The Delta independent., 1894-08-29
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.

IL
yer CoinaKe-Degradation Can Only Come
by the Complete Impoverishment OF tho
People.
It is unlikely that there is in the
country at the present moment well
informed and patriotic man who de-
sircs that the American people shall
have the single standard Of silver. Nor
is there, indeed, any fair, reasonable
proba ability that the nation will ever
find itself in that situation. But OBJ
lection may be made to the method Of
encouraging the people to favor the
single gold standard by misrepresent-
ing to them the consequences which
would ensue upon making any move
ment away from that system. In
slavery times some persons regarded it
us an unanswerable argument to the
contention of abolitionists to demand,
would you like your sister to marry
black MANI And SO now, with
equal fatuity and childishness, the
American people are warned that when
they shall move toward bimetallism
they risk reaching the silver standard
nnd degrading their civilization to the
low level of that of India and China.
The solemnity with which this propo-
sition is urged by some Of the newspa-
pers fails of impressiveness because it
is manifestly ridiculous
India was upon gold basis until
1885, when the East India company, for
purposes Of robbery, forced it upon
silver basis. All the world knows that
India since that time has made greater
progress toward true civilization than
during the preceding one hundred
years. Holland abandoned gold and
went upon silver basis in 1850. Where
are the facts that sustain the theory
that Dutch civilization experienced any
deterioration in the ensuing yearsp In
1857 Germany also threw aside the gold
standard and established silver alone
Us standard money. Arc there any
proofs that German civilization de-
clined to a lower level from that date
until the gold standard was set up in
1892 In the year OF Germany's great
est power and glory, in the year 1871,
when Germany destroyed the French
empire, silver. and silver alone, was the
money Of final payment among Ger
mans.
From 1860 to 1878 the people OF the
United States had neither gold nor sill
yer. Their business was transacted
with fiat paper money, and it was
while they were thus cut loose from
both metals that they conducted to 4
successful issue the greatest war of
modern times II our civilization did
not move toward degradation when
our currency was paper, must that fate
necessarily overtahe it when we shall
have currency composed of one Of the
precious metals?
Does any sane American believe that
such use of silver would drag our peo-
pie down to the level of the Indian
peasant? Let us have from some Of
the propagators Of this theory demon
stration OF the process by which the
result will be reached. Let them show
to the nation in what manner the use
tion that we shall incline to substitute
breechclouts for clothing and to steep
our souls in ignorance and supersti-
tion. This kind of argument is about
rs respectable rs that OF the nursery
maid who should try to govern stub
born child by representing that there
is q robber in the dark closet under the
stairs There may be Americans who
can be won to the side of gold by Wis
Ions of n juggernaut car rolling up
Broadway, say, in 1901. but we doubt it.
Degradation Of American civilization
will come, II ever it shall come, by the
complete impovcrishment OF the peo-
pie. II John Jones should own all the
gold in the world, and debts must be
paid in gold, Jones would be the.abso-
Lutte master, and the rest Of us would
be slaves-in fact, IL not in name. Sub
stitute for an individual Jones tho
comparatively small body of men who
do own the bulk Of the gold and who
control credit, and you will have the
precise situation in which we shall
find ourselves if silver shall be thrust
aside and the gold standard made per-
manent. The destruction OF tho
western farmers, now plainly in prog
ress, will then be extended to other
wealth producers Of all classes, and the
day of doom for human liberty and for
high civilization will have dawncd.
But that day will never come to the
people of land where there is univcr-
sal suffrage. The impulses of n mere
blind instinct of self preservation will
avert the catastrophe. The people of
the United States will certainly choose
silver alone rather than gold alone;
but they will have neither by itself
They will have both together, and voc
to the political party that arrays itself
upon the side of their enemies N Y