Year: 1875

| The Lawrence Journal, the only paper in Kan
sas that is really anxious on the question of
shonest money" knows all about finances, and
never lets an incident pass without using it to IL
lustrate the financial situation. For instance,
the other day, Kansas man sold couple of fat
steers or few bushels of wheat, for which he re-
ceiyed the cash; whereupOu the Journal exclams
that it is nonsense to talk about an increase Of
greenbacks making money plenty-that the only
way to make money plenty is to produce some
thing to sell. Produce something will dispel all
the imaginary evils of contraction. Now, this is
afrst-rate argument, and would be unanswerable,
were it not for the fact that it doesn't pan out
worth a cent. Why are the factories throughout
the East standing still by the score the iron
mills shut down; the mining business falling OF;
scarcely producing establishment in the whole
country running on full timei They are not on
ly able but willing to produce something-why
don't they do it, Why is there scarcely a rail-
road or other public improvement in progress
throughout the entire cOuntryi Why are opera
tives and aborers the tens and hundreds ofthou-
sands out of employment, their families crying
for bread, Winter Of deprivation and suffering
approaching and all these idle people eager fora
chance to produce somethingf There are the
mills; there is the raw material there is the la
bor-all ready to produce. Why do they not pro-
ducei Because there is no demand-eyery kind
of business is paralyzed, and there is nothing
with which to pay. To be sure, the banks are
loaded down with money, and the peole can bor-
row at from 10 to "a par sssa.-, if shey oan give
security to three times the amount of the princi
pal. Those banks hold the money, dictate the
financial policy, and tell the people to produce,
when there is no demand for their products.
The European bondholders, who have a contract
to receive their money in specie, and who are in
no way concerned that greenbacks are legal
tender on this side of the Atlantic, and the peo-
pie satisfied with them, are demanding resump-
tion European free traders are demanding the
abolition of tariffs, that they may supply the
American markets, at the expense of home man
ufacturers. They whisper to Grant; Grant sets
down his foot; and Republican platforms express
renewed confidence in Grant, and endorse the
policy dictated TO him by money kings.


During the days of imitation, when all the
greenbacks were in circulation, nobody was out
of work or out of money. Prices were high, but
money was plenty, and the poorest had some of
it. There was no starvation or misery, no bank
ruplcy, no ParaIyZeu lhuutfles. Ieople uo not
care so much for high prices, if they have plenty
of work at propOrtiOnate wages, and ready pay
for it. What does it benefit the laboring man,
to come down to n specie basis, and bring flour
down to 81 per barrel, if he has not the money to
pay for it, nor any means of earning the money!
But we forget-the laboring man has no right to
meddle in financial matters; that belongs exclu-
siyely to the mOney-changers.


And so it goes Return to gold and silver;
pull down the tariff, and send all that gold and
silver away to buy foreign goods; then tell the
people to stop whining about more money, and
produce something!