People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-07-30
TARIFF NOT THE ISSUE.
That Is What the Wichita Eagle Says, and
the Eagle Is Wise Old 5ird.
Eagle, June 30,

want to say that the Eagle is not
alone, is not in hole. Nor is it 90
ing to take anything back. The
United States senate is probably as
distinguished a body Of men as can be
found anywhere. Its majority de-
mand silver. There are eminent fed
eral and Supreme judges, lawyers.
statesmen and patriots, with even a
national banker here and there, scat
cred throughout the country de-
'manding the same thing. The Eagle
is not entirely without company.
The "hOnest dollar" is the dollar Of
the contract. Any other dollar is a
dishonest dollar. So measured the
gold dollar is a dishonest dollar. Our
silver dollar is not entirely demOne-
tized, in that it is still legal tender
but 1t is the plain intention of the
gold bugs TO completely destroy silver
as money.
VIM. Pitt the great English states
man, once declared, in the British
parliament: IF America ever adopts
our system of finance her boosted lib
critics will be but a phantom"
America must de independent in all
things, no less financially than politi.
cally, if she would remain the most
prosperous nation on the globe. The
trouble with America today is English
financial dictatiOn. The disaster
which has Overtaken her enterprises,
the restitution which has come to
her wage earners, and the shrinka re
sustained by every known value, are
due to the single gold standard policy
of Europe, which proposes to level
America and all that she is, or has, to
that same European level.
VIM. Pitt was light. America
was great and prosperous only be-
cause of her independence. America
not only stood by her declaration, but
put it into her constitution that cong
resS shall have the sole power to "coin
money and regulate the value there
Of" Therefor we have a "cheap
money" and a dear money" congress
is to blame, or otherwise both the
constitution and Pitt talk nonSence.
Silver was not cheap money nor a
cheap metal when it was demonetized,
it demanding at that very hour per
cent premium over gold.
Have our criticising contemporaries
forgotten that in the interest of this
gO1leSs gold combine, that our goy-
ernment, even before the plOwShare
had been turned into the pruning
hook, and while yet the land was full
of crippled and limping patriots, en-
acted one law after another defraud-
ing the soldier by enriching the gold
owner? Were not the men who Of
fered their lives to save the country
paid in money with a prOviso on the
back, and the bond holder ia "coin"
after wards in 'gOld?" Didn't even
old John Sherman storm over the
outrage?
The assertion OfOur contemporaries
that the tariff is the issue and not
money, is not true. But were it true
how are we to increase our revenues
by high protection unless we buy, and
if we have no money to buy with
where will be the revenues?
The Declaration of Independence
was right, and the constitution Of
the United States was right, the one
declaring for the pursuit Of happiness
independently, and the other for
power to regulate independently the
value OF money. International agree
ment means international slavery.
An International money standard
means the leveling Of everything in
America to the dead level of Euro
pean internationally. The only hope
for America is in her independence.
A universal money standard means
that the money Of that standard will
90 where things Can be bought the
cheapest, and thus our money would
seek the country Of the poorest paid
labor until our labor standard had
fallen to the level of the 'interna-
tional money standard" Back of
these governmental and industrial
questions are the trusts and combines
aud back of all the other combines
and trusts is the monopOlistic mono
metallism of the gold combine and
trust which includes the money pow
er of every capital Of Europe. The
sovereign power of Europe, that
which sustains armies and crowns,
and grinds the millions into the dust,
is seeking sovereignty in this land.
While it is true that il all the
money in the world were put into the
fire, today, and burned, the world, as
a whole, would be no poorer tomorrow
yet the destruction of any portion of