Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1897-03-12

it necessary to devise scheme, which,
without diminishing the circulating med
ium or offering a premium for its con-
traction, will present remedy for those
arrangements, which, temporary 10 its
nature, might we'll in the years Of our
| prosperity have been displaced by wiser
provisions. What these wiser provisions
might be he does not even hint at, what
sort of remedy he has to propose for
| present arrangements he does not tell
u.s. Evidently he is not ready; those for
whom he speaks are not prepared to make
| definite proposals.
So he finds escape in postponement. he
suggests that the devising of plan Of
currency reform be devolved on COM
mission. In this he follows after the
suggestion of the Indianapolis Monetary
| Convention, to substitute government by
com mission for government by congress-
He tells US low, if congress will author
ze the creation of such commission, he
will appoint prominent business men of
different parties; "busness men," we sus-
pect, being used in the restricted sense of
men engaged in the distribution Of
wealth, and more particularly men en-
gagged in gambling in the product OF
others labor, with view TO preying on
the fruits of others toll, and "dltferent
| parties in the sense of publicans and
gold democrats.
| But when 1t comes to revising our cur
rency laws, it seems to us the producers
of wealth, our farmers and wage earners.
are quite as much entitled to take part in
such revision as the speculative cliques
bent on stripping these classes Of the
products of their labor. The farmer, the
| manufacturer, the wage Garner are
quite as much interested IN our
fiscal laws as the so.called ''busi-
uess man." With an honest stand
ard of value, such as will secure TO them
the fruits of their toll, their welfare is
| bound up. And an honest standard does
| not mean a gold standard that is appre-
| ciating in value, and bellies the very name
conferred upon it, for standard means
something invarable. And it is true
standard Of value, that is, a dollar of no
greater purchasing power tomorrow, or
next month. or next year, than today,
that producers of wealth seek after.
A dollar of appreciaLing value deprlves
the producers of wealth Of the fruits of
their toll, and they cannot afford to let a
commission of"business men" bent on
enhancing the value of the dollar, work
out for our country a monetary system.
For them to do so would be to write their
own lmpoverish hmeLt. When it comes to
revising our monetary system, COM
mission appointed by the whole people
can be more safely relied on to do justice
to all than a commission appointed by
the president, from the members of sin
gle class. In short, congress Will make a
| safer, better monetary commission than
any commission selected by appointm ent.
But the president needs refuge, he
wants thine to collect his views and en-
able the money cllques to devise policy;
he does not know Just how to move,
wants no move by congress at this time,
and so he suggests postpoEement by re-
ferring the whole matter to a commits.
sion. The tariff is all that Mr.. Mckinley
wants treated at the special session OF
congress that he announces he will call
for March 18th, and it is with evident re-
lief that the president hurrles over his
references to our monetary system, and
gets down to recommendations for tariff
legislation. But before coming to this,
and after suggesting monetary COM
mission, he perfunctorily pledges himself
to promote international bimetallism, and
then. as if to amelorate the gold coutrac-
,ionists, pledges himself to treat our sill.
YER dollars as subsidiary coin redeemable
in gold. In other words, while following
for appearances sake, the deiusion of in
ternational bimetalism, he is going to
hold US firmly down to the gold basis. II
necessary he will even borrow gold with
which to redeem our silver dollars, and
thus carry out to an extreme Mr.. Cleve'
lands policy in treating silver as Il metal
unfit for use as money.
But bond issues Mr.. Mckinley believes
will be unnecessary if we will build ur
our revenues. He does not llnger long
over the way to raise additional revenue
He narrows down the source from which
to derive new revenues to the tariff anc
he asks that schedules shall be arranged
so as to yield increased revenues while
extending protection. In other words hi
says: Devise tariff that will repress i'm
ports and yet not so repress them as tt
cut into revenues. There is something
not little contradictory in this, but a:
we have elsewhere gone into this phase o
proposed tariff legislation. we need moi
linger over it here. And for that matter
Mr.. Mckinley does not linger over the
difficulty of building tariff that aims tt
accomplish two things, the one antago
nistlc of the other. He simply assume:
that it Can be done and passes on, as
sumes either that tariff that will put NJ