The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1893-07-15
SWEET ON SILVER.
How the Farmers of This Country
Are Effected by silver.

How the Farmers of This Country
Are Effected by silver.
The following is taken from Congress
man Sweets mastery review of the
silver question, delivered in an address
at Moscow, July 4:
Is there a man within the sound of
my voice who does not know that the
prices of commodities are now reduced
to the cost of production in many of
them, and to less than the cost of pro-
duction in others2 And with the de-
struction of fair prices for commodities
do you not observe that money is not to
be hadl And so from time immemorial
the loss or destruction of money has re-
suited in the ruination of prices the
paralysis of industry and the over
whelming influence and power of the
money concentrated in the hands of the
few.
contend that the decentralization
of silver has been the cause more than
any other, or for that matter, more
than all other causes combined, of the
loss of prices in farm products during
the past twenty years. and for the one
crisis after another that has befallen
humanity in all parts of the world.
In speech which had the honor of
making in the house year ago last
March / presented tables showing the
price of wheat and silver and their re-
lation to each other from 1873 to 1891.
If you need further evidence, observe
that silver has gone still lower, and
that when it reached the astound-
ing figure of so cents, wheat was lower
in the Chicago market than it had been
for 81 years.
In 1856 Sir Robert N. Fowler, NJ p,
a London banker and ex-lord mayor,
said: "The effect of the depreciation of
silver must finally be the ruin of the
wheat and cotton industries of America,
and be the development of India as the
chief wheat and cotton exporter of the
world"
In short, the decentralization of silver
meant multiplication of the worlds
debts by two. 1t meant that creditors
should be forever enthroned and that
all nations must pay tribute at the
throne of moneyed kings.
Wherever men toll to pay their debts,
to produce the products of the SOIL the
comforts of home or ordinary pleasures
of life, this question is paramount. 1t
is not confined to any country or ma
tionality. The farmer in England, Ger
many and America, the workman in
Manchester and Lowell-all are broth
ers, and what effects one effects all.
Without equitable financial laws human
progress and prosperity are impossible.
/ 10 he Hnb Of
ton, Westminster, Berlin, Rome OF
Vienna it is the same-the classes
against the masses. | fully fndorse a
recent statement made by Senator
Teller:
''It is a fight. for commercial and
financial independence, for the prog
ress, prosperity, freedom and happiness
of 90-100 of the race, and in importance
ouershadows and dwarfs all other ques-
tions presented for the consideration Of
mankind"
To show how wildly men seek relief
observe the action of the farmers in
America and England. In the latter
country they appeal to protection, and
in ours they appeal to free trade. They
will find no relief in either country
from tariff legislation of any kind.
/ have said that freedom and intelli-
gence can not exist, to say nothing Of
their growth and expansion, in the alb.
sence of equitabl financial laws | do
ythat the liberty of this people, the
happiness of mankind and the life of
the republic, as a republic, depends
upon reform in our financial and bank
ing laws.
Politics or no politics, declare it is
my opinion that the United States treas
ury must get out and keep out of Wall
and Lombard streets, or the wreckers
who sail, and mine, and railroad, and
raise grain and do everything else in
those streets except study how to
make money by work or legitimate
business will wreck the treasury.
When the members of the convention
were signing the Declaration of indie
pendence, one who held the pen said:
eve must hang together, gentlemen. J"
To which a neighbor promptly re-
sponded: IF we do not wen hang
separately"
In the contest now at hand we must
hang together. We must realize that
wealth can not be honestly garnered
without toll. And while insisting that
men must labor for the harvest which
labor will certainly bring, for some
body, we must insist that the man who
earns it is entitled to it-or at least
a share of it.