Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-09-18


Onions, 40c per bushel.
Peas. 4Oc per bushel.
Potatoes. Doc per bushel
Castor beans, soc per bushel.
Flaxseed, 30c per bushel.
Wool. lie to 13c per pound
You can see that the difference in
these figures. between the Mckinley
Law and the Wilson Law. gives quite
margin for the importer and the mid
die man. and enables them to import
that class of farmers truck which real
ly pays the farmer best. You know
that ever since the Wilson bill has
been the law the government rev.
enue has been running behind about
forty million dollars each year, or, in
other words, we are spending that
amount more than our income. Does
1t not strike you that we need a rev.
enue bill that will do away with the
necessity for selling bonds, but will
keep us at least even and pay our in
terest on the government debt? Nei-
ther you nor felt that we were pay
Ing any tax through the tariff because
we We're prospering, and at the same
time the government debt was being
reduced every year. That difference
between the Mckinley Law and the
Wilson Law made big difference in
the prosperity Of the farmers and may
account largely for the hard times.
Farmer: If we had free coinage of
silver would it not make money more
plenty and easier to get?
Editor: How could it? If the mints
We're turning out bushels of silver dol
lars each minute, not one more dollar
would find its way into your pocket
than does now. We depend on the pros
perity Of the manufacturers and work.
ing men to bring us good times. Free
coinage raises prices all along the line
because the value of the silver dollar
declines, and labor will be the last to
be benefited by an advance. With
idle men around you, would you ever
look for IN advance in wages? Ger
tainly prosperity must be widespread
before the price of labor, in wages, is
materially advanced. In Colombia,
South America, as well us in Mexico
(both silver countries), commodities
have advanced 100 per cent, while
wages have advanced only so per cent.
In Bogota, United States of Columbia.
labor that was paid sixty cents per day
in 1885, now receives ninety cents per
day, though the cost of living has so
far advanced that the laboring man is
worse off than before. A poorer class
n ss1nt frpr 1,o1 IN, Eo fp,Ny,
the conditions Of the laboring man.
Free coinage Of silver in the United
States would affect prices and labor
just as the silver basis has done in
Japan. Russia, Mexico, United States
Of Colombia, and every other country
where it has been tried. Mark this,
not one country that is now on silver
basis took that position voluntarily,
but it was forced upon them by exigen-
cies over which they had no control.
These silver mine owners are asking us
to voluntarily go not only on a silver
basis, but to invite the silver of all the
world to come to our markets.
Farmer: Well, what do we need, in
order to secure prosperity?
Editor: We want to produce work
for our mechanics and laborers and
start our mills and furnaces and work
shops going on full time, and with full
force OF hands, then the silver craze
will be forgotten just as the foolish
greenback craze was. With q revenue
bill large enough to keep the product
Of the foreign farms and factories out
of our markets, our skilled mechanics
will all find employment and that will
also provide for the unskilled laborer;
then our money will be kept in Ameri-
ca, and not go abroad to make other
countries prosperous. We are the great
est consumers in the world, and when
our mechanics and laboring men are
at work at good wages they buy liber-
ally and live we'll, and that brings pros
perity to the farmer every time. When
the mechanic is idle or on half time,
as he is at present all over the country,
then you farmers find 1t hard to sell
your products, and you feel hard times
and wonder what brings 1t on.
Farmer4Then you think that free
silver coinage will not help any part of
the country except the mining districts?
Editor-How can it? You receive no
money except for something you have
exchanged for money, or for work done
for some one else. If the National
Bank In town here has received several
bags of silver money, how are you to
be benefited by It?
Farmer-I don't know.
Editor-Neither do I. You would not
hear any discomfort from the silver
mine owners and their politicians II the
Government bought all their silver and
paid them $1.29 per ounce for It. Why
should not the Government be required
by law to purchase all your potatoes at,
say. sixty cents per bushel, or your