People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1893 — THE ST. LOUIS REPUBLIC. [ARTICLE]

THE ST. LOUIS REPUBLIC.

With Its Enormous Circulation It is Fast Converting Democrats Into Populists. It is with an inexpressible measure of relief that one turns from a reading of the gold-bug editorials of the Kansas City Times to the columns of the St. Louis Republic, which may now be fitly classed as a “calamity howler.” The following from the Republic has the true ring of pure democratic doctrine and emphasizes the fast widening gulf which exists between the southern, western and northwestern democracy and the eastern plutocracy of which Grover Cleveland is the greatest living exponent and representative. The Republic is doubtless fighting for “reform within the party,” but the bulk of its readers will become populists so soon as they discover that no relief can be expected from the present administration. A strangely familiar sound to populist ears has this Republic editorial, which reads as follows: “It is supposed by some who are otherwise well informed that there has been a decrease in the price of silver due to an increase in the supply of silver bullion as compared with the supply of gold. “This is a mistake, for the supply of silver in relation to the supply of gold is less now than at the beginning of the century. The decrease in the price of silver is due to a conspiracy of English, German, Hebrew and American capitalists, who succeeded in demonetizing it. “There has been a decrease in the price of silver because of this conspiracy, but the increase in the price of gold has been much heavier, as can be easily demonstrated. "To do so it is only necessary to see whether other prices have been affected as silver has been. If the leading staples of commerce follow silver down from the time of its demonetization, it is unquestionable proof that gold has been “bulled” to a premium as a result of the conspiracy which began operation about 1870. “The statistical abstract issued by the federal treasury shows that this has been the case. Wheat, cotton,

wool and all other staples follow silver down, showing that the gold premium has been created by the legislation that demonetized silver. “In 1890 an ounce of gold brought 4.18 ounces of silver more that it did in 1870. In 1870 a bushel of wheat brought $1.30, as against only 83 cents in 1890 In the same time cotton fell from 19.03 cents to 10.01 cents a pound and wool from 48 to 33 cents. “The effect of bulling gold by demonetizing silver is strikingly shown in the decade between 1870 and 1880 by the increased purchasing power of gold as compared with the products of the Mississippi valley. The census of 1870 shows that 8,248,000 horses were worth in 1870 $617,319,000, while ten years later, though the number of horses had increased to 11,201,000, they were worth much less than in 1870, or only $613,296,000. “In 1870 1,179,000 mules were worth $128,584,000, while in 1880 1,729,000 were worth only $105,948,000. So too, with milch cows; with mess pork and provisions; with all cereals, and with everything we produce in the Mississippi valley. “These figures will suggest the enormity of the robbery perpetrated on the producers of the Mississippi valley by the gold conspirators, who began operations in America by demonetizing silver through the Sherman act of 1878. Since then they have steadily forced gold to a higher and higher premium, forcing down the price of every article the valley produces until we have been robbed not of millions, but of billions. The world never saw a conspiracy so gigantic or so audacious as that through which the money dealers of London, New York and the German cities are operating to force the premium on gold higher and still higher regardless of the fact that, as compared with silver and with all our staples of production, it is higher now than it has ever been in the history of the world. “Out of such attempts as this grow great political and social revolutions. No government that is not a military despotism can uphold such conspirators against an intelligent people when intelligence is once roused to action. “No greater crime was ever committed in the history of the world than the crime of using the government of this country and of other countries to carry out the plans of these plunderers of the people. They are still in the business of robbery, insisting that whatever does not promote their advantage is unsound and dangerous finance, but they cannot go much further without making reaction inevitable, and, if, when it comes, the people take back somewhat of that they have lost through robbery, it need not surprise those whom success in swindling has made more insatiable as immunity has made them more audacious.”