Willmar tribune., 1900-05-16
The Monetary Problem.
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A GOLD STANDARD.
The Country II Mt Last Tied to the
Vicious Syxtem-True Import
& ssA.E.4 of Action.

The Country I. Mt Last Tied to the
Vicious Syxtem-True Import
4 s,. of Action.
The presidents signature to the
monetary bill placed the United States
legally upon gold standard. The
true import of the step just taken is
not yet apparent and it's baneful ef-
feet may not be felt Immediately. 1t
is step nevertheless that must sooner
or later be retraced unless our peo-
pie choose to go voluntarily into per-
petual servitude to the holders of the
vast Indebtedness, public and private.
standing against our people.
This legislation is the seal of the
authority of the American people. In
the last election 6,5OO,O00, upon
that issue a4one, declared against
such a. measure and in favor of
the restoration of bimetallism by
the United States alone, while over
100000 voted to maintain the status
quo until foreign nations could be in
duced to join us in an agreement to
maintain open mints to the unlimited
coinage of both gold and silver.
1t is true that a small percentage
of those who supported McKinley upon
the above pledge. were conspirators
against the people and had made
secret bargain with the Hannaites
that. in consideration of campaign
funds to be furnished by them, the
~ Il Init 11c
class was numerically small, probably
less than one per cent. of the voters
who supported the republican candi-
dates.
A closer analysis of the vote shows
that Bryan received not less than
100000 majority of the votes of the
intelligent thinking people of the
country. This fact is at once appar
ent when we realize that about 2,000,-
600 colored men voted for Mckinley
and that his majorities were phenom
email in the few states dominated by
corporations where the weak and help
less laborers were brutally intimidated
by the threat of starvation for them
selves and families.
In 1896, when the election occurred,
the gold supply of the world was not
phenomenally large. No Klondike or
Cape Nome had been discovered and
the yield of Colorado and South Africa
was small compared with the present.
At that time falling prices prevailed
throughout the world and a contract
ing money volume, depreciating the
value of labor and property.and en-
hancing the value of money, was in
terrupting enterprise and transfer
ring the property of debtors to cred
itors unjustly. It is at this time that
the Hannaites now admit that pledge
was made that they now claim to have
redeemed by the passage of the mon
etary bill.
TO whom was the pledge made in
1886 to establish a gold standard? No
such pledge was made in any platform
of any party except by the few Cleve-
landites who assembled at Indianapo-
lis. No pledge was made in the. re-
publican platform to retire the green
backs and. treasury notes and make
room for national bank notes, no
pledge was made in the republican
platform of 1896 to reduce silver to
token coin on par with paper, to be
redeemed in gold. Therefore it is in
teresting to hear the Hannaites now
claim that the passage of this bill is
the redemption of a pledge made at
that time, because it will cause the
people to ask the question: TO whom
was such a pledge made?
If it were not for the unprecedented
yield of gold from the mines at this
time the passage of this bill would
mean the destruction of industry and
shrinkage of values that would be
frightful to contemplate. The evil ef-
fects of the bill are postponed by acci-
dents that could not have been known
to any person in 1896. The gold COM
bination who secretly plotted to con-
fiscate the property of the world
through contraction OF the money
supply, to whom the Hannaites made
their secret pledges to pass this bill,
did not know that klondike and a
Cape Nome would be discovered, or
that the mines of Cripple Creek would
develop into such a treasure house.
neither did they know that the cy-
anide process, which was in an exper-
mental stage at the time, would so
cheaper the production of gold and
correspondingly increase the profits
of mining; that the Witwatersrand
reef in South Africa, which was hard
ly paying expenses and was but
slightly developed in 1896, would un.
der the impetus of the cyanide proc.
ess become the greatest producer OF
the yellow metal the world has ever
known.
The money supply has increased
through the abnormal production Of
gold until gold alone now furnishes as
much money as gold and silver to-
gether would have furnished in 1896
This condition has not only arrested
the universal fall in prices that had
been going on for a quarter of cen
@tury, but has actually caused slight
advance in prices.
These unforeseen accidents have de-
feated for the time being the scheme
OF the gold contractionists and have
afforded relief to the business world
but we warn the people that the at
tempt to force gold currency upon
India, the adoption of the gold stand
ard by Japan and the attempts that
are being made to put gold curren
cy into South American and Other
countries will more than Offset the in
creased supply as soon as the work il