The Conservative.
the opposite side of the tent ; the lower
ends of these poles being set in the earth
or in holes in a heavy log of "wood.
Our little squaw is working at it
single-handed , and lets the whole thing
tumble over two or three times , laugh
ing like mad every time. Then she
conies up to where a party of bucks are
sitting on a pile of poles and begins pull
ing one of them out without ceremony ;
the bucks jump up with alacrity and
pay no attention.
Meantime the terrible old judge is re
ceiving visitors , no other than the three
gorgeous chiefs in red and yellow from
the Assiniboine camp. They have come
last and in great state ; after a "Howgh"
and a handshake they all gather their
robes about them and sit down upon
the ground. The headman of the visi
tors opens the conversation with an in
quiring wave of his hand toward the
judge , out over the landscape and up
wards , meaning plainly "How far have
you come ? " The judge's eyes are fixed
intently on the other's ; he answers by
describing rapidly with outstretched
fingers two of the sun's circuits through
the heavens. Then the dialog becomes
too intricate for an oiitsider , but the In
dians themselves seem never at fault
for an instant.
There they sit , visiting in the politest
and friendliest way , and all trying very
hard to be good Indians for the time be
ing ; but something in the rigid set of
their features and the roll of their fierce
eyes suggests irresistibly that those
three young warriors would like veiy
much to be at that old judge's throat.
We look at this Indian congress as a
spectacle , but who can tell what it may
mean to the Indians themselves in the
way of patching up old feuds , of which
no man knows anything outside of their
own tribes ? But is history ever likely
to bo written from the Indian's stand
point ?
It would perhaps be curious to know
how things look to a man who is an
American of a hundred generations and
sees the world from behind copper-
colored eyelids , but who has a father's
love for his children and a statesman's
concern for his people.
THE STANDARD. The mostseiious
evil affecting our present monetary sys
tem is the threatened degradation of its
standard. The story is familiar , but it
will be useful to recall it briefly in this
connection. The close of the Civil War
found the people of the United States
in the possession of a depreciated legal-
tender paper currency. , with its inevit
able accompaniment of inflated prices.
To return from such a condition to one
of sound money and normal prices is
always a painful process , and when the
government began that process , under
Secretary McCulloch , in I860 , there was
an outcry against it , and it was sus
pended. From a remonstrance against
the payment of the demand obligations
of the Treasury at that time the move
ment grew to an opposition to the pay
ment of them at any time , and finally
to a demand for the issue of more of
them , and that , not in the form of prom
ises to pay , but of fiat paper dollars.
The number of persons who were car
ried away by these delusions was very
great. The political struggle which
ensued was prolonged and intense , and
the victory which the defenders of
sound money achieved in the passage of
the resumption law of 1875 was a close
one.
one.That
That victory ought to have settled all
disturbing questions in relation to the
monetary policy of the United States ,
and would have done so , so far as can
now be seen , if it had not been for the
fall in the value of silver , which began
while the contest was going on. From
1792 to 1873 the legal standard of value
in the United States was the double one
of gold and silver at prescribed ratios.
By the coinage act of 1873 the silver
dollar , wliich was then worth more than
the gold dollar , and which no one could
foresee would ever be worth less , and of
which very few were in existence , was
dropped from the coinage , leaving gold
as the only full-legal tender coined
money.
Soon after the passage of this law , the
value of silver began to decline. The
friends of cheap money saw their oppor
tunity and lost no time in improving it.
The clamor for the restoration of the
16 to 1 silver dollar to free coinage
began. Tliis was a far more plausible ,
and therefore more dangerous , move
ment than the fiat paper money scheme.
Silver had a real value. At the begin
ning of the agitation that value was not
greatly less than sixteen of silver to one
of gold in weight. It was claimed that
its admission to free coinage would
increase its value to the full measure
of that ratio. Patriotic sentiment was
invoked in its favor. It was said to be
the money of the fathers and the Consti
tution. To tliis was added the appeal
to class prejudice. Gold was said to be
the money of the rich ; silver of the
poor. Gold was said to be increasing
in value , and so depressing all prices ,
and increasing the burden of all debts
the unjust advantage of all creditors.
The advocates of free silver professed
to be the champions of the fanner , the
mechanic and the laborer against the
aggressions of the capitalist , the banker
and the corporation. Such appeals
come to men in debt , out of employ
ment , and downcast in spirits with
great seductive force. Evidence enough
of that fact is on record in the election
returns of 189G.
The pertinence of this retrospect is
the proof which it affords of the fact
that so largo a portion of the people of
the United States have no conception
of the nature or importance of a money
standard. In such a country as ours
the legal monetary standard is what
ever a majority , or a plurality , it maybe
bo , of the voters say it shall be. It is
therefore of the utmost importance that
the standard shall not only be distinctly
declared in the law but clearly fixed in
the minds of the people as the first and
indispensable element of a sound mone
tary system. All history is evidence
that the people who suffer most from a
degradation of the standard are not the
rich and powerful , but the poor and
helpless. Compared with this danger ,
all existing evils of mere kind or quant
ity of our present money are relatively
only inconveniences. The first need of
the situation is to fortify the standard.
There are some considerations as to
the standard which ought to commend
themselves to the judgment of the
country. There must bo some standard
of valxie. The standard must have a
market value as a commodity indepen
dently of any governmental fiat and of
all legal-tender laws ; it must be dur
able ; it must be homogenous ; it must
have a maximum of value proportioned
to its bulk ; it must have , as a commod
ity , as stable a market value as possible ,
and in order to secure the stability of
that market value , the relation between
its supply and demand must be as con
stant as possible. Gold alone fulfills
these conditions. The civilized world
has , therefore , determined that the
standard shall be gold. No govern
ment , however powerful , can in fact
reverse that determination , or , without
injury to the interests of all its people ,
attempt to establish any other standard
of value. J. Laurence Laughlin.
FREIGHT RATES IN EUROPE AND
AMERICA.
The latest reliable comparison of
average rates in the United States with
other countries shows as follows :
For passenger , For freight
mile. per ton per mile.
United States 2.14 0.97
Prussia 2.99 1.32
Austria 8.05 1.56
France 3.86 1.59
Belgium 2.25 1.89
England 2.20 1.95
If the average of American freight
rates was as high as it is in Belgium , the
people of this country would have paid
the railways last year about $286,000,000
more than they did. If the rates had
been as high as they are in England ,
the people of this country would have
paid the railways about $958,288,602
more than they did.
If the average passenger rate in this
country had been one cent a mile
more than it was last year ( which
would bo less than the average rate in
France ) the extra cost to the people and
profit to the railways of the United
States would have been $180,490,072.
If American railway rates , there
fore , both passenger and freight , were
about the average of European rates ,
the earnings of the railways of the