Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-01-26
an IMPROVED CLAIM.
RE LICAN BALD E r D A s II
ABOUT PROSPERITY.
Tho Transfer OF Several Hundred
Thousand Soldiers from Field of Pro-
duction to Field of Consumption the
Only Cause of Activity.

The improvement in the times is due,
according to Republican leaders, to
the policy and action of the present ad,
ministration. but before this claim can
be allowed it would be well to inves-
tigate the causes which produced the
changes in trade conditions. During
the campaign of 1896 Republicans
claimed that McKinley's election would
restore confidence and that the differ
eNce would be felt as soon as the re-
turns were in. Well, Mckinley was
elected, and times grew harder instead
of better. Then we were told that the
improvement would come with his in
auguration. He was inaugurated
March 4, 1897. Times were no better,
and we were told to wait till congress
should meet. Two weeks later con-
gress assembled and confidence seemed
still lacking. Then we were told to
wait for the tariff bill The bill was
passed in July and began to get in its
work and still no improvement in the
times. The summer, fall and winter
wore away and still no one was able
to tell the difference between Cleve-
land panic and Mckinley prosperity,
Then came the war with Spain. This
started activity, and everybody knows
that the Republican administration at
Washington did not relish the prospect
lof war In the spring improvement be-
gan and times grew better, but the
year following McKinley's Inaugural
tion was the darkest known in COM
mercial circles for many years. Dur
ing that period and later not one act
of the Republican party can be given
credit for the change in trade condi-
1tions. President Mckinley and his
party are no more entitled to credit
for the improvement in the times than
ing that period.
The improvement in the times can
well be credited to the war together
with the natural reaction always fol-
lowing commercial depression. For
several years we had been going
through house cleaning process, and
while the people were earning but lit
tie they were spending less. Economy
was the order of the day, people wore
,out their old clothes, ate up their re-
serve provisions, made the old furni-
lture, tools. machinery, etc, last while
longer, and the result was that all lines
of trade and manufacturing were the
reverse of overdone. Loans had been
withdrawn, money had been hidden
land the incomes of capitalists were in
consequence greatly reduced. A quar-
ter of million men were employed as
soldiers, reducing the working force
of the country that much. The govern
ment borrowed two hundred millions
of dollars and turned it loose in the
channes of trade to arm and equip
AN army and navy and to transport, to
feed and to clothe it's soldiers and sail
ors. Gold poured in from the Klon-
jdyke, silver was coined by the minis,
crops were good, crop shortages abroad
land the using up of surplus articles at
home created demand for our prod
ucts here and elsewhere. Capitalists,
tired of getting no interest on their
tuuDdIheu Tie Wllueol SpCCu-
llations and organized numerous COM
binations known as trusts, and the.
wheels moved Now asked for. the
primal cause of this commercial activ-
lily, l would unhesitatingly reply, the
war with Spain, which necessitated the
employment of so many men and threw
SO much money into circulation among
$50 many people of such varied occupa-.
ltions. The administration can GER
tainly claim no credit for bringing on
the war, for it was literally forced into
1T against its wishes by popular iopin-
ion. When war was declared general
conditions were favorable to trade
revival, and only a. slight movement
was necessary to bring it about. This
the war furnished, although the change
would soon have come without it, as
natural event. Had there been no war
there would be no activity in fields OF
production. No so-called prosperity.
ECHO OF GREAT CRIME OF ,a6.