Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-06-02
Attitude of the East.

Attitude of the East.
Wall street and it's allied forces
have resurrected the old financial
scarecrow which has done them good
service in congress and on the ex-
changes. Another panic is threaten
ed. The promises made of returning
prospect ty when congress met in
special session and repealed the She,-
man act, are, of course, ignored. They
were o good enough Morgan for
1898, but do not meet the require
ments of the present year, when the
people insist that they and not Wall
street shall decide for or against the
single gold standard as the perma-
nent financial policy of this country.
Thus far congress has refused to in
dorse the change from constitutional
bimetallism to the English system of
ultimate golc money. Yet for the
last eight years the East and the
treasury department talked and acted
on the theory that the change was
enacted in accordance with law, not
withstanding the repeated refusal of
the law-making body to authorize the
issue of gold bonds at low rates of in
terest, the bait of immediate economy
being openly rejected in both houses
of congress
Despite the action of congress and
4 81 l.. To-
the East persists in advancing the
claim that the single gold standard !
was established in this ccg....fy when
coin payments @ere resumed in 1879, !
because the paper, the gold and the
silver dollars authorized by congress
were made interchangeable for each
other. Unless the version of the law
is accepted by this national conven-
tions of the great parties, a fresh
panic is threatened, as witness the
following declaration frou, the IN
tied States Investor, which is echoed
daily by the New York Herald and
journals of that class:
The fact cannot be concealed that
the financial outlook has darkened
perceptibly in the last month. 1t is
feared that unless the business inter-
ests of the country are speedily as
sured beyond all doubt that the gold
basis will be maintained inviolate,
the outlook will assume a most por
tentous character. We have no de-
sire to excite alarm, but the fact can
not be Withheld that the more acute
. business ears have already begun to
detect ominous sounds. 1t must be
apparent to the dullest witted that
credit cannot be in u strained con-
dition month after month without a
break. To change the metaphor, the
political parties are playing with fire.
By dallying with the advocates of
unsound money they are fast destroy
ing not only the national but individ-
ual credit. The present feeling in the
finan cial and mercantile world is not
unlike that witnessed prior to the
panic of 1893. 1t can safely be as.
serted, however, that if another crash
comes, it will far exceed in magnitude
that of three years ago. And yet the
present outlook is the more favorable
in one respect, namely, that whereas
the panic OF 1893 was inevitable, ow,
to the previous long years of over
capitalization, the present danger
can be averted by prompt action in
announcing to the world that this
country will take no step that will
endanger its gold standard"
The panic of 1898, according to the
Wall street doctors, was the direct re-
suit of the coinage of silver under the
Bland-Allison and Sherman acts.
The great trusts which nestle in the
Atlantic metropolis would not admit
the charge of over-capitalization
Silver and silver alone was to blame
for the ills of the business COM
munity. The special session of con-
gress was urged by the East. 1t met
at the presidents call and did the
bidding of the East. Yet the panic
remains-as the silver senator's said
it woodland prices of commodities
are lower today than at any time
since 1879, when the people of this
country declared their ability to make
payments in coin, not in gold alone,
but in silver and gold, both being
considered as constitutional coin.
The people of the West and South
care little for Wall street panics
They have suffered already to an un-
told extent from the unlawful policy
fostered by the money owners of the
East and London, which has ham
perered enterprise, destroyed the
value of lands and improvements,