Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-09-08

that he TO whom the $l0.0 600 had been
given reported that he had invested it in
manufacturing that for time business was
good, prices kept up, and sales were large !;
that under this encouragement. and being
ambitious to show great results to his
principal, he had doubled the size of his
plant and, to pay for the improvement,
had put mortgage of 100000 upon the
whole; that by and oy prices began to
fall, his market was curtailed and, by
reason of consG uently reduced cost of
material and labor. competitors who had
erected factories subsequently to the build
ing of his, were able, with less insurance
to pay and a smaller debt and interest
charge to carry, to undersell him in the
market; how, though now and then some
slight recovery in prices was made, the
high price was never as high as the former
they persstentIy did, they always reached
a lower point than previous declines how,
fight off the inevitable as he would, it be-
came impossible finally to pay the interest
and the growing installments of the mort
gage, and how at length just before the
masters return the mortgage had been
foreclosed, and the property, being unpro-
ductiVe, had been sold for less amount
than the face of the debt Thus, despite
the fact that the utmost possible business
wisdom had been used in the prosecution
of the enterprise despite the TACT that the
500 900 had been invested in the purchase
of material from other producers, in the
payment of wages, in the support of the
government, in the maintenance of schools,
and in the dissemination of happiness
a nong the families of the poor, ruin had
overLaken the venture, and all those who
had been dependent on it, Then came the
report of the servant who had had the
custody of the $4,000. He had invested
the money in farming; had likewise pros
pered for time, and followed the example
of his fellow, had added to the extent of
his acres, and had obligated the whole for
the payment of the debt thereby incurred
The fall of agricultural prices, always
earliest in decline, had visited him with
ruin similar to the other, and, just a few
days before, the mortgage on the farm had
also been foreclosed and the master had
not only lost hiss $50 900, but had sustained
the entry of judgment for the deficiency
between the amount of the debt and the
price for which the Sheriff sold the farm.
At this stage of the accounting remark
able thing occurred. Turning with gloomy
brow from the two servants whom he had
most trusted, the master prepared to re-
ceiYe a similar statement from the steward
to whom he had committed the charge of
$4,000 That worthy, however, advanced
with alacrity to the centre of the room and
holding in his outstretched hand a napkin
weighted with some heavy substance, thus
spoke to bis lord and master: 4" Ny worthy
master, l have a different account to give
from those thou hast received. The $10,-
900 thou givest me l did not invest in
either manufacturing or farming. l did
not risk your money in any business ven
ture whatever. The $4,000 thou gavest
me took on the morning of thy departure,
put it in napkin, and buried it in secret
place in thy garden. There it has lain in
quiet and darkness ever since until this
morning 1t has never employed in all
these three and twenty years single Amer
lean workman. 1t has meyer clothed or fed
a single child. 1t has never eked out the
slender economics of the home for single
patient, long suffering and laborious Amer
lean housewife 1t has never bought book
for library, hired teacher for school or
paid minister in the pulpit 1t has done
absolutely nothing in all these years 1t has
been idle and asleep. But take it, my good
mas er; go with it in your hand out into
the oren market this morning. and you can
buy with it, of all commodities npon the
average, as much as you could have bought
with 1000 in gold that morning three
and twenty years ago. This gold has been
too valuable to put TO work. 1t has grown
in idleness where 1t would have lost in
industry. l did not invest it for you, but
it has earned for you more than Al per
cent year every year that you have been
away"
This my friend, is the money system
which the advocates of the gold standard
have the effrontery and assurance to call
" sound and honest This is the money
system which it is heresy to oppose and
an impiety topropose to abolish. My fellow
this is monstrous! / appeal to the
common farmers and justice of you all to
say whether a money system like that,
which supplies measuring unit that grows
large as erything else grows small which
constantly measures off increasing eqniya-
Tents of itself in every commodity whose
price it reckons; which each night and day,
year after year, adds undeserYed and in
increments to the burden of
the mu' tiplying debts and taxes of the
world which automatically abstracts, as
the vampire is tabled to suck the blood of
its victims, the property of the producers
of the worlds wealth. and heaps it up in
the bursting Golfers of the great gold brok-
els and creditor interests among the nations;
which means, if it is to be continued, the
eventual slavery of the masses to the few
of the producers to the hOarders of the
debtor nations to the creditor powers of the
world / appeal to you, men and brothers,
to say whether this system ought not to be
and whether we shall not suhsti-
tute for it the more Just, humane and equit-
able system, tried and proved by the ex-
perience of two thousand years of ciyiIiza-
ton, Endorsed by the authoritative thought
of the world, enshrined in the Constitution
of our country by our fathers, and demand
ed by our judgment and sense Of right
If you want proof of the decline of the
New Jersey Democracy look at the differ
ence between the old Albeit and the pres
ent Smith management" Constitution.
If the readers of the Consultation find evil
dence of decline in the Democracy of to-day
as compared with that of yesterday, yet it
has not taken the form of nominating for
h;gb commemorative office a man who in