People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-08-18
WILLTHEY STAND IT?
A LETTER FROM A PROMINENT
BUSINESS MAN OF THE
SOUTH WHO KNOWS HOW
1T is BY EXPERIENCE.
UNLESS RELIEF COMES THERE Is
NOTHING But SRRFDOM LEFT
FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE
SOUTH AND WEST.
Farms Sold Under Mortgage for Twenty
TO Twenty-Five Cents on the Dollar.

We have frequently called attention
to the desperate condition of the farm
ers of the west and northwest who
have their farms mortgaged and are
unable, in many instances, to even pay
the interest. Although there is not,
perhaps, as large per cent of south
ern farms mortgaged, the condition of
the southern people, otherwise, is no
better, if indeed as good, as that Of the
western farmer. Here, for years, cot
ton has been king, and no more eth
less a tyrant ever ruled a poverty
cursed people. While cotton is king,
it is only SO in name. There is power
behind the throne that is greater than
the throne itself. The horde of land
lords, merchants and spectators be-
hind, who fatten at the table of king
cotton, are d lily applying the whip,
lashing the people along the road to
poverty. In the meantime, through
the willy manipulations Of English cap
italists, who have either bribed or
duped our great (?) American states
men to assist them, the price of cotton
has been reduced even below the ac-
tual cost of production. The manner
in which this has been done is so plain
and simple that the only wonder is
that it is not evident to all, even "the
wayfaring man, though a fool" 1t
is simple problem in mathematics.
An ounce of silver, coined, makes
just two and one-half rupees of India
money.
Two and one-half rupees buys ten
pounds of cotton in India and puts it
in the Liverpool market, which gov
ems the price of cotton throughout
the world.
In other words, the English mer-
chant, with an ounce of silver, which
he gets coined into India money free
OF charge, can buy and put in the
market of the world against all other
competition ten pounds Of cotton.
Then it follows that the ten pounds
Of cotton will cost the English mer-
chant just what an ounce of silver
will cost him. II he wants to buy
cheap cotton all he has to do is to buy
cheap silver At the present price of
silver, 10 cents per ounce, he can put
ten pounds of cotton in the market
for : and cloths cents per pound.
When we had free silver an ounce OF
silver was worth about Sl.3O. 1t then
cost 81. 30 to put ten pounds of cotton
in the market, or 10 cents a pound.
This was the price our American
cotton had to compete With then.
About cents per pound is what it
has to compete with now under
the low price of silver. America pro-
duces the bulk Of the worlds silver.
BY coiningit into silver dollars, free
10 the owners of bullion, she can fix
the price uniformly at q fraction less
than Sl.3O an ounce. BY yielding to
the dictation of England she can re-
duce the price to 60 cents an ounce.
Cheap silver for England means cheap
cotton for America. The same reason
ing holds good with wheat Ii is this
infamous treachery on the part of
American statesmen (?) that has
brought the south to the verge OF
bankruptcy and despair. A recent
letter, from a prominent business man
in the south to Major A. J. Warner,
president of tie American B metallic