The Winslow mail., 1899-09-14
The Cause Of Free Silver.

enrich themselves by plundering So
ciety. The money lenders saw their
opportunity to profit by the general
wreckage and distress that would fol-
low in the train of falling prices and
universal bankruptcy. These two pow
erful classes are responsible for the
train of evils that has come upon the
world during the last quarter of d cen
tury, and that has wrecked the for
tunes of so many enterprising and de-
serving citizens of all nations and ac-
counts for the unprecedented concen-
tration of wealth into the hands of the
few.
The evils that must follow in the
train of the single gold standard have
but just commenced. The fall in prices
that has already taken place within the
last 20 years has been mild compared
to that which must take place In the
future if this mad policy of restricting
the standard money of the great COM
mercial nations to gold alone is adhered
| 90.
In 1898 the creditor combination had
arranged to extend the gold standard
to Austria, and it became necessary for
them to secure four hundred millions
of gold for this purpose. President
Cleveland, who was elected to his high
office at the instigation and through
the support of the gold combination,
threw open the treasury vaults cf the
United States, and, contrary to law,
surrendered the option of the govern
ment to pay its obligations in either
gold or silver and allowed the gold COM
bination to raid our treasury. The
bankers seized upon this opportunity
to create a devastating panic that swept
more than one thousand millions of
wealth into their Golfers and prostrated
the business of nation.
The panic of 1893 did not proceed
from natural causes, but was purely
an artificial panic resulting from the
manipulation of the gold standard and
conspiracy between our administra-
ton and the bankers of New York.
The long period of distress that was
sure to follow the terrible crime of
1898 was relieved by extraordinary and
unusual conditions that are not likely
to soon occur again. The United States
was blessed with bountiful harvests
and famine prevailed in nearly all other
countries, causing an unprecedented
demand, which advanced prices for the
products of American farms. This un-
usual condition prevented a further
export of gold from our shores and
turned the current in our favor. Fol
lowing this came an increased produc-
ton of gold from the Klondike and the
American mines, which augmented the
money supply and brought relief to the
American people.
The action of the British Indian COM
mission in determining to force India
to the gold standard, coupled with the
new demand for gold from Japan, has
increased the strain upon gold and will
cause all the great financial institutions
of the world to adopt stringent meas
ures to retain their reserves of that
metal. The result is that already Eu
rope is paying a premium for gold and
is removing it from this country in
spite of favorable rate of exchange,
and the prospects are that the exodus
of gold which has set in will continue
for an indefinite period. Normal crop
conditions throughout the world will
deprive the United States of the advan-
tage. that it has enjoyed during the past
| two years.
In addition to the foregoing the
| United States has entered upon mad
career of industrial combinations
which are capitalized at four or five
times their actual value. This water
ing of stocks and insane movement of
combinations in restraint of trade is
sure to cause an artificial advance of
prices through the power of monopoly
and to check exports from the United
States and invite imports. Added to
this our people are visiting Europe in
enormous numbers and spending large
amounts of money abroad. Next year
the Paris exposition will attract three
or four times the number of Americans
that usually make foreign trips and
cause the expenditure of a vast amount
of American money in European cap
itals. So that the prospects of the sill
yer question becoming acute in the
United States and cutting prominent
figure in politics again at an early day
is an assured fact.
| America being a debtor nation, so
| long as an administration IS in power
that will disregard the law and sur
render the option to creditors the
| United States will have to stand the
brunt of the burden of the new demand
for gold to supply Russia, India and
Japan.
1t is time for the business men,
farmers, professional men end all other
| classes who do not live by lending
money and who do not thrive upon the
general wreckage of society to open
their eyes to the dangers that are be-
fore us. They should remember that
as time and tide wait for no man, the
immutable laws of economics cannot
be disregarded without paying the pen
atty. 1t does not require great mind
to comprehend that with a constantly
| increasing population and expansion
of business and credits that prices must
continue to fall to the injury of all
producers and to the benefit of all cred
itors so long as money continues to
gov scarce and dear. Free institutions
the gold standard is continued as a per-
manent policy-National Watchman.
Gold for India.
The new demand for gold to supply
I III