People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1895 — PINCHING THE PEOPLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PINCHING THE PEOPLE

SILVER MEN IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY KEEP STILL. Else the Supply of Money West and South Will Be Shut Off Altogether — The Administration Policy of BiaclrmalL The fidelity of the Washington Star to the administration’s gold policy gives it great advantages in obtaining reliable information as to the purpose of Cleveland’s democracy. In its issue of September 5, 1895, it says: “They, the (sound money democrats) profess no fear of the silver men bolting the convention, because that sentiment is strongest in a section where democrats are forced by the instincts of self-preservation to adhere to the party. As one of these reasons for confidence that they will control the convention they point out that the silver democrats as a class are those who can least afford to resist the ‘sound money’ influences. “An instance of this is given in the matter of money accommodations. In the South, it is argued, the people cry for silver because they want more money, and they want it because they haven’t any. All the bankers have to do is to declare that they will not make loans to people who ‘want to pay their debts in 50-cent dollars, and who are trying to establish a debased currency,’ and this operates as a notice that if they want to borrow money they must stop shouting for silver. “It is said that a short time ago a Philadelphia syndicate placed twelve million dollars in the agricultural districts, with the small banks, principally in the South, and that one of the conditions exacted was that the borrower should ‘pipe very low on silver.’ To men who have to borrow money to harvest and move their crops and to handle them in commerce, this makes a very convincing ‘sound money’ ai gument. Moreover it is far-reaching, because it affects all classes, from the planters and small dealers all the way up to the banks in the section of the country where the ready cash is necessary for the marketing and transportation of the crops. They are confronted with the cold fact that the eloquence of the silver orators does not move crops.

“Thie ‘sound money’ faction say that sentiment always exhausts itself soon after it has reached the emotional stage, and that, therefore, everything will quiet down by the time the national convention meets. This sort of philosophy is the most comforting they cah apply to a situation full of confusion, with the party divided in nearly every state.” The fact that the foregoing could be printed in a respectable newspaper and circulated in the United States speaks volumes. If it be true that the money powers have already subjected the people of the United States to their corrupt rule, the republic is lost. The silver men have for years pointed out that silver was demonetized to give the banks and money loaners dominion over the producing classes. The mask is now thrown off, and those who monopolize money through corrupt legislation boldly tell the people that they will ruin them if they dare exercise their rights as free men. and contend for the restoration of the money of the constitution. Are the people of the South so low spirited, so degraded that the bankers can say to them that they shall not. as American citizens,have political opinions and express them? Has it come to this, that an English syndicate, through its money lending agents in the United States, can say to the American people you must “pipe very low on silver?” For years the manipulators of money denied that they had any intention to use the power of money which corrupt legislation gave them, to perpetuate their political control, but now it is boldly proclaimed in their most trusted and confidential organs. If the people of this country submit to dictation of this kind they are already slaves. The fate of serfdom which awaits them cannot be avoided. But we will venture the prediction that the people of the United States are not yet slaves, and that before the purposes of the gold combination are consum-

ated and civil liberty destroyed in this country, there will be an uprising before which shylock himself will tremble. The only safety he will have will be in foreign lands and under the protection of the British crown, because nothing can protect despotism, and particularly the despotism born of avarice, on American soil. Corruption may prevail for a time. The American people may seem long suffering; they may even appear to be yielding and submissive to wrong, but when aroused they have shown through their entire history that their determination to be free and independent is irresistible. The claim of gold monopoly that they are now slaves will be remembered when the time for action comes. Silver Knight.

WILL WE SUCCEED?