People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1896 — GOVERNOR ALTGELD. [ARTICLE]

GOVERNOR ALTGELD.

Ho Explains Why We Cm “Go It Alone." The Facta Concerning Mexico. We say restore silver to where it was. Coin it free as you do gold. Restore to i it its legal tender qualities, and just as soon as this is done, just as soon as sil- ■ ver can be used at the custom house, used to pay taxes and to pay notes at the bank, just as soon as it can be used to do the same work that gold does, just that soon the importance of gold will be lowered, its purchasing power- will be lowered, the importance of silver will be raised, its purchasing power will be raised, until the two metals again circulate at par, just as they did for 200 years before silver was demonetized. But, says some one, the idea of bimetallism is all right, but we cannot gc it alone. We must have Europe to help us; otherwise gold will go to a premium. Examine this a moment. Everybody admits that if all the European states would act together they could gc it alone. They could absorb the silver that is annually produced, and in fact a great deal more, without having gold gc to a premium. Npw, gentlemen, the internal trade of the United States under normal conditions is greater than that of all Europe put together, for while some of the European countries have large populations they are so extremely poor that they possess very little purchasing power; consequently if Europe could go it alone* the United, States oould still more easily do so. We could utbsorb more than double the amount of all the silver that would be brought tc our country, and it would be like putting new blood into the body. The patient' is now too weak to travel. We say restore his blood to its normal condition and then he will again be active. It is said that a Mexican dollar, which is as heavy as ours, is worth only 50 cents in gold, and we are asked, If this so, how will we make qnr silver dollars circulate side by side with gold? I say we will do it by giving our silver dollars a field sufficiently large to absorb all and in which they can do the same work that gold does. The business of Mexico is so small that it does not furnish a sufficiently large field to absorb all of the silver dollars. The business of Mexico is less than that of some of our states. Multiply the trade of Mexico by 40 and it wopld absorb twice the amount of silver that could be furnished any one year. When the large import duties paid at our custom houses and the limitless sums of taxes paid in our country are considered, it becomes at once apparent that this country could absorb 200 times as much silver money as Mexico could, independently of all the other nations of the earth. Mexico is on a silver basis, and M. Romero, the Mexican minister at Washington, a year ago published an article in The North American Review describing the conditions of his country, and he showed that Mexico is more prosperous now than it ever was before in its history. Her farmers are prospering, her business men are prospering, her manufactories are all busy, and new ones are being erected, and there is scarcely an idle laborer in Mexico. • But if all of the talk about gold going to a premium were true it would not meet the question. The question is. Shall republican institutions be maintained in this country? If our farmers, our mechanics, and our laborers are reduced to the condition of mere tribute paying serfs, then the doom of this republic is sealed. If they are to be reduced to the iihpoverished condition of the toilers of Europe then a high and intelligent order of citizenship in thia country is impossible. Men who have little to eat and little to wear cannot educate their families, men who have to give up all of their strength and all of their thoughts to what is practically unrequited toil are not calculated to act the role of independent freemen.—-John P. Altgeld.