Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-01-22


ton in 1896 will be less that %, ,O0O, 900
ounces.
Every laborer, artisan, mechanic,
farmer, merchant and professional man
in these United States should give this
subject his earnest thought that his
mind may more easily grasp the mon
etary situation with a realizing sense
of it's Importance.
With our mines idle this decrease will
continue until, in a very few years, sill
yer will only be known as a by-product
with copper and gold and will not
exceed, all told, over $4,000, 900 ounces.
The demand for silver to be used in
art and manufacture may possibly act
in certain degree as a stimulus to sill
yer mining industry Without a de-
mand of this nature it will require the
| entire amount of the by-product to sup
| ply the art trade only.
With low prices where is the world s
supply to come from? America will
have no silver to sell. This country
and Mexico have produced over one
half the silver in the world at this time.
Mexico is using the greater part of all
the silver she produces, and we can
readily see how that country makes
herself prosperous by so doing. She
pays all her help with silver at ratio
Of 16 to 1, and sells her products, aside
from silver, in gold countries, receiv-
ing payment in gold. Such manner of
transacting business makes silver coun-
tries prosperous, while gold countries
deteriorate commercially and finan-
cially.
Many of the politicians of today are
coupling silver with tariff. While ]
am for tariff, 1 am for silver first, as
being a paramount issue. Japan and
China are both silver countries. They
can as easily make or manufacture any
needed article as can the United States
With monometallism, Japan and China
are given IS per cent advantage to start
with. The difference between gold and
silver at present gives them SO per
cent advantage, while the difference in
price of labor in other countries and
ours is over 25 per cent; hence IS per
cent is a small estimate. With their
cheap labor to contend with, how are
we to shut out their wares and prod
ucts? Can We raise the tariff high
enough to do so?
This is one of the gravest questions
we have to contend with. Shall we al
low the gold bugs of England and the
United States to reduce our free-born
laboring classes to level with the
Mongolian or enslaved coolies of Asiat-
ic countries? Emphatically, No!
But how prevent it?
The simplest thing Imaginable
Throw political Affiliations aside; ig-
more all party ties on this important
issue. and vote for the presidential
candidate who is known to favor the
free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16
to l.
Take John Sherman from 1873 to the
present time for example, with Grover
Cleveland and John G. Carlisle as aux
iliaries, and see where they, with their
monometallist proclivities and teach
ings, and administrative acts, have
placed us. In the mining states and ter
ritories we see deserted towns, idle
machinery, desolate houses, poverty
starvation, misery. misery, misery, and
a terrible increase in the crime which
follows and is the outcome of want and
suffering.
1 Railroads, too. are mostly in the
hands of receivers, and trains are run
ming short-handed with crews working
at pitifully low wages.
Farmers are in still worse condi-
tion. For all they sell they receive
less than the cost of production, and
apparently do not know the cause. A
few days since I met a farmer in
Omaha, Neb. He told me corn in the
country was worth but 121s cents per
bushel. That farmers were selling their
hogs at so low figure they had to dc
without meat at home. That they were