The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1895-08-14


Yoke.
The advocates of gold monometal-
lism are the same men, or at least
belong to the same class, as those
who have been managing and di
reeting the financial policy of the
country for years. They are the
men who advocated the repeal of
the Sherman bill, and who prom
ised that in ten days after the Pres
ident's signature was affixed TO the
repeal, prosperity would be restored
to the country.
The advice of an interested per-
son is always open to suspicion, but
when that advice has been proven
to be unreliable then more than
ever should it be taken with ex-
IRENE caution. If the gold stand
ard is such a good thing, the coun-
try should be in a prosperous con-
dition. If the repeal of the silver
legislation of 1890 was all that was
needed to restore prosperity, why
has prosperity not been restored?
These are pertinent questions.
Ex-ComptrolIer Hepburn, speak
ing at Pougekeepsie, n. Y, to the
New York State Bankers Associ-
alton the other day, endeavored to
inculcate the idea that the Sherman
bill was the cause of all the trouble,
and announced that the crisis of
1898 was "caused by the with
drawal of foreign investments be-
cause people at home and abroad
could not believe that this govern
ment could buy 100000 ounces of
silver a month and issue in pay
ment therefor notes redeemable in
gold. The New York Mercury
very sensibIy comments on that
statement as nonsensieal on its face,
and says:
"If anybody knew where the
panic of 1898 originated Mr.. Hep
burn should have known. 1t began
with the wild and irresponsible
kite flying of British fnanciers, the
very men who are today at the bot
tom of the gold monometaIlic move
ment. The crash that came in the
business of the Earrings was the
force that shook confidence in all
securities, Just as the more recent
scandals in the Bank of England
have kept all civilization quivering,
and to the loss of faith in British
financial honesty was due the wave
of mistrust that went around the
world. In the spray and foam of it,
all that Great Britain could do was to
cling to the gold standard, repudiate
silver as a money metal, disown the
American dollar, which up to that
time was receivable throughout the
world, and give sudden and formal
value to the gold dollar as of sole
intrinsic value"
1t was gold recommendation which
caused the crash of the Barings,
and it was the same principle
which produced trouble in this
country.
Gold has been cornered by a few
men. No one can successfully deny
that proposition. No one has at
tempted to deny it. The result is
that the great mass of people who
owe debts are placed in this posi-
ton: They must pay in gold, but
their creditors control all the gold,
and in order to get it to pay their
debts they are forced to sell their
produce for gold at rates fixed by
the buyers. 1t is that condition of
affairs which has kept wheat, for
instance, down to a ruinous figure
for the western farmer while the
eastern mechanic was starving; it is
that condition of affairs that has
produced the extraordinary supply
of produce and want, plenty and
misery in the country at the same
time. When the farmer, or the
manufacturer, or the mechanic has
produced the gold necessary to pay
his debts, or those of the commun-
ity in which he lives, which has
issued gold bonds for schools, or
other public purposes, he hands it
back to the man from whom he got
it, and the creditor has the produce
and the gold and the debtor has
neither. 1t is evident from that
system that the gold monopolist alb
solutely controls the entire market
for all kinds of commodities. 1t is
his interest to lower prices as much
as possible and to elevate the value
of gold as high as possible, and hav-
ing the power he does what best
serves his own interests.
Tho ponrIa of fbo T-n;toI C.....