People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1897 — Page 7

THE GOLD STANDARD.

’JEADY AND WAITING FOR THE NEXT BATTLE. Disaster and Distress Follow the Saccess of the Standard of Gold—How to Avert the Danger- —Loyal American Sentiments. The first great battle of the standards is past. The standard of gold still flutters from the mast of the ship of state. With the dying echoes of the last clash of battle a new campaign is inaugurated, a campaign which will end in the freeing of millions who have been galled to the quick by the yoke of gold. The curse has dimmed the happiness of many a home. This golden octopus has robbed the laboring millions of a just division of the fruits of their toil. Its shining tentacles have slowly encircled American industries, while patriotism and thrift are waning in the hearts of the masses. But, thank God, patriotic blood still beats in a hurrying flood in the hearts of American men. Six millions of them have been brave enough to stand by the principles enunciated by their forefathers. Bimetallism was the child of our constitution. When silver and gold walked side by side, prosperity rewarded the efforts of the American people. “United they stand, divided they fall.” The gold standard is not an American policy, but the policy of our enemies. History fails to record an instance of a victory won by following the leadership of the enemy. Disaster follows this course, as experience has abundantly proved. President McKinley tells us that he hopes to bring about International bimetallism. It is a vain hope. If, as he has said, the gold standard is a good thing, why should he dhange it for international bimetallism? If it wasn’t a good thing why should we wait for the consent of England before we give relief to our starving countrymen? To listen to England was not once the spirit of Americans. Have we lost that independent spirit manifested by our forefathers in the Immortal document that is dear to the heart of us all? Are we no longer able to legislate for the relief of our suffering humanity? Must we stand idly by and see the masses of our common people converted into cowardly poltroons?

The gold men charge us with being traitors to good government. Where •can tyranny be any blacker than in the heart of the man who is willing to •sell his fellows into golden bondage? "The traitors and slave owners of our last war claimed to be sponsors of national honor and good government and at the same time were plotting for their destruction. The colored man of the south gets along very well without his master, so can the millions of plain people of the whole nation subsist without British gold and Wall street monopoly. The success of the cause of bimetallism convokes the aid of all loyal Americans. We must warn the people of their danger ere our institutions of freedom are crumbled to ruins. Arouse them as did Paul Revere the commoners of Massachusetts. Arouse them as you would of a coming pestilence or flood. Do not lay down the gauge of battle until every dollar shall be as good as every other dollar under our flag. Remove the stain of statute law from our silver dollar and prosperity and happiness will brighten every home in our fair land. Augusta, Wis. A. HERRICK.

THE POPULISTS FIRM.

Our Workers in Minnesota Are Cheerful and Confident. The Minneapolis Press says: F. C. Gibbs of Waterville, one of the ablest of the people’s party leaders of the state, has been in the city for a day or two, and was a Press caller yesterday. Mr. Gibbs was as cheerful and confident as ever in his political faith. Speaking of his section, his party ranks, he says, are as firm as they ever were, and there are constant accessions in sight, mostly from the Republicans, who admit that they have been buncoed in the unredeemed promises of prosperity from McKinley’s election. Of the general situation, Mr. Gibbs says there is everything to encourage. Nationally he thinks that all the forces have done well in preserving their separate organizations. He has no hesitation in expressing his belief that in time these forces will come together and that in the near future the people will succeed.

The Men Who Object.

John C. Calhoun, one of the ablest statesmen and best constitutional lawyers this country ever had, was in favor of irredeemable paper currency, based simply on its receivability for taxes and other dues to the government, and bid defiance to any man to show wherein it would not be the best paper currency that could be issued. Thomas Jefferson also contended that such a currency would take the place of that much gold and remain at par with that metal. But the bankers object.

Afraid of Issues.

> Tariff reform was the battle cry in 1892, and the Cleveland administration began with work on the currency question. Currency reform was the campaign cry in 1896, and the McKinley administration begins with work on the tariff question.—Topeka Advocate.

landlords Clare and Astor Know. • A. landlord of straw can grind to powder a tenant of steel.—Lord Clare.

SILVER ALLIANCE.

A Coalition of the Entire Senate Oppoi ■ltion to Goldbuglsm. The following item of news is suggestive as a sign of the times: “Washington Correspondence: The final agreement among Democrats, silver Republicans and Populists in the senate, looking to a permanent coalition, was reached at a meeting of representatives of their parties held in Senator Gorman’s committee room at the capitol to-day. “The agreement had its origin in the effort to reorganize the senate committees, but is destined apparently to reach far beyond this situation, and in fact to the future proceedings of the senate on all matters, if not to the extent of shaping party policies throughout the country. “There were present at the meeting: Democrats, Senators Gorman, Cockrell, Walthall, Jones of Arkansas and Murphy; silver Republicans, Senators Cannon and Mantle; Populists, Senators Allen and Pettigrew. “With reference to the matter of the senate reorganization, it was decided that the combination should hold out for the assignment of Democrats to all the places on committees heretofore held by Democrats, while it was agreed that the Republicans should have the places hitherto filled by Republicans. This will give the Republicans all the committee chairmanships vacated by the retirement of Senators Cameron, Sherman, Dubois, Squire, Mitchell of Oregon and Brown, but it will give the combination about seventy vacancies, while it allows the Republicans only about thirty. “The combination decided against making any concessions, even that providing for allowing the Republicans to fill one of the three vacancies in the committee on appropriations* “The silver Republicans say that their principal incentive in entering the coalition is to protect the finance committee, which they feared might become an anti-silver organization in case the Republicans were allowed to have their own way in committee organizations. All intention to interfere with- the passage of the tariff bill through the senate through the combination of Democrats, silver Republicans and Populists is denied by the parties to the agreement.”

NOTES BY THE WAY.

It is reported that the Vanderbilts, Morgans and Astors have been granted something in the nature of a franchise to own and govern the republic of Honduras. In the United States the same set manage to achieve about the same result without the aid of an actual contract. Taking the state as a whole, the Republicans decidedly lost ground in the Kansas municipal elections. This is not to be wondered at, as there is certainly nothing in present political conditions to cause the populists to lose votes. , It must be at least admitted that the “advance agent of prosperity” is traveling a long way ahead of the show. Some of the courts ought to be made ap example of by being punished for contempt of the people. The Dingley bill places ashes on the free list. The coal trust and the railroad trust keep the weekly price of the kitchen fire at a high figure, but ashes will hereafter be cheap. The social democrats of Austria polled over 800,000 votes in the recent elections. “If the Dingley tariff raises prices, the silverites ought not to complain. That is what they have been calling for.” —Indianapolis News. Higher prices generally would have the effect of stimulating industry and relieving the burdened debtor class. Dingley high prices simply mean an increased toll upon the producers for the benefit of the officeholders, who squander the revenues of the government, and for the benefit of the trusts. Higher prices for the things they buy and lower prices for the products they sell is not precisely what the “silverites” have been calling for. But it is what they will get.

An eminent physician says that yawning is an exceedingly healthful function. Here is an explanation of the healthy appearance of our public officials. Indianapolis is about to “commit anarchy,” says the Non-Conformist. The city council is discussing methods and means of buying the water plant and the rock-ribbed Journal —the Harrison wheel horse —has actually advocated in its editorial sanctum sanctorum the government ownership of railroads. And yet they pray “deliver us from the wild-eyed, visionary Pop of the West.” When the airship really does make its appearance it will bring about a great many changes in economic conditions. Tariffs will then be impossible, railroad monopolies will be shorn of power and a great deal of good new land will be made accessible to labor. Solve the money question and the air ship (when it comes) will go far towards doing the rest. This year good work should be done in the way of extending the party organization. Next year there will be some more important voting.

Unless They Think and Vote.

The people is the power which creates money, the money power enslaves the people.—Freeman’s Labor Journal.

RULE OF MONOPOLY.

NO DESPOTISM WORSE THAN THAT OF PLUTOCRACY. It Must Be Broken and Power Restored to the People—Henry L Gant Issues Some Good Advice to Our Yeomanry— Municipal Ownership. It is idle to talk of taxing the people prosperous. It is the quintessence of folly to talk of making the foreigner pay the revenue through a tariff with which to pay the running expenses of the government. No one, but political demagogues and arrant fools will waste any time discussing these questions. Then what is the trouble, and what the remedy? The trouble is that the people do not rule. The syndicates and trusts run the government to suit their interests. Ninety-five per cent of the people are robbed of the greater portion of what they produce by rent, usury and what great thieves are pleased to call profits. The coal fields and the oil wells of the country are monopolized by syndicates %pd trusts and private enterprise is shut out. This enables the trusts to make great profits on these products, or rather, to remorselessly plunder the people. The land is fast passing into the control of monopolies. Already great tracts are owned by syndicates and many thousands of people are robbed by rent. There are many other trusts and monopolies which are daily robbing the people. The result is that the wealth of the country is accumulating into the hands of a few and the highways are filled with tramps, the jails are gorged with criminals, the insane asylums packed with the insane, the aim-houses are overflowing with helpless paupers and the life of the great western republic is in great peril. The lines of transportation and communication have always aided and fostered the other great trusts and corporations. Rockefeller could never have monopolized the coal oil but for the railroads. He not only got cheap rates for his oil, but the railroads charged all other oil dealers excessive rates and a part of that excess went to Rockefeller; thus he could make money if he did not sell a gallon of his oil. The failure of the United Press has given an object lesson on private ownership of the lines of communication. It cost the New York Journal $225,000 to get a franchise from the Associated Press, which now has a monopoly on news. Papers in little county towns are mulcted SIO,OOO to $20,000. This does not pay for the news, but simply for the privilege of getting it. This would be impossible under proper conditions. Every city and town should own its water system, street railways and lighting plant. Millions of dollars are annually fleeced from the people by monopolies. They must be suppressed. —H. L. Gant.

MEXICO’S PROSPERITY.

jTrce Silver There Seems to He Sound Money. The Mexican Herald of recent date contains the following article, which shows the advantage of using silver money: “It is interesting to note that just as Mexico is spreading her silver-tipped wings for a higher flight into the upper air of healthy prosperity, great American journals are telling their readers that the United States is no longer a virgin country of vast and unexplored resources, and that the American people must now begin to reckon with the conditions that surround older civilizations. “Here we are looking for the days of greater things; we have bigger banks than any in the United States; we have more hopeful pioneers of industry; our capitalists are planning every day something new, and have a habit of getting dividends out of their enterprises. The treasury is full and a surplus confronts us. Minister Limantour finds the finances so satisfactory that he abandoned some of the economies needed in our day of smaller things. President Diaz’ ample brain is teeming with progressive ideas and he is letting them out daily. You can get good interest on your money here, and combines of the United States have not all crossed the border yet with sharp teeth set like a pack of hungry wolves eager to fatten on Mexican prosperity. “Mexico stands a great, big, luminous, solid silver example of sound government, sound finances and money.”

Dividends of National Banks.

The comptroller of the currency has given authority for the organization of the First United Bank of Greensboro, Pa.; capital, $50,000. The comptroller of4he currency has declared dividends in favor of the creditors of insolvent national banks, as follows: Forty per cent, the First National Bank of Niagara Falls, N. Y. Fifteen per cent, the Second National Bank of Rockford, 111. Five per cent, the German National Bank of Denver, Colo. Five per cent, the City National Bank of Fort Worth, Tex. Ten per cent, the First National Bank of Willimantic, Ct. Three and three-tenths per cent, the Evanston National Bank, of Evanston, 111. Eight per cent, American National Bank of Springfield, Mo.

Ought Now to Be Reclaimed.

Seventy-eight per cent of the great fortunes of the United States are said to be derived from permanent monopoly privileges which ought never to have been granted.—Lyman Trumbull.

POINTS FROM THE PRESS.

Government ownership of natural monopolies will go a long way toward killing trusts and combines. —Nonconformist. The Cleveland Leader uses a beautiful “Dawn of Prosperity” head over the new tariff bill, but its foreman spoiled the effect by running a list of business failures in the adjoining column. —Washington Post. Property in land has ceased to be a right and become a crying evil when one man, or a number of men, can hold a million acres against the natural desire and right of a million men to occupy and use it. —Castorville Enterprise. Labor unions of Pennsylvania are. praying and beseeching McKinley not to appoint so many enemies of labor to office. That is nerve. Enemies of labor elected McKinley, and they are entitled to the offices. —Omaha Western Laborer. If Venice could carry on its commerce 600 years without a panic or a currency bottomed purely on its credit and Uncle Sam carrying on his commerce ou intrinsic money has had four great panics and many lesser ones in 100 years, which has had the wiser financial policy?—The Better Way. In New York 26,000 people spend $2,500,000 on clubs; $20,000,000 on yachts; $3,500,000 on flowers; $20,000,0000 on jewelry; $31,877,500 on European travel; $5,000,000 on wine and spirits; $213,244,000 for these eight items of pure luxury, while millions of our best and thoroughly patriotic citizens toil every hour of their waking moments without seeing a hundred dollars of luxury in a lifetime. —Joliet News.

The only banker that ever became a great finance minister was Necker. Guizot says that Necker replenished the French treasury not by increasing the imposts upon the poor, but by a curtailment of the emoluments and privileges and the levy of an income tax upon the rich. Lyman J. Gage does not believe in this policy. He stands for what the noblesse stood for in the reign of Louis XVI. Ergo, Gage will never become a great finance minister. —Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph. There is no disguising the fact that in many sections of the country the number of the unemployed has about reached the danger line. What is to be done? We admit that this is a question more easily asked than answered, and still it must be answered. The calculations of those who \yere in a majority in the presidential campaign have gone amiss, at least as to the time of their fulfillment, and the people are no longer in a humor to be guided by the same advisers. —Eight Hour Herald. In Nebraska corn Is selling at 8 cents a bushel. In Louisiana, in the drouth district, for the poor and needy widows, they ask 40 cents. The question arises who “they” are, and who pays the freight?—Nonconformist.

The trouble with the complaining farmers is that they do not manage their farms in a business way. They keep in the old rut of growing the ordinary farm crops, while they should plant taxes, banks, railroads, official salaries and all such things as are constantly advancing in value. A majority of them voted for this unparalleled boom of prosperity and the elevation in price of the things we now advise them to plant. Now they should stop growing the crops they voted to reduce in price, and turn their attention to the things that pay.—Sledge Hammer.

Wholesale Robbery the Cause.

Under the heading “Why India Starves,” the San Francisco Star says: “It has a population of 20,000,000, receiving an average income of $375 per head ,annually. They have to pay, by taxation, $100,000,000 annually to officials, mostly British, and the amount is largely spent in England; besides this they must pay $125,000,000 for interest and pensions; all must be paid in gold, and further impoverishment has resulted from stopping the coinage of silver. Thus, while they average an Income of little over one cent a day, nearly a fourth of that cent goes for virtual plunder, which reminds one of Carlisle’s celebrated expression as to the cause of the French revolution — that the widow gathers three nettles for her family, and the seigneur takes one of the three and calls it ‘rent.’ ” When prices begin to fall people begin to sell and to horde the money. When prices are on the rise, people withdraw their hoarded money and invest it in property. Prices are now declining and money is being hoarded. The increase of the circulating medium would cause prices to rise. Then owners of money would be falling over each other to exchange their money for that which is rising in value. Every avenue of industry would be benefited. The volume of money can be increased by the remonetization of silver only. The free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 will abolish all banks of issue and therefore will result in the establishment of safe and sound government savings banks, in which every depositor will also be a depositor. Six million people voted for free silver in 1896. Six million people know the value to producers of a larger circulating medium. Keep the silver issue in the foreground.

THE RAILROAD ISSUE.

Fabllo Ownership of Transportation Facilities Under Modern Methods. Just now the transportation question Is in the glare of the country’s searchlight, and Populist doctrine will prevail in the examination. Sixty-five years ago, when our fathers were experimenting with steam and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was offering a prize of $4,000 for a locomotive that would draw a load fifteen miles an hour, the subject of transportation was not a national problem. It was but a local affair. Railway companies, like ordinary business establishments, were strangers to one another, and goods in transit were rehandled at the end of every road. There were no through lines, there was no through traffic, there were no through tickets or bills of lading. All that has passed away under the operation of the law of development, says the Topeka Advocate, and now we have a judicial declaration of the law of the land —which is, in this case, also nature’s law —that no combination of private interests shall be permitted to stand in the way of the common interests of the whole body of the people. The combinations among railway and other corporations were but so many evidences of nature’s law working through the selfish interests of individual men; and not until their conduct came in conflict with public interests were they arrested and brought , before the bar of the people's court. The testimony shows that means for the distribution of the people’s surplus productions are absolutely necessary if society and government are to be maintained, that every member of the social organism is interested more or less In the interchange of commodities, and that justice requires the establishment and maintenance of uhTfiJrm and reasonable rates of charge for moving property from producers to consumers. The testimony further shows that the private and personal Interests of individual men are not safe guides for the administration of public justice. The law of the case, as it has been delivered by the court, is that public rights are paramount and that nothing is lawful which interferes with them or abridges them, and that the people In their organized capacity have an inherent right to proteot themselves as a social or political entity. The verdict and judgment will be that public transportation is the exercise of a public function, that therefore the means employed for its exercise ought j.o be owned and operated by public agents, and charges ought to be no more than for the use of other public property—enough to keep it in repair.

The Real Cause of Fright.

We find such loquacious philosophers as Harrison, Cleveland, Sherman and others of the intrinsic value school constantly gabbling about parity between the two metals, and asserting that the free coinage of silver would destroy parity. They do not seem to recognize the fact that by the demonetization of silver gold haß gone to a premium of one hundred per cent over silver and all other commodities. They do not condescend to tell us how they are going to regulate that party. The dislocation of the parity was all In favor of bondholders, money loaners, misers, and extortioners, who robbed the masses of the value of half their possessions. That slight divergence of parity does not wory a goldbug or any of the agents of the combine. They, parrot like, say that if any attempt to right the wrong which destroyed parity is made, gold will go to a premium, as if it was not at a premium now of more than one hundred per cent over anything else. Gold going to a premium is not what ails them. They are afraid that gold will be cheaper and the premium will be reduced. They know, and their masters know, that if silver is restored to the right of mintage and endowed with the money function equally with gold, as It was from time immemorial, gold will lose a large part of its purchasing power, and that the rascals who demonetized silver will be compelled to disgorge a small portion of the swag which they have secured by bribery and corruption. We believe that if the United States would open her mints to silver equally with gold the demand for silver would be such as to restore the parity between the two metals which existed before these intrinsic value gabblers demonetized silver at the command of the Rothschild combination. —Silver Knight-Watchman.

The Same Old Cry.

There never was a wrong inflicted upon a people that those who were the recipients of the benefits that accrue as a result of the wrong, did not object to the agitation against the wrong. It was said that the anti-slavery agitation was detrimental to the business interests of the country. It was said the agitation against the old United States bank was a dangerous business. We are now met with the same old cry that the agitation of free coinage in particular and Populism in general are detrimental to the beet interests of the country. It is the same old cry of the same old class who eat their bread in the sweat of another’s face. —Moscow (Idaho) Times. Don’t let any one persuade you that the tariff is going to be the issue in 1898 and 1900. There is one issue, and that is the full and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the established ratio of 16 to 1. The advance agent of prosperity will soon acknowledge that his show has canceled all its engagements. Had Bryan been elected there would not now be an idle man in the United States.

GOLDBUG GOOD TIMES.

The Globe savings bank of Chicago! has assigned. Stealings by “honest'* money advocates, about $1,000,000. The City national bank of Gatearville, Tex., has suspended. Stealings by “honest” money advocates, about $200,000. The Lebanon, Pa., rolling mills company ha 3 made an assignment. W. C. Eccleston, grocer at Natick, R. 1., has filed a petition in insolvency. A receiver has been appointed for the Salem iron company, of Leetonla, Ohio. J. M. Pancake, general store and gin, at Bush, Tex., has given a trust deed. E. Albertson, dealer in notions, at Hannibal, Mo., has made an assignment. The sheriff has closed the store of W. C. Bernard!, dealer in dry goods at Pittsburg, Pa. E. D. Neustadt & Cta, flour commission dealers of New York city, have assigned. A receiver has been appointed for Lundy & Smith, general store at Duncombe, la. The American exchange bank of Buffalo, N. Y., has gone into voluntary liquidation. The Bank of Bartley, Neb., is closing its affairs, and is paying depositors’ claims in full. It Is not run by "honest” money advocates. The Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West railway has been offered for sale In Jacksonville, Fla. George S. Kinney’s Sons, wholesale liquor dealers, at Nashville, Tenn.,have made an assignment. Tanner & Stark, general store, at Otter Lake, Mich., have given a chattel mortgage in trust for $7,800. L. Graham & Son, printers at New Orleans, have called a meeting of creditors to ask an extension. The Stratto Bros. Company, dealer In dry goods at Gardner, Mass., has made an assignment. The First national bank of Comanche, Tex., chartered in 1886, capital SIOO,OOO, surplus $20,000, closed its doors. "Honest” money the cause. James B. Brewster & Co., reorganized, carriage manufacturers at New York, have assigned without preferences. C. Henry Gabel, an undertaker, contractor and builder, of Pottstown, Pa., has made an assignment. The Citizens' bank of Bowling Green, Mo., suspended April 2. It had a paid in capital of $26,000 and deposits of SIOO,OOO. “Honest” money did it up. An assignment for the benefit of creditors has been made by the Safe deposit building and loan association in Kensington, Ohio. "Honest” money did it. A. J. Davidson & Co., wholesale dealers in produce and agricultural implements at Helena, Mont., have been attached for SB,OOO. The comptroller of the currency has given authority for the organization of the First national bank of Greensboro, Pa.; capital, $60,000. Hurrah for "sound” money. The Cumberland coal company, at Sturgis, Ky., owned by capitalists of Nashville, Tenn., with W. W. Smith as president, has assigned. Edward S. and Henry V. Williams, stockholders of the New York history company, have applied for the appointment of a receiver. The Colchester, Ct., savings bank has been enjoined from paying out deposits or paying dividends on deposits. Over $50,000 has been withdrawn from the bank within the past six months.

Economy No Panacea.

When you hear a man discoursing (un) learnedly about economy and saving something out of his scanty income by subsisting on a poorer living and depriving himself of every species of enjoyment and leisure, he hasn’t studied his subject. If the working and other industrial classes attempt to curtail further their expenses and thus save a little surplus, in spite of low prices and hard times, another turn of the economic screws will soon be made and the little bit of surplus juice he expected to save up for his future use will be squeezed out and find its way into Shylock’s collection box. If the stickler for starvation economy can live on ten cents a day, when the trick is learned by a considerable number, he will find he has but ten cents left for him to live on.—Silver Tribune.

McKinley Fashions.

We have received from the government printing office in Washington, D. C., a very nice pamphlet on “Pig Culture.” This seems to us a very timely document, and one which should interest the American people. The signs of the coming prosperity are such as might make the knowledge of flg culture advantageous to husbandmen. The ancient flg leaf costume may become popular under the McKinley Nonconformist.