Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1898 — SCAPEGOAT FOR ILLS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SCAPEGOAT FOR ILLS.

POLITICAL DEMAGOGUES BLAME GOLD STANDARD. Those Who Would Foment Discontent Attribute Every Moral and Material 11l to the Gold fetandard—Bitnetallists Routed in Their Own Field. Appeal to Discontent. Not all the unfortunate are shiftless, but the shiftless are all unfortunate. The shiftless man does not recognize his shortcomings. If he did he would cease to be shiftless. In one respect the shiftless man is the incarnation of shiftiness. He shifts the responsibility for his failures from his shoulders as readily as the rain rolls from a duck’s back. Fate or circumstance or the machinations of personal enemies haqe compassed his discomfiture. Sometlmra he is devout, and then providence has tripped him for some occult purpose. The political demagogue is still going about seeking what he may devour. He is pretty shifty himself. In the dearth of other convenient points of political attack he is driven to seize upon this widespread trait of poor human nature in the hope of making it minister to his selfish ambition. By rallying the forces of discontent and shiftlessness he thinks he sees a prospect of spoils. And there is the gold standard for an all sufficient scapegoat. It is to take the place of circumstance and providence in bearing the faults and burdens of the faithful who march under the demagogue’s banner. In return for misplaced sympathy his hand is out for votes. Has a man neglected his opportunities or bungled his chances and failed to get on in the world, the gold standard is to blame. Have the weeds choked the farmer’s corn, or sloth destroyed the tradesman’s business, or dissipation ruined the laborer’s prospects, cast the burden on the gold standard. Every moral and material ill Is the direct outgrowth of the gold standard. Nobody and nothing else is responsible for failure. It is all the fault of the gold standard. With that infamous mischief-maker wiped out and cheap money ushered in, the sun of prosperity will shine for all, and even the rains drop from cloudless skies. How easy and pleasant it is to cast off all responsibility for miscarriage of effort not conceived in wisdom or for lack of effort! Such a shifting of moral responsibility for failure from whatever cause may not be conducive to the growth of strong manhood. But what if it does detone public sentiment and organize disaster for individuals and communities. Does it not hold out some sort of a promise of getting office? 'The gold standard or any other standard will not fret the demagogue much when he shall land himself in a soft berth. It isn’t a creditable basis for a party’s hope—the appeal to failure and discontent. But it is the best that offers itself to the politicians who find themselves on the wrong side of the fence, barred away from the spoils. It is not the existence of the gold standard that worries them so much as their absence from the precincts of the golden calf which they worship—office. They must cajole the people Into giving them a lift. They will doubtless delude many of them. But as this is America, and not Spain, their army will not be large enough to win the victory they covet.— Sioux City Journal.

Fact vs. Fancy. The popocratlc newspapers are still denying that there is an improved tendency of the times and contending that the “infamous gold standard” is grinding the people into the dust of poverty. Exhausted of argument, they back up in their corners and denounce as plutocratic conspiracy lies the evidence of good times presented by the non-pollt-Ical trade reviews and organs. Arguing against a large fact has reduced them to this last ditch of heated assertion unaccompanied by a particle of proof. In view of these hot denials, It is well for the unconvinced to remember that it is not from Republican sources alone that the testimony as to the return,.of prosperity comes. Nonpartisan trade and class journals of all sorts are producing it. Not only these, but some of the ablest speakers and editors of the Democratic party bear witness to the some effect. Here, for instance, is the Louisville CourierJournal, an unquestioned Democratic authority before the party underwent its Bryanic inetamondiosis, edited by a high priest of the “star-eyed goddess” of Democratic tariff reform, pointing out with evident satisfaction the indications of good times. It finds these in the current of gold flowing In upon the country from abroad; In the huge international balance that our growing foreign commerce has accumulated; In tlve abundant crops we have harvested and are yet to garner; in the Increase of $05,000,000 in railroad earnings for the first six months of 1808; in the enormous yield of our gold mines, which produces a sentimental as well ns a real effect in stimulating business activity; ami lastly In the drawing to a triumphant and prosperous close of the foreign war. The immense Increase tn national wealth, the burial of the currency question, the promise of Immunity from disturbance to business contained in the subsidence of strenuous political agitation are the Items which, In the opinion of the CourierJournal, go to make up a moat inviting future. It sees that “the Indications point to such unexampled prosperity that it will wipe out tile remembrance of the four lean years that have preceded this.” Different In Canada. Asa result of the new tariff arrangement between England and Canada, several Sheffield firms have opened branches In the Dominion, where many

had agencies before, and it is hoped that the volume of business will be increased.—Hardware, Metals and Machinery. We don’t hear of any new agencies being opened by foreign manufacturers in the United States. Under the “new tariff arrangement” in our country foreign manufacturers are compelled to invest their money in the establishment of costly plants if they want to share In the benefits of the American market. Lt is different in Canada. Bimetallist* Routed. If any one in 1890 had predicted that before the end of the century the annual production of gold In the world would more than equal the combined production of gold and silver In an/ year previous to 1889, he would probably have been laughed at But that Is what happened in 1897, If the real and not the coinage value of silver Is taken Into account, and it is what will happen In 1898, do matter what value Is put upon silver, if the usually conservative estimates of the mint officials are not too sanguine by some $25,000,000. Here are the statistics of production, silver being put at its coinage and not at its actual value: Year. Gold. Silver.. 1883 $95,400,000 $115,300,000 1886 106,000,000 120,600,000 1889 110,190,900 140,706,400 1890 118,848,700 108,032,000 1891 130,650,000 1892 146,651,500 m 014,400 1893 .157,494,800 213,944,400 1894 181,175,600 212,829,600 1895 199,304,100 214292,500 1896 202,956,000 213,463,700 1897 240,000,000 220,000,000 1898 .275,000,000 220,000,000 Even if the rate of production were not going ahead by leaps and bounds, with the limits of the African, American and Australian deposits not yet in sight, It would appear, from this showing, that It is already large enough to knock Into smithereens the fears of the bimetallists. They based their predictions of the catastrophe they Imagined was to come from falling prices on a “contraction of the standard,” due to a falling off in gold production and the closing of the principal mints to silver. The keystone of the argument was shaped from the statistics of gold production previous to 1890, when the old gold Helds were largely exhausted and new processes of extraction that made hitherto refractory ores available had not been discovered. But plfcatlon of these processes, and th» discovery of new fields, even if the validity of their arguments Is granted, has resulted, as the table shows, In such an expansion of the metal available for monetary uses that no necessity for opening the mints to silver exists, since the same end has been attained by the simple operation of natural laws. So rapid has the expansion been that it far surpassed the additional yeeds arising from an expanding population and an expanding commerce. Even on t)helr chosen battlefield the forces of bimetallism are in danger of defeat. Succeaa of the Popular Loan. The announcement from Washington that the war bonds have been allotted to 300,000 bidders demonstrates the full success of the papular Most of the bonds will be issued in email denominations, and it is said that no bld for more than $5,000 worth has been accepted. The securities will all go Into the hands of the people. Thia proves that the Americans have confidence In their Government and are willing to lend it their money at 3 per cent. Interest, even though they could get a higher rate from the savings banks. It proves, also, there is not the opposition to Government bonds among the people of small means that unscrupulous demagogues have pretended to believe there was. The war loan Is one of the beat results of the conflict with Spain. In tiha first place it has added a large army to the number of bondholders, and Increased by that much the proportion of voters who will hereafter Insist that the Government’s sredlt must be maintained and its pledge to redeem Its securities In as good money as was borrowed must be kept. The placing of this popular loan among the people of small means will go a long way toward bringing final and overwhelming defeat to the cause of the free coiners, the repudiators, and the inflationists. It will strengthen the belief in national honor and make for sound finance throughout the country. How much better it was, moreover, to borrow from the people the money needed to prosecute the war, than it would have been to Issue a maae of greenbacks, as the Popocrats proposed, or to have opened the mints to the unlimited coinage of silver.—Cleveland Leader. Muzzled and Mute.

Wisdom Illustrated. This magnificent trade balance in' favor of the United States illustrates the prosperous condition of the country's agricultural Interests and the wisdom of a reasonable protective tariff law.—Wool Record. Conaratulntlons for McKinley. Congratulations nre in order and the peoiple will bestow a fair share upon the commander-ln-chlef of the army; and navy of the United States, William McKinley.—fit. Louis Globe-Democrat*