Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-07-14

until the boil upon the body commercial
burst the poison Of speculation.
boom values and credit operations was
released from the system. 1t went on
until agriculture, the basic industry, re-
vived. In the midst of the panic all
the wise men, and chief among them the
republican leaders, told us that lit was
lack of confidence in the money Of the
country" that had brought on the panic.
The democratic administration, with a
sufficient number of votes of both par
ties in the two houses behind it took
that view of the situation and demand
ed and secured the passage of the act
repeating the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act, thereby, for the first time,
practically establishing the gold stand
ard in the United States. Without either
free or limited coinage of standard sill
yer money, the country was, immediate
ly after the passage of that act, neces-
sarily and actually as it has been since,
and as it is now and as it is destined
to remain for a length of time beyond
my power of computation, on a gold
basis. l was not one of those who
thought the legislation adopted wise,
but, wise or unwise, the result is an &C.
complished fact, plain, palpable and
obvious" to all men who have common
sense, and like many another ster in
history it is beyond recall, or hope OF
recall. This accomplished fact was the
fact of a gold basis then. not by the re-
publican party, but by the logged per-
sistency and indomitable will of Grover
Cleveland, aided it is true by republican
legislators, who thought they saw in
It the final disruption of the democratic
party. That was in the main their mo-
tive. Now they would "steal his thun-
der" and this republican platform
boasts that it was the republican party
which established the gold basis. More
over, they would now eat their words
and their votes of 1898 and tell us that
the panic was not brought about, as
they then said, by lack of confidence in
our money and too much silver" but,
forsooth, by a tariff act which was not
passed until more than a year after, to-
wit: in 1894, when the panic, that is the
acute and fright stage of depression, was
virtually over Do not misunderstood
me. A panic, of course, is not succeed
ed all at once by the golden hues OF
prosperity. Industrial depression must
follow it for awhile, as depression must
precede it. So depression continued I'M
til when?
As | have said, when the boil bursts
and the poison is eliminated from the
body commercial the flesh begins to
heal. It cannot begin to heal one min
ute earlier. The process of recovery
was aided by many, for us, fortuitous
circumstances. The first of these was
famine in India-no Indian wheat tc
compete in the European market with
ours-simultaneously with an immense
American crop of wheat and small crops
elsewhere. Wheat rose from about 48 tt
about 70 cents in a few weeks during
the Overwhelmingly campaign while
Cleveland was yet president. There is
not a man within the sound Of my voice
that does not remember that. Witt
70 cent wheat farmers could pay thu
retailers the debts due them and the
retailers could buy more goods; thu
retailers, with empty shelves or shelves
becoming empty by sales, could ordel
from the jobbers; the jobbers, who hat
been over-stocked, were enabled thel
to order from the factories. When thu
factories got orders then they had
a for making goods and they pro
ceeded to make them, and then tn
wheels OF industry went round. Tn
farmer in the wheat country, with Z
cent wheat could pay the baker, tn
butcher and candle-stick maker" an
then they could pay others and they il
turn could buy more goods. This end
less chain of human relationship in tn,
world of commerce is no mysterlou
thing to anybody except a platform
making politician.
But wheat going up had another effec1
When wheat went up during the cam
paign, while silver bullion went dowr
there was therby furnished a seem
ing object lesson of the inaccuracy c
the contention of Mr.. Bryan and hi
followers, of whom l was one, that Their
was necessarily a connection in pric
between the two. Western and horde
state farmers in the wheat belt, who ha
originally been republicans anyhow
and whu had gone off from the reput
lican party because Of their belief i
this very theory, began to leave tn
Bryan column and join the McKinle
column, first by the dozen, then by tn
score, then by hundreds and then |
!, shoals. Thus it came about that M
Mckinley was elected, because whes
, went up and because the going up {
wheat and the consequent increased d.
mand for other things, leading to highe
| prices and a better volume of trad
promised to their minds prosperit.
without free silver. A greater falsehoc
was never uttered than that wheat, {
: anything else, went up because M
Mckinley was elected" Things ha
struck rock bottom and had begun
9 revive before Mr.. Mckinley was electe
} and the first index Of that fact was tt
rise in the price of wheat, followed b
{ the rise in the price Of other agricultur'
? products alphabetically with it. The
came the immense increase OF gosd on
mt that kent prices I'D here and els,
r where. Not only is the boast that M
McKinley's election was responsible fl
high prices not true, but it is a vel
dangerous falsehood. The populis
t first taught the people in certain sector
of this country that prosperity WI
9 chiefly dependent on government. Son
men preach the doctrine with the hol
s that during periods of prosperity tt
- mill lot avan on oytrpv