The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-08-17

IL we 20 abroad we make use OF IT, bat
here at home we don't use it and we
don't want to use 1t. Even the very rich
man whom the silyerite pictures TO US
with pockets stuffed out with something
| lumpy which we are directed to assume
is solid gold, and conventional bag with
''S" on 1t also presumably filled with
gold, in either hand, actually rarely has
any gold 10 speak Of, CT uses any or
wants to use any except for the pur-
chase of the imported perfectos which he
always smokes or the railroads or blocks
OF real estate that nc deals in every day
between meals.
And yet gold is not myth There is
some of 1t in this count try. Not enough
to be used for money, to be sure, for the
paying OF wages and salaries and the buy
ing OF groceries, hosiery and railroads
and blocks OF real estate. But there is
enough for the practical purpose and the
only purpose for which 1t is desirable
to have the gold, namely for a standard
on which all our money of whatever
form may be based as guarantee Of good
faith, and to pay exchanges, the balances
due from business men in one country TO
business men in another country.
Either by law or in spite OF law gold
has been the standard OF the money OF
our country almost as long as there has
been country. For 90 years at least gold
has been uninierruptedly the standard.
During the years the country has had it's
ups and downs its days of prosperity and
its periods OF disaster. 1t has suffered
panios and wars and epidemics and fits
OF crankiness. On the whole it has done
pretty well and as a rule its people have
b en- rather better off than the people OF
any other country on the face Of tho
earth. OF late and up to within quite
recentIy,or TO speak plainly, up to the..ad-
vent OF the last CLEVELAND admiuistra-
tion, the country was i'm condition OF
! prosperity and its people were sharing
that prosperity between one and the other
| In measure unprecedented in the history
Of even this great and glorious nation.
Since then times have been hard and we
have had a panic. And just now the
country Is going through fit of cranki-
| ness.
The fit expresses itself thorugh a de-
mand for the free, unlimited and ipde-
| pendent coinage of silver at the ratio OF
10 to and its victims are distinguished
from plain folk who have not yet been
Infected by the silver microbe by the
horror they have for gold. The victim of
the silver d. regards gold as the devil
is proverbially supposed to look upon
holy water. Gold, cries the subject of
the silver tit in his spasms, is at the
| foundation CT all our troubles and as il
this was not enough the subject proceeds
| to inform us that since the birth OF this
nation we have never had anything but
troubles. OF course this Is preposterous
| to the average Intelligence but it is neces-
sary for the silver subject to so declare
since 1t would be useless to charge gold
with being the aut thor of our woes Unless
we could likewise be convinced that we
had woes of which something must be
| the author.
And so gold is the scapegoat. Gold Is
responsible for all our burdens, real and
imaginary. II is responsible for the
low price OF crops-yes, for the short
ness Of crops il they are short. 1t is TO
blame for the shutting down OF mills ard
| the cutting off of wares. Ii made the
panic of 1893 and of 1873, and all the
other panics. There is nothing evil that
ever happened to this country that the
silver subject, IL we give him rope
enough, will not be able TO trace TO
gold. We expect before the campaign is
over TO be informed that II tho country
had not been on q gold standard there
would have been no War of the Rebel
lion and horses would have been spared
the epidemic of epizootIc back in the
seventies.
Poor goldl
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