Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-10-06
TWO OPPOSITE POLICIES

Shall American or Foreign Ideas Regarding
Finance md Trade Prevail in the United
States?
CTbe Empire OF Finance and Trade - New
York;
With silence. nelghbor, and attention wait.
For It's "A bus ness OF high debate.-Vlrgil.
There can be little doubt but that at
the bottom of our present difficulties
lies the great question whether we
shall, pursue an American or foreign
policy of finance and trade. The mere
statement that we would or should
pursue any other than an American
policy ought to be enough TO awaken
the public and set them thinking as to
what should be done.
That an American policy is not being
pursued is evident from the fact nat
no American policy could bring upon a
whole nation such turmoil and depres-
sion as is now or has been witnessed
ever since the present administration
has been in power.
That nature has been kind to the
people is certain. The harvests have
been plentiful and pestilence almost
unknown. The fault, then, cannot
be natures. but must be in the laws
and regulations Of the people them
selves.
The question, then, comes home,
whether it be the fault of individuals
or of those they put in Office to con
duct their public affairs. That it is
not the fault of mere individuals is
established from the fact that no indi-
vidual not in public Office could per-
form any act that would have so wide
spread and disastrous an effect upon
a whole population of some seventy
millions of people.
This. then, brings us to the consider
alton of the question whether any act
or acts of public officials, or any policy
or policies instituted by them could
have such an effect. Anancient proverb
has t~ritely said that when the wicked
beareth rule the people mourn" Now
this word wicked Ices not in the
proverbmean %iniquity, so much as being
wrong, or the following of a wrong or
injurious plan of policy.
With this understanding Of the pro-
verb we can see in a moment that il
must have arisen out of the experience
Of humanity, and is just as true to-day
as when first uttered.
Truly the people are now mourning
their fate under n wrong or foreign
policy Of finance and trade. We have
frequently shown how necessary it Is
for the American people to no longer
follow any foreign policy, no matter
by whom recommended or adopted. Our
bankers, merchants and business men
we'll know that we could trade and
have more comfort and prosperity than
we enjoy to-day if an American policy
were pursued. While we may not de-
sire TO be thus isolated it is a fact of no
small moment that we can do what no
other nation of our population an
produce that which will feed. clothe,
and keep up the present civilization of
our people without having any depend
nee on Europe whatever.
We can produce the cattle on more
than a thousand hills. The waving
wheat and corn the plenteous harvest
assures. whenever we turn the fruitful
soil. The hum of the factory, the ring
of the miners pick all go to show that
we are absolutely Independent of al
other nations.
The American people have only to
realize this fact, and TO make those
they place in authority conform to it
in our currency and in our commerce
and all will be we'll.
To neglect this essential and allow
the executive or legislative branches of
the government TO adopt a policy es-
sentially foreign is to invite national
destruction and death. For more than
u year this has been done.
Line after line Of railway has passed
into bankruptcy, and the property of
the investor is now likely to shrink to
still smaller proportions. Bank after
bank. merchant after merchant, insti-
tuition after institution has %shrunken,
until it is almost impossible to meet
with any policy which will assist, to
any great extent, those at the sources
of production. Nevertheless, officials
pursue the even Tenor Of their way.
The people are dumbfounded to know
the cause and the right or wrong of
the question, and the debates still go
OF with varying success. The people
seem resigned to their fate.
The cure, however, is simple and the
remedy near at hand. 1t is embraced
in three words: Reverse the policy.
Let us abandon the foreign for the
American policy. Let us use both
gold and silver as money, or adopt a
policy still more peculiarly our own.
When all this is effected, then, and
not till then, will it be time TO cast
away this device or quit the shield Of
our rights and our liberties-a policy
x.,1, A,o