The Conservative. 13
the parity of all kinds of its paper obli
gations. Such means have not proved
satisfactory ; the whole system is radi
cally wrong , and has made the treasury
of the United States subject to the raids
of speculators and brokers , who have
simply to go to the treasury with legal-
tender , or treasury notes , and draw
therefrom the gold which is necessary to
maiitain a specie basis and a sound
credit.
It has been fortunate for the United
States that every president , from Grant
to McKiiiley , and
SOUND MONEY Beoretnrieg of
PRESIDENTS. treasuly ) siucc the
question became an issue , have , upon
investigation , found that the honor and
the highest welfare of the people
demanded that the credit of the country
should be maintained at all hazards. I
have never doubted that if Senator
Henry M. Teller , or Colonel William
Jennings Bryan , should be elected presi
dent , in case of emergency to maintain
the gold standard , they would resort to
all the expedients in the absence of pos
itive law , or the failure of congress to
enact one , that were adopted by Presi
dent Cleveland in the maintenance of
the country's credit and rendering it
possible for the secretary of the treas
ury to redeem every obligation of the
government , with the best and highest
of the world's standard of money ,
namely : gold. Being a president of
the Republic and a politician catching
at every day issues which please the
popular ear are two different things.
Fortunate , indeed , has this country
been in its men who dared to take re
sponsibilities. The credit of the United
States has reached the highest standard ,
but it is not due to its financial legisla
tion. The nation has demonstrated its
strength in overcoming , successfully ,
many errors in legislation. Its resources
are such that a debt so great that it had
scarcely a parallel in history , has been
met as it has fallen due. It has not
been scaled or repudiated to the extent
of a fraction. This indebtedness , in the
eyes of the world , is worth its face value
in the highest and best of all standards
of money , that of gold , and to the
greater credit of those who believe in a
gold standard , for they have resisted
successfully every pretext advanced , by
their opponents , as reasons why the
United States is not in honor bound to
meet the payment of all its obligations
with the highest and best standard of
money.
The agitation which has been kept
alive , with reference to the free
and unlimited coinage of silver , for a
quarter of a century , in this country ,
has done more damage than all of the
failures of crops , plagues and pestilences
that could befall the American people in
a century. The agitation that has been
kept up has caused neighbor to distrust
neighbor , has massed class against class ,
has caused the capitalist to withdraw
liis resources when well invested ; which
has sent the property of the debtor to
the aiiction block to bo sacrificed. The
greatest hardship has fallen xipon the
people of the western states and terri
tories.
The West is settled by a people gen
erally young and impressionable. In
political campaigns they are easily led to
the right or left , but in the end they go
to the right side of great questions.
The people of a new country should not
be judged too harshly. They come to
gether in now communities , knowing
but little of the antecedents of each
other. They may follow false teachers
for a time , but they discover their errors
and get on the right side of every na
tional question before its final settle
ment. A new people take an advanced
stand ; they make experiments , and in
the end reach sound conclusions. Laws
for the transfer of realty and leaseholds ,
disposition of water in the arid regions ,
and laws for the regulation of manhood
suffrage , have reached the highest per
fection in the English colonies. I be
lieve it will be possible to say as much
in regard to other subjects of legislation
in the new states , and especially in the
settlement of the financial questions
which confront this nation. The West ,
or that portion of it which is sparsely
settled , must develop slowly unless the
capitalist intervenes and lends his as
sistance to the promotion of the great
works which will be required in its de
velopment.
Notwithstanding the rich mines of
gold and silver and the great deposits of
of copper that have
AGRICULTURE IS been dteco VOPOd ,
THE MAINSTAY. _
extensive pe
troleum fields that are visible , the thous
ands upon thousands of acres bearing
coal of good quality , and the mountains
of iron there found , the most important
interest must be that of agriculture.
But something more has to be done than
the turning over of the sod and the im
mediate cultivation thereof. The lands
that do not require artificial irrigation ,
now left for settlement are few. Canals
having sufficient capacity to carry all
the waters of the living streams , must
be built ; great reservoirs to impound
the waters , not utilized during the non-
irrigation season , must be constructed.
The waters found in the great under
ground sheets must be brought to the
surface for utilization. Railroads must
be constructed. Great mining and
manufacturing plants must be estab
lished. These improvements will cost
millions upon millions of dollars. Cap
itol must be interested , credit must be
secured and maintained. The people of
the West , by exchange of ideas , must
themselves first be convinced and
then they must convince capital that
they propose to pay their debts in the
same kind of money in which they are
contracted. They must meet their obli-
gatious , heretofore contracted , either
with gold , or with money based upon a
gold standard , for every debt contracted
since 187H , certainly since 1878 , has for
its basis , gold. For all the money , of
whatever kind , whether it bo paper or
silver , since the resumption of specie
payment , in 1879 , has been worth its
face denomination in gold. It is unfor
tunate that many think that capital has
recently secured legislation against these
who labor and these who are in debt.
The standard in the United States is
gold. It has been so for a quarter of a
century. The dollar of the United
States is twenty-five and eight-tenths
grains of standard gold. There is 110
double standard in the United States ,
and has not been for twenty-five years.
Every debt contracted during that
period has been contracted in gold
dollars.
The annual production of gold in the
last twelve years has increased nearly
three times. The
NO SCRAMBLE increase of gold in
FOR .
GOLD.
the United States ,
as part of the circulation , in the same
period , has increased enormously.
Every prediction of the silver free coin
age advocates has failed to como true.
Though nation after nation has adopted
the gold standard the supply of gold in
the United States has increased greatly
per capita. The farmer and the miner
in the United States have been talked
to by night and by day ; they have been
.told that some great wrong has been
done themj that a class of men living in
the east are seeking their ruin , when , in
fact , these in the East must have , from
the very nature of things , deep concern
in the success of the miner and in the
realization of the fondest hopes of the
farmer.
"We have all seen the enthusiastic free
and unlimited coinage of silver advocate
shed tears as he spoke of the "crime of
' 78" and the wrong which he claims was
done to silver. He , in his enthusiasm ,
clothes the white metal with a sanctity
which it never possessed in the economy
of man. He instils the metal with life ,
and so intense does he become that the
devoted listener in his imagination sees
an animated metal destroyed. We are
happy to say that its advocates are each
day becoming fewer and the teacher
and the taught are each learning for
himself that gold , the better standard in
the higher civilization of the world , has ,
from natural reasons , displaced silver.
Self distrust is the cause of most hu
man failures. In the assurance of
strength there is strength , and they are
weakest , however strong , who have no
faith in themselves or their powers.
Ex-United States Senator Carey , of
Wyoming , has a most logical , unanswer
able and convincing argument in favor
of the single gold standard in this num
ber of THE CONSERVATIVE.