Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-08-17
MUST OVERTHROW GOLD.
That Is the First step in the Great Battle
for Industrial Emancipation.

ranged upon its side an apparently i'm
pregnable array of forces and nothing
will be left untried to bring victory to
its banner.
The members of one fat-fryng com
mttee in New York city alone are cred
tied with controlling over $3.50. 600 900 of
capital, the great railroad interests are
openly debating a political creed to their
millions of employees, throughout New
England and the Middle States thous-
ands of men and women are thrown out
of employment, manufacturers in many
instances seek deliberately to intimidate
their workmcn, and in the East and
West there every day arises some clergy
men, a rcputed teacher of the Word who
hurls his anathemas against the cohorts
of free silver.
Lies of almost every name and kind
are spoken from the rostrum or scattered
broadcast through the mails, all with the
one object of terrifying the voter with
most alarming picture of what is in store
if victory comes to the white metal.
1t is more than passing strange that.
in all this weary waste of wind and ink,
there should not be solitary line of
honest attempt at argument; not one of
the satellites of Lombard and Wall
streets makes "A single proposition that
will for an instant stand alone; there is
nothing but the rotcraton of what will
occur-what they propose shall occur-if
their views are not upheld by free Amer
lean voters at the polls.
We are warned that the silver of the
world will be dumped upon us, when
the prophets OF evil know that all the
rest of the earth depends for its silver
currency upon the mines of the western
hemisphere. The song of the $50 cent
dollar" is sung in every gold speech
when the talkcr knows, or ought to
know, that in all the years America
kept silver in its place, as money
metal, there was Il continual drain of
silver to other nations at constant
premium over gold. The fall in the price
of silver and the consequent advance, or
appreciation, in gold was deliberately
mancuvred by the men who now how
longest and loudest for ''honcst money"
and against ''depreciatcd metal
The claim is made that wages will ia,
and the price of commodities rise, with
the advent of free coinage, when the pre-
varicators know in their hearts that
such state Of things never has and
never can exist in this or any other
country.
The trump card they play is the threat
that panic will be forced upon the
country; in the words Of Henry ClewS,
wall street relies upon her reserve
power to bring about such state of
things as no congress and no people will
dare defy"
This is the whole situation in nut
she'll Wall street and her tributaries
see their grasp slipping from the control
of the currency, and Wall street will use
every desperate measure to prevent this
defeat
The triumph of free coinage will be an
object lesson to all the people. 1t will be
a long step in advance on the road to the
time when Uncle Sam will issue all his
money direct to the people without the
intervention of banks, and tho banks
that have fought off this day of reckon
ing for thirty-four years, and have
almost succeeded in making its COM
ing impossible, will bring every engine
at their command to make a last deter
mined stand against the abrogation of
the most valuable of their long-enjoyed
privileges.
Victory now for the people means the
| beginning Of the end for the banks,
therefore no lie is too gross, no misrepre-
sentation too huge, no method too dcS-
picable, if it only offers hope to them
of tina success. They have already sent
out notices Of squeeze to mortgage
farmers, merchants large and small will
have their credit withdrawn, money
tightening of every description is in full
swing, the spending capacity of the con
sumcr is narrowed by wholesale shut
downs or curtailmcnt of production. and
measures are completed for the accumu-
lation of the most stupendous corruption
fund this country ever saw.
This is what faces over - per cent of
the population of the United States to
day. Twenty-Five per cent hold all the
wealth and are all intimately Interested
in continuance of the gold standard. We
have in round numbers $4,000, 600 family
groups in America; Of this number per
cent, or 100000, are worth from 500, 600
to Sl25, 100000 each and will average
$1,000 > per cent, or $50, 600 are worth
from 100000 to 100000, an average of
100000 each, which gives us 4?0, 600 fam
lilies owning $50, 600, 900 of all the wealth.
The small capitalists averaging say
$4,000, number 20 per cent of the whole
or 2,S00,0O0, owning Sll 600, 900, the
grand total being $40, 900, 900, the full
estimated wealth OF the country in the
hands of less than % per cent of the
, population.
t OF the $50, 900, 900 in the hands of three
per cent of the people, not less the $40.