The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-07-30
THE CROSS OF GOLD.
HOW AMERICAN PRODUCERS
ARE BEING CRUClFIED.
,. w. Porter OF irEinia Exposes the
Methods Resorted to by the Pluto
cratic Press to Hide the Cause of
Falling Prices OF Our Products.
by j. w. Porter Of Virginia in the
Silver Knight-Watchman,)

Silver Knight-Watchman.)
In view Of the long continued decline
If agricultural prosperity, which has
reacted upon all other Industries, and
is making commercial business hazard
GUS, to say the least, we see men still
cropping in darkness as to the aus
And we see others ignorantly or will
fully misstating the cause, and declar-
ing that it is irremediable, while chron-
icling the damaging evidence of the
destruction of values which is due to
causes which are remediable. The
cause and the remedy have been long
ago pointed out by some of the wis
est and ablest men of the time, and
public opinion would long g have
compelled the application OF that
remedy which consisted in a removal of
the known cause, but for the determined
effort to prevent public opinion by false
statements, and the closure OF the col
umns Of SO many of u great neWspa-
pers and agricultural journals to any
fair discussion of the subject. This is
no light matter in a republic, whose
enlightened public opinion is our every
safeguard. The power Of money to
Cypress is nowhere more aptly illus
trated than in this attempted control of
the vehicles of public intelligence.
Every writer against the gold standard
in this country and in Europe knows
how difficult it is to getany presentation
of fact or argument against the gold
standard before the people. The late
Prof. Laveleye, of Liege university,
asserted in his last days, after long and
ably contending against the injustice of
the gold standard, that he had to pay
for the publication of his papers in the
great continental journals. In a re-
public this is inexcusable. 1t is dan
gerous. 1t is the first step taken to
throttle liberty. Americans should be
aroused to the danger, ere it is too late.
Truth and justice have nothing to fear
in the arena, open to public discussion.
A free and untrammeled public press
was once deemed "the palladium of our
liberties" Have we such now? Most
assuredly not, when the press is closed
to the free discussion of the most i'm
portant questions which eyer agitated
our country. One great agricultural
journal which has a large circulation,
formerly took great interest in this
question. It's control was secured, and
it was silenced, and all discussion of
the subject of bimetallism as affecting
agriculture was stopped, though it's two
editors are pronounced friends of BIZ
metallism. Every number brings evil
dence of the decay of the farming in
terests, yet the cause must not be dis
cussed!
It recently published the following
from the Tribune On. W:
Farms in England are selling at a
ruinous reduction of their former
value, and in MAN, cases cannot be sold
at all. Many properties within two
hours ride Of London are deserted y
= = In many cases farms have been
sold for less than one-tenth their value
twenty years age. Well-to-do farmers
are abandoning the business and going
to the colonies or to the cities to start
life anew. = Although the sit
uation is g%revicus, there may be con-
ISOLATION in the fact it is worse on the
continent. We have not yet
suffered so severely in this country"
it continues. Now, as to it's last con-
clusion, what are the facts?
The abandoned farms of our East
ern states are an older story than the
ones in England, and so is the emil
grafton of its yeomen, to whose sturdy
manhood both owe their greatness. We
can instance as great a decline in farm
values in almost all the older states,
and then the sequestration of all debt
or interests in farms, largely or nearly
paid for, which has been constantly 60
ing on. Coupled with this lot we pre-
sent the following from Mr.. Edward
Atkinson's address recently delivered
before the New Jersey board of agri-
culture, as published by the Southern
planter (Richmond, Va.), which lauds
Mr.. A. as the greatest statistician and
an eminent authority. He attributes
the enormous losses which the farm
ers have sustained in the last two
years in the decline of their staple
crops to "the shadow of a threatened
crime" and he then says: "The pen
atty which the farmers have paid for
tolerating the effort to tamper with the
standard of value Of the nation has
been a loss Of one-third of the farm
values of their great products in the
returns of 1895 as compared to 1891, in
the sum Of $3.50, 900. O0o!" Continuing,
he says: This loss has by SO much
reduced the purchasing powers Of the