The leader., 1895-08-06
SAM JONES ON CRAzES
He Pounces on Mems Social and
Political .FetIs.s
rhsre are some Few Things sam Ne
tieves In But in Mcst of Them
he Doesn't.
fconYRrenr 1851

things, need not go back far into his
tory and follow humanity in its various
windings, without discovering that
crazes are as indigenous to human char
acter as white rabbits are to Australia
We need not go back far to find quite
a large class of humanity few years
ago jumping into the skating rink
craze, and it was all the go. Then
came the base ball craze, and the foot
ball craze, and now the bicycle craze is
fully on us.
The man or woman who had the
skating rink craze, or who now have
the base ball and bicycle craze are gen.
orally harmless. The break their own
legs, black their own eyes, and skin
their own noses. Only occasionally
some other fellow is involved in the
fracus or wreck.
Bnt there is another craze breaking
out in sections of this country, perhaps
more hui tful than either of those
named, and that is the silver craze.
The most encouraging feature connec-
ted with this craze is that IL is not uni
versal. 1t is confined to sections and
localities Of our country largely, with
now and then a fellow that has got ii
bad in all sections of the country,
Those who clamvr for the free and un.
limited coinage OF silver at sixteen ia
one, the politicians and demagogues
heading the procession, and their fol.
lowers largely made up Of discontents,
and the unthinking masses who are
neither posted ON finance or political
economy. The subtreasury craze is the
~ne most akin to this, and was cham
pioned by pretty much the same crowd.
This silver craze, which goes to seed
in clamor for the free and unlimited
coinage of silver, sixteen to one," when
it takes hold of fellow it seems to
permeate brains, muscles, blood ant.
all, but it's aggregated influence seems
to settle on the tongue, and they talk
it and skeak it, and the less man
knows the more he talks. The politi.
ticians who clamor on every stump for
free coinage; never had suck a field Tor
demagoguery, or such opportunity to
skin their ignorance.
A man who goes crazy on any subject
is a narrow man, and unfit to lead the
masses. A broad, thoughtful, intelli.
gent mind is the only thing that you
can put back of a tongue to guide it
right on the hustings and in the pulpit,
or push pen in the editorial sanctums
of our country.
The saddest commentary on the mas
ses in this country is that they are too
frequently influenced and lead by ap-
peals to passion, prejudice and igno-
rance. The man who attributes the
shrinkage of values and the depression
in the commercial and financial world
to the silver question may be a good
fellow, but he ought never to go to
sleep lying on his side, for his brains
might run out his ear, but he can put
them back in the morning with tea
spoon.
The farmer in West Virginia valued
his land at $50 an acre, and got 50
bushel for his wheat, when he realized
that his wheat brings 60 cents bushel
in Baltimore, and the market value of
his land is $50 an acre, and he can ac-
count for this state of things by the
demonitization of silver, he is foolos.
opher of the first water.
Let's take this case and look at the
facts. / have just made tour OF the
Northwest, taking in Dakota, Eebras-
ka, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and sc
on. When my eyes swept across this
granery of the world, and saw the
millions of bushels or grain almost
ready for the harvest, and then reali-
zed that thirty years ago this section
was almost unknown; and then look
ed and saw the cheap freight rates Of
our great trunk lines on wheat from
he west to Baltimore, rs . sensible
man say silver had as little to do with
the price of wheat in Baltimore as il
touched that West Virginia farmer, q
the Dog Star has to do with the tide
The marts of trade can be glutted.
Twenty years ago cotton was IL cents
q pound, but in the last twenty years
Texas praries have grown in their
yielding power until today Texas makes
ohe-third of the cotton of the world,
and yet not one tenth of her good cot
ton land has ever had = plow in it.
Texas alone can raise thirty millions of
cotton, and If Texas was doing her
beat today in cotton raising, cotton
would go down 10 two cents . pound,
silver or no silver.
have no interest in the discussion
and issues upon this question, but as
Attorney General Harmon put ii. II
want the American dollar to be as good
d any ybody's dollar" Tam willing for
the double standard II every dollar u