Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-10-16
APPEALS TO REASON.
THE SILVER CAUSE THE CAUES
OF HUMANITY.
Bill Arp, Goldbug Writer, Gets Con-
verted by "Coin Up to Date" and
Tells His Friends that They Cannot
Meet It with Argument.

I have just finished reading Coins
last book up to Date" If somebody
doesn't answer it and prove it a lie it
will shake this country from center to
circumference. The bankers and spec
ulators and money kings will be over
thrown and the danger is that the
masses will go too far in revenging
their wrongs and, like Samson, pull
down the temple and crush all alike.
When he shows up the inequalities of
taxation and how .he rich escape, it
makes the blood boil with indignation.
Aside from the silver question, he gives
a certlhcate of David Gore, the auditor
OF public accounts for the state of Illi-
nols, which shows that all that the
bankers and brokers of Chicago were
assessed for taxation was only $4,000
OF money, while farmers of that county
were assessed $4,000 for agricultural
tools and implements. Think of it! The
farmers tools are assessed nearly twice
as much as all the money credits and
securities Of all the banks, bankers and
brokers' of that great city. And all the
diamonds and jewelry in Chicago were
assessed at S17,750, when it is known
that single families live there who
own diamonds and jewelry ten times
that sum in value. The money of these
banks amounts to hundreds of millions,
but through the manipulation of muni-
cipal politics the rich control the as
SCISSORS and escape taxation. Can this
be true? II 1t is false, why doesn't Eli
Perkins say so. 1 see that he has taken
the field against Coin, but can't tell ex-
! actly from his last piece whether he is
| lying or joking. He closes it by saying
that after he had shown Coin his errors
and fallacies Coin gave it up and tears
rolled down his cheeks and he dis
missed his school and declared he
wasn't gwine to teach any more. like
Eli. l like any lie that is funny and
harmless. / used to like to read Baron
Munchausen, and like to read Eli now
l confess that it strains my credulity
to believe what Coin writes about the
Chicago bankers tax, but there is the
certificate of the state auditor. Surely
there is some explanation of all this.
We know what Solomon, and Paul and
the Savior said about rich men, but I
never believed that our rich men were
that bad. We poor folks whose income
was under the mark, believed that to
tax large incomes was the right thing
to do, but it seems that we can't do it.
We are taxed all the time on the outgo
through the operation of the tariff-a
tariff for revenue only, with incidental
| protection. 1t is the incidental that
gets us. An American sewing machine
or mower or reaper can be bought in
London or Brazil 80 per cent cheaper
than we can buy one here. There comes
in the incidental. 1t is protected here
from foreign competition and the profit
is SO great that Mr.. Singer or Mr.. Nc
Cormick can pay the freight across the
ocean and then sell it for less than he
will sell to us. Isn't that funny? Har-
per's Magazine sells all over this coun-
try for thirty-five cents, but sells all
| over England for twenty-five cents. An
American Cedar pencil of the best quail
ity sells here for nickel, but you can
buy the very same in London for a
copper. And just so it is with hun
dreds of other things that are made
4
accidental, but was done on purpose at
Washington and our law makers say we
must stand it.
Boys, let's tight. No, 1 don't mean
that exactly. but let's meet and pass
some resolutions let's do something.
Now, the Chicago gold-bugs have
called meeting to see if they can't
stop all this rumpus about silver, but
they might as well try to stop a torna-
do. l wasn't taking much stock in
these financial affairs, for had read so
/ much on both sides that it made my
head swim, and so when friend sent
me Coins first book took it up with
prejudice against 1t, for supposed that
Mr.. Harvey was Chicago Yankee and
was paid by the Inter- Ocean to write
on that side. and so fortified myself
against being seduced by his book. l
read It rather hurriedly. watching for