Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-05-23
FINANCIAL REFORM.
ARE ARTS OF PEACE LESS I'M
PORTANT THAN W&S.
All Arguments Advanced on Behalf of
tho Gold Standard Are Built On
Prophecy = Senator Jones on the
Stand.


UP his grand plea for bimetallism al
the Brussels conference, said:
"All the arguments advanced on be-
half of the gold standard are built on
prophecy, those ON behalf Of the double
standard on achievement
THE advocates of the gold standard
rely on what they suppose may happen.
''Those Of the double standard rely
on the facts Of history"
The facts and achievements he had
amply elucidated in that great address
which the Belgian delegate SO praised
by saying Immediately after its close:
Gentlemen, after the remarkable
speech which you have just heard lit
Gle remains to be said. 1t is
not only a monetary treatise, 1t is a
study Of social economy"
Senator Jones' words may well be
needed by many very earnest, very hon
est friends Of blmetallism, who halt
and doubt and block the way to sue
cessful American action by their fears
that we cannot succeed Independently.
Some Of them actually advocated the
destructive policy Of trying to force con-
current action upon foreign nations by
creating sheer distress and making 1t
so universal as to compel action. To
such the idea Of our being even tempo
rarlly placed upon q silver basis was to
relegate our country to the social, eco
nOmlc, and moral level of Mexico and
China, as though the prosperity Of a
great people depends upon the color Of
the money they use. But they ignore
the facts Of history and of current
events. Mexico to-day affords the most
promising field for the investment of
money among all nations, according to
reports, and upon pure silver basis.
France pursues serenely her course
unaffected by panics, weighted down as
she is by the greatest national debt and
by her vast naval and military arma-
ment, and able to assist her powerful
nelghbOr across the way by loan Of
gold to help avert a monetary panic i'm
minent when the Earrings failed. The
Danic-breeding system adopted by the
United Kingdom has time and again
exposed its weakness, while the
strength Of the French gystem is mani
tested, for 1t provides money instead
Of wind upon which the industry and
commerce Of that great people secure
ly rests. France honors all her money
and provides a sufEiciency, and her
funded debt is so wisely distributed as
to become basis of emergency credit
among the common people.
No man can demand an exchange of
one kind of money for another, for their
idea Of parity is unlike that Of our
thimble-rlgging American flnanciers,
who might wisely study the money
question in its social and economic as
poets, instead Of by ways that are dark
and tricks that are vain making its
acquisition the sole object of their
lives.
The recent history Of our own coun-
try in the civil war, where the might
lest creative and destructive energies
ever recorded were developed by a
creation of a great instrument-money
lin sufficient quantities to promote all
the activities of great people without
gold and without silver, all appear to
be forgotten.
In returning to specie payments,
what kind Of strange deluslon was ex-
tended over the brains of such a peo-
pie as to tolerate for single year after
Its discovery in 1856 the nature of the
fraud Of 1873?
With the knowledge of the mighty
power Of sovereignty exercised to main
tain the union of the state, why should
they doubt as to the power of that SOW
sreignty to save and preserve as equal
ly great as to subjugate and destroy?
Are the arts Of peace Of any less i'm
portance than the arts of war? Are
the powers of our government greater
for the conduct of war than for the
conservation of the peace and prosper
lty Of the people? Is political indepen-
dence of foreign power more important
than financial independence?
Our claim is that the United States
can alone act, with greater credit, with
greater success, than with concurrent
action Of other nations, and we have
abundant evidence to justify this faith,
The remarkable admissions Of the Sta
fist QOndon) recently, and those Of the
Financial News Uondon) a year ago,
and such able men as Mr.. Henry Hucks
Gibbs and Mr.. Morton Frewen, all go
to sustain us in this view. But the
facts Of history prove 1t.
Why, were we to adopt the money Of
ideal excellence" as Mr.. W. P. st.
John calls properly made national pa
per money, and properly guard its is
sue and discard gold, the republic
would soon outstrip the world in its
onward march, and international ex-
changes could be settled by our prod
acts enhanced in value and created in
Rvolume sufficient to do 1t with our I'M
used gold. But the absurdlty of being
apon specie basis with One-half of the
specie dishonOred necessitates a revi-
sion Of the idea possessed by too many,
that governments are ordained for the
benefit Of fund-holders exclusively.
We need recurrence to the fundamen-
tai principle chat government is, or