The Delta independent., 1893-11-15
A CONTRAST.

A CONTRAST.
Prosperous But II Impovsrishes the West
and south.
Among other good things said by
Hon. Lafe Pence, Of Colorado. during
the debate in the house on the silver
question, we extract the following:
"Let me ask Of the gentlemen from
the New England states, while 1t is to
your plain advantage TO increase the
value of the dollar. while it is to your
advantage TO make it SO that it will
take more of wheat and more OF corn
and more OF the products OF every kind
of the broad acres of the west with
which to buy it, whether that product
Is purchased or taken in the payment
OF a debt Can you afford rs Ameri-
cans, can you afford as the fathers OF
the boys and girls who went into our
country and there raised the flag and
extended the wealth and the territory
over which it waves-can you, because
OF the pitiful percentage of advantage
you will get, vote for q policy which
gives the bulk and the majority of the
increase Of credit to those who have no
citizenship or interest in this land?
at is true, as we look upon it in the
west, that Boston will get its share of
the benefit Of sustaining the law which
the president seeks 1t is true that
New York will also; but after all, Lon
don, England, will have four-ffths OF
it Can you. representatives from the
New England states, afford as patriots,
as Americans, for the pitiful share of
advantage you will secure, join in the
demand OF England for the legislation
that is here proposed?
.'Why do suggest this? Mr. Speak
er, only q year or two ago we in the
east, the proclamation Of the 'Plumed
knight who was then upon his visit
in France, believe, and we remember
that the cable carried to us and TO you
the account of the vast increase of the
wealth of this land, and we joined and
shared in the pride and satisfaction that
came to us when that eminent leader of
his party pointed out that We not only
twice more, but five times more than
any other nation upon the face of the
globe, had increased our wealth from
1850 to 1890; and 50 we had
I'VE found an aggregate wealth Of
sixty billions TO sixty millions of peo-
pie; and . simple arithmetical calcula-
ton gave us the average for every man,
woman and child in arms in the coun-
try at q, 600. l do not know what the
facts were in Massachusetts, The
average there may have been all right
but in Iowa, Colorado. and some other
states, the average was not found to
turn ont exactly right The aggregate
was all right, but further study was
had and the same census, upon which
our pride in the west had been founded,
the same sworn returns, reports and
statistics, which had filed us with
satisfaction and joy. pointed out to us
that within that decade the increase in
wealth Of Massachusetts alone had
been ssoo. .oo0, 900.
''Fivc hundred and sixty-nine mil
lions! II that were true, what must
be the increS Sc Of wealth in the broad,
rich acres Of Illinois and OF Indiana?
Well. the same statistics brought us to
q realization of the fact that Nebraska,
and Iowa, and Illinois, and Indiana,
and Louisiana and Mississippi, and
Alabama and Georgia, and North Caro-
lima, nine empires OF rich acres, teem-
ing with Industrious men and women,
containing fifty-eight times as many
acres rs Massachusetts,, fourteen times
ms many people to start with in 1880,
and twice as much assessed value, the
census, say, brought us to q realiza-
ton of the fact that the whole nine of
these great empire states had gained
in wealth in the same period but $751;
900, 600 Massachusetts, alone had
gained ten millions more than the en-
tire nine!
"These are the facts and figures, gen
tleincn. Of the house of representatives,
which have been studied in the humble
cottages and homes of the western
plains and hills These are the condi-
tions which the people there will no
longer hesitate to rebuke."