The Republican journal., 1918-08-08
GOLD OR GOODS.

L IS the popular idea that Uncle Sam is
the administration or, in other words, the
government, and resides in Washington
THIS is great mistake. Go where we
will. from Maine to Texas, from the
Florida Keys to the western point OF
Alaska or from He'll Gate to the Golden
Horn and we shall see Uncle Sam very
4u-ey about his work. Uncle Sam is
syndicate made up of the people OF the
United States. The administration or
The government is Uncle Sans business
manager and ia financial matters acts as
lis .scal agent, makes loans, locks up
tie notes IN safe deposit vaults, and looks
after collections Of both interest and
p-.a..Dal. Uncle Sam loans are now so
.srs- that the human mind utterly fails
70 ampIehand their Vastness. lie has
bo1eht an enormous amount of the Ma
t,oraI bonds of England, France, Italy,
Re,e.urn and Russia For the most part
these loans have not been made in gold
hui # the products of his soil and OF his
toll. but it is writ in the bono, that
both the interest and t e principal OF
these loans shall be paid in gold Inc
worlds production of gold is annually
about So. 600, coo, 600. OF this about S175,-
0OG. 600 is used in the arts and In manu-
factures This leaves about $3.50, 0O0, 0oo
to be applied annually to the maintenance
of ne integrity and sufficiency of the
monetary systems of the nations and to
the nayment OF National debts. The
debts already contracted entail an inter-
PSI charge of nearly 100000, 600 year,
and before the war is over this amount
will he largely increased. The amount of
gold held by our debtors before the war,
to stabilize their currencyh has been heavi-
" drawn upon There is no surplus lett
,o be used in paying interest or debt.
There are no gold mines in the BRITISH
Isles, and none worth mentioning in Italy
mr. Belgium. France mines only about
g.. 900. 900 year Canada produces S13,-
O00. 900 annually; Australia, S26, 900, 600;
Africa, Sl88, 900, 0OO British Guiana,
British India and British East Indies,
$4,000, 900, and French Guiana, S30OO,-
600, total of S246, 100000 worth of gold
mines within the dominions of our Allies,
and this is not enough to pay the interest
on what we have already loaned them
Of course if they turn their attention
vigorously to mining the output can be
increased, but mining in Africa will not
build up the industries Of the home coun-
tries The mines will continue to be
onerated but our Allies do not intend to
nav their debts with gold dug from the
earth. They hope, instead, to dig the
gold out of Uncle Sans pockets. The
gold which comes from their real mining
operations will be needed to buy cotton
from the South, wool from Australia,
cheap raw materials from Africa and
wherever else they can be obtained
They will manufacture these raw prod
ucts, with labor which costs about half
as much as in the United States, into ex-
ceIlent goods produced at comparative
V low cost and will offer and sell them at
prices with which we cannot compete.
THUS they expect to be able to get our
gold with which to pay their debts, and
this plan will doubtless succeed if the
Democratic party remains in power, be-
cause that party is thoroughly committed
to a near-free-trade policy We have
the highest paid labor in the world. With
out an adequate protective tariff our
scale of wages must be reduced to the
European level or many of our varied
manufacturing plants must 60 out OF
business within the next five or ten
years. Before then our Allies in war
will have become our enemies in trade,