Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-12
sADDL1NG THE WRONG HORSE.

The Mobile Register keeps standing at the head of it's editorial columns ex- tracts from MT. Clarlse's Birmingham speech. The most prominent is the fol- lowing:
 Are you conscious that the agitation of this question, and the consequent dan ger of the resort to a silver standard, has kept capital away from your industrial district? Do you not know that if the owners of the piles of gold in foreign lands were satisfied that they would be paid back in the same standard as now they would invest large sums here, where nature invites investment? Is It not cer- tain that so long as this agitation IS up- held capital is kept away from you Whence comes depression in business ana embarrassment of labor? How long shail this continue, and why should 1t De ai- lowed? Because, you answer, we IaVor a home man. Then you place your homes, your prosperity, on one slde' ana the ambition of one man on the other, and because he is home man you sacri- flee the one for the other"
 We assume that this is a correct re- port of his language. It would not have appeared in his home organ if 1t had not been his exact language.
 Mir Clarke after the interrogatiVe manner of Socrates, asserts that capital
 
 by the agitation of the silver question. After the manner of Socrates we Will reply to him:
 Does he not know that the depressioh of industries has been just as great Ill the gold countries of Europe as It has been in the United States? If he does not, we call his attention to a letter ol the London correspondent of the New York Evening Post of recent date' mat paper is ardently on MT. Clarke's slde of the money question. The letter, which is evidently from a man of great inteln- gence, says:
 with regard to the lack of inquiry Tor rural labor the reports are especially us tressing, because the weather was oil the whole, more favorable 10 ouluooa t,oa work The falling off is attributed to the inability of farmers to pay for lapor oW- ing to agricultural depression, and also to
 the decrease in the area of cereals. Oh-
 fortunately, reductions of wages are re ported for several counties. Tn huihpei
 of districts in Suffolk weekly wages nave been reduced to shillingS and Tn some cases to shillings' No wonder, thls De ing so. there is a constant stream Of the unemployed from the country to London and the other large towns" Is the condition of labor, the depression of industries in Great Britain, brought about by silver agitation over there? If it is silver agitation that stopped our | mines and furnaces in 1893, why is 1t that the mines and furnaces have resumed in the face of continued agitation? Instead of improvement there ought to be retro gression, as the silver agitation is still going on.
 MT Clarke further asserts interroga-
 lively that if foreigners knew they could
 be paid back in gold they would invest
 large sums here To this we reply also after the Socratian style:
 Did they not invest in our railroad,
 state and national securities when the
 bonds read payable in coin?" Did they not invest constantly and heavily even after the Stanley Matthews resolution declaring that we have right to pay in gold or silver at our option? Does not MT Clarke know that if they now desire to secure repayment in gold they can put it in the contract, and that if we violate the contract Great Britain could enforce 1t with her guns? MT. Clarke imposes upon the intelli- gence of the people of Alabama when he
 would lay our hard times at the door of Captain Johnston and those who think with him.
 It is not silver agitation or the fear of 1t that depresses industry. It is the con stantly appreciating value of gold-the wide fluctuations between it and the products of labor--that disturbs the man who has money to invest. He prefers | to put it in government bonds at the smallest return. He finds farming unpro- | ductive on a gold basis. He will not ven | ture upon commerce. because people can | not get the gold with which to buy. He will not build factories or dig mines. be- cause values are constantly going down | as gold goes up.
 It is not silver that has brought about | this condition, but it is rather the con- spiracy to so increase the value of primal money as to place It's control in the hands | of a few men booted and spurred, who | stand ready. like the old robber barons of the Rhine, to issue from their castles and levy contribution upon travellers.