The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-08-18
NEIHART. MONTANA, AUGUST 1s. 1894.

parties in such states as Wisconsin.
Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and others
indicated that, while undoubtedly
the tide of public sentiment has been
tending altogether in favor of silver,
nevertheless the control of political
machinery is such that the will of the
people is in danger again of being
thwarted by the subordination of
principle to party interests.
"let it is being made manifest
that the silver issue from this time
on will come to the front and will
remain there as the paramount issue
until it is finally settled. The next
political battle will be on this issue,
for 1t cannot be sidetracked for anv
other, as it was in 1892.
SILVER AND THE TARIFF.
"The next battle will not be fought
on the issues of free trade and pro-
lection. That is perfectly manifest
to any one who studies profoundly
the situation. The gold standard
cannot be maintained in the United
States for twelve months under free
trade, and there can be no doubt
that with the lowering OF the tariff
more gold, will at first, at any rate,
be drawn out of the country as i'm
ports under this state of affairs are
almost certain to increase, at first at
least, relative to exports.
''On the other hand, protection
and the gold standard renders pro-
lection nugatory when undertaken
by debtor nation. This seems not
to have been understood in this
country; but this conclusion cannot
be resisted, and very brief expla-
nation of the reasons for it will be
sufficient to carry conviction to any
one.
MoNoMETALIISM AND IMPORTS.
'We are debtor nation. We
owe something like two hundred
millions year as interest on loans
and investments made from abroad in
this country. This must be paid,
either in gold or commodities, and
there is only one condition on which
it can be paid in commodities. That
condition is that commodities are
enough lower in price in the United
States than they are anywhere else
in the world to induce creditor ma
tions to buy of us two hundred mil
lion dollars worth more than they
sell us. This is so self-evident that
no one can dispute it. Therefore,
anything that enters into our import
trade-and not merely the part that
we import, but the whole of every
thing, any part of which we import
must be as low in price at any rate
in the United States as anywhere
else. Any attempt, therefore, to keep
up prices by the commodities we i'm
port by tariffs or any other means
must simply result in paying
our debt with gold instead
of with commodities. And if
we pay in gold away goes our
gold and down 60 prices as neces,
sary consequence. Then in the en-
tire range of products of the United
States any part of which enters into
our import trade prices must neces-
sarily be kept down to below the in
ternational level of prices. Any one
who produces these commodities
must produce them at that level.
This line of products probably con-
stitute 60 per cent of all that we
produce.
PRICES GO DOWN.
"This being the case, it is impos-
slble permanently, by tariffs or any
other devices, to keep up prices.
Such a thing might be done temper
arily by a monopoly both of labor
and capital, j. e., by restricting the
production through labor organiza-
ton and trusts. But permanently
that cannot be done. And for this
reason. If go per cent of our people
must produce at an international
level of prices in order to pay our
debts abroad, the other 40 per cent
cannot continue always to produce
at high wages and high profits and
sell to those who are compelled to
produce at low wages and no profits
at all.
''ln other words the farmers of the
country do not make on an average