Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-08-27
A Common Cause.

taken the paper almost from its FIRST
issue to The present time, notwith-
standing party differences and parti-
IAN rancor. We have never deemed
it probable that many of these people
would change their political afillia-
tons unless their should arise some
great and Overmastering reason for
such action. The Law of social inertia
forbids it. Men do not readily throw
aside political friendships or political
bias. They like to train with the
crowd they are used to. and perhaps
it is as well that this is so. for it in
sures party and social stability.
But times arise when the old
order changes. We are forcibly brok-
en- from our moorings and carried out
to sea, and are compelled to seek
new barbor. 1t seems to us the pres
eut is one of those epochs of disturb
ance that precede general readjust-
ment. II We raise our eyes from our
immediate concerns and glance at the
rest of the world, a portentous state
Of affairs confronts US. The English
farmer finds himself being swept help
lessly into the sea by forces which he
only partially understands. and the
lands that once provided beautifully
for his ancestors are returning to will
derness. The Italian mother seeks to
relieve the hunger of her starving child
with grass that she plucks from the
roadside to cook in vain endeavor to
keep life in her loved one. The
Italian leaves his country as the rat
leaves a sinking ship. Anywhere
across its borders is place Of refuge
for him. In Germany, in Austria
over all the civilized world, except
Mexico and some obscure South Amer
lean countries-the producing classes
are crying out in agony.
If we turn to our own land we find a
difference in degree alone. The earth
yields as bountifully to the efforts OF
her children as 1t ever did. Our crops
are as ample and our citizens are as
industrious as they ever were; but if
we look about US we see business de-
preston and stagnation every where.
Farmers taking eight and ten cents
per bushel for their oats, forty cents
for their wheat, from ten to twenty
FIVE cents for their corn-the price de-
pending upon locality-and the aver
age price of manual labor less than
fifty cents per day, if we take into &C
count the unemployed and the amount
of time lost by those who work.
This state of affairs has come to the
whole world in the last twenty-five
years. What has caused it? 1t will
not do to say it is tariff legislation, be-
cause Free Trade England and High
Tariff Germany suffer alike. 1t will
not do to say it is over-production, be-
cause men and women anxious to labor
are hungry and naked throughout the
land. Some malign influence has
fallen upon us that saps our strength
and takes from us our substance.
What is il, and from whence did it
Gomez The modern sphinx stands
upon the highway and propounds this
riddle to modern society. Not to
answer it Alright means the destruction
of the present social order and a re-
turn to chaos.
Those who till the soil and produce
that upon which the rest of US live
should be the most prosperous of our
citizens, but they are the least pros
porous. Twenty-Five thousand of our
people own thirty-two billions of our
wealth out of 8 total of sixty-four bill
lions. while we have an army of tramps
of over four million men, and fully
fifty per cent. of our farms are mort
gagged. Is it possible that the favored
twenty-five thousand created the
wealth represented by the enormous
sum of thirty-four billions OF dollars,
or have rendered service to that
amount? No one will contend that
that they have. II they have not
created it or earned 1t, we must look
to the means by which they became
possessed of it, If we wish to stop the
wasting of our life blood. We find
that many billions of this great sum
have been accumulated by the manip-
uIation of our currency laws. These
laws have legislated the bankers, and
bondholders, forty thousand gold dol
lars in 1866 into three hundred and
eighty thousand gold dollars in 1896.
If any one dispute this, we can dem
onstrate it so that no room for cavil |
will be left. Contraction means ap-
probation in the value OF money and
depreciation of the value of all other
property. As money represents all
other property, whatever enhances its
value detracts in the same ratio from
all else; so that If the holder of money
is allowed to contract the currency at
will, he will. after awhile, own all
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