The Monticellonian., 1898-02-25
SENATOR JAS. K. JONES
Addresses an Open Letter to the
 People of the United States.

To the People
 The surrender of the Republican party to the advocates of the gold standard and monopoly is at last complete. The present adminis- tration, called to power upon the solemn pledge of the Republican national convention at St. Louis to promote bimetallism, has formu- lated and sent to congress a bill, the leading purpose of which, the honorable secretary of the treasury avows, is ito commit the country more thoroughly to the gold stand ard. The country has already, for twenty-four years, been so thoroughly committed to this stand ard, partly by law and partly by the usurpations of the executive branch of the government, that its effects are seen and felt on every hand wages are reduced work is harder to get the weight of debt Is doubled; the value of land and other property is reduced one-half or more, until the lives of the peo- pie are made bitter with hard bondage. D
 It is certainly not in the interest of humanity to have this condition of things more thoroughly estab- lished.
 The continued rise in the value of gold, or which is the same thing, the continued fall of prices, must inevitably transfer the property of all those engaged in active business, the actual creators of wealth whether by hand, brain or capital to those who, avoiding the risk and effort of active business, only draw interest.
 The increase of 145 percent in the value of money, caused by its increasing scarcity, from 1909 to 184o, as admitted by leading advo- cates of the gold standard, found expression at that time in extreme ly low prices and conditions of un- parralleled distress.
 CONSPIRACY AGAINST SILVER.
 The discovery of gold and silver in extraordinary quantities, and the great increase in the volume of metallic money resulting therefrom, relieved this distress, and brought, in it's stead, wonderful prosperity. Prices rose, business hourished, producers prospered, all were hap 
 pY. Substantially this condition would have continued if both the precious metals had been allowed to remain in use as money, because they were being found in nearly sufficient quantities to increase the volume of money in proportion to the development of business. A wicked conspiracy, however, de prived one of them of the money function. This was done with the deliberate purpose of raising the value of the other by rendering the supply of money relatively scarcer as compared with the demand. From the hour of consummation of this crime mankind has suffered commercial disaster and social dis tress in almost constantly increas- ing measure. Just in proportion and the expansion of commerce, business and industry, the made quacy of the volume of gold is felt, it's scarcity is emphasized, it's value increased.
 The repression of life and happi-  ness, which is inseparable from a long course of declining prices, has now checked development, and, if continued. will ultimately stifle civilization. An eminent Ameri- can, President Andrews, of Brown University, some years ago said
 "Our national debt on Septem- Der I, 1865, was two and three quarter billions; it could have been paid off with IS, S,ooo, ,ooo bales of cotton, or 1000, ,ooo tons of bar iron. When it had been reduced to d billion and quarter, 3o,ooo, GOO bales of cotton, or 5000, ,ooo tons of iron would have been re- quired to pay it. In other words, while a nominal shrinkage of about s per cent had taken place in the debt, 1t had, as measured in either of these two world staples, actually been enlarged by some 50 per