Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-10-03

United States undertook to revise the coin
age Jaws. anc they passed what is known as
| the law of 1873. by which they reduced the
| legal tender value of silver. by which they
| made gold the standard
1T was a righteous and proper law.
and one that was intended to put the COM
| mercial interests of this country par
! fty with the other great civilized nations
| passed after weeks and months of de-
| liberation. and the man who tells you ii
| was crime. or passed surreptitiously. is
/ either knave or fool We got through
| the panic of 1873 and we resumed January
| 1, 1873. upon gold basis
but the silver mine owners had taken
alarm at the overproduction of silver, and
/ to protect themselves they raised the cry
! that silver was demonetized, and in an
/ evil moment. in 1878. there was passed wha {
was known the Bland bill, by which
! the government was authorized to pur-
| chase and coin s.. 10000 of silver month
Not content with this, In 1850, they passed
what was known as the Sherman law, by
which the government was to purchase
100000 ounces OF silver a month. and to
coin dollars issue silver certificates for
the same They loaded up the country
with this useless currency. for nobody took
the silver dollars; they are in the vaults
at Washington to-day; but they SO load
ed up the country that in 1888 we had a
great panic This panic forced the re-
peal of the Sherman law and left US upon a
gold basis
THE panic of 1888 was caused by our at
tempt to bolster up silver We had rur-
Gates, and. like many individuals. who
put out too many notes, our creditors be-
came frightened and questioned our credit,
and the result was the panic of 1893 "e
had a change of administration, and my
democratic friends. or rather the populistic
ring of that party. concluded they would
make a new tariff law, and they made
one which would not produce enough rev.
enue to run the government The result
was that had deficiency; and when
the gold reserve began to go down, these
gentlemen refused to pass a law that W ould
AID in the sale of bonds
THE populist thought then he saw the
hour to destroy the credit of the govern
ment and force his scheme, and had il not
been for the noble stand of that honest
ruined the credit of this country never
great adnirer of his, but pay my
tribute to him since the day when he said
the credit and honor of this country should
be upheld The moment Mr.. Cleveland
made his bond sale in that fateful F'ebru-
airy. 1895. business began to improve. You
men who work in the shops and in the
stores know it.
1.-THE spring and summer and fall of 1895
saw a fairly good business and it was in
creasing all the time. What stopped it?
Why, in the winter of 1856 this same rev.
enue bill failed to produce enough rev.
enue: the treasury was getting empty and
the populist senators. in pursuance
of the conspiracy that they had made to
ruin this country or force the free coinage
and the whole world took alarm. and the
result was a panic commenced, which has
increased and II Will increase and grow
until this country settles once for all that
tt5 currency shall be honest
The Bryan crowd will tell you that we
cannot prosper on a gold basis: in fact,
the bulk of all their campaign is made up
of assertions without proof. and 1t is al
ways hard to prove negative, but in this
case have the best proof in the world
of the faIsity OF their statement In 1873.
they tell you. silver was demonetized-
You all know that on the first day of Janu-
airy, 1879, this country resumed specie pay
ments upon gold basis We have the
census reports of 1850 and 1890 and there
fore it is easy for US to compare the
progress of the country in this period of
ten years when we had this standard of
value which they tell you is SO destructive
~ have examined these statistics and |
you also know from your own observation |
that there never was a country prospered |
as did these United States of America upon |
this gold basis from 1850 to 1850. In the
whole history of the Anglo-Saxon race,
looking down through centuries, defy any I
man to show me period when the race
made such advances it did during that |
time. when the workmen had much |
work and received such pay for it in good. |
honest money. when the trader proSpered, |
when the ships sailed the seas and brought |
home a profit, as in the period from 1880 /
to 1890. when We were doing business |
gold standard.
Take the railway business, which is |
more familiar. perhaps, to some of US than |
anything else, and which is one of the /
greatest Industries of the country. In 1880 |
the earnings of the railways of the United |
creased to 1854 100000 In 1880 81, eco men
were employed in this business. and in 1
1890 7e4. go Now, my friends. don't let the
get you away from this fact, that
all this increase was upon gold standard.
and it was only stopped by an attempt of
the silver people to debase our standard,
and if on November this populistic snake
that is killing credit is crushed We
may look for a development in the next
ten years that W Ill even SurDaSS the deveI-
opment of the ten years l have just been
speaking Of Give honest standard
and good credit and will outstrip the
world
Il trust I have shown conclusively to
scheme cannot raise the price of silver.
but that il Will drive our gold out of cir
culation. that it will contract our curren-
cy and produce a panic, that the present
hard times are not caused by the gold
standard. that our greatest developments |
in the past have been when we were on
that standard. ard We can only hope for |
future developments by continuing it |
This. however. is not the populist idea |
THE talk about raising the price of sill
yer was gotten up when the populists
thought they had some chance in the east,
and did not care to disturb capital and in
vested interest Long since they have |
given this up and now they talk about the
large sums due the 4ondholders and cred
Itors and that We must have a cheaper
dollar with which to pay these debts Who
are the great creditors of this country?
Not the eastern bondholder that Bryan il |
his wild trip over the country abuses
The great creditor Is the wase-earner
The country owes him more each month, |
than Is due to all the bondhuld-
for an example: each year nearly $500, &C.,
D0o is paid out to their employees in wa ges-
Ii you adopt the scheme of the populist and
debase your currency you take from these |
r.gl