Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-05-26
THECRAFTY USURERS
AND THEIR TRAPS FOR THE
UNWARY.
The Cutlery Against u "Fifty-Cent VOL
lar, Designed to Conceal the Manipu-
Iations by Which the Two Hundred
Cent Dollar Is Evolved.

The creditor combinations who own
the debts of the world and are inter-
ested in making money scarce anu
dear. and everything that money buys
cheap, have invented many ingenious
phrases to deceive their unwary VIC
tims-the laboring and producing
classes. The creditor combination is
the money octopus. 1t holds demands
against mankind for the entire stock OF
gold money in the world forty times
over. The amount of interest 1t gath
ers in six months equals the total gold
money in existence. To make money
scarce and dear is to increase Its
wealth and power, and to correspond
ingly weaken the ability of the people
to resist any demands it makes.
This rich, powerful and crafty
combination understands every pref
udice of the human heart and every
weakness of the human intellect. by
skillfully manipulating these they not
only secure acquiescence in their
schemes of robbery and spoliation, but
cause their victims to zealously 90
their work.
Among the various catch phrases
coined in the parlors Of the WORLDS
great pawn shops to deceive their un-
wary victims are numerous ingenious
and sophistical appeals to the moral
sense, the pride, and the passions OF
man, says the National Waterman.
The craft, cunning and ingenuity OF
the phrases used are evidenced by
their acceptance as truth by millions OF
unsuspecting victims.
One of the statements that has done,
and is doing, duty for the gold combi-
nation is the cry of "50-cent dollar"
1t is not uncommon to hear men sus-
pected of average intelligence, who
wear clean shirts and whose ordinary
pretensions pass muster, echoing the
60-cent dollar argument. If such per-
sons realized that such arguments ex-
posed their weakness Of intellect and
caused them to forfeit the respect OF
their more intelligent associates, they
would protect themselves against be-
ing cassed as intellectual imbeciles by
declining to ever repeat them.
The argument current among many
thoughtless victims of gold monopoly
is that the reopening of the minis
to the free coinage of silver would
enable miners and other owners of sill
yer to have fifty cents worth Of their
material stamped a dollar by the gov
eminent and empowered by law to dis
charge dollar of debt; that this dol
lar would only be worth fifty cents &C
tual value, and that, therefore, gold
dollars worth twice as much would no
longer circulate side by side with
them, concurrently and interchangea-
i bly,, making purchases and payments;
that the withdrawal of the gold money
from circulation would cause terrific
contraction of the money volume, max
ing money so scarce that it would Grip
pie business and ruin debtors, and that
the business of the country would be
transacted with dollars worth only
fifty cents
1t must be remembered that money
is desired not for the purpose OF
swapping dollars of different material
but as a medium of exchange to facili-
tate the work of producing and ex-
changing commodities. The value Of
money, whether made of gold, silver
or paper, is the amount of other things
in general that it can be exchanged
for. When money is made of materia
such as gold or silver that can be re-
minted and the coin Of one country
country, free of charge, in whatever
quantity obtainable, such money ma
terial will move from one country t.
another seeking the market wherein i
can be exchanged for the most goods
and commodities will seek such coun
tries as they can be exchanged for thu
largest amount Of such money mate
rial. Thus it will be seen that tn,
whereabouts of gold must always b,
determined by the prices of commodi
ties.
So long as commodities are priced IL
and exchanged for money, wheneve
money becomes scarce prices must fall
So any attempt to take any larg
amount of gold out of circulation
would cause such fall in prices as t,
at once call the gold back again b,
giving it a greater power to exchang
for commodities here than elsewhere
Thus it will be seen how absurd i
the claim that our gold could leave Of
any account so long as prices in thi
country do not go above the interna
tional gold price level. Again, tina
our volume of money would be con
I, tracted to point that business woul
be cramped and debtors ruined, and a
the same time we would have in cir
culation dollars worth only fifty cents
or one-half as much as before; tina
they could only be exchanged for one