Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1896-05-28

| The present Secretary Of the treasury
has issued over s262, OO0, in bonds to
keep up the gold reserve of s1O0,0O0,OOO,
| and when time for payment comes due
| it viii take nearly twice the amount or
the bond issues, or $500, 600 to pay
| these obligations. This vast sum is
| the tribute we pay for the privilege or
maintaining system OF currency that Is
impossible to permanently sustain in this
country, being, as we are, debtors
nation. Does any sane man believe that
| if we persist in our present policy we
shall be able at the expiration OF the
time for which these bonds were issued,
to pay one farthing toward iquidating
| them? On the contrary if we adhere to
gold as the only. basis of redemption
money, it is but a question of time
increase and plunge the government
hopelessly in debt, and instead OF freeing
ourselves from the grasp of the money
sharks they will more thoroughly forge
| the chains that bind us to q system
| which means ruin and devastation.
Friends of silver should not be
alarmed at the prediction of 5O-cent
| dollars by the gold standard people, and
that ruin will follow if silver be re-
| habilitated. Grant, for argument sake,
| that we should have an inflated currency.
Would that iniure US? VIII any man
deny that while we had 5O-cent, and
even less than 50-cent dollars, period
4 of crrah hoxo
had before or since, existed in this
country? Does any man doubt the
great period of prosperity that existed
from 1864 to 1873? Was there any
metallic money in circulation during
that timer Every man who knows
anything knows that we were on a
purely irredeemable basis from near
the close of the war to the time of the
demonstration of silver in 1873 The
government had not yet even claimed
that it intended to come to basis other
than paper before 1873, and still, times
were better during this period of
imitation than any time in the history of
this government from its foundation.
This bugaboo of gold going to
premium is a farce, and intended to
hoodwlnk the people. OF course, gold
will go to a premium. Anything that
is wanted by everybody at the same
time will be worth more than that
which nobody wants. Gold is at a
} premium everywhere the world over.
Go to an English bank to buy gold and
} you pay premium. The same is true
J if tried in Paris or any city in Europe.
J Do you suppose you could get gold
without paying for it in way of q
premium at any bank in India? And
yet gold is not a legal-tender in that
J country. Let those who want gold pay
the premium demanded, and at the
same time, let those who want silver
get 1t without saying that they are in
favor of a dishonest dollar" The
people of Kansas do not want gold, but
they do want a greater circulating
medium, one that is not based upon
the little insignificant pile of s119OOO,-
600 in gold that is lying in the treasury.
How utterly absurd is the proposition
to redeem our outstanding obligations,
amounting to about S5O0,OOO,OOO with
the gold reserve of S119,OOO,OOO.
Suppose a business man should issue
his notes for five times what they or he
was worth or able to pay, how long
would he command the confidence of
the community in which he resided?
He would at once be denounced as q
repudiator. If it were possible to
present all the obligations of the
government for redemption at one time
only little over one man in five would
be able to get value received for his
note. What would become of the others?
The fact of the matter is, the gold
standard man is the greatest fiat money
man in existence to-day. Senator
PETER says the government might float
three dollars paper to one Of coin, but
here are the goldites maintaining that
five dollars of paper can be fioated to
one of COIN, and that gold, as scarce as
it is. There is no use for any man to
deny this statement, for are not the
gold standard people adverse to adding
} a dollar of silver to our circulation? OF
course, being fiatists as they are, it may