Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-05-06
woNomETALLrsM.
A Correspondent, shows Up the Fallaeiss
of Goidbugism.

such serious matter II wouid On
amusing to see the inconslstency'-th'
contradictIons--the desperate Sdulrm
ings OF the goldbug press IL II
enough 20 almost make one lose faltt
In the intelligence Of the American
people, 10 think that they are reading
such a lot OF internal t0mlny-fUt day
after day aud year after year
swallowing It all, and never Reetlnp
an inkllng Of the fact that there must
be a nigger In the woodplle. There Is
one way to account for this. and that
IA on the superstition that the financial
question has been 80 beclouded and
befuddlcd by those great" persons
who have tried to explain It on the
gold hypothesis that the people have
concluded that the whole business Is
too complicated for the ordinary I'M
derstanding to gupple with. So they
follow th.ir leaders like flock of
sheep, never stopping tO look at any
thing that Is not pointed out to them
b, their masters, and carefully re-
framing from looking at even those
things from any other point Of view,
excepting that from which they are
first shown them by the official guides.
And do they not allow their faith In
their guides and philosophers TO be for
an instant shaken when they see
their prophecies proven false and their
assertions c0ntroverted by the facts.
Not long ago they were telling us
that fear OF silver was destroying the
credit OF the government, and that
was the reason that Mr.. Cleveland
was Obliged to make such rotten
bargain with the golden hlghwaymen,
alias the bond syndicate. Since the
last sale OF bonds they have been
Obliged to drop that cry. IL was given
the lie direct by such an Oyerwhelm-
ing majority that they have been con-
strained to send that particular piece
OF twaddle 20 the bOneyard. A sub
scriptiOn for six times the amount OF
the bonds offered at better figures
than heretofore realized, and at the
very time when the United States
senate was, TO quote the goldbugs, be-
ing "held up by the silver fanatics'--
that looked like "lack Of confidence
and fear of silver legislation" didn't
IL? But did that knock any scales
from the eyes OF the gold-worshippers?
Hardly. There IL no God but gold,
and the banker Is his prohet. "Phe-
nomenons," under which head come
all anti-gold facts, don't count.
They harp on the amount Of money
lying idle In the banks on account OF
"lack OF confidence" and "fear OF sill
yer legislation" They tell us that
the owner OF money dares not let IL
"go out" for fear that he will not be
able to get back an "honest dollar"
They ought 10 stop right there till
the next Issue OF the paper; but in
stead of that, they try TO pile up the
arguments, and, In so doing, they
prove too much, In the same column
they tell us that all this capital is
only too anxious 10 get out at incred-
IDLY low rates Of interest. All IL
wants Is good security. But, they
tell you with tears In their eyes, the
inconsiderate persons who have se-
curlty TO give don't want TO borrow
money. This latter fact also they
account for on the score OF currency
agitation. You are afraid TO loan
your money. for fear that you will be
repaid In dishonest" dollars -still
you are more than willing TO loan IL
on any adequate security aud at very
low interest, At the same time, your
neighbor declines 10 borrow your
money because he Is afraid that he
will be enabled TO repay you in dis
honest dollarsy An, hut, they tell
you, he dares not borrow it to put into
business for fear OF general cata-
elysm OF some kind.
VIII tell you why he does not bors
now IT, II Is not the fear of what the
"sllyer fanatics" may accomplish; but
the fear that they may not accom-.
plish anything, that deters him. II
is ON account OF the actual conditions
/ nh -.