Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1896-08-07

toNeuhtut. Iue cause Vi nOnSSt
money must trust to philosophy
and patriotism. The contest is
not altogether one sided, but the
sober intelligence of the people
promises the Chicago heresy little
but condemnation. The revolt
began early and is likely to grow
with each succeeding day.
-TIose demagogues who
howl about the "crime of 1873"
fail to tell their credulous hearers
that silver was not actually ode
monetized" then and has not been
since. They may not know the
act of that year merely suspended
the coinage of the silver dollar,
and that since that time five times
as much silver has been coined in
this country as had been in the
81 years preceding.
Some fellow who is inter
ested in anarchists has made the
important discovery that the name
Altgeld means "old gold" This
is an injustice to the man who de-
ties Cleveland and degrades Illi-
nois. 1t implies that he has a pre-
ference for yellow metal that has
been tested by age. Such is not
the case. The mortgages of this
devoted friend of the common peo-
pie declare simply for payment in
gold, without a word as to whether
it shall be old or new.
"A Democratic editor for
gets the growth of his delinquent
list during the Cleveland admins
tration long enough to remark
that we will have tine poor with
us always while we have the Re-
publican party. The poor fellow
is right for once. In spite of Re
publican policy there will always
be few impractical mortals who
will not prosper. But if Organism
should succeed, no optimist in the
land could expect in a short time
to find the prosperous among us.
The difference is widely obvious.
Free silver would finally
result in cheap money and inflated
prices, but before that condition
could be reached gold would b
withdrawn and the country would
experience an era of contraction
and bankruptcy it would not soon
forget. The influence would be
felt at last in all other quarters
before it would r, a III the farm and
the workshop. IL is the verdict
of history that cheap money
touches all other lines before it
registers any change for labor or
agriculture.
-Fluctuation and uncertain
ty have always been in the nature
of silver as a commodity Numer-
ous corrective measures have been
necessary at the hands of Congress
because its instability was under
mining the integrity of our finan-
cial system. In 1853 Congress
made fractional silver not a legal
tender in sums exceeding ten dol
lars, yet at that time there was
$76, coo, 900 in minor coins in the
country, and only about $780,
600 in silver dollars. We hear
nothing said of the crime of 1858,
possibly because it dates too far
back to be charged to the Repub-
licans.
More than So per cent of
this country's exports last year
went to countries with a gold
standard. The inexorable laws of
traffic under the present financial
arrangement of the leading COM
mcrcial nations shut imports out
of countries on silver basis. Free
silver has the restricting effect of
protection with none of it's advan-
tages. Mexico imports on a small
scale now, but it is only because
it cannot buy away from home
without trouble. Home manufac-
ture is more imperative than prof
fable. In declaring for free silver
the Democrats have in effect de-
clared against free trade.
Some of the followers of
the free silver cause tell us there
was no sectionalism at Chicago.
1t is only another of those feeble
attempts in which empty assertion
is pitted against fact. The whole
stupendous folly was grounded in