The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1896-03-14

Railing Against the Consequences Of Their
Own Acts.

Railing Against the Consequences of Their
Own Acts.
The silverites, in their preliminary
convention at Washington the other
day, adopted a preliminary platform
with several preambles, one of which
recites that the characterization o. sill
yer in 1878 has caused a fall of prices of
all kinds of property except in pecul-
iarly favored localities" 1t proceeds
to say that ''such fall of prices has de-
stroyed the profits of legitimate indus
try, injuring the producer for the ben
eft Of the non-producer, increasing the
burden of the debtor, and swelling the
gains of the creditor, paralyzing the
productive energies of the American
people, RELOCATING to idleness vast
numbers of willing workers, sending
the shadows of despair into the home
OF the honest toiler, filling the land
with tramps and paupers, and building
up colossal fortunes at the money CEN
ters."
The condition of trade and industry
which the silverites bewail in their
platform Is mainly their own work.
They caused the Sherman act to be
passed. Its consequences were an
alarm in the public mind and q with
drawal of capital from the country.
When scarcity of capital began to be
noticed, they said that it was caused by
the decentralization of silver which had
taken place 20 years earlier. They
overlooked the years of prosperity that
had interviewed. They ignored the
fact that an era of great business ac-
tivity began in 1879, when specie pay
meDts were resumed, and continued
with slight interruptions until the
Sherman act was passed, and until its
operation had had marked effect in
the expulsion of gold from the coun-
try. Then they said the evil dated
back to 1873, and many of them believe
20 now.
1t is, perhaps, hopeless to reason with
people who go back to ancient history
to find the cause of troubles that their
own immediate misconduct has
brought upon them; yet he must be
q very ignorant man who cannot see
that O withdrawal of capital from the
country is an adequate cause of all the
evils complained of. Every one of these
eyils is explainable by the single
phrase slack of capital" This will
define and describe not only the gen.
eral badness of trade, but the badness
of every individuals trade. his want of
profit, or his loss of employment. tits
immaterial whether the capital with
drawn is native or foreign. 1t is inn
material whether the owners of it are
Americans or Europeans. Nor is it of
any importance whether the motive
impelling them to withdraw their
money is fear of change of the money
standard or war scare. The effect is
the same. Bad trade, scarcity of
money, higher rates of interest, cur
tailment of loans must follow, and
when they come some leatherhead who
has done all in his power to drive capt.
tai away, by threatening us with the
silver standard, or with foreign war,
now declares that the money power"
is producing all the misery by cor
nering gold" First tell every man
who has dollar that you are going to
fix things so that it will be worth only
30 cents, and when he takes it to q
place where you cannot perform this
Job accuse him of maliciously causing
scarcity of money. 0 Liberty. how
many sins are committed in thy namel
IN. Y. Post.