The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-09-10


with our votes to remedy this wrong?
The plausible reply OF the silver
miners and their retainers is this: We
will supply you with plenty Of money.
Delegates to us who can now mine and
smelt silver bullion to almost any ex-
tent at cost Of sixty (60) to seventy
(7O) cents an ounce, or about 30 cents
on a dollar, the power to have silver
ingOts or bars made into round pieces
of silver or coins in the mint at your
expense; also give us the power to
force you to take these round pieces OF
silver or coins which are named dol
lars, for your crops, at one hundred
and twenty-nine cents Isl. 29l an ounce,
or at one dollar for what costs us so
cents, and by this course we will at
once advance your prices and perhaps
enable you to get as much In 50-cent
silver dollars as you secured in gold
dollars in 1891 or even In 1881. That
course, they say, will profit us In fact
at the rate of thirty million dollars
($3O, 900, OOO) year or more for three
or four years In our mining operations,
and will profit You In appearance at q
somewhat similar ratio.
Undoubtedly the inside talk Of these
silver barons and their confederates Is
something like this: .These farmers
are slow, stupid fellows; third Of
them are In debt, the rest want better
prices, and before they find out the
trick we shah get three or four years
of pickings and can pull out n hundred
million dollars ($1OO, O00,0OO for our
selves. In the meantime we will lend
our profits on gold mortgages (as Sena-
tor Stewart dOes) and keep the re-
serves of all our own banks In gold
coin (as the banks In Representative
Newland's. state dol. We have done
this all along while we were making
our profits out OF Uncle Sam Under the
Bland an0 Sherman acts"
In reply to this plausible statement
by which the advocates Of free coinage
have attempted to mislead the farm
ers, the simple facts may be cited:
Under the Bland act silver bullion
had been bought at the rate of $4,000
600 per month from 1878 to 1890. I'm
der the Sherman act of 1890 4,5O0, 900
ounces had been bought month by
month until 1893 Under those two
acts the national debt due on demand
has been increased nearly $5OO,OOO,-
600.
At the end Of 1892 and in the begin
ming of 1898 it became apparent that
this compulsory purchase OF silver
bullion by means of forced loan was
destroying the credit of the nation, and
with it the credit Of every man in the
community. There are no crimes in
history which have ever inflicted so
much misery as the debaselnent Of the
coin of the realm. That was in part
accomplished by the Bland and Sher-
man acts, and that is the avOwed OBJ
1ect of the silver miners and their con-
federates> In the proposal for the un-
limited coinage of silver dollars OF full
legal tender at 100 cents costing about
so cents on dollar in gold.
What happened between 1891 and
1895 was that the evil effect Of this de-
basement Of coin came to light. The
beginning of the remedy in the repeal
of the Sherman act came too late to
prevent the disaster of 1895 and the
even. worse conditions Of 1896.
The greenback craze preceded and
brought on the panic of 1873 The
Greenback party was crushed out OF
existence in 1874, when the whole
West sustained President Grants veto
Of further imitation.
The silver craze will be crushed out
by the uprising of the farmers OF the
ten grain growing states in November
in support of the present standard and
only lawful unit Of value. dollar
made of gold. This gold standard al
ready existed, but was established
more fully by Andrew Jackson and
Thomas Hart Benton in 1884. 1t was
re-established by almost unanimous
consent of congress in 1873, after an
exhaustive debate beginning in 1870
Again re-established in the resumption
act of 1875. Restored in it's full in
tegrity Jan. i, 1879, when specie pay.
ment was resumed, it has been main
tanned throughout the wonderful Pc
Rod of progress in the ten grain
growing states until 1892. Then the
subtle poison of national dtscredit I'M
der the threat Of debasement exposed
the cause and brought the true remedy
into view
That remedy consists in banding to-
gether the farmers manufacturers,
business men and bankers-Democra
and Republicans alike-in a great
union party for the maintenance OF the
honor and integrity of the nation ana
the restoration of general prosperity
bv crushing out the fraud to which
thousands upon thousands OF honest
hut misguided men have lent their aid
under the specious sophlstry OF the
silver miners. their attorney IN con-
rress and their confederates in the
public agitation Of their dishonest Ell
fort. -EdWard Atkinson.