Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-15


The attention Of the people of the
united States has not been sufficiently
directed TO the character of these
measures. They were ind1sputably an
application of the protective principIe
II most offensive, costly and unprac
teal form; one which no intelligent
advocate of protection would counter
ance. 1t was an interference with the
principle of industrial freedom that no
civilized nation, not sanctioning hui
man slavery, has ever attempted to ex-
erclse. 1t was an unprecedented de-
parture of the government from the
sphere OF purpose for which it was in
stituted, namely, by buying and with
holding from the market of the largest
portion OF the product of one industry,
with the object of increasing the price
Of its unsold remainder to multitude
| OF consumers and enhancing the profits
to small number OF producers. And
yet those former distinguished adyo-
Yates of free trade, Messrs. Vest,
Jones of Arkansas, Blackburn and
Mills, have walked into the trap and
closed deliberately forever lit is to be
| hoped the door after them. For no
audience of American citizens who are
! free-traders from principle ought ever
hereafter, to give 10 any one of them a
respectful hearing.
! If the principle of the purchase and
boarding of a portion OF the industrial
produce of the country with a view to
raising it's price and so benefting its
producers is correct, why was it only
made applicable to the comparatively
small but VIGOROUSLY profitable indus
! try Of silver mining, the managers of
which are reported to be millionaires?
| Why is it not made applicable to other
commodities, the producers of which
mad far greater claims for national con-
SlderatiOn than silver-cotton and
wheat for eXample-in comparison with
the annual production of which, that of
silver is insignificant. A small rise in
The price of these commodities, or even
guarantee against the unusual decline in
their prices, would have benefited a
much larger number of needy pro-
ducers. Copper leads silver in the value
of its annual product by about seven
millions; building stone by four mil
lions, coal by over 100 millions; while
potatoes, which have recently hardly
commanded a price sufficient to pay for
digging, exceed silver in the value Of
their production by more than 10 mil
lions. The government in days past
has done great deal to maintain the
domestic prices of pig-iron, the annual
production of which is worth very much
more than our domestic product of sill
yer; but the advocates of protection
never proposed to buy pigs of iron and
stack them up unused in the vaults of
the treasury for the sake of benefiting
the iron industry The entire market
value Of the silver product of the coun-
try is not sufficient to pay the legal in
terest on the total value of it's other
mineral products.
Question and Answer.
When the question was Familiarity
put by the writer to Senator Jones,
shortly after his remarkable economic
conversion, why he had changed from
an ultrafree trader to an ultra -protec-
zionist, his answer substantially was:
Don't you see it, David. How could |
ask the government to regularly pur-
chase our product of silver and refuse
to give the iron manufacturer in Penn
sylvania the tariff protection which he
needs to maintain his prices? Let con-
gress discontinue the purchase of our
silver and you will see how ultra a free
, trader | will soon become" And the
threat is evidently in the process of con-
summation when the advocates Of free
coinage in the senate including Sena-
tor Jones that no revision of
the tariff in the interest of protection
shall pass congress which does not pro-
, vide for free coinage of silver.
The above two devices for the benefit
of the millionaire mine owners having
completely failed, they have now de-
viSed a third, more subtle and in
genious, which has captivated and be-
, guiled no small part of the American
, people-namely, the sO-called free coin
age of silver with the legal tender at
+ tachment. Under such policy-once
, adopted they could force the public to
buy, at an artificial and extrayagant
price, uOL d Part, DuI Iu6 Whole Oh LUelT
, annual product of silver. For they
, could take it-costing 80 to 40 cents per
ounce-to the mint and have it coined,
and then virtually sell the resulting
coin to the public at the rate of 100
cents per ounce for the liquidation of
debts and payment of wages.
1t is difficult, therefore, in the face Of
such indisputable facts, to resist the
conclusion that this whole silver agita-
ton, which, as before shown, is not
manifesting itself in any like degree in
any other country, is the result of a
rascally conspiracy of the silver mag
mates of the West and certain polit1-
clans whose aspirations are conferred in
the attainment of Office and spoils. The
exactions of the former further to in
crease their great fortunes have already
cost the government and the people of
the United States thousand of millions
of dollars. If no silver mines had ever
been discovered in this country, or if
discovered, the government had bought
and closed them up, there never would
have been any silver agitation in the
country.
Has there ever been such selfish and
unpatriotic schemes palmed off in mod
ern times on the people Of any country?
Ought not every sensible American citi-
zen that has given, or is still giving,