People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1895 — Page 5
If silver goes, gold must follow. Nothing is settled until it is settled right. Vote for the principle, regardless of party. The rich anarchist ought to be suppressed. National banks are the robbers of civilization. We are glad now we didn’t pay our income tax. The Supreme court went plutocratic by a small majority. The rich pauper ought to be made to work for his living. Guns, laws, and decisions settle nothing unless they settle it right. Carlisle’s speech is a great defense of the republican financial record. The People’s party is the only party that represents the interests of the people. The people have all power in their own hands if they had sense cnottgh to use it. The trouble with the churches is they are trying to worship God on a gold standard. The income-tax decision seems to be based on the supposition that the people are fools. The railroads should be owned by the people. It is the only way they can be controlled. If we had the referendum there wonld be a drouth for the men who farm the legislatures. That was a hard blow to the democratic party when Carlisle said there was no "crime of 1873.” Four members of the Supreme court decided that She decision of the other five was unconstitutional.
According to Carlisle’s speech both old parties have been lying all the time about the money question. a The initiative and referendum is the solid rock upon which alone we can safely anchor the ship of state. Nq'power on this earth can stand before the revolution which the plutocrats are provoking in this country. Mr. Carlisle did not explain the process by which gold and money obligations had been appreciated in value. If Carlisle’s speeches prove anything they prove that neither gold nor silver are fit for the money of civilization. Wall street can rest assured now {hat when congress tails it the courts can toe depended upon to come to their rescue.
Secretary Carlisle's speech proved that the bankers were about masters of the situation under our present system. What the bankers call “honest money" is money consisting of their notes oh which they can collect interest from the people. The, greatest .Question that the Supreme court settled by its income-tax decision is that plutocracy is running this country. War is devilish, yet our churches are drilling their students in the arts of ~war. But then the churches are becoming tinctured with a little devilishness. The income-tax decision and Carlisle's speech, coming about the same time, is rather burdensome, but then it’s all in the interest of “sound money.” The two old parties and the new silver party are only discussing one plank of the currency question. The People’s party was wise in not being drawn into that trap. The income tax is laid in its grave, and now the Supreme court is under•by pifulic sentiment for murdering the only good thing the Fifty-third congress did. By raising the npy pf "sound money" the Wall street pirates are trying to create the impression that everything Hse but gold and bank notes based on bonds is unsound currency.
Carlisle says that we have been on a gold basis since 1837, and that the demonetization of silver in 1873 was ohiy a. legal recogntthm of what was really a practical condition. I• - It can be said of Carlisle’s speech that it is as able a defense of the gold standard system as can be made by anybody. The trouble is not so much in the speech as it is in the system it defends. . Mr. Morton says that silver won’t Circulate because It is so cheap, and Mr. Carlisle proves in his speech that it is always the cheap currency that circulates best. Hi, there, gentlemen, go back and learn your lesson better! And now comes Mr. Carlisle, who says there was no "crime of 1873." This 4s a great blow to democratic orators. Jt will despeechize, as it were, thousands of speeches made in the past. It is very evident that somebody has lied.
Bring on your prosperity. Now is the time to organize Legions. Good times are still in the dim dis tance. Don’t wait until next summer to “get a move on you.” Every idle man, rich or poor, is a menace to society. Down with bank notes based cn in-terest-bearing bonds. If you are in earnest get into the fight; the battle is on. Carlisle’s speech makes it clear that "sound money” means dear money. very bank note is a robber—condemned by God because it draws usury. There is an end to the patience of the people, and that end is almost reached. The only serious overproduction that ever hurt this country was of liars and fools. Isn’t it about time the country was hearing from Cuckoo Me-Too Morton again? • The “sound money” advocates are the fellows who do not hesitate to buy legislation. The people of this country are subjects of Great Britain by grace of the two old parties. The “sound money” advocates swindled the depositors out of twenty-five million dollars last year. Bland evidently thinks he is traveling in a circle, and will again come to the “parting of the ways,” We are now in the “campaign of 1896.” you doing, brother? The goldbug is ip the saddle. No better republican campaign document can be found than is contained tn Carlisle’s speech at Memphis. That part of Carlisle’s speech which relates to finance would make a good republican campaign document.
The cold spell has done much damage to. crops, but not nearly so much as the present adihihistration’s financial policy. The main question npw in the ranks of the democratic party is which Is the head—the gold bug 01 the silver element? > • The Supreme court ought now to try its hand on settling the vexed question of what it takes to constitute a democrat. Without any reservation at all in the matter, we now inform Mr- Carlisle and his masters that it is a cheaper dollar that the £ ( ' That decision of the Supreme court on the income-tax law will cause the people to lose what little respect they had for laws.
It was fitting that Carlisle should deliver his so-called "honest/Currency" speech in a state where his party bad just stolen the governorship. The best results the people will get from the silver discussion is the in formation that metal money of any kind is only a relic of barbarism. The democratic party might claim to be a free-silver party with more propriety if It was not in the habit of electing goldbug congresses and presidents. The damage done fruit by the last cold spell will probably amount to five million dollars, but the loss by the last bond sale was twice that amount. They used to tell us Greenbackers that gold and silver was "God’s money," and now the rascals have demonetized one-half of “God's money." The goldbugs are prosecuting the ‘campaign of 1896” with a vigor that means victory for them unless a brave and active resistance is made. While Congressman Bland is marching along abreast with 'the party that struck down silver he Should keep open his communications with the "parting way.” There may be tome thlpgs in, the “maha platform that some people object to, but then there Is much leas than Is contained in the records of the two old parties. Sherman and Carlisle are not working double just now, but they are going over the same road, in the same direction, and In the *ame kind of harness. It is also proper to state that they are being followed by the same kind of crowd.
In view of the fact that the present advocates of “sound money" were the most persistent in wanting payment in a better dollar than they gave wbeu the bonds were issued, their protests now against payment of debts in ;• “cheaper dollar” will avail but little. Mr. Carlisle’s speech indicates what we have maintained all along, that the'' only excuse for the existence of the democratic party is to divide the people and allow them to be plundered by the wealthier classes. For years the democrats have been denouncing the republicans for what they called “the crime of 1873.” Thus another de.t.jcrat’c idol is shattered
THE PEOPLE S PILOT. RENSSELAER IND., THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1895.
FALLING OF PRICES.
WILL SILVER REMONETIZATION SEND THEM UP? The Grocers' and Importers' Exchange Claim That Price-Shrinkage is Due to the Demonetization of the White Metal —Want Silver. Recently a committee was appointed by the Philadelphia Grocers’ and Importers’ exchange to "inquire into the cause of falling prices and, if possible, to point out remedies to stop it.” While we do not indorse that part of the report which refers to “money, of final redemption,” we give portions which contain some very valuable suggestions: “This committee could see no way of abating the evils alluded to but by removing the cause. The question then arises. What is the cause? We are aware that prices Tise and fall in accordance with the law of demand and supply, but also saw that there was something abnormal in a decline in values which had continued for over twenty years, more or less steadily, and they knew that unless some new power was at work the law of demand and supply would work a remedy for either high or low prices in less time than that. The testimony brought before this committee proves a fact that the people in general are apt to overlook —i. e., that money also obeys the law of demand and supply. Until we turned our attention to this fact we could find no cause adequate to the calamitous fall in prices. > “Our attention being called to the axioms of political economy, we began to see the light on this subject: “ ‘Double the volume of money and you double the value of products. “ ‘Divide the volume of money and you divide the value of products. “ ‘Divide the volume of money and you double the debt. " 'Double the volume of money and you divide the debt.’ "These maxims In political economy are not now disputable. They are as well proven as the rules that guide us in arithmetic. To use round figures, the metallic money of the world Is estimated at 18,000,000,000, half gold and half silver. In 1873 the United States and Germany closed their mints against silver and struck it from the list of moneys—that Is. sliver was no longer money of final redemption. True, Great Britain had • demonetized silver in.J.816, but until the leading nations, in 1873, joined them the effect of their action was scarcely perceptible; 1873, then, is in time the vital point when the effect of dividing the volume of money began to be effective. "The members of the Grocers' and Importers’ exchange need not be informed as to the movement in prices during the past twenty-two years. They know to their cost. Many persons assert that It is not gold that has risen, but silver that has fallen. Prof. Saeurbeck’s tables dispose of that assertion. We here qi...te them: “Index numbers of forty-five principal commodities and silver by Prof. Sauerbeck: . - ■Year. 45 Coms. Silver. 1874 J. ..102 95.8 1875 96 93.3 1117$ 95 86.7 1877.. 94 90.2 W 8 87 86.4 1879 83 84.2 1880 88 85.9 1881.. / Bf> *5.0
1882 84 84.9 i 1883 82 83.1 1884 76 83.3 1885 72 79.9 188669 74.6 1887 68 73.3 1888 70 70.4 138972 70.2 1890 72 78.4 1891 72 74.1 1892 68 65.4 “This table shows that the forty-five principal commodities fell a little farther than the silver, but also shows that silver measured them in a. reasonably steady manner. Three-fourths of the human race still use silver as money of final redemption, and silver, therefore, as measured by the principal commodities, maintains its normal value, while gold has lowered the value of all commodities as well as that of silver. ’Tis absurd to try to show the value of anything by measuring it by Itself, as people do when they say a gold dollar is never more or less than a dollar. Hence the value of the | learned Scientific work performed by i Prof. Sauerbeck. Thue we find' that disorganization of trade, resulting from the long-continued tall of pries*, Is owing to the rise in the valve pf gold, and we see no remedy for that but in the remonetization of silver, so that the two metals can resume business at the old stand in the same way as before 1871 In the final analysis labor is the measure of values; it takes twice as much produce, therefore twice as much labor, to pay a debt os it dhi before 1873. "We pave been asked (his question, If the demonetization of silver is the pri,me cause pt failing prices, how was it that prices were so low during the period between 1815 and 1849? We have, in a later part of this report, noted the effect of the abundant stream of the precious metals which for several hundred years poured from the mines of the Spanish colonies of South America. This abundance of the precious metals led to profusion in their use. Kings, queens, lords; and the wealthy in general used them for ornamentation in a thousand ways, while cathedrals and ministers had their saints and patrons sculptured in gold and silver.
“The revolt of the Spanish colonies, one after another, which occurred after the example of the United States, con-
tinned throng a large part of the first half of this century. The struggles were long-continued and bitter. The mines were neglected, the fructifying stream ceased to flow, and the profusion alluded to could not be halted at once. The precious metals became scarce and prices fell, or the precious metals rose, as you choose to put it. In 1848 gold was discovered in California and shortly afterward in Australia. Then prosperity again appeared, prices began rising. The farmer’s heart was made glad, for when he settled up after selling his crops he had money to buy clothes for his children and send them to school. “There are many people who think that when we sell a thing for half price, but get money of double value, the thing is squared. And so it would be if there were no debts and if everything was adjusted to this new measure that has double value. But this is far from being the case. ’Tis a physical law that any force extending itself does so on 'the line of the least resistance.’ Labor resists violently. All salaried men are more or less disposed to do the same thing, consequently this adjustment. although we have been at it for over twenty years, is far from being accomplished. The produce of the farmer, the merchandise of the merchant, and the product of the manufacturer cannot resist, and so they are the first to be slaughtered. When these are leveled down, does any rational man see how wages and salaries can escape? Should monometallism survive, the adjustment of prices will only be complete when everything shall be reduced to one-half what they would be and were with bimetallism. And this process of leveling will last far into the next century and will cause untold suffering, misery, and crime, for extreme poverty is the highroad to barbarism. “Adam Smith says that after the discovery of the precious metals consequent to the discovery of America by Columbus prices of commodities had an advancing tendency for 200 years, everywhere adding to the comfort and wealth of the people, enabling them to educate their children and Anally dispelling the cloud of poverty and misery which gave to the preceding centuries the name of ‘the dark ages.’ We may well question the wisdom of legislation that reverses this picture and makes the addition to our precious metals a curse instead of a blessing. It should be remerribered that It was the merchants of the world and not the kingly governptents that established the first mints and that the'true fnnetiou of the mint was to assay and weigh the metals and stamp them. Their relative values were established by merchandising. When governments go beyond thin they interfere with legitimate merchandising, destroying
I prices, enriching a few at the expense of the many. Pandora would find more evils for the affliction of mankind in I falling prices than several little boxes . Such as she tried to give to Prometheus could contain. But as in Pkndora’s box, hope is atill left to us, for which let us thank the Giver of all good things. !”Thus we have attempted to accomplish the task assigned to us. Your loifiinlttee finds that there is a sear- ‘ city of money of final redemption. Credit money, such as our silver currency is now, and paper money from whatever source, can be of no relief. Credit money may, at the eaprlce of a ( speculating syndicate, be presented for payment at any time and thus aggraI vale the evil. ‘ I “We recommend that silver be added to its companion gold as money of final redemption, and your com iq it tea believes that the chief cause of the disorganized condition of trade and consei quentiy failing prices will be reI moved.” **
PROGRESS BACKWARD.
Henry W. Grady’s Paper on the Gold Standard Anarch late. From figures obtained from auditors , of 43 states and territories of the union the Atlanta Constitution has demoni strated the effects of the single gold standard for the year 1894, to be a decrease of >500,185,790, In 31 of the states and territories, the remaining twelve showing slight gains. The only increase was in New York, Pennsylvania and the New England states, except Missouri, Minnesota, Louisiana and a few others of less than a million dollars each. New York leads all others, in fact, is more than twice that of al) others Combined, >238,883,482 against 1191,817,273. The greatest losses were sustained by the states of Washington and Wisconsin, >57,000,000, ahd 1 >54,000,000, • respectively. Colorado comes next with >29.000,000, then Indiana with 826,000,099. Georgia, 823,000,000, Illinois, 822,000,000, Kansas, 819,000,000, Texas, 818,000,000, Alabama, Oregon and Utah, 817,000,000 each; Ohio, Nebraska, and California, each 810,000,000; lowa, 89,000,060; and fourteen others with less than bine minions each. Is it any wobder that the east, particularly New York city, Philadelphia and -Boston, the principal beneficiaries of this system, should be ’infatuated with the gold standard? The above results are only for one short year. Think what a generation or two of this congestive process must inevitably bring upon us and our children. IS‘there not greater provocation for open revolt than existed in 1776 or 1861? Just think of half a billion dollars a year swdlowed up in this awful maelstrom. >19,000,000 in Kansas, alone, or about >t4o for each inhabitant. All this in addition to the untold millions of monopoly taxes. I It is now in order for the democratic party to pass a resolution of thanks to the republican party for pausing the demonetizing law of 1873.
A DUTY OF SOCIETY.
CRIMES AGAINSTTHE FAMILIES OF CRIMINALS. Unfortunate Conditions —The Innocent Suffer Greater Punishment Than the Guilty—- Argument for the Reform of Legalised Abuses.
There are many wrongs committed in the name of justice. Among these none are greater than those committed against the families of criminals. Take for instance a man with a family of five or six children. He commits some act for which he is sent to prison for a length of time. No attention is given to his family. They do not seem to be subjects for consideration at all. The husband is probably very poor and when he leaves his family he takes from them the last vestige of support. The wife in her heart-broken condition must now accommodate herself to her new surroundings and take upon herself the task of supporting herself and her children. As a result, and one far too common, the children grow up In want and as a rule follow the example set by the unfortunate father. In many cases the real sufferers are the wife and children. This unfortunate condition is augmented greatly by the fact that the family feels too keenly the remorse and disgrace brought upon them by the acts of their father, and, being thus handicapped, they fall an easy prey to the vices that, under more favorable surroundings, they would have resisted. Aside, however, from the pathetic side comes the fact that it is contrary to the principle of justice. By what authority or under what pretext can we make one person responsible for the acts of another. This wife and these children have violated no law, then why should they suffer its consequences?
| It is true that the mortification that the imprisoning of the father and husband entails is unavoidable, but there , Is no need of the laws of the country , putting more upon these unfortunates t than is absolutely unavoidable. In I nearly all the States the prisoner is put to hard labor. The proceeds of his labor, tn nearly all cases, go to the State. In some cases is worse than ’ that, it goes into the pocket of some contractor. In that case the State nbt only robs the widow and orphans of ’ what he produces but also turns it over to the contractor. Now we would like to ask if It Would not J>e better that the proceeds of the convict’s labor Ibe turned back to his, family? Can the State afford to make criminals out ! of his children through starvation for j the sake of keeping his wages? It Is argued by some that most criminals are a burden rather than a support to their families, while free. That may I be true, and in many cases doubtless is true, but that argues nothing against what we are demanding. If a man is worthless and has a family and he is sent to prison and made to work, the State is enabled to serve a double purpose, of ridding society of a bad citfsen and making him support his family, a thing he would not otherwise do. For the State to ruin a whole family and then be a party to the raising up of a lot of criminals all for the sake of meteing out the demands of juatice to one man, is not only wrong in principle, but destructive in practice.
It is argued, again, that many of the criminals in our penitentiaries are single then. This is true, but the most of them have mothers and fathers who j are, or at least should, depend upon him f9r, support. Granting, however, that be has v no family or other persons depending tupon him. Why not allow him to retain a good portion of his earnings for his own use after his term expires? The custom in most States is to give the discharged convict a ticket home, >5 in money and a : new suit of clothes. These clothes are of the very cheapest kind, bought in large quantities and all alike. Every' discharged criminal leaves the prison looking just like every other prisoner who has left it. These suits are almost as well known throughout the country as would be a suit of stripes. He has no way of concealing his Identity or his late occupation. He has no money to go where he is not known. : The result is his surroundings have a tendency to discourage him in making another start in life, and his good resolutions, made' in captivity, dome to naught. It is not unfrequently the case that these conditions are too much for him and In the absence of better opening he, seeks refuge again in the penitentiary. | Any one who baa watched these matters can call to mind cases of this kind Now we believe that prisons of aB kinds should be maintained only for the good of society. That the first and grwitest Object to be attained is the Restoration of the criminal himself Makes a man of him, if possible, and at ill events do nothing to hold him down or to stand in the way of his progress along the line of self-reform. I It may appear, at first glance, to be a sweeping remark to make, but we believe that the facts warrant us in sayitig that übdef our present abominable ' system that prisons, as a whole, are doing more harm than good.—lnter Mountain (Utah) Advocate. ArkaaiM Senators. What’s the matter with our senators? There’s Jones’ cun ency bill providing i for another issue of bonds amounting to 1500,000,000; which means, at 3 per cent Interest per annum, and running twenty years, a debt of 1800,000,000 for | the people of this country to pay. This | means >12.50 each for >65,000,000 population, or >75 for every family of six persons. We’ve got a dandy pair of | senators, now, haven’t we?—Little ' Rock Press (Dem.).
ITS STEADY GROWTH.
THE PRINCIPLES OF POPULISM ARE NOT EPHEMERAL. t The Principles It Advocates Are Firm Enough to Build Upon as Long as Humanity and Civilisation Exist.— * Figures Never Lie.
The great plutocratic newspapers are somewhat alarmed to see the steady increase given the Populist party by the official election returns. The Springfield (Mass.) Republican, a newspaper of national reputation, an independent supporter of Grover Cleveland, though republican in politics, makes the following comment: “This is a remarkable and in many ways a disturbing demonstration of radicalism. The Populist party was started in -a flush industrial period, and the fact that it has held on so long and grown no less slowly and steadily in bad times than in prosperous times is not the least significant features of its development. Were it based, upon elements of ephemeral strength merely we should probably by this time have seen either the collapse of the organization or a sudden bound to a higher level. That neither event has resulted would seem to offer proof of the existence of strong basic material. As a matter of fact the anti-slavery party,from the time it began to put a Presidential candidate in the field in 1844 down to the breaking up of the whig party in 1852, never exhibited u more persistent and growing strength than the People’s party has so far shown.” Radicalism always has a basis. And the Populist party has even a stronger basis than had the antislavery party. The slavery we oppose is that of a class of men to whom the nation owes its great progress in the development of wealth, Invention and all material growth. Opposition to wage and debt slavery are the cardinal principles ot the People's party. As a bssis it has the religion of Jesus Christ, the brotherhood of man and the foundation principle of Justice, equal rights to all and special privileges to none.
Every man in tfye People’s party has his feet firmly on the basic principles. It is not buoyed up like a balloon, with gas; nor is it a patty of sorehead politicians kicked out by the struggle of ambition from the old parties. The People's party has come to stay, because the principles it advocates are permanent—firm enough to build upon for the future as long as humanity and civilization exist That there was a reason for its birth luring flush times indicates very ’tuoagly that general injustice and not mere local discontent was the cause of the organization. The People's party is not an organization of malcontents, howling and rending itself in the dark. Its organization was due to broad comprehensive study of the principles of the government of the people, by the people snd for the people. When the nation and the moneyloan ers were prospering, all the people of the nation should have been prospering in proportion to the work they contributed to the general prosperity. That farmers and laborers were depressed while idlers spent the summer in Europe and the winter in dissipation, aroused the people to a study of the eternal principles of equity. The oppression has been felt worse luring the past two years, but the people were not made wild and fanatical. They had coolly reasoned out tho cause of the trouble and many of them hud prophesied the climax, They have reached the point in Veavon where they see that monopoly must be allowed to run its course for the present, while the people are being educated to take charge when the course of the money power has become inbearable to the whole nation. The great trusts are testing the principles of corporation, and when proven successful and all powerful the nation will find it necessary to assume functions that have been befon delegated to private individuals. The People’s party is looking coniAontly forward to the consummation of its every demand. Not party success, but a better national industrial system Is the object of this movement. :»< *
More money. Government money only. Help yourself, or yon-may not be helped. ■4 ; SIISSZZZZXZZZXZZXZSSX Will the people pay the gold gamblers’ bills? •' , ■" v • ■ r*Per cent is the measure of the bankers’ patriotism. Do not neglect your old party neighbor. Lend him some thought stimulant. ■ ii l Without government banking, free coinage of gold and silver won’t do any good. Bonds can be paid only in labor—and are a means used by rich idlers to rob poor laborers. Coxey has devised the plan that will supply a safe, sound and flexible volume of currency—and abolish usury.
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