People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1894 — “The Malay of Money.” [ARTICLE]

“The Malay of Money.”

In the opening of the Ohio campaign for the Republicans Senator John Sherman spoke a truth in order to pervert it. He said: The action of congress in levying taxes for the support of the national government, and in providing money, whether coin or paper money, as the measure of value, affects directly every in habitant of the United States, whether poor or rich, whatever may be his employment,whether a laborer, farmer, capitalist, or a business man. Everyone, whether a producer or a con sumer, is deeply interested in the taxes he has to pay and in the money he receives or pays. Even this “Malay of Money” is forced to admit that the silver question is a national and not a sectional one; that the kind of money provided by congress is a matter affectingall our citizens from the richest to the poorest. He then said that “the exclusion of gold would be thesureand in evitable result of the free coinage of silver." Therein was his perversion of the truth. This nas always been • the bugaboo with which thegold pirates hav« •sought to frighten the people I'hey have claimed that the fret coinage of silver would make

this country a aumping ground for all the silver in the world, and that gold would flee to foreign nations, leaving this country on a free silver basis. Let’s analyze this lie; let<is strip the cast-off clothes from this man of straw. Under a free-coinage act, with the ratio of 16 to 1, a silver dollar would purchase just as much of any commodity in this country as could be bought with a gold dollar. Therefore a silver dollar at home would be the equal of a gold dollar and the citizens of this country could gain nothing by sequestering gold so far as their home trade relations are concerned. Now, as to foreign trade. The foreigner could bring his silver here and have it coined into American dollars. He would have to pay transportation on his bullion. He would receive his coined silver dollars from the mint. In order to “flood” this country with his silver dollars he would have to buy something. Thousands of farmers, manufacturers and merchants will gladly exchange products and commodities for this silver. To make this country a dumping ground for foreign silver would mean a revival of trade that would relieve the United States of all its surplus of products, both natural and manufactured. We could afford that. And when the United States had absorbed all the known silver in the world this country would not have as large a circulation per capita as France. And when we have absorbed all the silver known to be in existence with what will foreign nations flood this country? What will they use to purchase our commodities?

But the goldbug will say: “What kind of money will we use to purchase articles from foreign nations?” We will conduct our trade as we do now. As a matter of fact, gold is not used as money in our foreign trade. It is used purely as a commodity. It is put on the scales and weighed, and it is said to be worth so much per ounce. Now, suppose foreign countries demand payment in gold, The average production of gold in. the

United States is more than Sufficient to pay ail our trade business in gold and have a surplus left. In the year 1893 the value of imports over exports was $18,737,728. That year the United States produced nearly twice that value of gold. But suppose we take a year like 1892. when the United States produced $33,014,918 of gold, while the value of our exports exceed- ] ed our imports $202,875,686. The actual exchanges between countries are in commodities, and, under free silver coinage this-’ country could pay a trade balance in gold bullion, the same as it does at present, whenever there should be a trade balance against us, and not the entire annual gold product of the' United States.

Statistics prove that w’hen John Sherman or any other Malay of money claims that free silver coinage will drive out gold he deliberately misrepresents facts. The attempt to keep silver demonitized is for the purpose of requiring debtors to pay twice as much as was required of them at the time their debts were contracted. It is a conspiracy of the money kings of the world to enslave the masses, and John Sherman has ever been t ie willing tool of such men. He was at the head of the conspiracy that struck down silver in 1873 at the instigation of Ernest Seyd, who, according to the dying confession of a confidant, came to this country with enough British gold to corrupt congress and secure the passage of. an act dettionitizing silver. The people can never hope to secure an hones! currency .brough such men, no” have they any reason to expect the truth from their lips on the question of money.—Chicago Times.

Three X says: “The Pilot is .i very honest sheet. It never iel is a lie unless it can make a point by it.” The Pilot then is surely more successful in lying than Three X has been.

Neighbor this week compares Jasper county taxes with La Porte and Carroll county taxes, and finds that Jasper county pays less tax than either one of these two; all of which is neither here nor there to the taxpayers of Jasper county. The only authority we have at hand on this subject is the report of the auditor of State for the year 1892. As matters then stood we find that Newton county, with more taxable property than Jasper, paid that year $10,156 less county tax than we. while on the other side of us,. Pulaski county with a million dollars less taxables, ran her county business on $14,639 less money than we did. To make a favorable impression we advise neighbor to compare Jasper with Perry; here we rind a county with half the taxables w T e have, paying $6,667 more county tax than we do. Now compare Jasper with Franklin county and we find that Franklin has over two million dollars more taxables than Jasper and pays according to this official report $14,074 less county tax than we do. These are extreme cases. Jasper* county has not reduced her county levies since the last state auditor’s report. Even before the expensive ditch surveys were made we were behind but fifteen counties in the state on high county tax. Now. if there has been changes in other counties we have no official report at hand showing it. In our own county there has been none.

There is a rush of business at the Osborne planing mill and it is not the result of free trade either. Mr. Osborne is making ballot boxes. There will be three boxes to each precinct. B. F. Ferguson is agent for Gaar, Scott & Co.’s steam engines and threshers and solicits correspondence.