labor as high in price the day be-
| fore the last national election as it ever had
been? Was there ever atime when the wage
eArners could get more money or more OF
the necessities and comforts of life for their
labor than Immediately before the sth day
of last November?
The sound money wing of the Democratic
party assert with equal positiveness that the
purchasing clause of the Sherman Law has
been the source of all the mischief from
which our people are suffering; and yet both
the silver and the anti-silyer wings OF the
Democracy know, or certainly ought to
know, that neither of them give the true
cause of our great distress.
Has it been the Sherman law or the prop
osition to repeal it that has caused the fall
ia the price of wool, or lumber. or farm
products or the earnings of labor.
Our free silver Democratic friends ear
nestly and emphatically declare that the
Sherman law has not caused the great de-
preston of our industries, and yet they,
equally with the sound money Democrats,
are very careful not to give the true cause
of it.
Certainly it has u cause. Results never
| come without causes.
Why do they fear to proclaim the truth!
viii it jure their party? And IL thelf
partisan fealty so much stronger than their
desire to relieve their suffering csmntrymen
| that they will spend their time endeavoring
| to make scapegoat of the Sherman silver
law, while the condition of the people is
every day going from bad to worse. and
the brink Of irrecoverable disaster seems to
| tie only n short way before US:
Some of them say that the great panic
came about naturally. There is no such
| thing as panic without a specific cause
| and there never has been one in this couE-
try
The panic of 1878 was but the reaction
from indulgence even to intoxication in an
inflated currency following a great war
The panic of 1857 was the elimination Of
the result of the low tariff Of 1916, for 40
many years delayed and held in allegiance
by the gold discovery in California End the
wars in Europe.
The panic of 1887 was the short, T I we
pinchng pain which followed a vii, are
bauch in crazy speculation. The cad en-
A. E..,a.s ,rJ aImost upt vcraul Hi | sun