The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1895-10-03
THE WEISER SIGNAL.
OUR SERMON.


evening His talk was based on
Thou Shalt Not Steal. From
memory we give synopsis of a
portion:
Stealing is not necessarily the direct
taking of another persons property. 1t
may be indirect, and indirect is just as
reprehensible in the eyes of God Toby
up all OF commodity and when it be-
comes exceedingly scarce put IL up TO five
or ten prices is called business shrewd-
ness, but it is stealing. If a man gels into
position where he has absolutely got to
have certain thing and you alone can
supply him. and because of that peculiar
condition you force from him three times
what it is ordinarily worth, the excess has
been stolen from that man. Al Que time
hard winter was coming on and hay was
going to be scarce. 1t was usually worth
So or 81 ton. One man had consdera-
BILE more than he would need. Speculat-
ors came around and offered him 1925,
knowing they could soon get $50 ton.
He refused to sell to these men. but called
his neighbors around and sold to each
just what he would need to get his stock
through, to one q half ton, 10 another Il
ton, ETC., and charged them at the rate of
$l0only. He was Il christian man and pre-
vented his neghbors being robbed. His
slight increase in price was simply Il just
extra value created by the scarcity If Ii
man has got to have money at any figure
and you, being the only one who can
supply him, demand an interest three or
four times as great as money can ordina-
rily he had for, you have stolen the extra
interest from him In borrowing things
not returning them when promised and
obliging the owner to spend day coming
after them, you have stolen his time, etc
We mentally continued the SER
mon something like this While it
is stealing to make one pay, because
he can get it nowhere else, three
times the ordinary price for anything,
1t could scarcely be called such
to take advantage of such condition
TO put it back to what it was worth,
IL it had been below. Wheat for in
stance, has been forced down to the
fictitiously low price Of 80 cents a
bushel. 1t now generally sells for
that. If some sudden condition
should arise by which the farmer
could demand and get 80 or 100
cents it would not be stealing because
wheat is naturally worth that. If
he demanded So so, it would be
wrong because it is not naturally
worth that much. Now, If it is nat
urally worth 80 cents and the farmer
is forced to sell for 30 cents, some
one is stealing 60 cents from him.
Who is doing that? People who
seem to be basking in the sunniest of
Heavens smiles and who are enjoy
ing the choicest of earthly comforts
and luxuries. Let us hope they will
have to make up for it in the next
world. How is it done? Some boot
you when you declare it has been
done through the demonetization of
silver. But intelligent analysis
proves this to be the case. To go
over all the why's and wherefores
would take too long here, and it has
been gone over so often that it is IA
milliar to the people of the west
But we know that an ounce of silver
and a bushel of wheat have ran on
together up and down for years and
years until time crept into centuries.
and when we see them force silver
down to GO cents and wheat with it,
and then do not buy the wheat but
pay the 60 cents for the silver and
take IL over to India where it is jug
gled into coin that will buy two
bushels of the same value as our
own, thus practically cutting our
crops in two, the robbery becomes
unbearable and the lines of care in
the face and the grey hairs ON the
head and the stoop of the hopeless
frame begins to show in the masses
of the nation.
And while they are doing this
they are also robbing the miners of
their all, labor of its wages, which
are cut down in the ratio of falling
prices, and the industries of the
country Of their profits They are
robbing American commerce, they
are smashing it to pieces. Oh, the
thieves! Do you know that they
are constantly coming over from
England, buying our 60-cent silver
and taking it over to Bombay where
they have q mint and are coming it
into bright nice dollars that pass as
good dollars IN the great Oriental
trade and do 100 cents worth of
work. And thus English commerce
pulses and swells because it has the
silver to infuse the life into it, and at
the same time steals huge profit in
coming. And American commerce