Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-01-08
OUR CANDIDATE IN 1900
Money and Other Things.

Probably there is not one Alneri-
can citizen in five hundred but thinks
he casts his vote according to the die
tates of his cool judgment. 1t is
probably the fact that but one out of
q great many really does so. AS
rule the American people have been
voting their prejudices rather than
their convictions. While it is en-
joined upon man to "Prove all things
and hold fast to that which is good"
very few do SO. Aud perhaps it
would be unreasonable to ask fellow
citizen who votes away his own, as
we'll as the prosperity of his country
men, to ''prove all things" and to go
elsewhere for the proof than to self
ishly interested politicians and the
contemporary partisan press. With
starvation and nakedness for hun
dreds of thousands going hand in
hand with 'over-production" ought
to furnish an object lesson which no
intelligent people can always ignore
be prejudices what they may. Con.
fronted by such condition, the tariff
tomfoolery with which politicians
have amused and deceived the peo-
pie has fallen to the depths below
bathos. History's pages are before
you, and you have God-given reason.
prove al things" In your blind
ness you have brought up against the
gold standard, point of money con-
traction which has brought misery,
woe and destruction to every nation
that ever tried it. 1t has closed the
coffin upon our prosperity as peo-
pie. The pean of joy sung by the
bankers and other corporate monop-
lies at this contamination is the swan
song of the republic.
They who write and speak that if
all money were obliterated we should
etill have our wheat and corn, and
beef, and pork, lose sight of the fact
that money as a me dunn of exchange
marks the line between civilization
and barbarism. Those who think
with them should open their eyes to
existing conditions. The mere act of
looking will discover the western
farmers with ''over-production"
weighing heavily upon them and east
ern would-be-toilers watching their
loved ones starve, as the result so far
of a money famine. Another twist
of the contraction screw by retiri ng
the treasury notes and issuing bonds
and the sufferiugs that now
embrace but percentage of the peo-
pie will extend to another portion of
them-and SO to the grand cataclysm.
Go to any encyclopedia and read up
money" and kindred subjects. Take
the economic writings which have
stood the test among men from Arts.
totle to the present, and you will be
astonished how having eyes we see
not" and having understanding we
have been fools. On the basis of the
present ratio of production, absolute
control of the nations finances sur
rendered to corporations, enables
them to make the people prosperous
and happy or the bitter contrary at
their will. The producers pile noun
tain-high DEMONSTRATING products, yet
the corporations set widespread
starvation in the very shadow of that
mountain. Look at Chicago the past
and the present winter: the noun
tain produce literal fact and more
than seventy thousand starving peo-
pie there. The republican "home
market" and the democratic "free
trade" were there, also the system of
finance they have given the people
and satan's hands rubbed gleefully.
Our country's woes are traceable
directly to money contraction; that
is all that resumption meant; that is
all that the characterization of silver
meant; and "a large part Of what
bonds mean dnring a period ofpeace,
and what ''over-production'' means.
At the Christian era the money OF
LILO INOudu oluplIe WIS III oOlld1o L,
8OO,000,0OO; at the dark ages it was
5000, 100000. Must civilization die
again? A sytem of money contrac.
ton means continued fall in gen.
eral prices. With money scarce an6
dear, 1t is more profitable at interest
than employing labor in manufacture
ing for a continuously falling market
Labor's want of power to purchase
and consume makes apparent over
production to farmer and stockman
Apparent plethora and cheaper
ing the products of these lattel
leaves them unable to purchase wha
they would of manufacture. Do thu
people think as we'll as see? At thu
last grand inaugural Of the stuffed
prophet he expressed great deal O
j concern for the value of the purchas
ing power of the laboring mans dol
lar. Did he consider that the labor
ing mans dollar comes from day tt
day and from week to week? Ant
when the act for which he convened
congress was passed it authorized the
owner Of capital and of dollars tt
print on it's bill heads in red ink
.-ssTerms cash In gold.n The labor