Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-10-30
4 DARK FUTURE.
4 Few Thoughts for the Gold
Standard Democrats.

Amelia Courthouse, october 8.
To the Editor Of the Dispatch;
l am uncertain about the absolute
merits Of either the free coinage or gold
standard policy. but l am not uncertain
about the permanent rule Of the Republic
can party II returned TO power l know
that
If Mckinley is elected. and my gold
friends are trying 10 elect him, they know
it,. and many Of them ayow their intent
the Republican party will stay in until
it overthrows this government, or causes
its overthrow. The silver scheme is the
result Of Republican rule. The South be-
leves that free silver will bring them
relief from present distress. l do not
think so. but such is the popular con-
vction. They demand a larger currency,
which means a higher price for products.
This is a symptom, not the disease. a
consequence, not the cause. Of social dis
order and deep-seated discomfort with
present conditions.
For thirty years the annual expenses
Of the Federal Government have been
five hundred million year. OF this sum,
the South has paid two hundred mil
lion per annum. Besides this sum raised
by taxation, the product Of which tax
goes directly into the Treasury of
the United States. and is thence dis
bursed for expenses, the people al large.
pay at least an equal amount in indirect
taxation TO northern and eastern manu-
facturers, levied by themselves under the
| protective system, and collected and paid
to them.
The South, therefore, has paid four
| hundred million per annum, Of which not
fifty million per annum have been eX d.
| pended in the South. The net drain on
that section has been therefore, three
! hundred and fifty millions a year. In
thirty years one hundred and fifty mil
lions I'm gold have been extracted from the
agriculture of the South and never re-
turned to IT, The result has been that
with cities and towns, the managers OF
/ exchange and commerce, have been -four
| ishing. the country everywhere has been
| going down. The young men fly TO the
cities, while the planter and farmer
| sinks, year by year. toward the condition
| q the Irish peasant in 1913, or of the
| Russian serf. He makes barely a living
the coarest sort of clothes and food
A robust and industrious white man can
/ be hired for s. a month and board i'm Viz
/ ginia. This condition is progressive! II
| The Mckinley Republican regime IS
| fastened on the country in November
no living man will ever see it displaced
! The Republican party is an Unsuitable
| maw il is an unappeasable ap-
petite, an incarnate greed for money.
| Ii will take control Of the elections North
as well as South, to perpetuate its control
Of the taxing power, which it will use to
enrich sections. classes, monopolies
corporations. and trusts. Ii viii ex-
ercise this power to enrich the classes
| by the sweat ana toll OF the masses
/ and the conditions viii become so In
supportable in two generations that they
will do as the English race has always
| done, they will right wrongs by arms.
Force is the ultima ratio" of people. as
| well as princes, and in all ages.
among all people, when the conditions OF
! life become insupportable. revolution is
resorted to. This generation is far from
these conditions. II may be 1850 before
they do arise under Republican rule and
Republican policy. But that these causes
will produce these effects is as certain as
any proposition Of logic.
Let the mass of the people be set
apart by law into a class of toilers.
and a favored class accumulate the profits
Of their toll. so that the great body OF
| the property OF the country. the result
| Of the toll Of the many, is held and en-
joyed by the few, and 1t needs no prophet
10 foretel the result. When there arc
| 100000 Of voters; when 100000 hold the
! property. and 100000 hold the political
power, and one morning the latter want
| their breakfasts, 1t Is not hard TO foretell
what they will say and do TO the former
The election OF Mckinley. which Will
he brought about by the. fusion OF the
| trading class OF the South with the mono
polists OF the North. will settle nothing
IT will exasperate the masses and the
agricultural people. South and West
Will still more urgently insist upon relief
They will certainly be supported by Tho
working people OF the North. Social con
ditions there are no more satisfactory