Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-06-30
And Is the "Craze" Not Dead?

Mathew Marshall. an eminent gold
standard authority, points out in a re-
cent article in the New York San that
the seignOrage under the recent war
revenue bill will only be coined at the
rate of S600,0 per month, so that it
will take about six years to coin the
whole $40, 100000 of it, and rather
bluntly tells the national banker that
this is not an alarming imitation in
view of the hundreds of millions of
national bank notes they propose to
put in circulation based upon the new
bond issue. He intimates that per-
haps the high price of wheat had as
much to do with the Oregon election
as any we'll settled financial views its
citizens may have had. The most sig
nificant statement his article contains
is the following:
While we are thus apparently begin
ming to emerge from our condition of
uncertainty in regard to the future
standard of our monetary values, sew
eral of the most important nations of
the Continent of Europe are still strug
Cling with doubts on the subject.
France processes adherence to silver as
well as to gold, and large and influ-
entail number of her citizens ardently
desire an international bimetallic
agreement. Germany, likewise, has
strong party which favOrs bimetalllsm.
Australia, although it has recently
adopted by law the gold standard,
hesitates to put the law into execution.
The premium on gold has disappeared,
but the resumption of gold payments
by the Government has not yet been
formally announced, and the antagOn
ism between the German and the other
elements of the empire may lead to its
indefinite postpOnement. Italy is bank
rupt, and her currency is at discount
in gold. while Spain is in as bad a
plight as we were during the darkest
period of the civil war.
The American people in 1896 were
led to believe that the gold cure was
universal pauacea for all financial ills.
Is it possible that there is some mistake
about this? The men who espoused
the cause of the gold standard put on
all the airs of infallibility. Is it con-
ceivable that they were false prophets
bowling down to an impOtent God? Ii
gold and prosperity are synonymous,
why is Italy convulsed with bread riots.
with her paper money below par?
Why is Spain not prosperous? Why
should Austria be afraid TO enforce the
law she has placed upon her statute
books establishing the gold standard?
Is Austria afraid of prosperity? Is
there danger that her peasantry will
become rebellious because of the plenty
the gold standard will bring? And
why, in Germany, the land OF enlight-
eminent, the land of compulsory educa-
ton, should there be any one so ignor-
ant as not to understand and appreci-
ate the blessings of the gold standard?
Has German education, after all these
years, left so much ignorance as to en-
danger her browning glory, the gold
standard? Will some one of our gold
bug friends explain the above facts?
England has passed her producing
classes through the fire TO Moloch.
She has no farming population; she
must buy the food to support her vast
population. She wants dollar of the
greatest possible purchasing power;
she wants as much wheat, corn, pork,