The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-01-19
FRIDAY. JANUARY 10. 1900
THE OLD FREE TRADE DAYS
From the Kansas City Journal.

THAT was a clean-cut point which
Clemens, the Kansas Socialist,
scored against the Bryanites yester-
day. The Bryanites have been tell
ing us that the nation can only be-
come truly prosperous and happy
by restoring the free coinage of sill
yer and by repudiating the trusts
and "imperialism." Previous to
1873 we had free coinage of silver;
there were no trusts; expansion or
so-called imperialism was in abey-
ance, and each and every condition
existed just as the Bryanites would
have them exist again, Were we
truly happy and prosperous them
Can the Bryanites sustain their
prophesies by the evidence of his
tory? Most assuredly not, for COM
parison between the periods which
find their dividing line in 1878
shows most favorably for the one
following after.
1t doesn't make any difference
which division of American life we
may take up, for in all of them
there has been betterment and prog
ress The free silver period went
out with one of the most disastrous
financial panics the country has
known. 1t was attended by pros
trate industries, low prices for la
Dor, and much commercial depres-
sion. 1t was attended also by a
Auctuating and degraded paper cur
rency, high interest charges and
large national taxes. 1t had per
capita circulation of less than SIS,
whereas there is now more than SIS.
In 1873 the customs duty collected
per capita amounted 10 s4.44,
whereas it is but S2.43 now. Then
we owed national debt of $50. 81
per capita, and now it's but SI2.61.
Taking 100 as the standard both
for wages and prices, we find that
in 1873 wages stood at 1883 and
prices at I22. The report of the
bureau of labor fixes the present
relative condition at, wages 1912,
prices o6-showing that even with
the present temporary condition OF
high prices, due to excessive de-
mand, the laborer is much better Oft
than at the close of the free coinage
period in 1873.
Every American citizen blessed
with the faculty of memory must
acknowledge the stupendous ad-
vance made by the American peo-
pie since 1878. Even the calamity
howlers are forced to admit this
unparalleled progress and they are
reduced to saying that it might have
been greater if their own weird
theories had been enacted into law.
But what kind of a doctrine is it
that must rest entirely upon the
opinions and the prophesies of a
faction who deride the teachings of
experience and reject the lessons of
the past? Why is it that our nation
entered upon its greatest epoch al
most Immediately after freeing itself
of the economic and financial fall
lacies which the reactionaries are
wanting to install again? Why is it
that all our present blessings, our
broadened commerce, our growing
manufactures, our industrial activi-
ties, didn't come in the period when
we had free silver, when we had no
trusts, when we had no thought of
expansions
Looking backward upon our own
history, we are able now to realize
the weakness and folly of many of
our early governmental policies.
Beyond any doubt the growth and
development of the country were
greatly impeded by a financial sys-
TEN tina; awakened doubt, forbade
confidence and weakened commerce
and industry. For nearly eighty
years We doggedly pursued the task
of trying to make gold and silver
i