Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-22
PROGRESSIVE RU1N-RErRIBUT1oN

The New York Herald (gold mono
 maniac) of the 14th instant, discussing
 "big crops-low prices," tells us that cotton is the only agricultural product selling as high now as at this time last year. The cause of this, of course, Is obvious in the poor crop of last year, less by over 3,000,000 bales than the crop of 1894. The Herald goes on to tell us, with the utmost coolness, that while the decrease in the yield of wheat for 1895 Is ' per cent on the yield of 1894, the price Is not higher-as we might expect-but ac- tually 1S per cent lower; also that corn, with an indicated increase of production of only per cent, is just one-third lower in price than last year; while oats, with the promise of the same yield as in 1895, is also one-third lower in priee than a year ago.
 The Herald adds that the value of this years yield of wheat, corn and oats, at present prices, would be S495, 900 less than if they could be sold at prices cur rent just ons year ago. In other words, with the same production in bushels of these three cereals as last year, the pro- dueers will receive $435, 900 less than last year by the decline in prices; that is, they will suffer a loss of more than $lO apiece for every man, woman and child of the agricultural population of the United States, without considering losses on other crops and products, such as rye, hay, potatoes, tobacco, horses, mulss cattle, hogs, wool, butter, etc., which can hardly be less than an equal amount.
 This means that our agriculturists, by the decline in prices within a year, are less able, by $S70 900, or more, to live comfortably, educate their children, pay taxes and interest and get out of debt It means that they are less able, by that amount, than they ought to be- to buy the products of our manufacturers ana to pay for imported articles and the duties on them, thereby furnishing the revenue needed for the support Of the government, and thus to make unneces- sary bond issues to meet current eX- penses. It means that the purchasers or the products of their toll in our fields alone will obtain them for hundreds Of millions of money less than they could have bought them for, even at the low prices of a year ago, and that they Will have been thus enriched and our people thus impoverished by the diminished power of the products of their labor to command money; or in other words, by the increased purchasing power of money, because of it's greater scarcity.
 This same advocate of contraction and the gold basis told us few months ago that the loss of the agricultur1sts or the country during the years 1893, 1894 and 1885 upon their four principal crops' as compared with 1892, had averaged more than $60O, 900 per annum, and IL now tells us of even a greater loss on the crops of this year. In four years, accord ing to this oracle of gold monometalllsm, the tillers of the soil have suffered a dead, absolute loss by the decline In the market value of the products of their la bor of more than twice the entire public debt of the federal government This decline in prices has been wholly under, and largely caused by the gold regime, inaugurated by Sherman and Harrison and continued by Carlisle and Cleveland
 For this progressive ruin of our produc- tive inductries the Herald and it's kind offer no remedy and know none.
 The chief beneflciaries by these losses
 to the producers of the country are those
 who, by nefarious gains are able to live in marble palaces and build, equip and
 maintain million dollar steam yachts. in
 which, if half that is told be true, are
 enacted orgies and debaucheries from
 which even the Roman triumvir and the
 Vile harlot of the Nile would recoil and hide their faces in shame.
 The prayer of the people for relief from these burdens has been treated by these moneyed despots as were those of Gods ancient people by their oppressors of old with contempt and jeers and heavier tasks. They have been denounced as anarchists, revolutionists and incendia
 ries, and the floods of mercenary billings gate have been poured upon them by hireling and purchased press. The full tale of taxes dividends on watered stocks and usury has been inexorably exacted in a constantly enhancing and steadily vanishing currency until the utmost point of endurance of this hard and cruel bondage has been reached.
 The people themselves, as if under di- vine inspiration, are rising up in their might to shake off this crushing yoke of the money power. Well may these mod ern Pharaohs and Belshazzars tremble- we'll may their knees smite together be- | fore the storm of wrath they have in- voked upon themselves by their crimes | They have sown the wind and are now about to reap the whirlwind. Let them yet be wise, for once, at least. Let them yet get out of the way of righteous and just reform, which unimpeded goes gently on it's mission of peace, beneficence and prosperity for all, but which resisted and obstructed, only accumulates weight and force and becomes resistless flood,
 crushing and grinding down everything | in it's path.
 | GIVE US THE TIMES FROM 1865 TO 1872.
 | Just now while some of our people are | talking glibly about the inevitable ca l lamity that would befall the country in | the event of the election of Bryan, the | following letter from D. B. Cuthbert, an | expert and one of the leading financiers