The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-27

g
Uonetization. RECOMMENDATION, even by
Z weak league, would necessarily and
instantly put silver back to sOmwhere
rear it's former position when Gem
raj Walker in his latest book says
hat, how can you regard the Kansas
armer as dishonest and a 'repudia-
tor for thinking that the United
states, which is one of the two most
powerful nations on earth and stronger
alone than almost any weak leagne'g
to be named, could raise the price OF
silver to Sl.29 an ounce? Who is the
"lunatic," the Kansas farmer or the
great editor in New York?
If in this country agriculture be the
base of our industrial pyramid, as it
certainly is, how can there be any real
and permanent prosperity with agri-
culture permanently depressed? If the
gold standard bears hard on agricul-
ture, as General Walker asserts. and
as Sir Robert Giffen admits. how are
you going to improve things by main
tanning that standard? The ONLY hone
OF THE bimetallism of the Republican
party rests in international action
but what prospect is there of getting
1t? Mr.. Gladstone, who Just now is
so nlghtfully wrought up over the
rule OF the Turk, argues that Great
Britain should maintain the gold stand
ard for purely selfish reasons. and with
the altruistic and Christian Mr.. Glad
stone talking that way what can Won
expect of the business classes of tbe
queens realm? If the English are
Jusmhed IN acting solely for their sell
hSh ends, why are not the American
people? but, you say, we would Iegis-
late only for the greatest good. And
the Kansas farmer answers: AgricuI-
ture stands for the greatest good.
An, indeed, why not go it alone?
Because, you may say, it may iniure
the creditor class. And there you are
arguing from selfish motives in favor
of gold, Gladstone over again.
Suppose that Mckinley wins, what is
10 be the result? The gold standard
and Sound money" will be maintain
ed, but will the price of farm products
stop falling? Mckinley would like to
raise the tariff, but how would that
raise the price Of wheat and cereals?
Horace Greeley once told the South to
raise more cotton and less hell, but
there's no trouble about the size of
crops in Kansas, hell included. If as
of the Republican press, the fall in
prices is due absolutely and wholly to
the improvements in production, then,
we may ask how much longer on that
basis they will continue fallingI
Where, oh, where is the b0ttom?-
VIII wheat finally slump to 25 cents a
busheI and corn to cents, and cotton
to cents? Why not if these wonder
FTli on 70 N 7ArsNfi44nfhOn
tinue, as we have every reason to be-
lieye that they viii? Whatever may be
The causes, if prices persist in falling,
what are our gold standard friends 60
ing to do with the "bulwarl of sOci-
ETY." the farmers of the United States?
That is already a practical question.
George the III, on being informed
that a certain eminent divine had writ
ten an apology for the Bible, is said to
have remarked: II did not know that
the Bible needed any apology" And
so am not aware that the Kansas far
mers, or American farmers anywhere,
need an apology. But how much mis-
cry do you suppose these people would
stand? How low can our gold standard
friends allow prices to fall and he sure
that the Western farmer will sinnlv
Jerrys" to Congress, and being beaten
by sound money" sentiment at the.
polls? Numberless questions arise iry
ones mind, but one more will suffice.
How long before the farmer viii saw
in the words of General Pierce; III
we can't all be millionaires, wen be
damned if we'll have any"
One of the greatest lessons of the
French revolution, yet one that few
persons of wide reading and culture
have ever learned, is that the higher
the degree of education and prosperitv
a population have attained the more
apt they are to resort to revolution 10,
right real or fancied wrongs. The rea-
son why France was the scene of the
revolution, rather than Germany,
Austria, Italy or Spain, was that her
common people were farther advanced.
With that fact in mind, it is to me
a solemn thought that no agricultural
people in the world to-day can compare
with our American, and particularly
with our Kansas farmers, i'm education.
spirit and ambition. They
are the last people on earth to submit
tamely to conditions which they con-
slider unjust and the product of bad
legislation or of a faulty social and
industrial system. 1t matters not that
the alleged grievances of such people
are unreal; if they believe them to be
well founded they will act according
Iy. DO predict a revolution? No. but
do say that the great agricultural
class in America, with their deeply
rooted traditions as to liberty and
equality between man and man, cannot
be reduced to the condition of the peas
ant class of the old world without a
most violent protest and struggle, as
the reduction is already threatened, so
has the protest begun, and most VIC
lently in exactly the State where it,
was most likely to break out-in spir-
TIED, intelligent, ambitious Kansas.
Conceding that free silver forwhich the
farmers ask, is not to be granted to
them. what are our gold standard
friends to do in allaying this discomfort