Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-03-05
A FRIcHTFuL STORY.
sxl,e GobIins WIN Catch You, II You Dor
INT

s1lse COLLINS WIN Catch You, II You Don't
look OUT
A great many simple minded folks in
days that are gone by have sometimes
tried to brighten their children into
obedience by 1urid stories of hobgob-
Inns. spooks and ogres- It was not a
good thing even for simple minded
folks to do; it is generally condemned
now, and happily it is practice from
which even the most ignorant are drift
ing away. 1t is therefore all the more
surprising to find in these hard and
scientific times grave and reverend
senator standing in the senate chamber
OF the Unised States congress and in
the course of an argument on the e.
nancial policy of our government resort
to the ogre and hobgoblin methods of
persuasion employed in the olden times
by the aforesaid simple folk to enforce
obedience. Yet that is what Senator
Villas. of Wisconsin, in the course of
the three hours speech he made against
silver in the senate recently. He
divided the advocates of silver
into three classes; those who are
interested in silver mining; those who
are heavy debtors, and those who be-
ieve In the principle Of bimetallism.
To the latter he proposed to address
his remarks, but he halted long enough
to pay his respects to the other classes.
OF the second class he said they might
deserve sympathy if they did not
shock it" aremark at once hippant and
unworthy of both the subject and a
senator. The third class was honest
but mistaken. Perhaps the senator
from Wisconsin pitied these good
people, it is quite evident that he looked
upon them as very simple minded, for
he at once proceeds in his remarka BILE
effort to bring forward his first class
of silver advocates-the mine owners
as the very goblin of the financial
tale he tells to fright their fearful
souls The mine owners are largely
responsible for the silver agitation.
The mine owners make large profits
on a comparatively small outlay. The
mine owners employ the keenest and
best trained intellects to fight the bat
tie for silver. The mine owners seek
to secure the best price for silver. He
represented the people of the Rocky
mountains as subservient to the mine
owners, then added: THE veriest despot
of story, the grand khan of Tartary,
the great mogul, never had more sub
missive subjects than the silver king
of the Rockies; nor was ever tyrant
more piteously exacting. No indie
pendence of thought or speech is toll
Grated there. No party, no creed, no
business can thrive which dares to
doubt in the realms of that monarch,
the law of finance as it is in silver.
The business men find it prudent to
say nothing, and as for the politician
who dares to faunt his independence
woe to him.
Ogres, verita bly,, these mine owners!
Why, one would be left to think from
this speech of the Wisconsin senator
that in the west there were but two
classes-mastersa and slaves-mine own
ers and their serfs! That American
government had abdicated and an oil
garchv had taken it's place in which
mine owners were the ruling class and
owned the people body and soul.
Senator Villas is either utterly unac-
uuainted with conditions in the west,
with the people and their spirit, or
else he willfully misrepresents condi-
lions in order to brighten honest BIZ
metallists from their allegiance to the
silver cause.
If this is the kind of argument the
single gold standard people are going
to rest their cases upon the battle for
bimetallism is won as soon as it can
become known to the people of the
east, and placed side by side with the
reasons that demand the restoration of
silver to free and unlimited coinage
Salt Lake Herald.