Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-01-29
PUT TO CONFUSION.
THE GOLDOcRATS OVERTHROW BY
THEIR OWN TEST.


to Material ize-The "Disaster" That "a
Bryan Victory Stood For Is Here.
When the returns had finally settled
the result Of the presidential election,
Mr.. Bryan said that if the Republican
pledges of revival of prosperity were
fulfilled the silver men would share il
il and therefore would not be justified
in regretting their defeat at the polls.
The organs Of plutocracy felt that they
were in danger o. being caught i'll some-
thing very ike trap, Accordingly
they were fill cd for week or two after
the election With proclamations Of the
great boom 10 business that had set IN
as soon as il Y, ) announced that the
gold standard IS to be maintained.
The most eX ray igant accounts of tins
impetus to tride we're unblushingly dis
Beminated, and The unsuspicious observer
would have Supposed that there We're no
idle men in TIE country and that power
ty had as if ~ magic been totally abol-
ished. This Ort of thing went on fer
perhaps three weeks, and then the delu-
sion collapsed of its own sheer falsity.
The workingren who had been misled
BY it soon found that there was no en-
ployment to he had The mills which
had started up shut down. One failure
after another threw thousands out of
positions. Ask any business man today
what the state of trade is, and he Will
tell you that collections are slow; that
there is nothing doing, and that ruin
stares hundreds of people in the face,
and that, too, although they are at tho
head of large establishments.
These things are very familiar facts.
Nobody disputes them. The country is
going along from hand to mouth. The
gold standard sham no longer counts
for anything, and the only people who
can put decent face OH the matter are
the high protectionists. Their expert
ment is yet to be tried. They can say
that Mckinley is not yet in office and
that until he restores the tariff to its
one time altitude it is useless to expect
anything in the way of prosperity. That
is all very well as far as it goes, and we
have no doubt that when Mckinley as
sumes office the old tariff schedules will
be ultimately restored. We are not &C.
ing into that matter now. All we would
draw the readers attention to at present
is the classification of the gold standard
men on the very issue upon which their
whole case rested They pointed out to
us that the very suggestion to restore
the silver and gold standard to its con-
dition prior to the crime of 1878 was
the cause of all our ills. They said that
the presidential contest was holding
business in the hollow of its hand, and
that until we had shown the world that
we did not intend to depart from the
monetary basis of other nations We
WORLD never be prosperous and would
never have credit We all remember tho
stories Of millions of dollars ready for
Investment in this country Immediately
after gold standard victory. All Eu-
rope was represented to be waiting for
MoMnley's triumph to pour gold upon
our devoted shores by the ton.
Let us now look into the present con-
dition Of things There is absolute stag
nation. There is talk of gold export in
the near future instead of stream OF
gold to us from Europe. The national
banks are collapsing with even more
than their wonted rapidity. We see fac
tories closing. The misery of the poor
in our great cities is beyond precedent
and the labor unions report that never
in their history have they had to take
care of more unemployed members. In
fact, it is not evident that we have any
thing but the hardest of hard times, and
as o final test Of the matter let every
reader of these lines ask himself If ne
is in any way better off as result OF
McKinley's ele'5ion.
There is ony one conclusion to be
drawn from all these facts, and that Is
that the prediction assertions and
claims of the COLA men were false. They
proyided the grand test of the truth of
their cause, anu as we said above it has
zone against them. This being so, it
would also seem to follow that every
thing else they have said is equally
without any foundation i'll fact. They
6alQ Lnat IL bryan Nclc Sio'tS" '"'A
ness would be Frustrated. Mckinley is
elected, and business is Frustrated. We
were assured that Bryan's election
would bring misery on the poor. Nc
Kinley is elected, and we see the poor
worse off then they ever were. If there
is one solitary benefit promised by the
millionaires as n result of the gold VIC
tory that has yet materialized, we can
not conjecture what it is. Nor should it
be forgotten that the men of millions
told us that the results of the election
would be immediate. As for the 80 cent
dollars, we imagine the depositors In
the banks that have failed since the
election would be very glad to get 90
cents for every 100 they have locked up
in the defunct institutions.
The entire situation is the most COM
plete putting to confusion of the falslfi-
ers that we recollect ever to have OBJ
served. -Twentieth Century