The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-07-24
ONE POINT OF VIEW.

the financial question. One way whicl
is much used is TO load up with vii
derness of figures, tables and statistic
, and spend your natural life totalin:
columns. Another way is to craw
, slowly and cautiously after your polit
icaI party and declare that its god il
your god and that its belief is your be
lief. Another way is used by a grea
many people who are never suspected
by the politicians or the demagogues
This way may be after all the correci
way. 1t consists in being sober and
sensible about the whole thing and il
reasoned out this way:
There is something in the nation that
directs il, it's progress and its destiny
without the aid of men, argument OF
party The people are now greatly ex-
cited over the financial issue. Why
Because there is something wrong with
the currency. Why is this apparent to
everybody? Because it is not the nor
NAL and natural thing to issue gold
bonds in time of peace. Why are bonds
| issued? To keep up the gold reserve.
What is the gold reserve for? 1t is
money kept on hand to redeem cur
rency which is not gold, and which
act puts us Gu a single gold standard
What does the single gold standard
do TO a nation?
A thousand men will give a thousand
answers to this. 1t is charged that it
takes half Of the corn that every farm
er picks; half Of his hogs and half OF
the poor man one-half and doubles the
rich mans deposit in bank; that it
makes real estate and chattels unSal-
able; that it enslaves the laborer and
surrenders the nation to Europe and
yields the country into the hands Of the
great creditor classes of England and
the east of the United States.
These are only few, a very, very
few of the dreadful things which are
charged up against a gold standard.
On the other hand a large part of the
leading men of the nation and nearly
all the great metropolitan papers in
sist that the gold standard is a deSir
able thing; because it is the best money
on earth; the least fiuctuating at pres
ent; because it is good the world over,
and because you can crush the coin or
melt it and it remains Of the same
value as it was before with the govern
ment ssurance on it's face and reverse
that it contained so much metal. The
gold standard champions also declare
that the free coinage of silver, which
the anti-gold standard men propose,
would be completely and absolutely
disastrous. The entire moneyed class |
of the country declare this with strong |
conviction and fear. Bankers in the |
east say there is no question about the |
wreck that would follow, and Presi- |
dent J. L. Green OF the Connecticut |
Mutual Life Insurance company, |
threatens to pay his policies only one |
half in case free coinage should win. |
The gold men also point out that all |
the enlightened countries of the world
have abandoned silver and have taken
gold as the single standard.
Now there are thousnds OF sensible
citizens in the land who are reading
I'D both sides of this question and ac-
cepting neither side. Why? Because
they do not believe they have anything
to do with it. The discussion is excit-
ing. To the poor man there is a GER
tain satisfaction in detecting the cause
of his oppression or his OppressOr. To
the demagogue and agitator the finan-
cial discussion, comparatively new and
is a picnic, in which he
can play endlessly on the prejudices of
men.
But there are people who refuse to
form an opinion on the subject They
have made up their minds that if the
gold standard is the right thing, it will
endure; that if iC is the wrong thing
It will 60 down. They have made
I'D their minds that if free coinage of
silver is a necessity in this country it
will come. whether Major Mckinley
S president or young Mr.. Bryan. If it
S the purpose of the destiny which
guides the progressing world TO raise
Fellow metal, we will have a single
standard and of gold, and Major Nc
Ainley as president can aid it little or
,Ir. Bryan as president can pre-
rent it.
A protective tariff during the thirty
-earS after the civil war was the thing
or this country. Only a little over
,ne-half of the people, however. be- /
ieved that it was, ordinarily. After
hirty years discussion the people one
lay all went together and declared, at
he behest of the Democrats, that I
tariff was not the thing for
his country. Could the Democrats
hange it? No. Did they put in free {
rade? Did they want to do it? Yes
'ould they do it? No. Why? Be-
ause it was impossible.
t present over what gold and silver c
vill do. What they will do is for the
most part problem. No one knows. I
'inety per cent of the country's bus
ness is done on money made with a
teel pen and piece of white paper
paper. The question Of :.
honey has never before experienced >,