The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-02-18

CURED IN Oy a h0puOllCau GOue6 VI
pIunging the country in debt by hun
dreds o. millions in the vain attempt
to maintain the gold standard by Dor
rowing gold; and we demand the pay
ment of all coin9obligations of the
United States, as provided by existing
laws, in either gold or silver coin, at
the option of the government, and not
at the option Of the creditor.
Whereas the demonstration Of sill
yer in 1873 enormously increased the
demand for gold, enhancing its pur-
chasing power and lowering all prices
measured by that standard and
Whereas since that unjust and indie
fensible act, the prices Of American
products have fallen upon an average
nearly so per cent, carrying down
with them proportionately the money
value of all other forms of property,
except in peculiarly favored localities !;
and
CAUSES AND EFFECT.
whereas such fall of prices has de-
stroyed the profits of legitimate indus
try, inj Iring the producer for the ben
eft of the non producer, increasing the
burden of the debtor, and swelling the
gains of the creditor, paralyzing the
productive energies of the American
people, RELOCATING to idleness vast num-
bers of willing workers, sending the
shadows of despair into the homes of
the honest tOiler, filling the land with
tramps and paupers, and building up
colossal fortunes at the money centers;
and
Whereas in the effort to maintain
the gold standard the country has,
within the last eighteen months in a
time of profound peace and plenty,
been loaded down with 1852, 600, 600 Of
additional interest bearing debt, under
such circumstances as to allow a syn
| dictate of native and foreign bankers
to realize a net profit of SO, 600, 900 on
a single deal; and
Whereas another call is now pend
ing for a further gold loan of 800, 0O0,-
600, which, but for an outbur5t of pop
ular Indignation, would also have been
negotiated in the same secret manner
and through the same syndicates ;
and
"Whereasitstands confessed that the
gold standard a only be upheld by
so depicting our paper currency as to
force the prices of u products below
the European and even below the
Asiatic level, in order that we may
sell in foreign markets, thus aggrsgat
ing the very evils Of which our people
are so bitterly complain, degrading
American labor, and striking at the
very foundation 0f our IL atom
itself; and
Whereas the advocates of the gold
standard persistently claim hat the
real cause of our distress is overpro-
duction-5hat we have produced 80
much that it has made us poor-which
implies that the true remedy is to close
the factory, aband)n the farm, and
throw a multitude of people out of EN-
| ployment "a doctrine that leaves US
absolutely without hope for the future;
and
Whereas the difference of exchange
bet silver standard countries and
gold standard countries is equivalent
to a bounty equal to the difference be
tween the value of gold and silver, in
favor of the products of silver stand,
ard countries, and a corresponding
tariff against the products of gold stand
ard countries exported to silver using
countries; and
whereas the cost of production
otherwise in the old world, and parti-
cularly in China and Japan, is far less
than the cost at which similar products
can be produced or manufactured in
this country by American labor with
! out reducing our farmers, miners,
merchanics, manufacturers, and other
industrial workers TO the level Of Chi
nese coolies;
II MONEY OF THE DADDIE8.
Therefore, be it resolved, that over
and above all other questions OF policy,
we are IN favor Of restoring to the PEG
pie Of tbs United States the time hon
ored money of the Constitution-gold
and silver, not one, but both-the
money of Washington and Hamilton
and J, ff5rson and Monroe and Jackson
and Lincoln, to the end that the Amer
lean people may receive honest pay for
an honest product; the American debtor
pay his Just obligations in an honest