Semi-weekly herald., 1912-01-22
FIAT PROSPERITY.

Several years ago it was announced
thut certain shales ia western Karsas
contained gold. AS a result Of the
excitement, mills were erected to ex-
tract the gold, but the right process
was not adopted, and no gold came
out of the retorts. Indeed, it was
said by experts. that the shales con-
tained no gold. But the owners of
the mills claimed the experts had
teen bought up" by old Guggenheim.
and money continued to pour in for
new experiments.
This charge about old Guggenheim
irritated the experts, since old Mr.. G.
is unpopular, so the experts made as
say after assay, until the number
reached several hundred, but not .
single assay showed trace of gold.
This did not discourage the owners
of the mills in the slightest degree;
they continued to sell shale stock, and
denounce old Guggenheim because of
his interference when the people had
found gold for themselves; acres Of it,
for the shale land had not been worth
a dollar an acre before the alleged
discovery of gold in the mountains
of shale lying almost on the surface.
The men who believed there was
gold in the western Kansas shaies
were not cheap adventurous; one of
theniis now avery prominent railroad
official with national reputation, and
he still feels rather unfriendly to me
because begged him to quit his nom
sense. He put thousands of dollars Of
his own money into the shale mills,
although experts made hundreds of
careful assays of shale without finding
gold.
But that question was finally set
tied: after the mills worked for
months without getting any gold, they
were abandoned, and their owners
sneaked away, asking only the charity
of silence.
The question Of fat prosperity for
the people can never be settled. They
have always believed in it, and they
always will. The quarrel will always
60 on; It cannot be settled in a prac-
tical way, as was the heated contro-
versy over the western Kansas shales.
Thousands Of experts have made
many assays Of popular fallacies,
without finding q trace Of gold, but
the masses still believe the gold is
there, and l know of no way Of con-
vincing them to the contrary; as soon
as one fallacy is exploded they adopt
another. By the time free silver was
known to be folly, insurgency was
believed to be the remedy for public
ills. Insurgency is now waning, and
we are beginning to hear that a
Democratic president will be able to
make us all content and prosperous,
particularly if the Democratic presi-
dent will agree to put good many
worthy and useful business men In
Jail. What we are really striving for
is to make fact of the fancy of poets,
and, on platform of that kind, Ed
win Markham would do as well as
another for president.
The French tried poetry for con-
stitution, and the reign of terror that
followed will be remembered as long
as the race endures. Then, by al
most practical consent, the French in
surgents installed as emperor great
military genius, who believed In law,
and order, and soldiers, and muskets.
There was dissatisfaction with the
constitution written in poetry; like
wise, dissatisfaction soon broke out
with the reign Of law, backed by
soldiers, and there was another revo-
luton and another republic.
The question as to the best govern
ment will never be settled; but we
know absolutely that there is no gold
In the western Kansas shales. Little
questions are occasionally settled; big
ones mover are. You can't hand an
Individual a stone, and make him be-
lieve it Is bread, but you can fool
millions Of individuals with a propo-
sition equally absurd, since testing
big questions is . slow process.-Ed
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