Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1899-12-06
The Monetary Prob len1.
A WONDERFUL PROSPERITY.

+ -. -. :. ~ = 4s5afSif .+7eT r.
Our Financial Condition at - Lower
I 80: Ebb Than Ever Before In s$:s u.
!: -. Our History. y '1f5 rs -
!: 1t is not true that because certain .
lines of business are prof able just now
and that some men are making money,
or earning wages, that we must there.
fore throw up our hats and shout for
prosperity. One swallow does not make
a summer; and upon the theo:r that the
misfortunes Of a Few men do not in
volve the destruction of the earth OF the :
nation, it is absurd to speak of prosper
itySand our financial system in the same .
breath. With an increasing commerce
to call general business, productions
and manufactures business" - based
upon contracting circulating medium,
prosperity is fantasy more proper for
the brain of a monomaniaci thar for the
gray matter Of an American citizen who
either, knows better or who does not
want to know better. We have reached
point where our financial condition is
at lower ebb than ever before in :he
history OF the nation, and yet there ure
those who try to make us, believe that
we are in highly prosperous condition..
We are indeed growing great as ma
tion; we are building fine ships of war.
our army is increasing in magnitude;
all of our officials wear good clothes,
sport diamonds and fine jewelry, and
whenever their wives obtain a new gar
ment from Paris or their daughters
marry foreign lord, the papers record
the fact; our taxes now exceed the
total amount of our entire circulating
medium annually and is daily, nav.
hourly, increasing; we are reaching a
condition where we can defy the whole
earth. and when it comes to twisting the
lions or the dragons tail we are strict
~ in it.
But what of the rank and file? Those
who toll and struggle, who sweat and
worry, who are miserable and despon-
dent? They are the ones who must pay
for all this balderdash of general pros
perlty. The individual is nothing in the
great onrush of glory. Not so very long
ago man who accumulated money was
said to be prosperous; he was making
money, but now it is regarded as Won
derful badge of prosperity for a man to
get any work at all and receive wages
enough to keep body and soul from
separating. The laborer forestalls his
future, draws upon it to satisfy the
demands of the past; he must
spend what he may earn next week for
| the necessaries Of life he needs this
week; by an enormous production the
farmer is enabled to realize enough to
pay OFT some of his back interest, he
even feels hilarious enough over that
unusual state of his finances that he
buys his wife and daughter cheap
calico dress, mayhap he takes all hands
to some cheap circus or vaudeville. Next
year he will be shaving to make up for
his prosperous dissipation. There can
never be any such thing as prosperity
unless the individuals of the nation are
prosperous, and that prosperity can
never come under our present financial
system, though we double our produc-
tons and fill the whole earth with our
manufactures.
The reason is plain when one stops
to think about it. We have no accre-
tions to our stock of money; indeed.
on the authority of the treasurer of the
United States, we are two hundred and
twenty-five millions of dollars short of
enough silver money absolutely neces-
sary to transact the business of the
country. What does this mean? Why,
it one man makes a few dollars some
other man loses the amount. When the
banks of New York are stuffed full of
money the country elsewhere is suffer
ing from a deficiency. When Chicago
is gloating over its surplus cash New
York and the rest of the country are
upon the verge of bankruptcy. It is the
same volume of money shifted about
from place to place, robbing of Peter
to pay Paul, that constitutes our finan-
cial system under the gold standard.
How can there be dearth of money
under the gold standard? We were
told that it would bring us prosperity,
and the only thing it has brought us
as it is hoped-is the wisdom of a sad
experience. What system was it that
has reduced our circulating medium to
$225,000,000 below the amount abso-
lutely necessary to carry on the bust.
ness of the country? What kind of
financial system is that which will per-
nit the manufacture of paper money
based upon an insufficient supply of
| gold and prohibit the coinage of a
deficit of $225,000,000 below the amount
absolutely necessary to carry on the
business of the country? What kind
of a financial system is that which will
| permit the manufacture of paper
money based upon an insufficient sup
ply of gold, and prohibit the coinage of
a deficit of 1925 ,oc0,0 900 in silver money {?
If there is anything that can convince
a reasonable American citizen that the
| gold standard is not beneficial to the
people, it ought to be it's result in de-
priying the people of their money to
carry on their business. Why not use
gold? Why, that is not intended for
the use of American citizens, it is re-
quired to keep our foreign creditors in
easy circumstances and, for foreign inn
portations; for foreign husbands for
our sweet American girls for the
trusts, combines, syndicates, bankers,
brokers and spectators. When it
comes to the American citizen, silver is
good enough for him, but be is not
even allowed enough of that lest he
make little. money that cannot be
controlled by the gold standard 5.=:s
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L; Our silver dollar buys as much as