Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-10-14
CROSS EXAMINATION.
OF THE CHICAGO RIBUNE's
OOLDBUO EDITOR.
Why Pat Up the Price of Money!
Debtors and Creditors, Producers and
Money Hoarders - Dear Dollars Make
Cheap Men.

One OF the Chicago Tribunc's recent
editorials upon the money question
! caused James Cockrell, an Illinois
farmer, to ask the editor to explain the
following:
/. What do nou mean by the term
"44-cent dollrF!" How can piece OF
money coined by the authority of the
government of the United States as
dollar, be a dollar and contain less
than one hundred cents?
2. When you speak Of the most
prosperous and progressive CONNER
cial nations of the world" do you have
reference to the prosperity of the
! Rothschilds and few hundred other
bankers, brokers, money changers and
landlords, or to the prosperity OF the
people in general?
8. Do you judge the prosperity OF
a nation by its commerce and the
bonds and mortgages held by It's
money lenders, or by the wealth actu-
ally owned and controlled by those
that produce all wealth (the common
people,? If by the latter, are then,
in your opinion, the common people In
England, Germany Italy, Austria and
Spain prosperous? If SO, is it due to
the gold Standard"
4. How would cheaper money c44-
cent dollars") have the effect Of plac-
ing the American people on a level
with Cinnamon? Were the people OF
our country on a level with China
men before the coinage of silver was
stopped and thus far silver demone-
tiZed?
5. If the free and Independent coin
age of silver at the ratio of 16 to l,
should, as you say 1t would, wipe out
GO per cent of the credits of the coun-
try, what would become of that wealth,
II it be real wealth? If the creditor
lost it would the debtor gain it?
6. II the creditor class (as you say)
would lose 60 per cent by the full and
complete reconciliation of silver, how
much then did the debtors lose by the
demonstration of that metal!
Z. During the last thirty years who
has lost the most wealth, the creditor
class by a fall in the value of money,
or the debtors by rise in the value OF
money? Have you kept track Of this
little matter?
s. If, after thorough investigation
( the matter, you should discover that
the toiling, producing and debt
or classes have been the constant los
ers and to the extent of billions OF
dollars, in consequence Of money
growing dearer and dearing during the
last twenty-five or thirty years, would
you then consent to have matters
evened up little by squeezing say
40 or so per cent Of value out Of
money, and, to that extent, return 1t
into the fruits of the toll Of the real
wealth producer? Is 1t any worse to
rob a creditor than debtor, and, II so,
why?
9. You say there are "S2,010 saving
bank depositors in Ohio, who have
$50, O00, 900 on deposit" Do you know
how many men there are in Ohio, out
OF a population of 100000, who are
paying interest to the savings banks
for the privilege of using this money?
10. Do you know how many men,
women and children in Ohio have not
q dollar on earth, and who have no
means of acquiring dollar except
through their labor? You, sir, give
2k per cent of the population of the
state as having bank deposits, what do
you say about the 97k per cent (nine-
ty-seven out of every hundred), with
out any deposits?
II. Why is it that you are not as
deeply interested in the welfare Of the
many who have money to buy or earn,
az you are in the welfare of the very
few who have money to sell?
70. Don't you reckon that the little
PA per cent bank depositors would
gain more than they would lose, II the
Populists or somebody else should rob
dollars of 60 per cent of their value by
adding GO per cent to the value Of la
Dor? / can think of no other way by
which the trick can be performed, can
you?
13. You have a good deal to say
about the purchasing power Of money.
I suppose by that you have reference
to the amount or quality one man can
buy of the fruits Of another mans toll,
with one dollar; If you are contend
ing for dollars of the greatest purchas-
ing power, then why did you manifest
so much Joy when it took SIZE to buy
one bushel of wheat. If dollars of the
greatest purchasing power are the best
for everybody, don't you think that
general rise in prices, so that dollars
would not buy so much, would be the
worst thing that could happen?
The answers to these questions are
obvious to the dullest understanding,
but the financial editor of the Tribune
has not attempted an answer.
Use Your Vote for Yourself.