Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1896-07-25
SATURDAY, JULY IS.
No nation can call itself
free and independent that
cannot make and maintain a
financial system Of its own.
HERE THEY ARE.

England doesn't want this country
to indulge in the free and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver at the
ratio of 16 to 1:
David L. Stiven of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, in communication
which appeared in the Chicago
Record, has presented the cause of
the decline in the price of commod-
tiles and the hard times which have
visited certain classes in IA manner
so clear and forcibie that it cannot
fail to be appreciated by all friends
of the masses.
After calling attention to the fact
that the farmers, who held 10 per
cent of the wealth of the country in
1860 now hold but Is per cent of it;
that crops brought $730,OO0,OOO less
in 1895 than in 1891, he proceeds as
follows:
Yes, the tendency of prices is still
down grade. New competitors
have lately been found in your best
market. the market where the prices
of your breadstuff, cotton, tobacco,
bacon and beef are made, and they
come into that market with great
advantages over you-for instance,
India. 1t was years after the CEN
sus of 1850, when the farmer was
comparatively the rich man of these
United States, that there was
landed in Liverpool the first ship
ment of wheat from the table lands
of India. The wheat proved to be
good and it was known that the
farm where il was raised was big
one. The labor to raise it could be
had for 20 or Is cents day and
there was plenty of it. At that
time, early in the los, no railroads,
canals or wagon roads were ready
to carry wheat from the interior to
the seaboards and, although the
wheat could be had then for Is cents
q bushel, II cost about ST TO get it to
the seaboard. While such state
of affairs existed there could be no
great interference with your mar
ket.
About that time our manufactur.
ing industries enjoyed protection.
and were clamcrous for prohibitory
duties on all foreign made goods;
Great Britain was eagerly looking
around for new markets where she
could buy and sell under easier
tariff laws. At the same time we
owed to Great Britain thousands OF
millions of dollars, which we had
agreed to pay and she to accept,
principal and interest, in coin, gold
or silver, as IL might suit US best.
Mr.. Farmer, in 1873 our govern
ment without constitutional au-
thority, Mr.. Blaine said, surrendered
our option to pay all of our foreign
Indebtedness in silver. This sur
render was little, If at all noticed
by you or any of us at that time, az
the fact was that then and for some
time afterward we readily paid all
our foreign debts with the surplus
of the crops you raised, and we had
no trouble in doing 80. You got
good prices for your cereals, cotton
tobacco, bacon and beef. You were
fairly prosperous then, and we city
folk all make money when you are
doing well. But that surrender of
our option to pay in silver placed
in the hands of Great Britain the
means she had been looking for to
enable her to reach a market large
enough TO make her independent o.
your crops.
Whatever work is done or what
ever goods are purchased in India
must be paid for in silver money.
Since 1873 England has built rail
roads, canals aud wagon roads TO
get at the cheap wheat and cotton
fields of India, and last year there
was landed at Liverpool 0O'OOO,OOO
bushels of wheat raised on the
table lands of India, and Great
Britain paid for II with silver. Sh'
paid for building and operating
these railroads aud canals with
siIver-in 1895 she built in India
5000 miles of railroad-and to pay
for that wheat and TO build and op
crate those railroads we furnished
her with silver at about 30 cents on
the dollar of It's Purchasing and