The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-09


refused to take him aboard. AS Noah sailed
away he shook his fist at the old man and ex'
claimed, $50 to the devil with your old dug
out; IL isn't going to be much OF a shower
anyway"
The fifth proposition Is that 10 to coinage
will increase the prices of property. If this
government should open its mints to coinage
of the worlds silver at 10 to /, we would go at
once to silver recommendation. This Is the
voice of all history emphasized by the present
status OF every free coinage country on the
earth. We can no more have bimetallism in
actual use and unlimited silver coinage than
we can have q square, round object, or dry,
wet weather. Wherein would the people be
benefited IL they get double prices in half val
ne money! If farmers products brought
double prices so would the manufacturers. The
benefits and advantages would be equal, ex-
cept that buyers would always deduct enough
to safely cover the fluctuations of silver, and
this amount would be dead loss to producers
and premium to spectators. knew boy
who sold q cur dog for 500. but he took pay
in pups at $40 apiece, so he was not material
ly benefited by the inflated prices.
Cheap Money Hurts Labor.
The infationists admit that their scheme is
against the interest of all those who live upon
fixed salaries. This includes every one whose
services are pai1 for by the year, month, week
or day, from president of a railway system to
hodcarrier and those who draw pensions
from the government. History teaches that
wages have never participated in boom prices
created by dobauching the money of a coun-
try. They have remained about the same
whether paid in good or bad money. The
wage Garner Is q traitor to himself and his
family when he let's his prejudice lead him to
the imitation camp and agrees to take his fixed
pay in deprecated money. If this 10 to l
movement should succeed, he would find that
he had lost all the vantage ground for which
he and his brethren had struck and struggled
for a hundred years. The modicum Of pros
perity in manufacturing interests in Mexico
is based on the degradation of their labor We
do not want prosperity at such price. and we
are getting it rapidly without swindling our
labor. When the laborer prospers, he becomes
a consumer and his prosperity reacts upon
and benefits all other interests. In Mexico
they have many refined and wealthy people,
but their laborer is peon. He gets from 10 to
30 cents per day in money worth half its face
value. He lives in q miserable mud hut, eats
the poorest food that will keep his body alive.
wears the meanest cloth that will bideit and
is even denied the privilege of gentlemanly
jag and has to get drunk on cactus juice. In
every silver or double standard country in
the world the same degradation of labor is ap-
parent.
We are told that silver is the poor man s.
money. This appeals to his prejudice and is
wholly untrue. Wages are not paid in silver
at the end of each day, but they are paid by
the year, month or week, in currency or gold,
with Just enough silver to make the correct
change. The kind of money in transit is i'm
material so it goes, but when it is boarded
laid by for q rainy day, then its staying quail
ity becomes interesting. The rich man boards
by investing in property or by depositing in a
bank, and the bank has the option of paying
him in silver, while u large per cent of the
poor men patroniZe the sock leg and the bosom
of the earth, and they always hide gold for
two reasons-they have more confidence in its
stability and being less bulky 1t is easier to
hide. So these poor men are on n gold basis
and the rich men are on silver basis, If the
banks elect to put them there.
Prejudice is the curse of this country. 1t is
tho only reef in the path Of our ship of state.
the only menace to our experiment of self gov
eminent. The prejudice of the uniformed
makes them the prey of professional agitators,
calamity howlers and politicians who are an
hungered for office.
Our Excellent Financial Showing.
The argument is made that we owe so much
foreign debt that the interest is conhscating
us. The ablest f1nanciers on this continent
who have made the subject study place our
foreign debt at So 0O0 co., 900, which as they es-
innate at a 415rate of interest amounts to an
annual interest account of $00,00O,000 Our
globe trotters are spending annually S47, 900,
600 abroad Most Of them are ignorant Of the
(,
which far surpasses anything they see abroad.
They ought to give up this foolish fad and
spend their millions getting acquainted with
this country for few years. Ii we are actu-
ally insolvent and cannot pay we ought to
make a general assignment for the benefit of
all our creditors. This is tho way an honest
man does when he fails In business. He does
not hide out his property and offer 80 cents on
the dollar. Instead Of being insolvent we
are better able to pay than any people on the
faoe of the earth. Our national debt is in
round numbers $9l5, 062, 900. 1t has been re-
duced to one-third its former amount. In 1865.
it was So, 845 907 900. The debt of Great Britain
and Ireland (the creditor natfon) is SO $50, no.
600; the debt Of France is "a, 446, 0000 600; Rus
sa, $S4pl, Co., 600: Austria Hungary, 81, 860, Co.,
OO0i italy, 81, 324 100000; Germany 81, 1885, Co.,
900; Spain with one-fourth of our popula-
tion), Sk25l, 100000.
The per capita debt of France is SIG: of
Great Britain and Ireland $S7; Italy, SIG;
Spain, S73; Russia, $50, while our per capita
debt is Sl4. Uncle Sam, bless his old soul, is
fhe only good housekeeper in the whole lott
Our bank deposits amount to $4,000, 900, 000
while those of all Europe only amount to
SO, 500, 100000. BY our last census our per
capita of wealth, as shown by the assessment
rolls, was $34l, and the people have never been
bad about assessing their property too high.
The war veterans cannot be for Republication
ON account of our alleged inability to pay. 1t
is a fundamental principle of law and morals
that man must be Just before he is generous
and that gifts made by an insolvent are void
as to creditors. Our government is giving them
about $40, 0O0,0 600 annually. If we can afford
to be liberal, we ought to strain point and
be honest too. II our government can give it
like prince, it ought to pay like a gentle
man.
Who Are the Debtors?
A large part OF the debts figured against us
are in fact not interest bearing debts. They
consist of railroad, real estate and other cor
poration debts where defaults were made, and
mortgages on tho property have been fore
closed, the property sold and the debts prat-
tically extinguished.
The only debts that the people at large are
interested in are the national debt and tho
state debts. The state debts, by the last CEN
sus, amounted to $228,0g7, 1857. The county
debts amounted to sl45, 04S045: school district
debts, $50, 701, 94S, while the debts of cities and
towns amounted to $724, Ass, 0Gc, making total
Of 81, 1876, PIC, 442. You will observe that about
threefourths Of this total debt is owed by tho
nties and towns. With this borrowed money
they have built gas electric light and water
works plants, paved their streets, etc. Now,
the 16 to city man asks his country brother,
who uses coal oil In his house and darkness
outside, who draws his water from well and
battles in the creek, who splits the mud In wet
weather and kicks up the dust in dry, to help