People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1896 — The Last Struggles for Gold. [ARTICLE]

The Last Struggles for Gold.

Plainly we are nearing a crisis in the experiment with the gold standard. No matter what, the sincerity of the conviction entertained by some men that a wrong system is right, the thing that is wrong necessarily works toward confusion, disaster and collapse. For twenty-two years this nation, having thrown aside, at British dictation, the bimetallism. that the world had sanctioned for four thousand years, has endeavored to retain prosperity by resting everything upon gold. While population has increased and commerce has had stupendous expansion during two decades of profound peace, the gqld product of the world is now only equal to the combined gold and silver product of 1860. The business of mankind is therefore thirty-five years ahead of the supply of standard money. Desperate are the efforts to sustain the system by feeble logic and resort to wild and foolish devices; the day of doom is close at hand. Struggle as we may, blind our eyes to the facts as we will, stupefy our minds with delusive argument as we do, the crash will come. It is now almost within reach of the dullest vision.

We have said, many times, that the only people who work for silver monometallism are the gold men. The so-called silver men are all bimetallists. The gold men, by refusing to employ the metal which Would relieve the stress upon gold, have brought this nation to the verge of dependence upon silver alone. The president will borrow again; but he will have harder work to get gold, because the demand is fierce and the supply no larger. When he shall get it, he will not hold it. Where is the he borrowed a few months ago at a premium of 20 per cent? Gon6l The very men who lent it took it back at par. Now we are apparently about to repeat that insane performnace. That is to say. we are to try to obtain pos"session of some gold by agreeing to pay back more gold than we obtain. Every time we indulge in this astonishing feat of financiering, we plunge deeper into the mire. One day we shall be engulfed. A man who would conduct his business in such a fashion should have the attention of his friends. Why should the symptoms of disorder in an individual be accepted as proof of sound wisdom when they are exhibited by a government? It is rumored that some people, not hitherto numbered with the silver . cranks, are actually whispering their desire that we shall have the suspension of specie payments and even

complete transfer to a silver basis, rather than that we should continue along the old road to ruin. This preference is not unlikely to be gratified. And why blame the citizen who holds opinions? Why censure even the senator who calls loudly • for silver? At least it is. proven that Mr. Cleveland’s way and the way of the British creditor is not the right way. What if we should actually try some other way? Would it be any worse for us to have gold at a clear premium? Suppose it should turn out, after all, that to restore silver would really give us, in spite of the philosophers and prophets, bimetallism? ' Do we fear the risk of lojs from such experiment? We are losing now;> not only by running into debt absolutely without advantage, but filling the land with fear, business with disorder, and the Treasury with rottenness.

If a republican House of Representatives chooses to commit its party to Mr. Cleveland’s policy by multiplying debts in a vain effort to hold up a system which cannot be sustained, the party will have to bear the odium at the polls next autumn. Perhaps, considering the condition of influential public opinion, it finds the impulse in that direction irresistible. But the Senate stands squarely across the path, and so there will be no new ex tension of the right to borrow. The Senate may be but, on the other hand, perhaps, we shall be better off the sooner the catastrophe befalls. lit seems easy to understand that when there is not enohgh

of a thing that all men require, somebody in ust do with less than enough; but multitudes of intelligent men appear to be unable to comprehend such a fact when the thing referred to is gold. It is not really hard to perceive that if a scant supply of gold were reinforced by‘silver, the available quantity of standard money would be doubled and the stress would be relieved; but clear-headed men will not perceive it. There would seem to be no difficulty in the theory that silver, having lost value because of adverse legal action, will regain it with favorable legal action; but some wise men regard that theory as the product of an alienated intellect. We are starving-because there is not bread enough, and a few bold men risk their reputation for wisdom by asking “Why not eat beef? We used to eat beef and we were strong and well.” In response the assurance is given that beef eating, in spite of experience, is the sure prelude to sudden death. But, if we shall starve at any rale, why not have the test applied? Starvation is the word. Commerce is hungry and gold cannot satisfy its appetite; nor can the arguments of the devotees of gold; and so the very attempt to compel commerce to find satisfaction where it can never be found is forcing us, we hope, toward true bimetallism, but we much fear toward something worse.—The Manufacturer.