Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-07-31
The Status of the Money Question.

The advocate of free coinage is so
frequently told of late that the silver
question is dead, that he has become
suspicious in regard to the motives Of
those who are 80 i~nsistent. This in
formation is rendered to him through
the papers, from the street corner, in
the Office, at the hotel, and in the
drawing room of the gold bug friend
whom he chances to visit. There is a
shade of anxiety about the %earnestness
with which this declaration is reiter-
ated, that reminds him of the solemnity
with which the man who has evidently
been ''tasting" assures his friends that
he is duly sober and all right.
Let us look over the ground for a
moment and endeayor to ascertain
what has been settled and what has
been left open by the events of the
past decade. The fight for silver was
not made because its advocates be-
lieved there was any intrinsic merit
inhering in the white metal, but be-
cause they believed in what all classes
of intelligent men now admit to be
correct-the quantitative theory of
money. Silver had been demonetized
and the peoples money of final account
had been reduced by that much, which
was followed by a corresponding re-
duction in prices, where they were not
trust protected.
The silver fight was only a pre-
liminary skirmish-the real battle is
yet to come. The campaign of 1896
settled several questions. 1t demon
strated that the benefciaries of the
scarce money theory, as Gov. Stone
calls it, were prepared to use every
means in their power to suppress all
discussion of finance. They prevented
sIch books as Coins Financial School
from being sold on railroad trains.
They compelled the great news
agencies to cease handling any book
that taught a financial doctrine in
imical to their interests. By the use
of an enormous corruption fund, and
by the unblushing intimidation of
voters, they succeeded in defeating
Mr.. Bryan in 1896. Then fortune
favored the party they had used to
perpetuate their hold upon the people.
The Spanish war was entered upon
which set a large quantity of money
aaoat In the channels OF commerce.
The gold mines OF the world began to
yield as they had never yielded before.
The Boer war, while it shut off the
supply of gold from the Transvaal,
compelled the English government to
turn loose vast amounts OF money
among the food producers of this and
other countries to supply her soldiers
with food, clothing, horses and other
things they had to sell. All these
things tended to arrest the downward
trend Of prices.
So grave had the situation become
In 1897-the year OF the Inauguration
OF William McKinley--that the Roths-
child family were gravely contemplate
ing a return to the double standard.
The conditions all over Europe and In
the United States were ominous. The
peasantry of Italy had been starved to
the point Of rebellion. The p~easantry
Of Spain we're In little better condition.
An era Of commercial depression COM
menced In Germany that is not ended
yet. Russia also is undergoing the
same experience. In fact the whole
gold standard world 10 the summer OF
1897 was in such a condition as TO
cause the advocates Of that standard
to despair OF maintaining it.. The
Bank Of England proposed to keep a