The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-01-30
GoLD-BAsIs GRIP.
THE DISEASE FROM WHICH OUR TRADE IS
SUFFERING NOW.
Gen. Warner Tells How--As Gold Goes
Up, Other Things Go Down
Prices Under Present
Conditions Must
Go oxES~.-
[FrOm the New York Recorder.l

w al ACIs VI ObAOS ID VIC LS Sf0SlQ6Q6 Oh
the Bimetallic League, at whose head
quarters in this city the silvef. men Of
both parties recently held a two days
conference. The public address issued
by the League as the ret uIt of that cou-
ference, which was printed in the Rex
cOrder of Monday last, indicated only
the general lines on which the fight for
silver is to be carried on from this
point. In an interview with the repre-
sentative Of the Recorder to day Gen.
Warner more fully canvassed the sill
yer situation and prospects. and his
views will be Of interest to the friends
of bimetallism and free silver coinage
throughout the country.
What has been the effect of the sill
yer repeal bill, and what effect will it
have hereafter7" asked.
''The promised good times have eer-
tainly not come, replied Gen. Warner.
On the other hand, prices continue to
fall. Wheat has gone down, cotton
has gone down, and the general range
of prices is lower than when the repeal
bill passed. How could it De other
wise9 The pricing instrument has
been changed from gold and silver to
gold alone for all the western world
aud for all India. The money supply
in India and the United States, from
silver mines, has been shut of, leaving
no source of money supply except the
gold mines, and whether they yield
more than is consumed in the arts is
an open question Austria Hungary,
too, has decreed the gold standard.
More than $50, 100000 of people have
thus been added to the population
competing for gold. The blanket al
ready too small to cover those scramb
ling for it is now to be scrambled for
by vastly larger population. Gold
must, therefore, continue to rise, and
as it rises, others things must and will
fall. No other result is possible. That
is the situation now"
TARIFF A MINOR ISSUE.
How will the promised tariff
changes affect the monetary situa-
tion9"
In answer to that, =" said Gen. War
ner, "Iet me call attention to the fact
that prices went down before the Nc
Kinley act was passed, they have con-
tinued to go down since it was passed
and are still going down. They will
continue to go down if the proposed
Wilson bill is passed, and as the tariff
wall is lowered probably more i'm
ports will come in and gold will leave
us more easily, SO that prices will fall
faster and reach a lower point than
ever. But, tariff or no tariff, prices
will go down and hard times will grow
harder under the present monetary
conditions. Therefore, they who talk
of the tariff as the one great, all-per-
vading cause of the existing condition
of things are either insincere or are
ignorant of what they talk about 1s
the tariff the cause of the fall of prices
in England, in Australia and all over
Europe9 The same distressful cOndi
tions prevail, modified, of course, by
local circumstances, throughout all
gold standard countries. The silver
standard countries are the only ones
that seem to be in any degree prosper
ing"
"Will the situation be improved or
made worse by the passage of the bill
repeating the tax on State banksi"
NO CREDIT BUBBLES WANTED.
'"The repeal of the State bank tax, "
replied the General, 'and return to
the wildcat currency might give rise
to a temporary credit bubble, but the
end would be worse than if no such
currency had been issued. Such cur
rencies are panic breeders. You can
not narrow the basis of primary money
to gold alone and then increase the
superstructure of credit reared upon it
with safety.
''What is wanted is a broader foun
dation of actual money, money that
needs no redemption, and restriction
of mere credit contrivance; in other
words, more gold and silver to pay
with, and not more promises to pay
gold The appreciation of gold has
been going on ever since the demoneti-
xation act of 1873 As we look back
over the legislation of this period it is
impossible to come to any other CON
clusion than that it was the result of q
gigantic conspiracy to spoliate the
world by cunningly devised and Tar