The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-05-17


we have but to restore the free-coin-
age. When the owner of silver bu l.
lion can exchange it at our mints for
coin worth one hundred cents ON the
dollar, it follows, of course, that he
will not stop, on his way to the mints,
to sell it, to some smart Aleck, for
sixty cents, or any sum less than one
hundred cents. The monumental ass
who would sell thing for less than
he could get for it, never, in the due
course of nature, will have any silver
bullion, or anything else of value, to
sell. If then free coinage will make
silver worth one hundred cents on the
dollar in the United States it will at
once be worth one hundred cents in
Europe. Why? Because Europe does
not produce one twenty-eighth part
of the silver crop of the world; while |
it imports thirty odd millions annual
ly from the United States. Europe
produces$7, ,016, ,314 of silver every year.
while the United States in 1890 wmed
$40, ,485, ia, and Mexico, the next
largest producer, mined $50, 1000, 600.
Hence the United States and Mexico
put forth $l2O, 900, 900 in 1890 against
Europe's $7,OOO,0OO. If now, when
Europe comes to our ports to buy sill
yer, it finds the white metal is
worth 100 cents on the dollar, because
it is exchangeable for 100 cents
on the dollar, it would have to pay
100 cents on the dollar, or 60 without
Nothing is clearer than that. But it
cannot go without. Silver, as sub
sidiary coin, is the money of the
common people of Europe; the money
in which wages are paid and food
bought. The owner of Mexican silver
bullion will not pass by the doors of
the U. S. mints, when he can get
100 cents, and ship his silver to
Europe to sell it for 60 cents. The
moment silver is worth 100 cents on
the dollar in the United States it is
worth 100 cents on the dollar all over
the world. The passage, by congress,
of a free-coinage act, of two lines,
would solve the whole financial prob
lem, release the people from the
grip of the money-kings, and produce
universal prosperity. Why will Mr..
Cleveland not help to bring about this
result? Simply because Wall street
the money-power-the Plutocracy-
own and control both the old parties,
and will not permit the people to ''gO
free" In our corrupt conditions and
degenerate times national politics
cannot be carried on without immense
supplies of money for campaign ex-
penses; and these cannot be obtained
from the struggling, impoverished
multitudes; they must come from the
great money-centers, where the plum
derers of the people congregate,- and
the chiefest of these centers of rob-
berry is Wall street.
In the meantime the western DEM
ocrats and western republicans are
geJJ1ng Jne1r eyes open Ihey begin
to understand the horrible game
which is being played, of which they
are themselves the spoil, and the vic
Tins. They are to be held quiet, by
appeals to party pride and party fidel-
ity, while their possessions are strip
ped from them, to enrich strangers
and foreigners. The whole land is in
turmoil; and men are thinking hard
er and deeper than they ever thought
before in the course of their lives.
Let us hope that the path of suffer
ing will lead to the redemption of
mankind from the grip of the new
slaveocrats. But, in the meantime,
let a2-peoples' party men stand firm.
TIE night is passing away.
I. D.