The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-08-29

was a fighting chance to save 1t.
The argument of the m-onometalist
that we are e~ndeavoFing to boost and
enrich a certain class of silver mine
owners at the expense Of the people, is
utterly unworthy of consideration.
Are not the advocates of a gold stand
ard doing even more than thatY Have
not they robbed by stealth, so to speak,
the silver miner of what power he has
lost, and now they are calling on the
government to rob him of the balance
of his wealth and power and influence
and bestOw it upon themselves. For
evidently what we detract from the
power and influence of silver is added
to the power and influence of gold.
which is already clothed with too much
power.
Silver and its representative, the sill
yer certificate, is the only circulating
medium we have among us now. We
never see a gold dollar nor O. gold Ger
tifcate. Gold, and all that represents
gold or calls for or is convertible into
gold, has been stored away in bank
vaults, treasure chests, misers' socks,
ETC., and is not circulating among the
people. Mr.. Preston says there is 50 Oh
per capita of gold in the United States.
This includes the amount in the Treas
ury and the amounts held in national
bank and other reserves. The 1892 re
port of the Director of the MINIS puts
the amount of gold in the Treasury as
follows:
Bullion. 1898 81. 500, $50
Coin. ......... .......... 1876, 662, ASP
Total. .$238, 469, O82
Take this from the amount given as
the total for the country, 1904, OF 900.
and we have outside the Treasury only
1866, $40, 918, or IS As per capita. This
has not materially changed since Jan.
1st. But is this in circulation? See re-
port of the Comptroller of the Cur
rency to Sept. 80, 1892. We find III
national bank reserves, and 10 man
will say this is in circulation, gold
$173 932, 1873. Subtract this from the
total outside the Treasury and we have
LETT only. ...$l9l, 570. 705
This leaves us less than 50 Sc per
capita. And out of this amount all the
State, private and savings banks, ell
the lean and trust Companies and in
surance companies are to get their re.
Serves, d1l Ul6 D1ISSIS SOCkS d1Iu pIlVdGS
treasure chests are to be supplied and
the amount converted into prizes and
medals and other 5 eepsakes to be taken,
then comes what is left to circulate
until it reaches q national bank vault,
and that's the last of it. Look at this
statement. Read il over carefully
again and you will conclude at once
and rightly conclude who has the gold
| and who is or gineering this panic and
this war upon silver, the only money
the Door man, the mechanic, the
farmer, the merchant in the South and
West see al all. Silver is literally
wearing itself out going about among
the people doing good, as the recOining
at the minis proves. The only use
made of gold now as a circulating me
dunn is the paying OF balances between
the New York clearing house and the
| New York sub treasury. We see it
passes out of the sub treasury into the
| clearing house in bags containing So
600 per bag. The clearing house kicked
up a rumpus two weeks ago because
| the government would not furnish
| clerks to count it out for them in
smaller packages.
Where is the South in this money
war? Sept. 80, 1892, the national banks
| Ill Gll6 Gll1EbCSu OOut4lClI OcCSLSS AlC1A
gold and gold certificates, S. 613, 124
in their vaults, locked up in their e
serve, not circulating at all. This is
only % cents per capita, and besides
this we defy n one to find in the
whole thirteen Southern States, outside
of the gold mines, 10 cents per capita
more. We claim that it cannot be found.
Then where would we be with a gold
basis? Comparisons are odious, we
know; but the same report quoted
above shows at the same time gold in
the national bank reserves of the States
north of the Potomac and east of the
Ohio line, $104, 222, $50. Since then we
are officially informed that the banks
in four cities in that territory have
added to their reserve more than 800
OO0, 900 in gold. This gives their nj
tional banks now say 1926, 900, 900.
These States, which contain about the
same population as the thirteen South
ern States, added totheir assessed val
uatiOn between 1880 and 1890, as per
last census reports, an amount larger,
by nearly one hundred million
dollars, than the total assessed val
uation of the thirteen Southern States
in 1880, and have gathered in the gold
of the country, and their bankers. who
hold it, are crying ~piteously for the I'M
conditional repeal of the Sherman law,
and the complete destruction of ali
money except gold. The great insur-
ance companies, and loan and trust
companies and rich money lords who
have their Golfers full Of the corpora,
ton bonds and farm mortgages of the
South and the West are backing them
in the fight. And the fight is not aimed
at the silver men alone but to every
debtor in this nation. When they
strike down $1.17 out Of every 50 25,
will they agree to a law scaling the
debts of the people in the same ratio?
No; they will force payments in full
They have now about $15 per capita in
cold while we have % cents. Theirs,