The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-01-13
Vivid Picture of the Corruption thot is Devourino
the Vitols of Free Government.

thirty-nve years later we behold a Re-
publican successor of Lincoln nodding as
sent 10 q doctrine which characterizes the
above utterance of the great MARTYR
President as a specious form of bias
phen!y. Yea, Hamlltonism fits these
u1nes. Jefferson and Lincoln stood on
the platform of the common people and
as the light of Jefferson wanes the work
OF the great liberator passes into the
shadow.
Queen and President.
ABOUT two months ago the New York
chamber of Commerce gave a banquet
and the president Of that body asked the
assembled guests to drink to the health
or the British Queen before drinking the
health of the President of the United
States, and 1t was done. He said the
President would consent to this IL he
was there. To be sure. this will not
snake our Republic; but it does show
the tendency Of thought among certain
classes. 1T shows that the stock jobbers,
tho spectators and the financial wolves,
ave no more love for our institutions
today than they had in l77e, when they
sided with England, or 1861. when they
sided with the Confederacy.
Msudlin Talk Of Anglo-American Al
lance.
from the same source comes the maud
lin talk Of an alliance with England. We
are to repeat the experience of the lamb
and lie down with the lion, and we awe
toadies and nunkeys in America who
would consider it a privilege to lie down
inside OF the lion.
How to Call n Halt.
But, say you, these things are not new
n t,r. 3-l1 ~, WIZ
no mortal can tell you in advance. In
all great conflicts the first thing Is to as
certain the principle involved and the
ultimate object aimed at. The campaign
VIII then be shaped by conditions and
events. We wish to prevent the enslave-
ment OF our people and the establishment
of an aristocracy. We see that no aris-
tocracy. either Of birth or wealth, can
be established or maintained where the
great masses are prosperous and indie
pendent. 1t can exist only amid cheap
property, cheap labor and cheap men. A
cowed and a poor people are the soil In
which 1t grows. When they gave US a
financial system which paralyzed our
country. which happened property,
which crushed labor and which cheap
ened manhood and destroyed independ-
ence, they laid the fist stone for an
American aristocracy. II these conditions
are to continue, then the star of the Re-
public has set. But II we can overthrow
this system, II we can re-establish bimet-
alis1n, If we can found a scientific mon
etary system and restore the price of
products and Of property, If we can raise
the spirit of labor and renew the indie
pendence of the masses, then the begin
ming or the next century Will crush this
aristocracy to atoms and cast 1t to the
four winds, and a liberated people, bow
ing only to the God who nal lie them. will
leap forward with a joy that shall glad
Den the earth. You see the money ques-
ton confronts us at the door. 1t Is not
of our choosing. We cannot make issues.
Issues grow out of w~rong--grow out of
injustice, grow out of human suffering
Cowards and weddings evade them, but
men must meet them.
The Financial Question.
Other great questions vital to our exist
encc have been evolved by the age and
must be met. But the financial question
Is basic and central. It Is the mother of
a whole brood of evils. The financial
spectators of the eaut Of Europe want
the absolute power TO control average
prices. Therefore they want silver and
greenbacks wiped out, SO as to make
everything rest on g%old-this they can
easily corner-then with a MONOPOLY of
issuing paper money they can concentrate
everything into a few hands, A few
gigantic banks can then control. When
it suits their speculative purposes thew
can expand and raise prices. and then
contract and lower prices, and thus catch
great and INSCRIPTIONS interests always
move secretly and in the dark. They
bridge every chasm with a brine and
catch the political highwaynan with an
official uniform. The gold standard has
never drawn an honest breath nor taken
an honest step in this couatry, and it's
success so far shows the venality and
Ratio of Metals.
VIVA about 16 to /? Well, my friends.
1t Is not in our power to change this:
it is impossible to get anything along any
other line. Change the ratio and the
retically this is not so, but we nave to
deal with fearfully sad facts. For twen-
ty years both of the great parties de-
nounced the gold standard and demanded
the free coinage of silver at the old
ratio. 1t looked as If the question would
be settled in a week. but instead the gold
standard got more firmly seated in the
saddle. How? By corruptly controlling
the government and manipulating Con-
gress. Open the question of ratio and
you Will get no action in a century. To
drop the ratio is to betray the cause.
We are for the old ratio because it Is
right, because it will undo a great crime,
because it will make prosperity possible.
because we cannot succeed in any other
way, and because the suggestions for a
change come only from the enemy.
Private Monopolles.
Now, gentlemen, time never stands still
and evolution is eternal. Now questions
affecting our very existence have arisen;
while they are old elsewhere they are
new here. This is an age of concentra-
ton in all things, and the formation Of
private m%onopolies in particular. Com
petition has been wiped out. In harmony
with the law as 1T has stood for CEN
turtles we have denounced this, but to no
urpose: we have legislated against it,
but in vain. When they could not defeat
legislation by bribery they went before
some subservient Federal judge and had
1t declared unconstitutional. Our remedy
has failed. Private monopoly is as inju-
rious and as much of a crime as ever.
and we cannot stop its birth; we must
change our tactics and convert private
monopolies into public monopolies. Give
A - ,l- = 49,