The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-09-30

was q revival II business hope The iron
business, one Of the great indices Of pros
perity, having IN many respects good
thrift schedule. began TO revive Some 9TH
er industries followed suit, and u tempo
rary hope went over the community. One
great steel company had orders six months
ahead. Its stock rose from 40 to so. Mon
who knew best purchased 1t at so and
thought 1t worth 1875. Confidence began
to show itself Then came Venezuela, and
then what Senator Brice called the petit
ton In bankruptcy followed. Confidence
died. One day the iron mills had business
beyond power Of supplying wants; the
next day they had none. Reasonable GER
tainty makes business; uncertainty para
lyzes It,
In 1870 we resumed specie payments
We had suitable tariff laws The founda-
ton for certainty was laid. We knew we
were to do our own work. Capitalists. saw
ings banks, all who had capital TO lend ut
home and abroad knew there was certain
" OF honest repayment, and business re-
sumed its onward march. In 1897, with
such change of tariff as will be founded
on business principles and have the APP
prevail of the people of the United States,
we shall again have the certainty of doing
our own work.
With the defeat Of the Bryan Watson
Sewall combination will come certainty Of
repayment of capital borrowed at home
and abroad, certainty that business enter
prises will have sound foundation, and
1897, with its attendant Ia years of sue
cess, will lift us TO another height of sue
cess, where perhaps another set of misguid-
ed citizens forgetful of the past, will way
lay us, and we shall have to beat them
again. This, then, Is the reasonable pros
pect of the future / wish / could assure
you of a future prosperity that would reign
unbroken forever and ever. But history
knows human nature too we'll
You will see that my statements are not
promises without limit. You have seen
exhibited many times remedies for all the
ills the world is heir to, but did you ever
sec a perfectly healthy world? You never
will.
Evils OF an Unstable Currency.
Omne ignotum pro magniflco is Latin
and pretty DID, and of course we all under
stand it, But l want TO give you II free
translation. Everything we do not know
anything about always looks big
The human creature Is imaginative. II
he sees a tail disappearing over fence, he
imagines the whole beast and usually i'm
AGNES the wrong beast, especially If 1t is
dark and wild animals abound / suppose
that all the kings horses and all his arm
ed men never frightened the people of this
world half so much as ghosts, and yet
there never were any ghosts.
Whenever we take trip into the realms
Of fancy we see good many things that
never were. The safe footing in this world
Is on the things we know. If this nation
follows the silver people, what sure foot
hold is there anywhere? Has any nation
ever succeeded in what we are asked to un-
dertakep Not one.
Has any nation ever failed? Mexico,
supported by the great empire Of China
with 400, 900, 900 of people, has failed to lift
silver above its market value. am well
aware that we are mightier than Mexico
or China or both combined. But we are
not omnipotent. We are only part of the
world We cannot add cubit TO any
mans stature. We cannot fix the price Of
wheat.
Chicago standing for the whole country,
tried that once and was worsted in the
struggle We tried to fix the price of green
backs by calling them a dollar, but never
one Of them was dollar until 1879, when
we promised to give dollar and backed
up the promise with 800, 900, 900 of gold.
When gold was ut 200, not all the pow
er Of this country, with 2, 900, 900 of men In
arms, could make q greenback buy more
than 30 cents worth of anything except
human labor
Either the silver men expect silver I'M
der free coinage to go to par or they do
not. II they do, they have not one single
fact upon which to depend. All human
history is not only against them, but over
whelmingly So II generalization of sill
yer by 8 cents on a dollar drove all the
gold out Of our country for go years once
in its history, what will 90 cents of over
valuation do? Why, 1t is as clear as mathe-
mates.
We shall then be on silver basis, what
ever that may be. If we get there, the
basis will either be stable or unstable. II
ii Is stable, what improvement will that be?
Are there any more potatoes In four pecks
than in one bushel? Are 1873 IS cent dol
lars worth any more than 100 100 cent dol
lars? Does dollar get any more valuation
by changing 1t into coppers?
But suppose the new standard Is unsta-
BILE, what will happen then? Well, human
experience Is here to tell you All uncer
tainties are a detriment to business For
the last 80 years all the struggle Of bust
ness has been toward certainties Business
has long ago ceased to be gambling. Small
and sure profits often repeated are the foun-
dalton of modern wealth. The Suez canal,
the ocean cable, the swift steamships and
the swiftest railroads are all harnessed in
TO this service Whoever that can have a
stable currency swings off into an unsta-
BILE currency sets himself against the civ
ilized world and must take the conse-
quences.
An Improbable Exchange.
But, say some of these men, suppose we
do swing off from Europe, we join the
great silver using countries, China and
Japan and Mexico and all the rest with
their 900, 900, 900 inhabitants. Why not
give up the European mode and take the
trade of China and Japan? This sounds
well. 1t looks all the larger because 1t ex-
lists in imagination. Do you suppose we
could get the trade of these countries by
simply having the same money! Such
ideas, like the old time cry Of markets Of
the world" are of such stuff as dreams are
made of. Trade takes decades-nay, cen
turies--for its growth
But lot us imagine we could have all
that trade which wOuld come tn rs Sec