Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-01-10
Gold Basis Prosperity.

ures and a history Of universal suffer
ing from the debilitation of business.
Dun's Review of Trade presents the
! most striking example of a calamity
howl that has emanated from the great
financial center, where some people tell
us ''money is plenty" That authori-
tative publication says: The year
closes with prices of many products the
lowest ever known, with millions of
workers seeking in vain for work, and
with charity laboring TO keep back suf
fering and starvation in all our cities. :"
Yet there are some men not far from
here who ignorantly assert that money
is plentier than ever. They only prove
their mental incapacity. a dispatch
from New York states that there are
lOO,OOO men in that great city alone,
who are out of employment having de-
pendent upon them 100000 others.
Think of great army of half million
people in our modern Baby lon, having
no means OF sustenance, and the num-
Der swelling every day. Yet there is
plenty OF money in the country"
What absurd rot.
Not less descriptive in its review of
the past year is Bradstreet's report,
which states that there are 5000 600
people out of employment in this coun-
try, and no hope for favorable change.
Three million families, one fourth of
our entire population, without visible
support, according the statistics fuTn-
ished by Bradstreet's conservative re-
port. Does not that sufficiently illus
trate the truth of assertions by dema
gogues, that there is supeihuity of
money in the country? Surely the
tramp himself might understand it.
Chauncy NJ. Depew, who is conserva
tive if anything, said on December 30th
in New York City:
81 have been through all the panics of the
last 80 years, but l have never seen one in
which the distress was 50 widespread and
reached so many people who previously had
not been affected as this panic of 1898. 1t has
thrown over 100000 people out of employ
ment; and calculating five persons, which is n
small estimate, TO a family, that means 10000.
900 people with no bread winner among them
and no possibility of winning bread"
And still, according to some blatant
howlers with 2X4 intellects, we are i'll
the midst of prosperity. John j. In
gals In his Kansas City lecture affirmed
that at least one sixth of the PEG
pie in this countryarewithout means of
obtaining bread. These authorities
are not given as proof, because every
posted man knows that the condition
exists; but to show some bright intel
lects what fools these big men are.
If we remember correctly the repeal
bill was passed under the promise OF
its advocates that it would remedy the
situation, and that the country was
suffering from the little silver purchase
law designated as Sherman's make
shift. They promised that if allowed
tO place the nation on an exclusive
gold basis, all would be well. Gong
before the people with that promise a
gold basis was adopted and the pros
perity is eXpectantly watched for. In
stead of bread they have been given a
stone. The real object of Tepealis now
so plainly obvious that no man can be
mistaken, since the issuance of bonds
has been recommended in the interest
| of gold spectators and bond brokers.
Since the passage of that measure the
pressure of hard times upon the people
of this country has been intensified un-
til there are now, according to authOri-
ties quoted above, ten million people
IN this country without support. When
it is reflected that 81 600 men own halt
the wealth of our country the picture
drawn from the two extrems is appall-
ing. All done ia quarter Of century
under administrations of government
known by every school boy. Who
then, is to be held responsible for 1T
Nothing comparing with the present
condition of affairs has ever beer
known, which fact itself ridlcules thu
idea that tariff has anything whateve
to do with 1t, pro and con. There has
not been single change made in til,
tariff since the Mckinley bill was en-
acted into law, and the theory of bust
ness being frightened by fear of fire.
trade is such silly rot that it IS aban
doned by papers that have respect TO
their standing. The true cause is lacI
of money to conduct business, and Their
can be no denial of the fact. Tn,
promised good times that were to fol
low repeal have not yet materialiZed
We are still waiting. Restored conf
dence which was to result from repeal
has evidently forgotten Its part of tn
program or has hitahed its motive pow
er on the wrong end. The accounts o
enforced ldleneSs, misery and sufferin.
since repeal have far exceeded thos,
previous to that action, when instead
if we are to believe the gold basis adyo
Gates, the result should have been eX
actly the opposite. The condition O
the masses is much worse. Repea
only helped one class, the bank. Fail
ures in that line almost entirely ceased
with the passage of the act, and why
Because the edlction to golu stand
ard meant the issuance of bonds an,
bonds mean an extension TO the nation
albanks. But at what cost TO the peopl
the banks are protected!
No one who reads the daily papers
however biased he may be, can fall t
know the condition of the country
T The vast army of the unemployed ha
quarters in every city throughout tn
> land, and added TO the already startliT
numbers is the great roll of the couu
, try, people who are suffering the effect
of appreciated market. Their cond
ton is also wholly due to the contra,
:, ton policy which reached it's deplor;