The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-02-07

1t is by no means certain we shall
continue always to be the most pa
tient. Those who have thus pillaged
US, and who, elatei with their success
SO far, threaten SO still further con-
tract the currency by retiring the
greenbacks and thus still more increase
the value Of the dollar, may learn a
lesson right here in Mexico. The
Catholic church, by three centuries
and half of policy as deliberate and
as carefully planned as that of the
monopolies and the money power in
the United States to-day, came to own
absolutely one-third of all the proper
ty in this country, and controlled the
balance. The masses were kept in ig
norance and the leaders and the intel
ligence Of the country were intimi-
! dated or bought. But there comes
an end to such things. In 1857 the
property of the church was conhscated.
The church party called in the English,
the Spanish and the French, and the
latter gave them an Emperor. But
the French have been driven out, the
Emperor has been shot and to-day
throughout this great country, four
times as large as France or Germany
the Catholic church does not own a
foot of soil or dollar of money. The
very church buildings, hoary, some o.
them, with nearly four centuries Of use.
belong to the government, and ser
vices are conducted in them only by
permission of the authorities elected
by the people. Not priest can walk
the streets in his official robes. Mexico
remains Roman Catholic in her re-
ligion, but when the alternative wa:
presented, whether the church should
own the country or the country own
the church, Mexico, in spite OF centu
ries of veneration for religious author
ity and the influence of consolidated
wealth and the ignorance and poverty
of her masses, was able to vindicate
the rights of her people. What thi:
priestly monopoly was to Mexico, the
money power is to the United States
The multi millionaires, the bond hol
ders, the trusts and monopolles alread,
own over one-third of the property o
our country and are reaching out fol
the rest Many leaders they nomin
ate and elect to office, others the,
intimldale or corrupt. But people
while patient, are not ignorant, and i
the course of the nonopolies and com
binations continuous unchecked, they
will wake up some morning to find, a:
the Catholic church did here, that the
sovereign people own the country ano
all that in it is. The Catholics here
venerated the church fully as much as
we ever did the rights of individual
ownership of any species OF property
but the welfare Of the people is the
highest law, and when that becomes
imperiled as it was in Mexico by the
money power in the shape of the
church, and as it is in the United
States by the same deadly enemy ir
the guise of multi-millionaires and mo
nopolies, the manhood and the brains
and the honesty of the people will as
sert themselves and we shall not &C
down under the same enemy that de
stroyed Rome, and SO many other ma
tions in the past. The world is oldel
and wiser.
The gold dollar in the United State
may wei! be called a mythical dollar
Not one man in hundred ever see
one. 1t is not used 10 buy corn, O
wheat, or flour, or railroad tickets, O
dry goods. 1t is only for the sacret
use of the idle rich when they wish t>
measure by high standard doubled
in value, the principal and interest o
bonds, which, on their face, by th'
contract, are payable in coin-i t
in either gold or silver.
In drawing these lessons from th'
past experience and the present pros
perity of Mexico, there are those whe
will say Mexico is inferior to th'
United States in education, in civil
zation, and in many other respects
And SO it is-and so much the worst
for the objectors. For if Mexico, not
wi,hstandlng all these disadvantages
is prosperous and going forward b,
leaps and bounds by keeping he
standard Of values at the same level
So much the greater is The condemna
ton of the men who, in spite Of ou
grea, and manifest superiority, have
brought the curse and blight OF Ions
enduring depression upon us by rob
bing the wealth producers in th'
interest of the wealth consumers
through the device Of doubling, b,
crooked legislation, the value Of tn
dollar. And if Mexico, with s5e
years of priestly rule, 800 OF whlcl
were also under foreign yoke, ant
500 more passed amid internationa
disSersions, could assert themselves ant
throttle the gigantic money powe
which oppressed them, what cannot
and what will not, IS millions of TIL
foremost people of the earth he abl
to do when satisfied that they owe i
10 themselves and their posterity t
; break the yoke which gals them.
Much more might be said, and mor'
forcibly. WALTER CLARK.
City of Mexico, Jan. IS, 1896.
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