The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-07-26
REPUBLICAN, COUNTY TICKET.
THE SILVER QUESTION.

any patriotic citizen will oppose using
all the silver mined in our country
for money, when it would seem that
q kind Providence has created silver
for that very purpose and permits the
people to find and mine il just about
as fast as we need it. Then the ques-
ton is, why not use it?
The single gold money kings (called
"gold bugs" for short tell us there
must not be any more silver coined or
it will not keep on parity with gold.
But it is easily to be seen that the
real reason is that the gold kings of
Europe and America know that if we
coin all our silver and put in circula-
ton il Will endanger the corner that
they now practically hold on the gold
of the world. 1t is certainly apparent
to any body who reads and keeps well
informed that these gold kings don't
want TO use their gold for a legitimate
business, but hold it i'm large quanti-
ties to drive sharp bargains with, to
corner some corporation or govern
ment aud squeeze" them out of all the
money they can, like they squeezed
Cleveland out of twelve million in the
last bond deal.
In view of the above how can any
body doubt for moment that these
same money kings suggested, if they
did not dictate, the crime of '73 that
demonetized the silver dollar. Crime
is the word to use, Mr.. Editor. 1t
was the greatest legislative crime
since the crime that legalized slavery
was enacted. That crime of '73 did
another thing that don't seem to be
generally noticed that was about as
mean as demonetizing the silver dol
lar. Up to this time (lS73) the silver
dollar had been the unit Of value, that
is values had been measured by the
silver dollar, but the crime of '73 dis
confined the silver dollar and made
the gold dollar the unit of value, and
making silver a subsidiary coin only.
Up to this time the silver dollar had
been worth as much or little more
than the gold dollar, but right then
silver bullion began to depreciate in
value, and why? Because its Occu-
patton was gone, or at least largely so.
The demand for it decreased. hence
the price of it declined. Does any
body believe silver would ever have
deprecated in value if the crime of
10 had never been enacted?
Well, the panic of '73-the worst
financial wreck this country has ever
observation-disclosures the same year that
the silver dollar was demonetiZed.
Hard times Immediately set in and
the people were very much disturbed
and discontinued and soon began to
demand that Congress re-monetize
the "dollar of the daddies. - SO
along about rs or 70 Congress could |
not resist the demands of the people |
any longer and the minis were set TO |
work again grinding out dollars at
the rate of five million month, and |
i'm a year or two times began to i'm |
prove and along in the early eighties |
times were fairly good. l recollect |
selling a 3-year-Old un broken horse in |
the spring of 'S3 for Sl20 % cash, such /
a one would bring about $500 now. |
The same time 1 sold some wearing /
steers at $1,000 head and about that |
time | got $500 hundred for fat hogs |
and sold other things in proportion.
But it was not many years until the |
gold bugs began tinkering with silver |
again and they soon had the sherman
law passed which created an eXpan-
sion of the currency to some extent
but they were not satisfied with that,
so when Cleveland came in the second
time he soon demanded the repeal of
the Sherman law. SOJohn Sherman.
Tom Reed and Senator Allison got
down on their knees, as it were, and
helped him and his Democratic friends
kill the Sherman law, which demone-
tized silver again. This was the great
crime of '93.
Then the Democrats repealed the
Mckinley tariff law, and haven't we
had gOld-bug-free-trade times since?
Repeating the Mckinley tariff is re-
sponsible for about one-third, and de-
mOnetiZing silver for about twO-thirds
of the present hard times. That's so.
my Republican gold bug friends.
Now that the gold bugs have got
the price Of silver down One-half they
delight to speak fiippantly Of silver
and call it dishonest money and of
gold as honest money. All, indeed
A silver dollar was worth more than
a gold dollar before the crime Of '93.
Which was the honest dollar then /?
Honest, now, Mr. Goldbug, no evad-
ing the question. when did silver be-
come dishonest, as you say? Honest
now, again, and just own up that it
was when the crime of '73 demOnitiZed
the silver dollar?
Well, if silver is dishonest land has
become dishonest, too, for the price Of
silver and the price of land have gone '
down together, you cannot deny that :
Mr.. Geldbug. A pound of silver bull ,
lion will buy as much land now as a
pound would before the crime of '73. Z
Only few weeks ago l saw the
sheriff sell farm right out from IN :
der one of our oldest citizens for just !,
shout One-half what that farm would /
have brought - years ago, and other
farms sold the same way, which
proves that land has deprecated in =
value one-half
The gold-bugs talk learnedly about
International ratio and seem very @