10 Che Conservative.
REQUIEM.
Untlor the wide and starry nkj
Dig the grave and let mo lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die ,
And I laid mo down with n will.
This bo the V'THU you grave for mo :
Here ho HUH where lie longed to be ,
Homo IH the Bailer , homo from sea ,
And the hunter home from the hill.
ROIIUHT Louis BTCVENBON.
NEED OF GOLD STANDARD LEGIS
LATION.
The country at lost demands from
congress an explicit legislative definition
of what a dollar of the United States
actually is today. This demand is
strong and clear , and it is the satis
factory outcome of more than ten years
of public discussion of the gold stand
ard , the silver standard and the double
standard , and congress is going to heed
it next winter. The people have a right
to know what constitutes a dollar. Is a
dollar 25 8-10 grains of gold of standard
fineness , or is it 412J grains of silver ?
It cannot be either or both at the option
of buyer or seller , of debtor or creditor ,
any more than a pound of avoirdupois
can be either eight ounces or sixteen
ounces , as may suit the convenience of
a party having wool to sell or wool to
receive. The American public has at
last reasoned itself out of the humbug
of a double standard , and sees that such
a standard is impossible and absurd.
The public has also reasoned itself out
of that other humbug preached by
Bryan , that the value stamped on a coin
at the mint determines the value of the
bullion contained in the coin , and now
knows that just the opposite is true , and
that the value of the bullion put into a
coin determines the value of the coin.
It is now generally realized by all but
the hopelessly ignorant that government
can no more create value in coins than
it can in wheat.
The present demand for definite gold
standard legislation rests upon a few
plain facts. The first fact is that gold
is now the standard money of the whole
world , with the exception of a few Span
ish-American nations , where commerce
is but poorly developed and where civil
ization has not yet reached a high plane ,
and of the great semi-barbarous nation
of China. Even India has lately given
up all hope of ever restoring silver to its
old relation to gold , and thus making it
again a standard money metal. No
nation which still uses silver as legal
tender money to an iudefinite amount
and admits it to the privilege of free
coinage at its mints regards that condi
tion of affairs as other than detrimental
to its foreign and domestic commerce
and to the welfare of its people.
The second fact is that the gold stand
ard in. the United States r sts not upon
law , but upon executive action , and
could at any time be abandoned by a
president committed to the double stand
ard doctrine. During the long run of
the silver craze in congress both parties
vied with each other in efforts to pre
vent the do-lino of the white metal , by
acts and resolutions making the various
forms of obligations issued by the
government payable in "coin , " and
leaving the determination of whether
the coin should be gold or silver to the
secretary of the treasury. There can
be no doubt as to which way the ques
tion would be settled if Bryan were
president and Altgeld controlled the
treasury. Those politicians and all the
silver advocates believe that it would be
a public blessing to have two kinds of
money cheap silver money in which
debtors could pay their creditors , and
dear gold money for capitalists to loan
to borrowers with the assurance that
they would never get it back again.
The only thing clear in the muddle of
indecisive monetary legislation in which
congress has wallowed in recent years ,
is that this legislation is all permeated
with the bimetallic idea and that the
single gold standard rest not upon law ,
but executive action.
The third fact in the situation is that
the republican party , which has always
been a gold standard party , has at last
full control of all branches of the
government , and has now the power to
carry its convictions into law. Congress
is strongly republican enough in both
branches to adopt a law next winter
declaring that the dollar of the United
States is a coin containing 25 8-10 grains
of gold , and that all obligations of the
government , whether in the form of
"coin. " bonds or of circulating notes.
are payable in gold coin.
We wait with anxiety to learn whether
the republicans in congress will do this ,
or whether , with the cowardice that
has characterized so many of them on
financial questions , they will seek to
evade the issue , and thus invite defeat
in the presidential campaign of 1900.
Sound Money.
IS DEMOCRACY A FAILURE ?
[ J. N. Lamed in The October Atlantic. ]
The American experiment of demo
cratic republicanism has been tried with
a fairness from circumstances that can
not be impeached , and it has gone far
enough at the present day for its results
to be fairly judged , says J. N. Lamed
in The October Atlantic. That the re
sults are satisfying , as they now appear ,
is probably more than any believer in
republicanism can be willing to say.
That they are painfully dissatisfying is
the verdict that few will hesitate to
pronounce. By more than a disappoint
ment of hopes , and by wort > e than a
realization of fears , the outcome is
troubling to thoughtful minds , because
of the surprises it has brought. Threat
ening forces that were never suspected
have been brought to light , and in
fluences that roused no dread in early
days are found to be the most sinister of
all. On the other hand , it is true that
some dangers which loomed large in
former times have been diminished by
the years , and seem to hold no serious
threat. But , on the whole , it is difficult
to believe chat popular government in
the American republic shows as favor
ably today , and gives a promise as fair ,
as it did when Washington left the
presidency or when Lincoln was slain.
It is more than difficult it is impossible
not to feel that our country is farther
from government by the fittest to
govern than it ever was in any former
time. Make all reasonable allowance
for the habitual discontent of mankind
with that which ia , and its magnified
remembrance of that which was , there
remains an obstinate mass of dishearten
ing fact. The decadence the sickening
decadence of the senate of the United
States , once the pride of the nation ; in
creasing venality in most legislative
bodies , and a puppet-dancing quality in
the men who make up their majorities ;
deepening corruption and extravagance
in municipal government ; manifest dead
ening of opinion and spirit in politics ,
by methods of organization which con
vert parties into "machines , " and the
leader into a "boss ; " the consequent ex
clusion , more and more , of superior men
from public careers , and abandonment ,
more and more , of the political arena to
self-seeking and vulgar crowds , these
are things that have come to be recog
nized beyond dispute. And the deplor
able phenomena are no plainer than the
causes that have worked to produce
them.
Ntt * * *
LIFTED WATER.
ago a proposition
to divert some of the head-waters of the
Grand River to this side of the Rocky
Mountains was looked upon as visionary ;
now it has been realized , and it is a re
markable fact that water which flows
naturally into the Gulf of California
has been virtually lifted over the Rocky
Mountains , and , after being used for
irrigation , finds its way to the Gulf of
Mexico. A number of small streams on
the western side of Long's Peak which
flow into Grand Lake and thence into
the Colorado River have been diverted
by a ditch that finds its way through a
pass 10,000 feet high into the head
waters of the Poudre , Some 400 cubic
feet per second has thus been diverted
from the Pacific to the Atlantic slope.
The success of this engineering feat
leads the Denver Republican to ask for
its repetition. "There is , " it says , "an
enormous supply of irrigation water on
the Pacific slope of Colorado which
would be a mine of wealth it it could be
brought to the Atlantic slope. On this
side of the mountains we have many
times more laud than water. On the > \
other Bide there is many times more $ . !
water than accessible irrigable land. " f