The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-08-27
WIEN. waEFE AND How.
ausstiens ResaFdiss the LeEiaIstina
6v.v az the Rsmefallls Standard.

aueattens Regarding the LeEialsting
Away OF the timetable Standard.
I'VE have been asked when and where
and how were the people deprived Of a
nmetaliie standard27 TO answer she
FIRST question when it is only necss-
sary to refer once more to the crime
OF 1873, when this country was using
greenbacks exclusively as q circulating
medium with a few national bank notes
On the side, and greenbaeks were legal
tender for all debts, public or private.
Afterwards It was proposed to return
TO the specie basis. The fact was then
overlooked that in 1873 a law had been
passed suspending the coinage OF sill
yer. so that when the country came
down to a specie basis the people
found to their sorrow and dismay
that they only had one kind of metal
TO rest upon instead of two kinds, as
they had supposed. The consequence
was irretrieyahie ruin to many of the
business houses and manufactures,
strikes, lockouts aud bloodshed in at
most every state IN the union, the
great railway strike that spread over
the entire face Of the country, the
formation of that non-American insti-
tutions, the "tramp-army" The eff
feet of this legislation spread like a
hot wave of destruction over the en-
tire country, and, as Mr.. Carlyle pre-
dicted, did more damage than war, pes
thence or famine could have done. This
was followed by unfair and unfavOrable
Legislation against silver which has con-
tinued almost without interruption by
the passing Of such subterfuges as the
Sherman bill and the repeal OF the same,
and other acts of discrimination against
silver and in favor of gold, until gold is
to-day apparently worth twice as much
as silver on the sixteen to one basis.
This answers the question as to when
it was done.
AS to ''how" it was done is beyond
the ability of anyone except some. of the
conspirators who were connected with
theconspiracy to explain. tits said that
the first act in the decentralization of
silver cost several millions of dollars
al in gold. 1t was done by chicaneTy,
misrepresentation, bribery, fraud, in
timidation and bulldozing, by ridicul-
ing those who were right on this ques-
ton, by threatening and cutting down
wages, and by underhand tricks known
in politics, and by the elections carried
on by the most wonderful contributions
by those who received the benefits of g
single gold standard. This is a Partia
answer as to 'how" it was done, No,
body could answer in detail how it was
done nor how it has been kept from
being undone.
As to the other proposition of the
question "where" have the people beer
deprived of a bimetallic standard, we
would answer, from Maine to San Fran
cisco, from the northern line Of the
state of Minnesota to the southernmos
extremities of Texas and Florida. ant
every acre of ground within the con
fines of the boundary of the United
States has suffered the blight of th'
single gold standard. From 1873, wheI
the first act was passed discriminating
against silver and in favor Of gold Their,
was a commencement of what has beer
| known as "these hard times" Nearly
all of the railroads of the United State
between that time and the present TIM
have been in the hands Of receivers
nearly all of the great manufacture
of the country have suffered from
strikes and falling prices, nearly ever,
large city in the United States ha
suffered from tramps and men out o
employment. Every farmer has fel
the effects of the blight of the gOl
standard in the lowering of the pTic
. of his products, and every working
man in the United States has sufere
with the balance. of the people of thi
country. The answer to where" tn
people have been deprived of the b
metallic standard is as broad as tn
confines of this country. The effects O
this deprivation of a bimetallic stand
ard have been as fatal to business as
wave of poison sweeping over the couT
try would be to human eXistence,-Ill
Irnsr Ctntn Inr.l-En-