Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-01-05

1t will be remembered that last year
the secretary of the treasury issued
and sold 5000, 000,0 900 of bonds, and he
got for them fraction over $200,000,-
900 gold, (which has since been lying idle
in the treasury, while interest is be-
ing paid on the bonds. Last week he
advertised that he would buy back
$4,000, 900 of these bonds and he Is
paying about 1,14.5O in gold on the
100 per cent in bonds-a higher price
than he had sold them for.
The excuse for this purchase OF
bonds is that some Of the gamblers on
Wall street were getting cornered and
unless they could get hold Of some
more money to put up there would
have to be a SHOW down" Il believe
that is what poker players call iD, and,
that would cause panic and explode
all this campaign prosperity. Old
Russell Sage rushes into print eulogiz-
ing Secretary Gage for turning loose
this little handful of gold and stalking
the cornered players, and says that it
prevented panic throughout the COM
mercial world.
And this is the Sound money" sys-
tenn, the healthy financial condition"
that we hear of from the stump and
read of in the millionaire-owned pa
pers. And the more alarming fact is
fhok ~ xiu
more thought to what is money, who
has authority to create it, what makes
plentiful among the people at one time
and scarce at another what causes flush
times and what causes panics, than
the pig does about the supply Of
acorns, so long as the pig can find
plenty Of acorns he eats and grunts;
when he can't find any he squeals.
Those who can think and are not too
stupid or lazy to do so find this to be
our financial condition: About 81 per
cent of the business exchanges of this
great people are made with credits or
wind money and only per cent, SO in
the 500, with actual money. This 8
equal proportions of gold, silver and
paper dollars. Some believe, and they
inherit this belief from the old world,
where privileged idlers ride on the
backs of the toilers, that the paper
dollar should be "redeemable," that is,
payable as credits are payable, only
in gold and silver dollars, that a solid
money system would consist in hav-
ing only 50 to pay 800 with. But
whoever would have his name herald
ed in the 16-page dailies as learned
political economist" financial
statesman" must now teach that the
most sound" solid" and honest"
money consists in only having 81 in
money to pay $500 with, and that
money should be stamped on gold only.
Gold, of which the bank of England |
now fixes the price; gold. of which
there is not enough in the world to
pay one-tenth of the interest on the |
worlds indebtedness; gold, that every |
nation needs to pay its Indebtedness, |
so that whoever sinks the prices of |
their property and labor, the lowest |
will get it; gold, that today is here and |
tomorrow fees to the uttermost parts |
of the earth. at all times the slipperi-
est eel in the financial pool. A solid |
basis" for the interest gatherers and |
usurers of the world. But ten-year-
old schoolboy would say that as for
the balance of the people, this gold |
money only, this making 500 payable
by law and only one little gold dollar |
to pay it with, and that in England,
Germany or China when most needed
here, looks like panic trap forever
set.
But Gage headed off the panic last
week. Will he do so after the next
election If he and his chief should be
elected for another term? What a
condition for great people to vote
upon themselves! And those gold-only
dupes are seriously and anxiously de-
batting their latest issue, ARE the Fill
tpinos capable of self-government?"
JOHN H. CHERRY.