Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-10-08
ST. JOHN AT SPRINGFIELD.


ed by Ex-Governor St. John at the silver camp
meeting at Springfield, Ohio:
Zone great stumbling block in the way of hui
man progress to-day is the ignorance and pref
udice of the people. The ignorance and pref
udice is the result OF partisan slavery. What
the world needs is more voters who do their
own thinking, and fewer voters who let their
party think for them. We need more patriot
ism and less partisan bitterness. Let us UNI
derstand at the outset that gold, silver and pa
per are not money. They are simply the COM
modities upon which the money of the gov
eminent is stamped. This $40 gold piece is a
full legal tender for all debts, public and pri-
vate Now place it upon the anvil, hammer
the stamp off of it, and what have we left?
Simply piece of bullion. You could not, UNI
der the law, compel a citizen to receive ton OF
it for a ten-cent debt, for the reason that it is
no more legal tender than our horses, cattle,
beef and pork. Remember that the value of
the money is not in the metal but i'll the law.
There is no intrinsic value in money. 1t is
merely creature of law, and its value, there
fore, is legal and not intrinsic. We hear a
great many say that they want money that will
stand the test of the melting pot. The truth
is that our government never issued any such
money. Put $50 gold piece in the melting
pot and bring it to sufficiently high degree OF
heat, and the metal nelts and the money is
gone Has it stood the test of the melting pot ?
~, eli cd do
ceve the people, he con lures up some catch
word or sentence. One of these which is fire.
quently used is fiat money The truth is, all
money is fat The word fat simply means
law Therefore, fiat money means lawful
money. Surely there is nothing very frightful
about lawful money. We hear great deal of
talk now about ACCENT dollars, but the fact is,
we never had any such dollars. But Ii the
contention of our gold-bug friends that we have
accent dollar is correct, then there must be
accent government back of the dollar For
remember that the dollar is Just as good
as the government that makes 1t. If we
have accent dollar then we have ACCENT
government, and the government in the hands
of ACCENT political party. find on one side
of this silver dollar the head of the goddess Of
liberty. Is it possible that the goddess of lib
ertv has become so deteriorated and debauched
under our present financial system a. to Dt
worth but 43 cents on the dollar? On the 9TH
er side of this dolla- find the inscription, In
God We Trust | ask you good people, have
we so deeenerated as to reduce the value of oul
trust in God to 43 cents Oh the dollar' What
the people demand and intend to have not lat
er than 1000, Is full, unlimited legal tender,
silver dollar worth 100 cents, i'll payment o.
debts, with Ioo-cent government back OF 1t
aud that government in the hands of a 1oo-cent
political party.
sour gold standard friends have opened theil
campaign. Their first gun was fired near Ha
zelton, Pa, a week ago, resulting i'll siencine
81 of their opponents the first volley, but
shall not stop to refer to that in detail ast now
but call your attention to declaration made by
Hon. Charles Grosveuor in speech at Newark
on the nth inst, in which he said; There Is
not one single product of the farmer of the
United States that has not advanced i'll price
since one year ago.
TO hear our gold standard friends talk we
would be lead to believe, if they are worthy of
delief, that this country had never known dol
lar wheat until to-day. In fact VS. don't know
dollar wheat now, for we have no dollar wheat.
The price of wheat in December, January and
February last year was as great as 1t IS now,
and it must not be forgotten that the quality OF
the wheat last year was very poor. This year
we have the highest grade that has been Fro
duced for many years. In fact, the wheat Of
last wear, taking into consideration the poor
quality was not worth within Is cents per