Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-08-26
JOHN sHERMANs PROPHECY.
It Is Not Surprising That He is Growing
Repentant- Prophecy Was
Too True.

Too True.
THE appreciation of currency is
far more distressing operation tnan
Senators suppose. Our own and other
nations have gone through that process
before It is not possible to make this,
voyage without the sorest distress. 10
every person except capitalist out of
debt, or salaried officer or annuitant,
it is a period of loss, danger, lassitude
OF trade, fall Of wages, suspension of
enterprise, bankruptcy and disaster.
sit means the ruin of all dealers whose
debts are twice their business capital,
though one-third less than their actual
property. 1t means the fall of Agri-
cultural products without reduction OF
taxes. When the day comes every
man. as the sailor says, will be close
reefed; all enterprise will be suspend
ed; every bank will have contracted its
currency to the lowest limit, and the
debtor compelled to meet, in coin,
debt contracted in cufrency-his pDop-
erty shrunk, not only to the extent of
the appreciation of the currency, but
still more by the artificial currency
made by the hoarders of gold. To at
tempt this task by surprise upon our
people, by arresting them in lawful
business and applying new standard
of value to their property, without any
reduction of their debts or giving them
an opportunity to compound it with
their creditors, or to distribute the
losses, would be an act of folly without
an example in evil in modern times.'
Thus spoke Senator John Sherman
thirty years ago. in the U. S. Senate.
That was when he was poor man;
that was before he had fallen from
grace. With that knowledge of the
final outcome ofothe adoption of the
single, gold standard, it is to be regret-
ted that his manhood, his patriotlsm,
the love of right and justice which he
then seemed to possess did not prompt
him to pursue different course from
whatohe has. The financial history of
our country during the last 80 years
shows that in every legislative act in
congress John Sherman has used his
influence to still further appreciate the
value of the dollar and bring upon the
country the very iDjustices he said it
would bring.
Has his prophecy been fulfilled?
You, reader, know that it has
whether you be democrat, populist OR
republican. Here is what Elk Senator
John j. ingalls, has said concerning the
condition of the country today. In
June, 1897, in an interview published
in the Washington, D. c., Post, Ingalls,
said:
''Since the election in Nov. L have
been in all parts of the country, from
SanFrancisco to Boston, from Montana
to Atlanta, and it is the concurrent
testimony that the times have never
been harder nor money scarcer than
now. Every branch of industry Ian
guishes. Rents, incomes, interests
and profits have dwindled. Prices of
land, farm prod ucts and general COM
modities have sunk lower and lower, till
in mauy localities the most yalua BILE
improved farms in rich regions are
ABSOLUTELY unstable. Nature has been
benifcent, harvests abundant. There
has been the arly and the later rain,
the Mississippi valley is burdened
with cribbed corn, crop prospects were
never better, skilled and crude labor is
plenty, the equipment of machinery Is
unrivalled. We have all the conditions
of good times but they linger.
Possibly they are coming but they
are not here. Many will not be able
to wait much longer for their arrival.
Multitudes have already fallen from
aff1uence to need, and many other null
titudes have sunk from comfort to pen
ury and want of daily bread"
Yet, in the face of this; in the face
Of our individual experiences, in the
face of reductions of wages, strikes
lock-outs, deaths by starvation and
suicides in the crowded cities-even
at the very threshold OF Secretary
.Sherman-in in the face of all this there
are politicians telling us every day that
the gold standard is good thing fol
the country; that prosperity" lheaven
help the poor man TO stand such pros
perity.} has come. and that you ought
to be the happiest and most contented
people on earth.
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