St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-01
CENTURIES BEHIND THE TIMES.

The remark Of a Republican senator,
in one Of the rinconsequent debates
which are. all that we have learned
to expect from that body, sets forth
the Republican position with great
clearness. He says that the prosperity
Of this country can be restored and
assured only by legislation that will
affect and control prices. His remedies
are, first, the abandonment of the gold
standard: thus cutting ourselves off
from commercial communication with
the other nations Of the world, except
on payment Of royalties that are al
ways exacted from the users of a de-
preciated currency. In the next place,
we must, he says, do our own carry
ing trade; not by virtue of conducting
the business more economically or more
satisfactorily than our competitors, but
by giving liberal subsidies to steam
ship lines. Finally, 1--WE must legislate
to increase the value of our export
commodities" How this is to be done,
except in as far as it is connected in
his mind with the free coinage of silver.
Senator Mitchell does not state
One would think that in proposing a
method to increase the domestic value
of our home produce, a man would not
initiate those countries where all COM
modities are quoted at the lowest fig
ure; yet this is the scheme of Mr..
Mitchell and other advocates of free
silver. When they are depicting the
difficulties under which we struggle in
competing in production with other
nations. they hold up the silver stand
ard countries as a warming We can
not, they say, compete with Japan or
India in production, because of the won
derful cheapness of all commodities, in
Guiding labor, in those nations. They
then propose that we adopt the finan-
cial system of those nations, which
carries with it, inevitably, their range
Of prices; SO that, if we embarked upon
this branch Of legislative science that
Mr.. Mitchell outlines, instead of leg
islating to increase the value of those
things which we produce for export.
we are legislating to reduce them to
the basis of prices in India and japan.
1t is not surprising to us that the adj
vocates Of free silver in the press and
on the stump do not meet this difficulty
because it is unanswerable. 1t is sur
prising, however, it is almost incon-
ceivable, that the laboring men, on the
farm and in the shop, who have been
brought into the silver ranks do not
debate this question for themselves:
do not ask how they are to be bene-
flied by the adoption of system one
certain consequence of which will be
the lowering of the wage scale, and of
the prices of those articles that we man
ufacture, to the starvation basis that
exists in all the silver standard coun-
tries.
The general proposition of Senator
Mitchell is most instructive, however
not merely in its relation to free silver
and subsidies, but in it's adherence to
all Republican policy. This is that the
prosperity and wealth and advance
ment Of nation do not depend upon
the industry and frugality Of it's peo-
pie, but upon appropriate legislation.
After the teachings of a great many
long centuries, these benighted people
still hold that wealth is not a creation
Of labor, but Of law. According to
them. there is some possible hocus-
pocus by which an entire people might
sit down in idleness and accumulate
great fortunes, If their representatives
were meantime to enact the proper
kind Of legislation. This idea once pre-
vailed very generally. Some centuries
ago there was a time when sumptuary
laws were the main business of legis--