Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-11-01
"WHAT A GOLD STANDARD HAS
DONE" :"

''WHAT A GOLD DSTANDARD HAS
DONE"
Under this head the great cam
paign issue Of the Populist organ
Buffers Caucasian, publishes a
big cut, or picture, of 1 bale of
cotton: bales: % bales and
4 4-5 bales, sereatint, and below
this picture publishes these lines
in large type
1T takes A bales of cotton
now to buy as much money as
one bale brought in 1870.
This tells the story of the
contraction of the currency.
Matt Ransom and John Sher-
man ''co-operated" with the gold
bugs to do it"
That is the picture and those
are the statements below it, and
we presume the average Third
party man looks at them, gulps
them down as gospel truth and
then howls forButler and thePop-
L'ist party, and goes his way be-
lieving that these faring false
hoods and windy poppycock of
the Caucasian are the correct So
luton of the situation.
Well, let's see about it. We
know the average Populist will
not believe anything he secs
and all are instructed by Butler
and his gang not to believe any
thing they read in a Democratic
newspaper. But, perhaps, while
their reason may have forsaken
them and they are following
blindly their communist leaders,
memory may not have altogether
departed from them, and to this
we appeal.
We remember when we worked
on the farm: chopped cotton and
hoed corn in the spring, ploWed
it in the summer and picked the
fieecy staple, in the fall of 1870,
that we hauled cotton to Colds
boro in that fall and hauled il
home again, because the price
had dropped off on the market
from % cents, if our recollection
serves US rightly, to q cents
That was in 1870 in which year,
according to the Caucasian, bale
Of cotton sold for $4,000. A
that time there were less thar
So, OOO,OO eight millions) o
silver in the United States -anc
a bale Of cotton brought S120. 90
Cannot anyone, therefore, SCI
that all this stuff and tom fooler,
: of attributing the present loV
+ I price of cotton to the suspension
l of silver coinage is almost to-
ridiculous for serious argument
: But it's utter absurdity can b
easily shown by a comparison o
cotton prices now with thos
which ruled when silver coinage
was not only suspended, bu
x silver was absolutely demone
tized.
In 1873 the silver dollar wa
O stricken from our list Of coin
: and in 1874 silver was demone
=" tized, deprived of its legal tende
Il quality, which was not resorte
e until 1873.
t. How did cotton fare durin
l. that period?
!, We give the average price fo
each year:
u 1873-74-17 cents per pound.
,e 187475-15 cents per pound.
1875 -76-13 cents per pound.
n -77-11.73 cents per poun'
e -78-11.28c cents per poun'
IS Up to 1873 we had coined on
N a little over 100000 silver do
a. lars since the foundation of tt
Of government, and from 1874
n 1873 silver was demonetized.
Id Since February 1878 we ha'
I'd coined over 420, 100000 silv
r dollars, and they are legal tend
r. to an unlimited amount. Y
IL CODUOn ID AOW WO1 uIA 1889 CAis
st half it's lowest price during Il
oh period when we had scarcely al
n silver, and that a non leg
en- tender. In other words, when V
e. had only eight millions of silv
r. dollars in the country cott'
ty sold for 1920 per bale-and nc
a with four hundred and TWEEN
of millions of silver in circulate
in cotton sells for less than $50 p
IL bale.
NO The calamity howlers who
tribute the present price OF G
ire ton to the suspension of silv
pi- coinage, when we have about
to much silver as gold and VIII
on7 silver is an unlimited legal te
der, should rub their thick nun
is, skulls and explain the whe,
w. fore of this why.