Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1896-07-21

their payment. It is true that it
will be slough on the farmer"
and hard on the debtor-and they
constitute ine-tenths of our peo
ple-but they will have the salts
faction of paying "honest" dol
lars. Besides they must have
wanted just what they are get
ting or they would not have it.
What charm there is in the
phrase ''honest dollar.' By a
cunning use of this little innocent
term upwards of sixty millions
of people Il don't include the
"niggers,' they are innocent;
they have no voice in our elec-
tions) have been led to commit
financial suicide-that is, if their
representatives and the presi.
dent voiced the sentiments of the
people. Why, Mr.. Editor; if this
were not such a serious matter;
it it did not mean poverty. want
and crime; if it did not bring fore
closures and sheriff's sale, fail
ures in business, stagnation in
industry, fewer comforts and
and anxiety to every farmers and
laborer' home, 7 should laugh at
it so heartily as we do at the
scheme of Grover-the president
OF a Notwithstanding to
impose dissolute barbarian, to
rule as queen over a neighboring
state. 10 my mind it is not the
excess of Honesty in our new
dollar that constitutes the griev.
auce. 1T is it's excessive and
growing coyness and reserve.
[ remember when one bushel
and less would start it on it's
travels. It now takes two to two
and a half bushels, and of other
products in nearly the same pro-
portion. If I had loaned you one
hundred measures of wheat, or
one hundreds yards of cloth,
eight or ten years ago, and you
had paid me yearly eight or ten
per cent for the use Of it, would
you think my measure and my
my yard stick honest if I had in
creased them so that it would
take third as much, or more,
of grain or cloth to repay me?
This is just what has happened
and is happening every day. Our
dollars on single gold basis
have grown and are growing in
their measured capacity every
day.
But the gold men console us by
saying it is true that it takes more of
grain and of stock and of others COM
modities to get the gold or its repre-
sentative) from year to year to year,
and to pay taxes, debt and interest,
but that is because inventions and
machinery have cheapened production.
This, in my Judgment, is only partially
true. believe that the constant fall
Of prices since the demonstration of
silver Is principally due to that fact
But supposing that the argument of
the gold advocates is true, that it is
the discoveries and inventions of our
civilization that have made commod-
tiles more plentiful and consequently
cheaper. Do you, Mr.: Editor, and
readers think it is right that all the
benefits of these inventions and i'm
proved methods of production should
go to the moneyed classes? That is
the vital question in this controversy.
What blessings have farm machinery
conferred on our farmers by making
it easier to produce grain or stock, if
all of the increase in product goes to
the capitalists? The same question
can be asked in regard to any other
industry. I say none. 1t has rather
been curse, and it will prove such
more and more, the longer this con-
dition of affairs continues. It is this
that makes our people jealous and dis
contented. They see their labor pro-
duce more from day to day, but the
increase flows into the Golfers OF capi-
tai. Prior to 1898, six or eight bus
hels Of wheat would pay the interest
on a hundred dollar bond. Now it
takes y to 10 and nearly the same in.
creased prop rtion. Of other product.
Why should this be SO? Is itnot in.
dustry and diligence Of the great
body Of our people that have made
these conquests Of natures forces?
Have the new agents Of steam and
|electricity been harnessed only for the