The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-12-22
FUSION no 2.

GOmDGElClOu @@ CuSu SAA SSPPAJ
Huge Fortunes Made in q Day---Com-
bines The Only Remedy.
Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer.
A campaign of education, did you
says Yes; the people were educated
into a rut-one part to believe that the
remonetizing of silver at the ratio OF
Is to 1 is the panacea for all your ills
the other party to believe the gold
standard, an honest dollar and a high
tariff is all that is necessary ostart the
wheels Of business and prosperity will
come to every class. Yes, the people
have been educated into a rut, and the
task devoIves upon the reformers to
educate them out Of it. They know
to a certainty that none Of thes9 meas
ures un.ccompanied with other legls
Iation will give relief. Hundreds OF
thousands Of Populists have been led
to believe that the free and unlimited
Coinage of silver was the financial
question proper and they returned to
their old love. The Democratic party
is the champion of silver, and if this
is the financial question, then there Is
no further us9 for the P0pulist party,
and the sooner it disbauds the better
for the cause. At the close Of this
campaign we find more pre- ldic9 to
overcome, the people divided into two
hostile camps, less unsusceptible to the
truth than when the campaign began
They have been indoctrineted with
that detestable frRUd-the belief that
this great nation must have a scarce
metal out of which to coin redemp
ton money, and that all forms Of cur
rency must be maintained al par with
this coin; that the value Of this coin
must be the measure Of all values ex-
changed. This belief fastened upon
the people enables the creditor class to
control this metal and increase its
value by forcing cur higher civiliza
ton to compete for these metals with
q lower civilization, and this cOmpeti-
ton for these metals increases the
value of them by decreasing the value
Of all products to be exchanged. L is
competition for gold en- which the
creditor class have a corner that de-
preciates prices. This competition has
been greatly intensified since 1890 by
equipping labor with the best of Amer
lean ~labor-saving machinery in com
bines heretofore using hand labor and
this labor works for one fourth to one
tenth the wages paid in this country.
Equipped with American labor saving
machinery, they are our equals in pro
duction and competition, which can
have but one effect-force US to the
level Of our competitors. This o
ner on gold ought, must be broken. This
competition must stop. R~emo96tjz9
silver and the c0rner-0n gold remains.
Tie creditors would have a corner on
all the gold and silver coined in the
world. Then the corner on these
the creditor class can meintain the
corner they can fix the value Of both
metals. The coupling of the cheap
oriental labor with labor saving ma
chinery is increasing the demand for
money TO make their exchanges, and
this brings Us in direct competition with
the cheapest labor in the world for
silver as redemption money. With
one hundred and ffsy billion dollars
made payable in these metals, the
creditors corner will be absolute On
both metals. An article may BIS
scarce. II l have a corner On this ar
ticle 1 can fix IFS value. You say
double the Gm3u05 of an article and
you decrease It's value in the same pro
portion. If exchanges were free and
unfettered by combines this wide
world, this would hold good; but con
troled by combines, as hundreds of
products are, this rule is set aside.
The ability to combine and fix prices
sets aside the we'll known rule OF de
mand and supply. Monied power has
reached such stupandou5 proportions
that they have set this rule aside.
Corporations learning their lesson from
the money combine have combined
and fixed prices without regard to the
demand and supply rule. There are
unlimited quantities of coal and min
ers working on halt-time. They can
double the output, but this prevents
the coal barons from setting demand
and supply rules at naught and fixing
prices. They have advanced the price
OF coal for this season one dollar and
fifty cents a ton, taking from the peo.