The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-06

private, and of reckless speculation
had been already followed by de-
! preston. Corn was burned for fuel
/ in Kansas and elsewhere in the west
/ in 1890 and after. Cotton was at or
below the price of production The
acute reaction which we call panic
was inevitably approaching even be-
fore Mr. Cleveland was elected.
Panic of 1898.
Business was sunk in the depres-
SION which preceded the panic of
1898.
Labor was unemployed or poorly
remunerated in factory and field, and
especially the latter. Indeed, business
depressions, especially in agriculture,
and the lack of adequate remunera-
ton for labor, taken together with the
high prices of manufacturers under
the Mckinley act (high prices and es-
pecially accumulated to public reali-
cation by contrasting starvation prices
of agricultural products which had be-
gun to prevail in 1890 and had con-
tinued more or less persistently since)
constituted the chief industrial reason
Harrison and the Republicans out and
putting Mr.. Cleveland and the Demo-
Gratis in. To go on with the para
phrase, under Harrison's administra-
and confidence gone" The plight of
the people" was so desperate that, like
drowning men, they were catching at
straws."
shape of sub-treasury and other
schemes were rife from 1890 and
thence on.
The 1.-TWO old parties" as they
We're called, were blamed for it all.
but the one in power was to blame.
hence the outer power got in. Men
advocating these nostrumS, in the
state of public desperation then exist
out the suffering west and depressed
south, no longer by numbers but by
the acre. Who will deny the truth,
the historical truth, of a single SEN
tence of the paraphrase? Why pretend
to have forgotten all this? Why not
be honest with the people as men
ought to be? 1t is true that after the
election of Cleveland the chronic
business depression continued. 1t is
true it became acute, in a word.
reached the banks, and then the
fright or panic of 1893 came, which
was not a local or American condition.
but one which had existed from where
Vienna nestled on the Danube to
where Buenos Ayres commands its
bay; one whose foundation had been
laid long before it reached US, almost
with the panic upon us once more.
nostrums of a national character were
suggested to cure an evil of world
character. One of them, as you will
all remember, was the repeal of the
purchasing clause of the Sherman act
This nostrum was suggested by wise
men and it was administered to the
patient. 1t did no good, of course.
The panic went on; went on until
when? Went on until the boil upon
the body commercial had 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.
Repeal of Sherman Law.
The Democrat administration with
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
the purchase clause of the
Sherman act, thereby, for the first
time, practically establishing the gold
standard in the United States. With
out either free or limited coinage of
Immediately after the passage of that
act necessarily and actually, as 1T has
been since and it is now and as it is
destined to remain for a length of time
beyond my power of computation, on a
gold basis. was not one of those |
who thought the legislation adopted
wise, but, wise or otherwise the result
is an accomplished fact, plain, palpa- |
BILE and obvious" to all men who have
sense, and like many another
step in history, is beyond recall or
hope of recall This accomplished fact |
was the accomplished fact of a gold |
basis then, not by the Republican party |
but by the logged persistence and in |
dOmitable will of Grover Cleveland, aid |
ed, 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 motive.
Now they would steal his thunder"
and this Republican platform boasts
that it was the Republican party which |
established the gold basis. Moreover. |
they would now eat their words and |
their votes of 1893 and tell US that the |
then said, by lack of confidence in our |
money and too much silver" but, for
sooth, by a tariff act which was not |
passed until more than year after, to /
acute and frightful stage of depression,
was virtually over. Do not misunder-
stand me. A panic, of course, is not |
all at once by the golden
hours of prosperity. Industrial depres- !
sion must follow it for a while, de-
preston must precede it. So depres-
sion continued until when? As l have
said when the boil burst and the poison
Is eliminated from the body CONNER
cial the flesh begins to heal. 1t can not
begin to heal one minute earlier. The
process of recovery was aided by
many, for us fortuitous circumstances
the first of these was famine in India
no Indian wheat to compete in the Eur
0pean market with ours. Simultane-
ously with an immense American crop
Of wheat and small crop elsewhere
wheat rose from about 48 to about 20
cents in few weeks during the Bry-
campaign, while Cleve
and was yet president. There is not a
man within the sound of my voice that
ioes not remember that. With 20
cent wheat farmers could pay the re-
.ailers debts due them; and the retail
ers could buy more goods; the retailers,
with empty shelves or shelves becom-
ng empty by sales, could order from
he jobbers; the jobbers who had been
1verstocked, were enabled then to or
Ter from the factories. When the fac
ories got orders then they had a rea-
Ii, nd fIn.nr