Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-09-03

history. Jointly with gold, it is the
money of the American Constitu.
tion. But after two thousand years
of continual and general use, it has
been deprived of its money func-
tion. Modern empires and quacks
call it unsound money. BY de.
monetization in Europe and America
it has lost large part Of it's value as
metal, but for the fact that it is still
the money Of twelve hundred mil.
lion of the worlds population,
which is fifteen hundred and fifty
million, it would sink to the value
OF iron or copper, and be used in the
arts. RcmOnetize silver, restore it
to its historical and God-giVen func-
tiOn in this country and it would at
once resume its money value and
become again, what it was for hun
dred years before 1873, at premium
over gold on the ratio long adhered
to in the coinage of the two metals.
Before 1878 the farmer could buy
the golLdOllar with three pecks of
wheat. Now, he must pay eight
pecks for the midget coin. The case
is the same with cotton and all ma
terial property. The fifty-cent dol
lar is the butt of sneers, but we hear
nothing of the 60-cent bushel of
wheat or the 6-cent pound of cotton,
or Of land sunk to half price and
hard to sell for that. The prices of
these range themselves with silver,
the money of the people, whose
property of all sorts will buy as
much silver as before 1878 and no
more. Why should not silver be
still the peoples money? They are
thinking that it should be, and
will soon have silver remonetiZed
for their own use.
The gold class have contrived to
double the value of gold, and to
make that metal the standard of all
values; and, when the farmer asks
when he shall again receive the &C.
customed dollar and a quarter for
his wheat; and the planter, when
again his cotton will bring him fif-
teen to twenty cents-they answer
with the refrain of Poe's Raven,
Nevermore," Nevermore."
America, the United States in
large part, produces nearly all the
silver used in the world. That
metal, by our fatuous demonetiza-
tion OF it commands price only as
merchandise. Like wheat and cot
ton, it's dollar becomes, as bullion,
the 5O-cent dollar, inst as wheat be-
comes 6O-cent wheat and cotton Z
cent cotton. And yet here are
Americans ignorant and silly enough
to sneer at the diminished prices of
these three leading staple products
of their own country. Isn't it
rather matter for shame than for
sneerS?
The effect of the policy of the
gold class is to deny to the people at
large all metallic money and reduce
them to the use Of paper money ex-
clusively. Their gold is carefully
syndicated, and silver, suddenly dis
covered after two thousand years of
use to be dishonest, is demonetized.
The paper money in circulation is
not sufficient for the popular needs
and is so much used, over used, as to
have become too filthy and ragged
for decent handling. Verify, the
yoke of the gold policy is a CALLING
one. 1t ought not to be endured,
and won't be.
The people Of the country happen
to be people of unbounded pOlit-
ical courage; they happen to he the
American people abundantly capa.
BILE of selfgoverument. And they
mean to abolish the money system
which is proving to be a crushing
burden and curse to the land. They
will do this by their own free and
Independent action. In Europe,
where there are no people, where
there Is no popular thought, no free
dom, no freemen, no power of popu-
lar action, and where manhood is i'm
ruthless chains, they cannot discard
the shirt Of Nessus. And yet there
arc men in the United States so un-
worthy of their country as to insist
that we shall not get rid Of the mon-
strous tyranny which oppresses us,
until Europe agrees that we shall.
Shades Of Henry, Jefferson, Ellis.
worth, Franklin and Washing
ton ! Look with compassion upon
the class-ridden country which you
founded, and the countrymen who
tamely submit it to a yoke more
calling than King Georges. The
King was a man, with soul to be
damned, and body to be hanged
but syndicated money capital, the
"dynasty of modern times" has no
soul nor conscience, nor breast for
remorse.
The king of the London gold trust
has taken the place of King George
and our country was invested with
vast brood of Tories and Loyalists,
yielding him an abject homage.
The New York State bankers re.
solved in convention the other day
that there were sixty millions of
gold money in circulation in the
United States. The declaration is
palpably false. There is no such
amount I" in circulation" unless this
new method Of gold mining-by
resolutions of conventions---can
bring gold, there is no such amount
OF metallic money, counting both
gold and silver, in our peoples pock-
cts. But assume that the resolution
speaks truly; then tor our seventy
millions of population we have 85
cents of metallic money to the head.
France has forty-five dollars, Eng
land nineteen dollars to the head
Yet the New York State bankers
make their boastful statement with
an air of reproachful triumph. This
Is the class of men who preach panic
as the result of remonetizati0n.-
These are the lions who do the bet
ting at the London and New York
stock boards, and give orders to the
press and to the host of their pro-