The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-12-22

q corner on this metal. You present
silver or other money in payment. l
demand gold. Yon go to the broker
age shop where l keep my gold and
you exchange two hundred dollars OF
YOUR oney for one hundred dollars Of
gold. My corner on gold is absolute
aud you are compelled to pay my
price for it. I am able, because of
this corner, to set at naught the de
msnd and supply rule. l may have
twic9 as much gold as is necessary to
carry on the brokerage business, but
this does not impair my ability to
price my gold. AS long as the corner
on gold, or gold and silver, is main
tanned the power to fix their value Is
| absolute with those having the corner
The power to corner an article carries
with it the ability to fix It's price,
| whether the article be scarce or plenty.
The ability of the creditor class to cor
ner gold and silver as redemption
| money is absolute. IN 1891 there was
a partial failure Of corn. The pork
combine took advantage OF this and
depressed the price OF pork until it
paid better to sell corn than feed it to
hogs. The farmers bit at the bait, and
sold off every porker that would go on
the market. With a corner on pork,
the combine put up the price twelve
dollars On the barrel, roaping a profit
of tens of millions of dollars. There
was no more pork in existence before
the price went up than after the price
advanced. Here was an advance Of
100 per cent. without an increase in
supply. This corner on porke was
broken in time. Howe By the farm
ers increasing the supply on which the
combine didn't have a cOrn5r. Ii they
had had q corner on the pork Taisers
they could have continued the corner
indefinitely.
The creditor class can C all the
gold and silver coined, and a few men
have a corner On ali the gold and sill
yer mines. This corner is absolute
and the people cannot mine gold and
silver and break this corner as the
farmers did the corner on pork, and
as they have on other articles. The
student of political economy that does
not know that the creditor class have
a corner on all the medium Of exchange
is a novice. When we had hand
labor, a large portion of our exchanges
we're made by barter. The application
of steam to machinery changed this
Our huge corporations produce special
lines of goods and all must be ex-
changed with money. This increased
demand for money to be exchanged
every line produced increases the
power of the m0Bied class to corner
money and their power to rob the peo-
pie. Congress has the exclusive power
TO coin money, fix its value and put iG
into circulation. Transfer this power
to corporations and they have the
power to fix it's value ard control the
price Of the products of labor not con
trolled by combines. This power to
tax our industries is absolute. Inter
est on debts compels money to remain
IN the vaults of the money combine,
and We are forced to compete for this
money IN order to make our ex changes,
thus increasing the value of money
and ~depreciatiDg the value OF the pro
ducts Of labor not controlled by com
bines. The combines are the Only ones
that can overcome the shrinkage Of
values. The various combines have
demonstrated their ability TO fix prices,
IN spite Of a falling market. The les
son taught By the combines advancing
prices on a falling market should teach
the self constituted boss in the reform
movement that the people could
do the same if they had the chance.
This lesson the people must learn.
This will never be done by a party con
trolled by o~ffce-seekers. Their time
is spent planning campaigns in which
az Cff;e is the objective point. This
truth can b9quickly learned in non par
tisan leagues open to all. This corner
on gold must be broken. The first
plank in the Alliance demands fur
nishes the remedy, and enacted
into law will give the needed relief.
This demand and the postal bank was
intended to furnish the money direct
to the people and secure depositors
and stop panicg. It was intended to
place the people where they could
combine Go operate) and price their
labor and products. With the money