Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-18
Continued from 1st page.]
AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AND THE
REMEDIES PROPOSED.


AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AND THE
REMEDIES PROPOSED.
presented to the great bankers of
Europe at the great Paris exposition.
1t required but little examination to
show them that the decentralization
of silver would appreciate the value of
gold, and thus add hundreds of millions
to their wealth.
At another time MIR. Cooper, who
spoke his mind with directness, said
Corporations are fast becoming the
curse OF modern life. They usurp the
powers that belong of right to the com
munity and the government, and actual
~ threaten the liberties of the people.
And again he sail:
The rich of the world are welded to
gold, the poor to silver. 1t is to the in
terest of the rich and moneyed kings to
demonetize silver and make gold the sole
currency because they own the gold.
No truer words were ever spoken or
written. They tell the whole story.
Wendell Phillips, too, the eloquent
champion of human freedom, thus spoke
of the money issue:
This tyranny of money which breaks
down our stoutest men and makes bank
rupt our strongest merchants, is some
thing to be feared. The slave power we
defied and perhaps have killed it, but
this tyranny of money has always been
the death warrant of republics.
Forgetting this, the republican party
ordered the bonds which Sherman said
in the senate in 1869 were payable in
paper, to be paid in coma swindle of
some three hundred millions. Then they
demonetzed silver and left the bonds
payable in gold, which robbed the
people of hundreds of millions more to
fill the pockets of the "Rothschilds.'
We noticed in recent REGISTER ac-
count of sale of 1900 barrels of apples
by an Addison county farmer for 81
per barrel, with the further statement
that when all expenses were paid the
farmer realized but $50 profit on his
crop. That the low price of apples Is
partly due to the very large crop, we
all realize; but back of that it is due, as
are all other low prices, to the de-
strucuon of half of our money metal in
the demonstration of silver, and the
consequent appreciation, or doubling, of
the value of gold. Had our money been
as formerly these apples would have
sold low, because of the great crop, but
they would have brought 81 barrel
instead of 81; and SO and 81 in better
years, instead of Sl.50 and 81. Then
the lassie on the farm would have had a
pretty ribbon for her new hat; now she
will 90 without it, or have to leave home
and take her chances in the world in
earning the money to buy it. Then the
farmer that had the apples to sell, or
anything else to sell, would have an in
come with which to buy pretty dresses
and pretty shawls as well as pretty
ribbons; better clothes for the son and
himself, as we'll as the daughter and the
wife, a new carpet for the parlor, some
dishes for the kitchen, new harness and
new wagon, some new furniture. and
perhaps a new piano for the girl-for
don't you know our farmers girls are as
competent to learn, and have the same
desire to have the accomplishments of
| life and to fit themselves in all ways for
life's highest stations as the daughters
of the milionaires or multiple-million-
aires of our cities, or ml-millionaires
and the wealthy generally of city and
country. And the laws of the country
ought to be such that they can have
such a chance; is there any question
about this?
But if the laws which regulate price
for price distributes property, afford the
farmers that chance, what does that
mean to the people of America, wher
the thirty millions more or less of per
sons engaged in agriculture are enabled tC
get the reward of their labor in fair In
come? 1t means the accumulated income
of that vast number waiting to pur
chase goods of every kind. This
means market for goods. And wha
does that mean? 1t means business anC
profit for every storekeeper, every trader
throughout the country. And wha
docs that mean more? 1t means bust
ness for every manufacturer-wlth yer!
little choice as to what he manufactures
so it serves some useful end, for tb,
tastes and wants of people are as various
as their umbers-throughout the widtl
and breadth of this whole land. Ant
that means work, not desultOry and fit
full, but continuous and prosperous, TO
the many millions of day laborers il
the republic. The whole means hap
piness for great people. 1t mean
prosperity, that always flows from jus
laws and that never can flow from un
! just ones.
We have now system of tinanc,
unquestionably dictated by the bank
. ing interest of England and Europe