Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-04-16
THE TROUBLE CONTINUES.

| 1nE hOO6lE OON tNOE0s
Did tho Bond Issue Bring Amy Relief
| Read tho Facts.
The country is several weeks away
from the great bond issue OF S10o. Co.,
600. It was understood and SO stated
by those who make 1T their business to
deceive the people in the interests of
the money power that this vast in
crease of the public debt-that saddlng
of an additional burden of taxation on
the people-would put an end to the
strained condition of affairs, be an am
pie protection to the treasury and so
give better tone to trade and bust
ness.
But what is the actual situation?
The most careless observer can per-
ceive that prices have fallen still lower
since the bond issue than they were
before. Even the speculative stocks
that pay no dividends and are practi-
cally worthless-the stocks that Wall
street uses as blind behind which it
sits and calls up the lambs that are to
be feeced-are lower. The situation
must be pretty bad in that quarter
when the Wall street operators cannot
breathe the breath of speculation into
stocks.
The Chinese soldiers, when they go
to war. wear the most hideous masks
in the hope of frightening their enc
mics. When a gun goes off they throw
down their masks and run away. Sim
ilar1y, when Wall street wants to con-
vince the public that business activity
is about to begin. the operators get in
the exchange and pretend to fight
over these worthless stocks. Thus far
they have been able to fix the prices
to suit themselves, the prices being as
much of sham as the stocks them
selves. But now it seems that even
this pastime has failed them. Even
the worthless stocks refuse to respond
to the efforts of the operators to label
them with sham prices.
More than this, the bond issue, in
stead of putting an end to the raid on
the gold reserve, has accelerated it
Millions have been drawn out to pay
for bonds, and those who had gold and
paid it into the treasury for bonds are
now making haste to draw it out again.
Since the announcement of the bond
issue in January nearly $50, 600, 600 of
gold has been wit hdrawn from the
treasury, and very little of it has
gone abroad. Foreign exchange is not
at the shipping point. and has not been
for some time, but the raid on the re-
serve continues.
In other words, every bond that has
been sold thus far has been sold for
this currency, to the extent of the
=
treasury, having been taken out of
the channels of trade and business
The man who expects prosperity to re-
turn or p rices to rise while this ire
mendous contraction is going on, or
after it is complete, is either a fool or
is profoundly ignorant of facts that
ought to be as plain as day to every
person of average intelligence. Mon
ey is as necessary to trade and BUSH
ness as blood is to the life of a human
being. AS there can be no health nor
energy without plentiful supply of
blood in the body, SO there can be no
health, nor energy, nor activity in
trade and business when the volume
of money falls below the amount nee
essary to stimulate the ever-growing
demands of the people. These facts
are elemental and automatic They
need neither argument nor proof to
support or verify them
1t is strange, then, that the propri-
etors of wholesale jobbing houses in
New York and the east walk up and
down between the goods that are piled
high on their floors and wonder why
the merchants of the south and west
do not crowd their business Offices
with their buying agentsa Is it strange
that the manufacturers stand in their
storehouses and wonder why there is
not a demand for the products of their
mills? Is it strange that eastern mills
continue to shut down? Is it queer
that the business failures since the
last bond issue aggregate nearly SILL
000, 600 against So. 5OO, 600 in February,
and only little more than half a mil
lion less than the February failures in
1894, the year after the panic?
Why were there so many failures
during the FIRST three weeks of Febru-
ary9 The reason is IS simple as can
be. Bad trade, bad business, smaller
profits. Why? because money is
searce-because the gold standard pol
icy means the constant contraction of
the currency until the prices are low
enough in this country to prevent the
demand for and export of gold abroad
Com paratively speaking, it is as hard
for business men to get money. it they
depend on their present profits, as it
is for the farmers, especially if they
are doing business on borrowed money
or have given their notes. When their
paper falls due and they cannot make
a settlement they have to go to the
wall. They are compelled to join the
long procession of wrecks that have
been made in this country by currency
contractions since 1878
The Constitution is of the opinion
that, before the people can manage to
apply the right remedy, even the
wholesale dealers and manufac tnrers
of the north and east will have a clear
idea as to the real cause of the trouble.
During the course of the next IL
months W predict that many of those
who are now placing their influence
behind the British gold standard and
sustaining it because they have been
deceived by the money power will be
opposing it heartily and enthusiastic
ally. For the sake of the country let
us hope SO, at least-Atlanta Consti-
lion.
THE GOLD RESERVE.
Another Opinion as To the Way In Which
the '.Endiess Chain" Works.
"Stop the drain on the gold reserve