,1
6 Cbe Conservative *
whose fortunes , as a. rale , are invested
in Fomo fixed form , and are not exposed
to such risks.
Must Have Free Operation.
To effect its beneficial purpose , capital
must have free and unrestricted opera
tion.
tion.Any
Any laws , or threatened laws with a
reasonable prospect of adoption , which
would force upon it new and unknown
conditions , will create distrust , destroy
confidence , and cause the suspension of
commercial undertakings.
The destruction of confidence and
withdrawal of credit , are of themselves
an acute contraction of capital.
If there were any circumstances of
the character operating upon capital in
1806 and prior thereto , which were re
moved after 1890 , it will be safe to say
that the changes referred to , are at
tributable to those circumstances.
It is equally clear that if the disturb
ing features of 1896 are repeated in 1900 ,
we shall have a repetition of the condi
tions existing in 1806.
IVluit Affected Capital.
The organized attack upon the money
standard which assumed serious proportions
tions in 1893 and reached its climax in
1896 , was necessarily a circumstance of
the character referred to.
Those three years will go down in
history as among the darkest commer
cially and financially ever known in this
country.
The recovery after 1896 was so sud
den and sharp , that men are still lost in
amazement at it , and the recovery was
due to the result of the elections of 1896 ,
which marked the defeat of the fiat
silver agitation.
Agitation Itcncwcd.
The platform of the political aggrega
tion which upholds fiat money and
threatens the money standard , which
was adopted a few days ago in Kansas
City , throws , down again its gauge of
battle in favor of the identical agitation
which caused the trouble of 1893-96.
No Question of ISquul Importance.
So long as this issue is presented , no
matter how it may be clouded with
other questions and its discussion
shunned and avoided by its upholders ,
with the hope of masking behind pure
and noble declarations their foul aims
and purposes , there can be no other
question before the American people of
importance to bo compared with it.
National and individual honor and
integrity are on the one side , and dis
honor and repudiation on the other.
The only persons to be advantaged in
the end , by its means , are the otherwise
obscure political agitators , who would
hazard the public interests in order to
serve their own ambitious.
Cheap ami Dear Money.
The price or value of gold in circula
tion being clearly indicated by the price
and value of other things bought and
sold , and its value being low when other
things are high , it follows that the men
who vote to maintain the existing money
standard and financial conditions , are
ranged on the side of cheap money ,
high wages and rising prices , while
those who support fiat silver or fiat
money of any kind , are on the side of
dear money , low .wages or no wages ,
and lower prices , with all the misery
and suffering which that condition
entails.
The people who are the most inter
ested in the result of the pending con
test , are the ones who have the power to
decide it , and it is incredible that they
will vote against themselves.
HENUY W. YATES ,
Omaha , Nebraska.
James B. Angell ,
. . . .
president of the
univei sity of Michigan and former min
ister to China , in an interview in the
Times-Herald , thus explains the Chinese
situation :
"I should be sorry , indeed , to see
China broken up into fragments. It is
best for her and best for the rest of the
world that she bo not dismembered. I
cannot see how the powers can keep
from warfare among themselves if they
partition China.
"But the powers must do something ,
and there is little doubt as to the ulti
mate outcome. Every foreigner must
be guaranteed a safe residence in
Peking , even if the powers have to de
stroy the entire Chinese empire to
accomplish it. There is not a nation
which has had a representative' there
which will be content with less than
that.
"Again , the question of indemnity
will arise , and I believe China will be
, , , , . . , forced to pay for
* r - - i .
Will bo Forcctl to Pay. „ , .
all losses in
curred. And I am sure , if the empress
and her advisers are found to be in any
way responsible for this , one of the most
atrocious crimes against international
law that has ever been committed since
international law has been known , it
means the cleaning out of the whole
establishment. The person of an em-
bassador is sacred. He is free to go
where he pleases , and his right to com
municate with his own home govern
ment is guaranteed. To violate this as
grossly as those who are in power , or
who usurped power in China , have done ,
is to arouse the wrath of the civilized
world , and nothing short of the wiping
out of those responsible will satisfy the
nations against which the' crime was
committed.
1' ' What were the exact causes and
conditions that led to the present trou
ble ? ' president Angell was asked.
"The primary cause is the extreme
hatred which the Chinese bear toward
all foreigners. There are great differ-
\l
ences in the fundamental ideas and
ideals between the European and Asiatic
peoples. No intelligent foreigner can
travel through Asia without noticing it.
"The golden age of the Asiatics , with
the exception of the Japanese , is in the
_ , , . . , _ . past. With the
Irving in the Past , fl ,
European and
American nations the golden age is in
the future always in the future.
While the Europeans are constantly in
troducing labor saving machinery and
new inventions , the Chinese and Asi
atics in general , are content with the
same plow that was used 4,000 years
ago. With these ideals , , which are as
separated as the poles of the earth , there
is a certain conscientiousness on each
side of its superiority over the other ,
and that breeds contempt in each for the
other.
"The Chinaman and
accepts appreci
ates the teachings of Confucius , and he
looks down upon the European because
he will not grasp these 'truths. ' The
very Chinese servants in my own house
hold looked down upon me with a great
air of superiority , although they wore
always polite enough not to inform mo
of this feeling.
"Then again , Europeans never were
welcomed guests. China never wished
_ . . , , . foreigners to eii-
Waiited no Visitors. . , ,
ter its domain.
The country was opened by violence in
1840 in what is known as the opium
war ; and , whatever else can be said
about that war , I cannot see any reason
which justified it. It left some sore
spots. Five ports were opened.
"In 1856 another treaty was made and
China , not having ratified it , there fol
lowed another war in 1858 with the
English and the French , and ratification
was forced. Nineteen ports were then
opened and these nineteen sores have
rankled ever since.
"Since the opening of China against
China's will , the foreigners have tried
to introduce western ideas the tele
graph , the railway and improved meth
ods of mining. The Chinaman is a pro
found ancestral worshiper , and he be
lieves that the disturbances of the earth
in these constructions would disturb the
graves of his forefathers and bring down
upon him the most malign influence.
" 'Are the Chinese averse to the in
troduction of the Christian religion ? '
"No , not in that broad sense. They
do not seem to fear for the permanency
of their own reli-
Do not Bar Beligloii. . _ . . .
gion. It IB not
that they object to missionaries and the
Christian religion as much as it is that
the missionaries are foreigners.
"It is probably true , as the natives
assert , that some bad Chinamen go into
the Christian church to secure the im
munities assured converts by the treaty
of 1858 , when all native Christians were
given the same protection as the mission
aries themselves.
"A more serious cause of the uprising