The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-10

cause the common man was ready to
pay for it with his tax money or his
/ blood.
/ What has become of it? With be-
wildering rapidity it has been taken
from the common people and given to
the corporations. 1t belonged to the
government, to all the people. 1t was
meant to supply homes to individual
citizens, and there was enough of it to
last for many generations. To the ex-
tent of about 2OO,OOO,OOO acres, it has
been given to railroad corporations,
and now. when a common man wants
a home in all that vast domain he
must go to the railroad corporations
to get it.
a blacker chapter than that which
records how both the old political par
ties united to desDoil the common peo-
pie of their land is not to be found in
the annals of class legislation.
Once upon Il time we had d financial
system of our own. Placed in the con-
Stitution as part of our fundamental
law, It seemed to be firmly fixed. For
100 years this money system was in
operation among Therefore it
seemed to be ''irrevOcably fixed" Very
wise men created this system of ma
tional finance. It was the one sub
ject upon which Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton agreed Those
two were, perhaps, the greatest states
men this country ever produced So
pre-eminent were they above all others
distinct schools of political thought |
But upon the vital subject of finance |
these master minds reached the same |
conclusion. and that conclusion be-
came a. part of the constitution.
Changed by Money Power.
Whether the Wall street influences
which produced the establishment of
the gold standard emanated from /
wiser heads than those of jefferson /
and Hamilton may be doubted. Both
of those great men served their coun-
try d long time and died poor. In fix |
ing bimetallism as a system, and the
silver dollar as the unit of value, they
had no selfish motive. Two lofty mind
as the right system 1t remained in /
force, giving full satisfaction, until the
money power in its march of conquest
found it to be a barrier. The money
power demands a standard which it
can control, and one metal is easier to
control than two. For the same rea-
son it opposes governmental issues of
paper money, and will never be con-
tent until the greenbacks are called in
and destroyed.
To establish the single gold stan
dard. which sets the constitution aside,
the statute had to be violated. The
word coin had to be construed to
mean gold only" and the paper note,
issued on silver, had to be redeemed
in a manner different from that pre-
scribed by law.
There are at least five reasons why
the gold standard cannot be considered
as fixed:
First-It is unconstitutional.
Second-It violates statute law.
Third-The supply of gold might
Increase beyond all the calculations of
he money power. Thus the standard
IF value would get beyond their con-
rol. In that event the money power
tsef would change the standard
Fourth-The supply of gold might l
cease. In that event con- t
traction would at once set in, because
he country's expansion in business 5
ind increase in population require a
increasing volume OF cur {
'ency- If the horrors of contraction I
hOuld again come upon us by the self c
ish policy of the money power, the {
people would compel a change in the l
tandard Wall street gave US the '
,anic of 1878; Wall street gave us the [
'anic of 1898. Let Wall street give us I
mother, and it may find that 1T has 1
-iven US one too many. The American Y
,eople have about reached the limit of L
ndurance. We have heard much of 4
he "constitutionalism" in this cam 7
align. The sincerity of the cry is shown Il
y the fact that the gold standard, Il
which violates the statute law and the
constitution, is not only supported by I
'heodore Roosevelt, the imperialist, 5
ut by Alton B. Parker. the chosen 5
postle of constitutionalism. n
.sUnscientific and Wrong =
Fifth-The gold standard is not Fir a
fixed because it is unscien- II
ific and wrong. Nothing is more GER f,
ain than that the people of this coun- A
~ Will continue their struggle until h
hey have a national currency which II
ne money power cannot control, and "