The Irish standard., 1896-08-08
Laughable Farce of Bankers Think
ing of the Wages Of the
Workingman.
Men and Women Starving Because
Of Too rluch Prosperity in
y the Nation.

their own benefit at the expense of others.
And so from the earliest days we have had
slavery in one form or another; gradually,
however, the claim of actual ownership of
beings has been abandoned. The old form
of slavery has almost entirely disappeared,
but another form has grown up in it's
place. So cunningly devised is the sys-
ITEM and so subtle in its application, that
but few even of it's millions of victims rec
pgnize the heartless tyrant that is robbing
them of the fruits of their toll and at times
even denying them an opportunity to toll
for living. That vicious tyrant Is usury,
nowadays discussed under the name of in
terest, coupled with financial method
which permits individuals and corporations
to issue money and enables them to ma
nipulate the money business to suit the
Shylocks engaged in it, writes H. P. Null
ligan in the Union and Times.
What pitiful sight to see men and
women, with little children depending on
them for their daily bread, asking in vain
for an opportunity to work? What spec
tacle in this God-favored land of fertile
fields and varied climates, blessed with a
productiveness far beyond the needs OF
double its present population! What
causes such condition Of things?
LtL us uUI NC IVuSCA uu1AOu56SN Ny eAAS
nonsensical answers of false philosophers
us tsit's overproduction." Overproduction,
indeed, while men, women and children are
suffering for the necessaries of life. Ma
ture is not responsible for such a condition
of things, and it is blasphemy to attribute
B to the will of God! The cause is entirely
artificial. Such condition Of things is
due to the cunning and se,fishness of few
men and the childish imbecility Of the
masses. :, !i5 - II,
L The above thoughts We're called forth
by recently reading leading editorial IN
your paper. With your permission I will
make a few brief remarks .apropos Of the
RESPONSIBILITIES of the coming campaign.
In the first place I wish to express my
contempt for the idea of persistent slavish
submission to party-party edicts and
party leaders. The man who boasts of be-
ing a consistent Democrat or a consistent
Republican, for the past forty years, may
generally be put down as consistent
spoils-seeker-o consistent blockhead.
Neither party has been consistently patr!-
otic. Our lawmakers represent the classes,
not the masses; hence the Indifference to
the interests of the producers Of wealth,
and the anxiety to promote the interests
of the absorbers Of wealth. Patriotism
demands that the good citizen, moved by
conscientious motives, shall act with the
party rejecting his best Judgment, and in-
dependent of party lines. The coming
campaign will undoubtedly present to the
people of this country the most important
question that has come before them in
many years, viz, shall the present stand
ard be maintained, or shall we return to
fbimetallism as it existed previous to the
demonetization Of. silver in 1873? The
question is, shall the banks and money
kings rule the country, or shall it. be ruled
by the people? Shall we have a plutoo-
racy or shall we have democratic rep1b-
lie as intended by the fathers Of the coun-
try?
In regard to this question, is it not
rather suspicious that such phenomenal
rlntaninity should prevail among the edito-
rial writer's of the daily press, irrespective
Of party lineage? On other questions
those moulders Of public opinion differ
widely; their pugnacity at times knows no
bounds; but on the money question they
are practically of one mind.
The hypocritical plead!ngs of some OF
these writer's on behalf Of the poor wage
Garner is certainly amusing. The truth IS,
that with scarcely an exception, the daily
newspapers of the country are owned and
controlled by capitalists, the purchasing
power of whose incomes would likely be-
sconsi iderably lessened by the remonetiza-
ton Of silver, and they are consequently
bitterly opposed to such legislation. The
editors are hired to write, and they write
in the interest and at the dlctatlon OF
their employers The clamor Of those
writer's for the maintenance Of an honest
dollar. as they call it, is ridiculous The
fact is that the present gold standard is a
dishonest dollar Its purchasing power
has increased to abnormal proportions,
while the price of land, labor and the
products Of labor have gone down at a cor
responding ratio. An honset dollar is ex-
;actiy what the advocates Of silver remon-
etizatiun demand. We have not had an
honest dollar since silver was demonetized
ii 1873. Can any advocate Of a gold stand
ard tell us why silver was demonetized in
1873? Ask the honest money" prattlers
that question and ten to one they will tell
Won IL was because silver was so cheap it.
was Unworthy of compa nionship4 with the
rbt,yal metal, gold, whereas, at the very
moment of silver demonetization the bull
lion value Of the silver in the standard 81
yer dollar was "a premium over the. In
trihsic value Of the gold in q gold dollar. !.
y The reason for shutting the mints to the
cloo:;nagea OF silver dollars was gwen in con-
gress by Mr.. w. D. Kell hartman of. = the e
committee on coinage, who, on reporting
the bill on January 9,331872, said:
All experience has shown that you
mlsE have one standard u { = +. again
cali the attention Of the house to the fact
that the gentlemen. who oppose this b.ll
insist upon maintaining silver dollar,
worth 3311Ss cents more than the gold dollar, /
ana worth Z scents more than two half dol-a
lars ''ss8 si 4,
~ & he fact that silver was at q premium at
HE very time It was demonetized IS worth
bearing mind The argument against
silver atS that time was that il was too.
dear To be consiste eat 81 e advocates of
silver denonet:z :zat.on should now demand
5the alton e oIdd /. The demon