The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-12
JOHN LIND WILL
MIKE TIE RICE

citation and friendships and ally themselves
with those to whom they have been opposed
| In the past. for trivial causes. Nothing but
| questions of vital importance-a sense of COM
mon danger and an aroused patriotisnl-would
| make this great body of our people forget
| all past differences, ignore considerations of
creed, nationality, party prejudices and party
| pride, and unite In harmonious action, both
nationally and in this state.
| UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.
The underlying cause of this great move
| ment 1t may be difficult to express in apt
| words; but, in my own mind, am clear that
however 1t may be formulated by different
| individuals, or in different platforms, the con-
viction has forced itself upon the great
mass Of our people that in the
appropriation of the, natural wealth
| OF our country, and in the distri-
button of the increased products of~human
industry, caused by the employment Of mod
/ ern inventions and labor-saving machinery,
| the few, and the owners of capital have OBJ
tanned more than their fair share. The farm
| er feels that, though his power of producing
| riches for others has been increased beyond
| comparison, his hours of toll have not short
| ened, and the net reward for his labor is
| growing less from year to year. In the field
| OF organized labor, though wages have been
fairly well maintained, by reason of organi-
is constantly before the workman's mind If
he has children, his solicitude for their future
weighs heavier upon him than his own toll.
The farm laborer has not only suffered by a
material reduction in wages, but he has
| largely ceased to look forward with either
| the hope or expectation of becoming the own
er of farm himself, as has been the rule
| in the past. The demand for his service is
| declining, as the farmers grow less able to
ployed, drifts to the cities, and makes the
! condition Of obtaining employment and main
tanning wages more difficult there. Such are
the conditions, which no candid observer can
deny: The patriotic citizen, while hopeful
for the speedy and peaceabie solution of this
problem, and confident of the ability of the
american people to devise means, in accord
ance with the constitution and spirit of our
institutions, for correcting the errors of the
| past and for securing a more equitable dis
ulDutlon OF the enormous wealth which our
| country produces, cannot but fear the con-
| sequences If this work is long delayed and
It is this fear and solicitude which has united
| the people.
l hold, and with me- it has been a matter
OF conviction ever since first entered public
n1e, that the most potent factor in producing
exlstng conditions. by which a larger share
labor are taken by capital from year to year
has been the adoption Of the gold standard
me attitude of capital. arrayed, as it is,
| soiidly for its continuance, only serves to
strengthen me in that conviction. That this
attitude OF capital Is the result Of groundless
lear, nS quite as much as sordid motives.
question is Just the same
The political and Industrial liberation Of
Ine populations OF Western Europe and of
| early decades of this century gave human
| ingenuity and energy a scope which it had
never before enjoyed. Invention and labor
saving machinery multiplied the results of
human endeavor thousand fold. Production
increased enormously, but with the increased
proouctlon came period of lower and fall
ahg prices, affecting Europe and America
| anKe. The cause of 1t was the insuflciencv
OF the quantity Of the metallic money of the
Worlo TO adequately measure the Increased
tardnd fualslty OF products and to serve the ex-
tended demands of commerce. Panics, crises
ana FAILURES were the order of the dav he
lWeen the 30s and the 50's-conditions very
f,.nnd similar 70 the present Industry was para
] yZeu, commerce tagging, labor idle and agri-
culture suffering. With the discovery of gold
In California, human activity and ind,Istrv
soId mIf1 revive revived; me enormous production of
gold entered into the monetary circulation of
| dency. up"aiu len-
GAIN IS THE MAGIC WAND.
BUSINESS and every legitimate undertaking
ploperIy conducted, afforded profit Gain. or
Ine reasonable expectation of it, is the magic
wand winch starts the idle mill turns fbe
IurroW, and gives labor work Excent az tem
Porarliy disturbed by the disastrous results
f GL excessive speculation, induced by reckless
1eeu 1ssues VI Dank money, the period between
1901 and 1870 was the most prosperous and
contributed more to the Advancement of civil
ia tzati0n 5nan any like period in the history of
the world. tBut the continued upward tend
ency OF prices resulting from this addition
! TO the worlds stock of money was a thorn in
i1 tne slae OF the bondholding and income draw
] n
capltal engaged in business Increased the
purchasing power Of fixed incomes. or Of the
poliar p or pound received from interest on
bonds, did not grow. In other words the
conditions were such as to favor the worker
rather than the drone. This was intolerabie
TO the income-drawing classes then. as It
~ now They determined on a reversal of
| things: This could only be Accomplished
| Dy inducing governments to discontinue the
use fi, Of one % or the other of the money metals
as Iuii ana unlimited legal tender and limit
of
being greater, that metal was attacked first.
learned Frenchman. Mr.. Chevalier, wrote
sity OF demonetizing gold Richard Golden
translated 1t into English and wrote a pre-
face reinforcing the arguments of the au-
thor, Holland, Germany and Belgium fear
ing the flood of gold as the gold advocates
now pretend to fear a food of silver de-
monetized gold England would probably
| TACT that gold was largely produced in her
own colonies. A united onslaught was then
mace upon silver and it was successful.
The story of its demonetization has been
SO often told that it needs repetition, Our
country, though the largest producer con-
sented to the degradation Of one of it's i'm
| silver had the desired effect. BY limiting
its coinage and depriving it Of it's full money
| functions, it cut off one of the two sources
| for the supply of standard money, impaired
| the bank reserves of the commercial world
] and, as result, circumscribed credit and
brought on an era of falling prices. The
| credit. The banks the great arteries
i for conducting the worlds circulating cap
ital to the points where 1t may be most
| proftably employed. Bank facilities and inn
| proved methods of business enable us to
| economic the handling of money to great
| extent, and by rapid transit It's circulation
| is accelerated. Nevertheless the fact re-
mains as true as ever. that credit is, and
i of necessity always will be limited by
! the extent of the bank resources banker
who says that he can carry on his banking
! business without an adequate reserve is
] either a fool or an early client in the bank
| ruptcy court. Jevons, the great authority on
finance and gold standard advocate be
! cause he an Englshman. says while
/ the elasticity of credit may certainly give
| prices a more free fight, imitation of
credit must be checked by the well defined
boundary of available capital, which consists
in the last resort of the reserve notes equiva-
lent to gold in the banking department of
the Bank of England Prices may tempo
rarily rise or fall independently OF the guam
tity of gold in the country: ultimately they
must be governed by this quantity. Credit
gives a certain latitude without rendering
| prices ultimately independent of gold.''
| page 30 Investigations In Currency and
| Finance.) And again page 176) "1t Is the
! aggregate of coin and gold in circulation or
1 reserve in short the supply of gold as COM
pared with the work It has to do. which de-
| teruines the range of prices" While Prof.
| Jeyons here uses the term gold" 1t should
be borne in mind that it used with refer
! ence to the English system which recognizes
| only gold as ultimate redemption money.
| and that the principle is equally applicable
to silver and gold coin' In countries having
| the double standard.
Since the demonetzation OF silver In 1879
population production and commerce nave
continued to grow and extend The use Tor
money has increased. That Is, there has
been more work for 1t to do. and the work
has been extended over greater areas. II
both silver and gold had been fully utilized
the production of those metals would not
have supplied a suflciency of standard
money to wholly maintain prices. 1t is safe