The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-02-23
Communicated.

HNS
payment.
Communicated.
To the Editor OF the Intelligencer.
At the lecture of Prof. Smith, lasl
Saturday. he went over the stale anf
untrue statement that il Is necessary tC
pay only gold (which runs the reserve
down. in order to maintain the parity
of the two metals-that is, discredil
silver in order to keep up its reputation,
l told him that the process now going
on is the result of q conspiracy between
Cleveland and the money power. An.
other banker present said he did moi
believe it; but that Cleveland is u
patriotic man. As one who writes
financial articles for publication I can
not afford to make reckless or random
charges of such q nature against a per:
son in SO important a position. So
will prove my charges to be true.
This same process OF collecting United
States nOtesa and demanding gold for them
could have been practiced and would
have run the reserve down Just as now,
in the first year of resumption and
almost any time since-if the conspira-
tors outside could have got their man
inside; could have had the president
they wanted. For there has never been
enough available gold in the treasury to
redeem the $346, 900 600 greenbacks il
presented continuously as is done now.
Any one who can see that 500, 00O, 600
is smaller than $S46, 600 900 can see this.
But they never before had q president
on whom they could depend to increase
the public debt when there was no use
of it.
When Harrison was president my
brother, p. S. Wilson, made his &C
quaintance as he and l often do with
Indiana's public men, as we are great
grandsOps of her first governor and We
wrote me that In q talk with Harrison
on the national finances, The being q
gOld-bug) Harrison said ''thts Is not q
gold administration and I am not q gold
man." That meant II Will not allow
this country to be put on a gold basis"
Though l do not admire Harrison 1t
must be said that the Issue Bank ring
could not make him its tool.
Secondly: Until of late years the
national hanks have not 20 urgently
needed bonds to bank on ; and until the
repeal of the silver-purchase law prices
Of produce could not fall as greatly as
they have done since. The fall of prices
of our products makes the balance due
OH foreign trade against US. This Is Q
helper to the cOnspirators In causing an
outflow of gold. There is no more doubt
that it is a conspiracy than that there Is
q sun.
1t is, as l have for years charged, an
international conspiracy and the plan of
the conspiratOrs Is to let Europe have
the gold, dsmonetize silver, and let our
national bank ring have the American
field for them to use by getting the
public credit gratis and lending II back
to those to whom it belongs, for interest.
1t would be a scheme to admire-if there
was no eighth commandment.
l asked Prof. Smith why it is that
France maintains the sO-called parity"
Of the two metals by paying vt her
option gold or silver and not ut the note
holders option a we do. l had much
trouble to keep him from rambling in
this and in all the cases in which l ques-
toned him. The substance Of his
been vOuchsafed more confidence" than
the American people.
1t is now nearly twenty years since !
began to study diligently the financial
conditions of the country. l satisfied
myself that the fight Is the same that
jackson and Benton made. To-day we
see the warning prophecy Of jackson
fulfilled. The whole trouble grows out
of permitting paper substitutes for
money. The agents Of the national bank
ring in congress say sweetly I'VE only
ask to issue bills as long as there Is q
bonded public debt to base them on"
and this is thought by the unwary to be
a very reasonable request. But the issue
bankers and their agents then laugh in
their sleeves and wink at each other and
say, in a voice that the public does not
hear land as long as we are allowed to
issue our bills provided there is q bonded
public debt We will see to it that there is
always a bonded debt" Three per cent
is not enough inducement TO make these
issue-bankers keep the country in o tur-
MOL, unless it carried with it the priyi-
lege of issuing paper and controlling the
volume of the medium Of exchange 4;
that dangerous and tyrannical power
that they have given the innocent name
Of elasticity"
In conclusion let me say that l have
never approved Of the silver purchase
policy /; nor have / approved OF the
policy of keeping United States notes as
money. | opposed my fellow democrats
here on this In 1877 and 1879. Ii we had
never demOnetized silver we could have
replaced them with silver and gold long
ago. GEO. WILSON.