Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1897-01-07
SIZES UP THE STATES
SECRETARY MORTON COMPLIES
INTERESTING STATISTICS.
Relative Social and Economic Con-
dition of the Com Which
Voted for G old Comp pared with Those
Silver and God States.

Silver and God States.
1t occurred to Secretary Morton that
it would cost the taxpayers nothing
and might promote the interests OF the
public to cause the division of statistics
in his department to devote some spare
time to the comDila ton of some statis-
teal matter going to show the rela-
tive social and economic condition OF
the States which voted for the mainte-
nance Of the gold standard on the one
hand and those who voted for slump
to the silver standard on the other
hand at the late election. Some of the
instructive facts disclosed are these:
Twenty-three States voted to main
tain the standard which we have had
for sixty years and twenty-five voted
for degradation. The gold States con-
tanned 39,624,O 35, or G3.S per cent. of
our population when our last census
was taken, while the silver States con-
stained only 22,492,776, or 36.2 per cent.
iof the population.
Omitting the colored and foreign
lborn population, the number of native
iiliteratc whites in the gold States was
$500 or less than one in forty-eight
of the total population. In the silver
States the number of such illiterates
was /. 191 &C. or more than one in nine
teen of the total population. In the
gold States the expenditure for school
purposes per head of population was
'$2.T1, while in the silver States it was
only $l.31, or barely > cents more than
Ihalf as much.
These facts of illitcracy would not
HE so significant if the question had
IbCcn one of rights merely. Upon an
luncomplicatcd question of justice the
'il!itcratc may be quite as likely as
those who have had more school adj
vantagcS to render Il right decision.
but this was not the case during the
late campaign. There was Il question
of right and wrong involved, and in
view of possible consequences it was
jonc of vast magnitude. But this NOR
al question was by no means free from
complication. There We're scientific
questions involved and 1t was neces-
.sary to have n clear apprehension of
scientific truth before the moral choice
could be intelligcntly made.
the moral sense of an illterate person
lis necessarily inferior, that the com
Iparson of gold and silver States in
point Of intelligence is at once justi-
fable and instructive.
Proceeding to other matters, we find
that the total value of real estate in
the gold States by the last census was
$50 GOO. 100000 round figures, while in
the silver States it was 1891 100000,
or less than nc-third as much as in
the gold States
The value of farm lands in the gold
states was $944O,00O,OO0, while in the
silver states it was S3.S09, 100000. This
shows that the gold states have a pc
cuniary interest in farm lands and pro-
ducts about two and half times as
great as the silver states have. This
disposes pretty thoroughly of the pre-
rense that the free silver cause" is
peculiarly farmers cause.
And the claim that it is the debtors
cause-which ut best is an appeal to
dishonest debtors-does not fare much
better. The statistics show that In the
gold states about one-siXth of the real
estate is encountered by mortgage,
while in the silver states less than one
eighth is so incumbered.
We further learn that the gold states
produced nearly eight times the value
nf manufactured products and paid
more than seven times as much in
wages to manufacturing employees rs
THE silver states. At the same time sill
vcr states produced nearly forty-Seyen
times as much silver as the gold states.
And this fact serves to account for the
almost completes suppression of rational
speech in many Of the silver states The
silver mining interest is compact, rs
was the slave-holding interest in the
Scuth forty years ago. and 1t is not less
powerful. within it's limits, for the sup
pression of free speech and the free
exercise of the elective franchise.
The silver oligarchy is not Il whit less
tyrannical and remorseless than the
slave oligarchy was. And in point of
relative numbers and importance of
product 1t is much less respectable than
the slave oligarchy. In the silver states
the silver product was worth only one
Il weutv-fifth as much us manufactured
,prDducts. Even In Colorado the manu-
featured products were worth more
thon twice as much as the silver prod
uct. What sort of people have we in
our silver states to be fooled and bullied
and cowed by such petty oligarchy as
this!
Another point in the report from the
division of statistics to Secretary Nor
ton is instructive. and reference to this
additional one must suffice for the pres
ent. 1t is, in brief, that from the best
statistics available it appears that the
&lcpositors in savings institutions in the
gold standard states outnumher those
of the silver states by 75 to 1. a COM
harrison of the average amounts to the