The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1899-06-23
The Cause of Free Silver.
AND SILVER
Money Thought Into the Country last
Year by the Industry of Our
AgricuIturssts.

-
Once more the farmers OF America
have thrown themselves into the breach
and "A ed the country from bankrupt
cy. Our total exports for 1895 amount
ed 10 81, 2l0. 29l ,9l3, of which enormous
sum Ss5s,507 ,942 were for agricultural
products. Ii will be seen at once that
the produce supplied by our farmers
brought nearly three times as much
money into the country as all the other
industries combined. And a large part
of it remained here to benefit our peo-
pie. for our agricultural exports ex-
ceeded the value of imports of the same
class by Sj4f 2i6, Jag. This is an average
Of more than s. of foreign coin for each
individual in the United States that the
farmers brought into this country and
kept here, for the single year OF 1925.
Ii is more than the total amount OF
money that was in circulation among
the people before the crops of 1898 were
sold. The farmers have, therefore,
more than doubled our medium Of ex-
change in twelve months. This shows
the importance of the agricultural in
~terests of the United States, and dis
tinguishes the industry that should re-
ceive the largest need Of protection and
encouragement.
The single standard organs are using
the above facts as an argument against
the remonetization of silver. They con-
tend that, as we only produced an aver
age Of a little over 500, 900 900 of silver
annually when hat metal was on an
equality with gold, and the farmers dig
! a net balance of more than half a billion
: in gold out of the ground in a single
wear, the silver question loses its i'm
| portance and dwindles into insignif-
| canoe. But why should we throw away
our 500 00, 900 of silver? And worse
still, why should we sell the silver that
we do produce TO foreign money
changers for one-half its value, and
thus enable them to use it at its full
value in purchasing agricultural prod
ucts and manufactured articles in silver
using countries that compete with us,
thereby reducing the prices OF the prod
ucts OF our W citizens in the same
ratio? This is the real question. The
value of our silver product for 1sos, at
the present boom price, was n little
over $685. O0, 900. Ii was purchased for
some millions less by the London money
dealers. because they bought before the
rise in price. and they used it at its full
value of nearly S70.O00,000 in the pur-
chase OF breadstuffs from countries
that compete with our farmers, there
by driving down the prices of farm
products in this country many millions
of dollars. If silver had been remon-
etized and brought TO par. the farmers
instead Of netting half n billion OF for
eign gold for their crops of 1898 would
have netted more than a billion, and our
citizens generally would have saved the
S35, 00O. 900 in silver which our tory ad-
ministration collusively permitted the
Jews OF London to steal from them.
These are the real issues.
There are also Others. Stability of
prices is worth considering, and this
can only be secured by n staple and in
creasipg medium of exchange, equal to
the increase of population. Shall we
depend for our prosperity on foreign
crop failures and famines, when a
stable and increasing currency would
sustain prices and give us prosperity
all the time? The thing to do is TO
come TO our senses and act with un-
preiudiced wisdom. instead of being
controlled by party spite and narrow
MISUNDERSTANDING Valley Dem
oeraf