Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-06-07
THE MODERN DOLLAR.
WHO OWNS 1T AND WHAT 1T
BUYS.
A Gold Standard Is Made Possible at
Frightfu1 Cost to the Producer
Significant Figures In Senate
Document-Laugh1in Bray.
Gold Supply Inadequate.

Gold Supply Inadequate.
1t is generally conceded that the ag
gregate OF all classes Of American debt
held abroad is five billions of dollars,
and that the interest on this amount,
which must be paid in gold, reaches
225,000,O00 annually. In 1892 the
world produced S196,6O5,O00 in silver,
and $130,S17 900 in gold. Deducting 40
per cent. used in the arts and sciences,
we have left for money purposes only
$196, 900. With the output Of both
gold and silver for the whole earth ag-
gregating only S191 100000, how can we
pay annually to Europe $225, 900 in
gold! Surely no one would advise
new bond issue every time the interest
fell due; even a Zulu would stand
aghast at such d proposition. But how
are we to pay this interest? 1t is n seri-
Gus question, and touches the very life
of the American people. The foreign
ers who hold the debts and their Amer
lean agents = n-producers nearly
every one of them-see clearly that If
this interest could be paid in the pro-
ducts of labor-cOttOn, wheat and corn
that the gold would remain in this
country to be manipulated as they see
fit SO far they have enforced this
policy and made it possible for Eng
land to say to us with brutal frankness:
Il want cotton, wheat and corn to
clothe and feed my millions. You
Americans raise very superior quail
ty of these articles. Put them to me
cheaper than they can be produced in
my own India and Egypt-where labor
is only ten cents per day-else | shall
buy from them. and destroy your ma
tiOnal credit by demanding your in
terest in gold" Thus do American
wheat, corn and cotton go abroad in
settlement of at least eighty-five or
ninety per cent. of our foreign indebt-
edneSS. No wonder these conditions
suit the corporate greed of this country,
and that it is fighting so hard for per
petuation of it's interests. Pile UP the
debt. Continue the promises to pay
I'm impossible gold. What care they?
The farmers products, competing with
India and Egypt, pay the foreign in
terest, and pittancc of gold remain
ing here, as Il basis for the expansion
and contraction of national bank paper,
gives them another lever for reaching
the property of the mechanic, the car
penter, the bricklayer the Stonecutter
and every class of labor. Notwith-
standing these facts, so well known to
the world, the greedy holders of these
tremendous credits, with their horde
of agents, tools and puppets. have the
temerity to stand up and declare that
they advocate the use of an honest"
truthful dollar-a dollar which, as far
rs the masses are concerned, might as
we'll have no existence. Thus, then, is
made possible q gold standard in this
country, but at what frightful cost
to the producer. That it will drag him
down TO the level Of the ten-cents-per
day labor of the Orient there can be no
doubt; but in the fall of the farmer, be
it remembered, all things else must
share his fate. Every class of prop
erty-even in the cities-is now begin
ming to feel the pinch.-Nor can we
benefit matters in the least by resort
ing to high tariff. For the sake of
argument, let us grant that such q
policy would drive labor up in certain
manufacturing centers-in the East, for
example-to three dollars per day.
This, however, would simply defer the
inevitable for brief space, since the
producers of the South and West.
competing with India and Egypt, and
selling their products on q basis of ten
cents day labor, could not long con-
tinue 10 purchase the output Of the
more expensive producers Of the East
who were drawing three dollars per
day Such policy would eventually
work as much ruin as perpetual
bond issue Thousands are now put
ting to themselves such questions,
and, being unable to give satisfactory
answers, are turning to silver as the
only remedy. 1t can work no harm,
they argue, since il we had the whole
worlds annual output of both gold
and silver, it would not suffice to pay
our interest abroad. If the advocates
of Sound money" will elucidate this
one point, it may be predicted with
safety that there will be no more
''silver craze" to worry the life out of
us, and to drive to distraction the
patient and watchful souls of our
great (D politicians.