Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1897-11-18
IMPOVERISHED SILVER STATES.
Are the Most Rapid .cccmnia'"rs :"
Wealth In the World. Says iuihali.


Wealth In the World. Says hiuihaii.
The inhabitants OF the Pacific states
OF America lin which term Mr.. Null
hall, In his concluding article on "!he
Progress Of the United States" in The
North American Review. includes Colo
RADIO. Utah. Montana, Idaho and Wyo-
ming as well as California. Nevada.
Oregon and Washington are by far the
rapidest accumulators Of wealth in the
world.
In the 20 years. preceding the last
census they laid up four times as much
treasure on earth as did Americans gen.
orally, their annual increase of riches
per capita being $l56, as against $50
for the whole union. Their farms yield
more than twice as much grain as the
average American farm-3O tons to the
farmland, as against % in the prairie,
Z in the southern. in the eastern and
IA in all the states. They have nine
folded their total wealth in 20 years,
II of those years elapsing since the
"crime" (which they invented and la.
ment) "of 1873" They were worth
$727,OOo,OOO in 1870 and 1851, 100000
in 1890. Since that year, as before that
year, they have enjoyed annually the
advantage shared by none Of their fel-
low Americans of taking IS tons Of one
precious metal (gold) and 1900 tons
Of the other precious metal (silver) out
Of the ground. This yearly product,
worth $1OO,OOO,0OO. exceeds" accord
Ing to this authoritative statistician,
"the value of precious metals that any
country has yet produced in the history
OF mankind"
But this wealth is a mere additional
godsend, a windfall, to people enriched
already in the ordinary industries OF
their country. Their precious metal
output is little over third Of their
agricultural product of $294,0Oo,oOO a
year. It is not very much more than a
fourth Of their manufacturing output
Of $36O,OOOO0O year. which quad
rupled in the 20 years between 1870 and
1890.
These are the whole states" whom
a temperate and discreet "bimetallist"
English authority on American affairs,
Mr.. Moreton Frewen. saw ''goaded into
fury" by the lash Of poverty which the
gold standard laid on their ragged
backs. These are the people to whom
in IL years we, the rest of the country,
the $50 average wealth people, the IA
ton averaged grain people, paid $780,
100000 for silver worth $252,000,00O.
These are the states which, one and all
(save California and Oregon) threat
ened armed revolution because their
sister states refused to take the whole
Of one Of their less important products
at two prices and told them to go to the
regular market with their silver as well
Us their lumber and their grain. These
are the people who have made nation
al issue and are now making an interna-
tional wrangle Of the question, not as
to whether this single one of their in
dustries should be suppressed, or even
suspended, but as to whether they
should receive a profit Of 100 or 400
per cent. on its product.
1t is with no feeling of anger or
\ scarcely of irritation that the rest Of us
we 500 Americans-contemplate the
collected proof Of the thoroughness with
which we have been done" by these
$156 Americans, who have been crying
all the time that we were eating them
up with the interest on gold clause
mortgages. Nay, it is with more than
national, it is with family pride. A
pride which a thrifty Yankee father
feels in being bested in a horse trade by
his offspring, that we contemplate this
magnificent record of bamboozlement.
And when we realize the further fact
that these brethren of ours, by plying
threats of our reputation of our for
eign debts, have cozened the old lady
Of Threadneedle street into an offer to
take some $95,OO0,O0O Of their wares off
their hands, we fall PROSTATE in rever-
ence before their argent shrine OF st.
Bupko.-N. Y. Press.
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