People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1896 — Continued from page 1. [ARTICLE]

Continued from page 1.

urers can bring them prosperity. So. until we restore bimetallism protection must be a mere sham, for only by restoring bimetallism can we raise the price of silver, and deprive our silverusing competitors of the bounty they now enjoy in the shape of a premium on gold, raise the price at which they can lay down their products in competition with our producers, thus raise the prices our farmers get for their products and bring to them renewed prosperity. Declaring unreservedly for sound money—which has come to mean the dearest money and a two-hundred-cent dollar—the republican convention has earned the plaudits of the money cliques; for it has declared its policy to be to enrich the few at the expense of the many. The reference to international bimetallism is puerile. We are under tribute to the creditor classes of Europe; we are greatly their debtors. The further gold appreciates, the more cotton and wheat and other produce will they ges in payment of interest and principal, and the heavier will be our tribute. To free ourselves from such tribute we must do nothing—nothing save wait /or the nations enjoying such tribute and protiting from our impoverishment to voluntarily relinquish such tribute. Such is the meaning of the dec

laration of the republican convention that “we are opposed to the free coinage of silver except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and, until such agreement can be obtained, the existing gold standard must be preserved.” Imports into Great Britain exceeded exports last year by £130,547,693, and net imports of gold amounted to £14,736,715—a total of £145,264.408. This is the tribute the rest of th e world is under to Great Britian. This represents the interest on the sums the British creditor classes have loaned to foreigners and the interest on the capital invested in her marine. Over £700,000,000 is the tribute of the world to England, and the further prices fall, the more wheat, the more cotton, and other produce will she receive in payment. Yet we are to wait for the creditor classes of Great Britian to join hands with us in restoring bimetallism, raising prices and cutting down/ this tribute. Truly, it is folly to wait for international bimetallism. Twenty years we have waited in vain, and so long as we remain supinely inactive, we will continue to wait. By opening our mints to silver, we can force bimetallism; but by begging we will never achieve it.