The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-04
CROCODILE TEARS FOR THE EAGLE

II
ton of the central protectorate, who's
headquarters and commissioning depo
are within a.stones throw Of our con
temporary's sanctum. Every othel
organ and interest of the state, save
the Wichita bird, that goes Topping
about like decapitated rooster, falls
within the easy control of the TOpeka
powers that be-" Other papers may
Kick and do, but their protests are as
unavailing and abortive as the
struggles of manacled prisoner. They
cannot rise superior 10 their environ
ment, therefore whatever they may dc
or say goes for naught. Like the cry
| of the fretful infant whose purile wall
| lulls at the first touch Of parental sooth.
| ing their feeble dissentings are rather
to attract notice and win the consola-
ton OF the pap-bag than with any
expecta ton Of kicking the side of the
house out. 1t all being understood
| their uproar is sympathizingly abated
as soon as or whenevera moment of con-
yenience or opportunity is found. The
leading strings of the old political
| pocket have all proved too fragile for
successful hobbling of the bird of
freedom who Independently wings his
own great field, defending with his
beak or attacking with his claws, as
the right may claim or the occasion de-
mand.
Like the parable Of old and its les
son, the foregoing is pure spread-eagle
but full Of truth all the same.
The Capital really wants to know,
you know, if the Eagle means what it
says when it declares that everything
including the products of the field, Of
the factory and Of the mine as also
silver and labor, have shrunken one
half. We surely do, as compared to
the purchasing power of gold. Of
course we spoke Of an approximate
shrinkage. Some of these things have
shrunken more than one-half others,
maybe, little less than one-half. The
idea that we meant TO convey to our
readers was simply this, and no man
until the Kaw river is reached failed to
understand it. With quart of gold
dust or a pound of gold nuggets, the
editor Of the Capital can go out and
buy double as many horses or COWS,
double as many bushels of grain,
double as many pounds Of cotton,
double as much labor and of its pro-
ducts, as he could with his quart or
pound of that metal eight or ten years
ago, while upon the other hand, he
can go forth with peck of silver and
buy approximately as much of all
these things in the aggregate, today, as
he could have bought with it ten years
ago.
For the average reader Of the Eagle
we are not compelled to be so homily
simple in our illustrations, to be I'M
derstood, as we must be when explain
ing to men owned by corporations, to
politicians employed by monopolies and
to editors hedged about by party plati-
tudes and precedents.
AS for the Capitals other question,
the Eagle does claim that, under like
treatment 16 ounces of silver is worth
1 ounce of gold. That is about the
ratio which the experience and mea-
surements of all time past demonstrate
ed to be true and which was fixed as
being correct, until the one was de-
preciated and the other appreciated by
enactments and the con-
certed war made upon silver by the
money interests which control the gold
of the world. The Eagle does not
claim that the silver in a unit or dollar
has as great a purchasing power as the
gold in a dollar, not more than half as
much, at present. 1t takes twice as
much silver as it takes twice as much
OF everything else, in the aggregate, to
purchase the gold that is now in dol
lar than it did a decade ago. So the
suggestion that gold may refuse to de- |
cline in value becomes rot. 1t is not a
decline in gold that is desired, but a
restoration Of ali other values, includ- |
ing silver. that is sought. If after a |
reasonable time for adjustment of |
values under the rehabilitation of sill |
YER gold should be found to still hold |
an appreciated purchasing power. as |
TO its former value, over |
everything else, then it would either |
become a precious commercial COM
modify as are precious stones, under |
which circumstances the number of |
grains in the unit would have to be |
reduced, or otherwise gold would not
circulate as Il currency, but only by the |
pound or ounce. The truth is. and the
Capital knows it, that is about all the
circulation it has today. The untold
millions of it which is going to Europe
every year to pay balances, interest
and the like. do not go as dollars but
20 by weight as metal
As for the last question of the Capi-
tai: what kind of n dollar does the
Eagle want and how much per capita
We answer: a sound I'M
fuctuating one. good for every kind of
iebt, and good everywhere. made so
IN a redemptive basis of gold and sill
7er coin. which coin shall carry within
tself its face value. with a circulation
IF gold, silver and paper combined
equallins that Of France per capita.
KANSAS TRUCKING THE GODS.