[D385]
STUDY VIII
THE CRIES OF THE REAPERS
The Conservative Element of Society--Peasants, Farmers--New Conditions
in Christendom--Agrarian Agitation--Its Causes--Gold and Silver
Standards are Factors--The Scripture Prediction Fulfilling--
These Things Related to the Battle of The Great Day.
"Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord's wrath." Zeph. 1:18
THE thoughtful student of history, while following our
theme and noting the truthfulness of the facts presented
and the reasonableness of the conclusions drawn, may still
feel uncertain as to the outcome. He may say to himself,
"The writer forgets that there is in the civilized as well as in
the semi-civilized countries a large, a predominating social
element which is extremely conservative, and has always
constituted the backbone of society--the farmers." But not
so: we have not forgotten this fact, and we recognize its
importance. Looking back, we see that Europe would
frequently have been thrown into the convulsions of
revolution had it not been for this very conservative element.
We see that the revolutions in France were chiefly instituted
and carried on by the working class of the larger
cities and that the element which finally brought rest and
peace was the conservative peasant-farmer. The reasons for
this condition of things are not difficult to find. (1) The
farmer's life contains less of excitement and social friction.
(2) His mind is less drawn to the advantages of wealth, and
[D386]
his ambition for wealth and luxury lies comparatively dormant.
(3) He is more or less attached to the soil, and learns
to depend on it alone, trusting to nature's rewards in return
for labor. (4) The measure of education and consequent
mental awakening and activity amongst farmers has always
heretofore been quite limited. As a result of all these
conditions, the farming class of the civilized world has long
been pointed to as an example of frugal prosperity and
contentment.
But the last thirty years have witnessed a wonderful
change in the affairs of farmers--in many respects a very
advantageous change. The farmers of the United States,
Canada, Great Britain and Ireland have always been on a
different footing from the farmers of the remainder of the
world. They are neither serfs nor peasants, nor ignorant,
nor dull, but intelligent, even when not educated. Then the
Civil War in the United States had the effect of drawing together
representatives from every part of the country and
immigrants from all parts of the world, and it furnished a
certain kind of education--knowledge of things and affairs.
It lifted the ideas of farmers more completely than ever out
of the rut of centuries, and brought them into contact and
sympathy with the sentiments and ambitions which move
city life. As a result the old log schoolhouse no longer satisfied
the ambitions of the country boy and girl, and with the
increase of higher schools and colleges and seminaries came
also the increase of literature (especially newspapers),
which has been a remarkable factor in the development of
the people of the United States--foreign-born as well as native-born
citizens. The result here has been that to agriculture
has been applied much of the system and tact which
belong to city business life, together with a multitude of inventions
which have tended to decrease the drudgery of the
farmer and to vastly increase the product of his land. As a
[D387]
result of these conditions not only has the country population
vastly increased, but the city population has kept
pace with it, and yet, beyond supplying food for our own
ninety millions, we are able to distribute to the remainder
of the world nearly eight hundred million dollars worth of
farm products annually--about eight-tenths of our total exports.
This until the last twenty-five years has meant great
prosperity to American farmers; and with all this prosperity
came to the farmer a share in life's comforts and in the
general desire for wealth and luxury, and consequently a
measure of dissatisfaction with his conditions which, nevertheless,
are far superior in many respects to those of farmers
in other parts of the world.
Meantime, the Franco-Prussian war exercised a somewhat
similar influence upon the peoples of France and
Germany--to a much less extent, however--and their
awakening has come in a different manner. The animosity
between France, the conquered, and Germany, the conqueror,
which has prevailed since their war, has induced
both countries, and indirectly induced Italy, Austria and
Russia, to establish a military training system which lays
hold upon every young man of those countries and compels
his instruction in military tactics and discipline, and incidentally
his contact with numbers of his fellows. All this
furnishes a most beneficial education; besides, in the barracks
certain hours are devoted to book-studies. While the
maintenance of these standing armies has seemed to be a
terrible crime against the peoples of these various nations,
removing from the channels of domestic activity one to
three years in the life of each male member of society, it has
nevertheless, we believe, proved a wonderful influence for
enlightenment; and the nations mentioned are awakened,
energized and ambitioned as they never were before. And,
of course, in proportion as education has come in, and a
[D388]
measure of contact with the conveniences and comforts and
luxuries of city life and wealth, proportionately a measure
of discontent has sprung up--a feeling that others are prospering
better than they, and that they must be on the lookout
for a favorable opportunity to better their conditions--
a laxity in morals has also been engendered.
Meantime, the shackles of ignorance and superstition
along religious lines have also been giving way, although,
the influence of Papacy and the Greek Church is still very
great. And while it is only half believed that the priest,
bishop and pope have power to consign to purgatory, or to
eternal torment, or to admit to heaven, yet their power is still
to a great extent feared, reverenced. On the whole, however,
a great change has come over all classes from the religious
point of view. The tendency amongst Protestants has,
like a pendulum, swung to the opposite extreme, so that, although
forms of godliness and piety are still observed, much
of the true reverence has departed from the Protestant masses.
The so-called "higher criticism" and theories of evolution
have practically destroyed reverence for the Word of God.
And these theories blending now with oriental Theosophy
are making shipwreck of the true Christian faith of hundreds
of thousands, both in Europe and America.
All of these influences, it should be observed, have already
for some years been tending toward a change in the
attitude of the class heretofore known as "the conservative
yeomanry of Christendom." And now, just at a critical juncture,
we behold some mighty influence which gradually
yet assiduously has been at work, and is now at work, undermining
the prosperity of this conservative class. For the
past twenty years farmers of the various civilized nations
have been finding it more and more difficult to gain a competency
or a share in the comforts and luxuries of life. True,
[D389]
the prices of their products have recently gone somewhat
upward. But this is more than offset by the cost of improved
machinery, etc., they hoping, nevertheless, that the increase
of production would more than compensate; and hoping
also that, somehow or other, prices would by and by maintain
a proper equilibrium instead of fluctuating to their
continued disadvantages.
While the American farmer has been beset with these
conditions, his European brother was faring even worse;
because his conditions were less favorable: (1) To start with,
he had oftener a rented farm, and a smaller one comparatively.
(2) He had not the same facilities for obtaining
improved machinery. For these reasons the European
farmer has not been at all able to offset each fall in price of
wheat by a larger production in quantity; and he has suffered
proportionately more than his American brother, except
as he turned his attention to the sugar beet.
Philosophers, statesmen and scientists have been giving
the subject some consideration, and very generally have
hastily come to the conclusion that every fall in price of
wheat is wholly the result of "overproduction." Believing that
they have found the true answer, they drop the matter
there. But some, more careful, have studied the question
out, and examined statistics, and find that it is not true that
the granaries of the world are being stored with vast supplies of wheat
for the needs of coming years. They find on the contrary that
comparatively little wheat is carried from year to year, and
that practically the world is producing no more wheat than
is being consumed.
Mr. Robt. Lindblom, a member of the Chicago Board of
Trade, made a study of the subject, and in a communication
to the Agricultural Department of the United
States Government, dated Dec. 26, 1895, said:
[D390]
"The aggregate production of wheat, in the principal
wheat growing countries, has not increased; for while it is
true that some of the wheat countries show an occasional increase,
it is equally true that other countries show a corresponding
decrease. In order to be absolutely impartial, let
us take the last crop from which we have complete returns,
namely that of 1893.
"As regards foreign crops, I use the figures furnished by
the special foreign correspondent of the Board of Trade
and compiled by the secretary of the Chicago Board of
Trade, and in regard to exports and domestic crops I use
the figures of your department. I am compelled to omit the
comparison as regards Austro-Hungary, because I have not
in my possession the figures for 1893, but outside of this I
beg to submit to you a statement showing the production of
wheat in all the principal countries for 1893, as compared
with 1883:
1893 1883
England...................... 53,000,000 76,000,000
France.......................277,000,000 286,000,000
Russia.......................252,000,000 273,000,000
United States................396,000,000 421,000,000
Germany......................116,000,000 94,000,000
Italy........................119,000,000 128,000,000
India........................266,000,000 287,000,000
------------- -------------
Total.............1,479,000,000 1,565,000,000
"From the above it will be seen that in 1893 the principal
wheat growing countries in the world produced 86,000,000
bu. less than ten years before, while, according to your figures,
the production in Argentina has increased only
60,000,000 bu. during the same time. In 1871 Great Britain
produced over 116,000,000 bu. of wheat; and in two years
preceding and succeeding that year the crop was
105,000,000 bu., or an average for the three years of
109,000,000 bu., while this year the crop is slightly over
48,000,000 bu., according to the figures furnished by the
special foreign correspondent of the Board of Trade, residing
in London.
"If it were true that the United States were being supplanted
[D391]
by competing wheat growers, then it would follow
as a matter of logical inference that the exports from this country
to Europe would show a decrease; but previous to and including
1890 the average exports were 119,000,000 bu.,
while in 1891 they were 225,000,000 bu., in 1982,
191,000,000 bu., in 1893, 193,000,000 bu., and in 1894,
164,000,000 bu., so it does not seem to be a fact that we
have been holding our wheat while other countries have
been disposing of theirs. The facts are against the assertion,
and if anything else were needed to prove it, your Department
furnishes the information that stocks in farmers'
hands last March were small. I have to statistics as regards
the crop of Australia, about which so much was said a few
years ago, but I have the exports from that country in 1893
as 13,500,000 bu., while ten years before that they were
23,800,000 bu., and in 1894 and 1895 Australia was importing
wheat from America.
"I have said nothing about the increased consumption
which, in the last decade, in England amounts to
18,000,000 bu., and in this country during the same period
the increase is not less than 50,000,000 bu., and there has
been an increase in every country, except France, sufficient
to more than absorb any increased production throughout
the world."
Whatever the cause of these depressions in the price of
wheat (and we might remark that within the past three
years the temporary advance is probably because the farmer
finding the PRICE of wheat relatively lower than that of
other cereals put in larger crops of oats, corn, rye, etc.), the
fact is that farmers have almost had the very life crushed
out of them, both in Europe and America. Many American
farmers who went into debt for farm machinery, or who labor
under a purchase-money mortgage upon their farm
and home, find it impossible to meet the payments on these,
even in years of fairly good crops. They are crying out
against the holders of mortgages, and also, and frequently
unjustly, against the rates charged by the railroads for
[D392]
transporting their crops. The European farmers are appealing
to their several governments for "protection" against
the importation of wheat from other countries, so that they
may maintain or raise their prices to cover a reasonable cost
of production; claiming, as all reasonable people would admit,
that fifty or sixty cents a bushel for wheat is below cost
if reasonable remuneration be allowed for the agriculturalist's
time and energy.
This brings to notice a very striking prophecy respecting
the closing days of this Gospel age, as recorded by the
Apostle James. (Jas. 5:1-9) After calling our attention to the
present day and its wonderful heaping together of riches,
and after stating that these things are about to bring a great
time of trouble, the Apostle gives as the immediate cause of
the trouble an unrest in the hitherto conservative class of
society--the farmers. He seems to point out the condition of
things precisely as can now be seen by all careful observers,
adding in explanation of the matter--that it is the result of a
fraud. He says:
"Behold, that reward which you ["rich men"] have
fraudulently withheld from those laborers who harvested
your field cries out; and the loud cries of the laborers have
entered into the ears of the Lord of armies."
We have seen in the previous chapter that mechanics and
laboring men in cities are already suffering to some extent,
but that their real sufferings thus far are chiefly fear of the
very much worse conditions daily developing with the increase
of intelligence, machinery and population, under
present social conditions. The civilized farmer not only has
all this to contend against, but as we shall show he now is
burdened by a "fraud" which does not injure but rather benefits
his brother the mechanic.
Looking at the facts of the case, we cannot see it to be true
that laborers in general, and farm-laborers in particular,
[D393]
are defrauded out of their wages by employers in these "last
days" of this age. Indeed, on the contrary, we find that laws
are more strict than ever before in protecting the wage-earner
from loss. He can attach and sell his employer's
property, and, indeed, in most instances is given priority
amongst the creditors. We believe the prophecy to apply
rather to farmers in general, who are the world's food producers,
"reapers"; and we should look for some general
world-wide legislation which would affect all these "reapers"
everywhere alike. We should expect to find such legislation
secured by trickery or deception, and we should expect
to find such tricky legislation or legalized "fraud" secured by
and beneficial to the world's rich men. Such a finding, and
none other that we can think of, would meet the requirements
of this prophecy. We believe, and shall endeavor to
prove, that all these requirements of the prophecy are met in
the demonetization of silver.
But let no one think for a moment that we are urging or
expecting the return of silver to its former place as the principal
money of the world!--much less that we are urging that as
a panacea for present and coming troubles! Quite to the
contrary, we are firmly convinced from James' prophecy
that silver will not be restored to its monetary power. But we do
wish to show the fulfilling of this prophecy, and to have all
who will benefit by the light which it throws upon the present
and approaching troubles of the world.
The demonetization of silver by Christendom is of advantage
to certain classes and of disadvantage to other certain
classes in "Christendom."
It is of disadvantage to the growers of wheat, rice and cotton,
because they must sell these products of their energy in competition
with the products of countries doing business on a
silver basis, and hence practically they sell for depreciated
silver; while their land, implements, clothing, labor and the
[D394]
interest on mortgages on their property are all payable in
enhanced gold. If they receive pay in silver and pay out the
same sum in gold they lose just one half--when gold is double
the value of silver. In 1873, before silver was demonetized by
the nations of Christendom, a silver dollar was worth two
cents more than a gold dollar, while today, in consequence of
that legislation, it requires two silver dollars to equal a gold
dollar (in actual value, outside the nation creating and using
them at a fixed valuation like bank notes). This change may
be stated as an appreciation or doubling of the value of a gold
dollar; or as a depreciation or dividing of the value of a silver
dollar, according as the speaker or writer may prefer--the fact
is the same. The value of a bushel of wheat
in 1872 was in silver $1.51 per bushel, in gold $1.54
in 1878 was in silver 1.34 per bushel, in gold 1.19
in 1894 was in silver 1.24 per bushel, in gold .61
It thus appears that wheat during those years fell but little
in countries which still recognize silver--the fall in value was
in gold, in Christendom. England, the chief wheat purchaser,
buys where she can get most wheat for her money.
By turning a gold dollar into two silver ones she can purchase
twice as much wheat in India as before silver was
demonetized. Thus the gold-price of wheat was driven
down. The rice and cotton growers of the United States
suffer similarly for the same reasons. Rice and cotton are
produced by silver standard countries, and can be bought
by gold standard countries on that basis--one-half the
former price.
Incidentally the producers of other farm crops shared the
trouble, for wheat, cotton and rice growers, after trying in
vain to make up for their declining PRICES by increased crops,
finally turned in despair to other crops which did not decline
so much, and were depressed by overproduction. Incidentally
[D395]
also small stores are suffering, and ultimately all
classes must feel the farmer's burden to some extent.
But what classes benefit by the demonetization of silver?
Several: (1) Specially and most, the bankers, money lenders,
mortgage owners; because every dollar of their wealth
now is worth double what it was worth before; worth
double in the sense that it will purchase twice as much of the
necessities and luxuries of life. (2) All persons of fixed incomes,
such as Congressmen, Legislators, Judges, clerks and
all workingmen who receive wages are benefited for similar
reasons. Whether they get ten dollars per week or per day or
per hour, the ten dollars will buy TWICE as much cotton,
wool, wheat, etc., and consequently nearly TWICE as much of
the products of these.
When the silver question was sprung upon the people of
the United States by the farmers, who first found the cause
of their trouble, it for a time looked as thought it would
sweep the country in the 1896 elections. But as each individual
looked out for his own interests in the question, the
wealthy class, the office-holding class, the clerking class and
the workingmen began to see that their bread was buttered
on the gold side; storekeepers and well-to-do farmers conservatively
doubted their own judgments and followed the
lead of their bankers--contrary to their own interests; and
silver was defeated in the nation to whose interests it was
most vital--the only nation which, by reason of the character
and amounts of her exports and imports, could have
turned the scales and restored silver to its former value as
money.
But now the case is hopeless: silver will not be restored to
the place lost in 1873. It is now a question of pure selfishness,
and while farmers as a class are more numerous
[D396]
than any other, they do not constitute a majority, and nearly
all others are selfishly interested on the other side of the
question. Poor farmers! poor reapers of the fields! Your cries
of the past few years are relieved a little for a time, due to an
artificial raise in prices--a little respite to be followed soon
by greater pressure than ever and by louder and louder
cries from the reapers of Christendom. Thus is the patience
and conservatism of the most patient and conservative class
of society being undermined and destroyed as a further
preparation for the great time of trouble, the great day of
vengeance.
But how did the demonetization of silver come about?
Who could be interested in having such a catastrophe befall
the world? We answer: Financiers took the lead. It is
"their business" so to manage and work money as a farmer
works his farm--to bring to themselves, or their syndicates
and institutions, the largest possible increment. English financiers
lead the world--they have been at the business
longer, and have given it greater study.
"Everything is fair in war" is an adage, and the financiers
and statesmen of England who seem to have gotten awake
fifty years before the remainder of the world in respect to
such matters, seem to think that commercial warfare is the
order of the day and far more profitable to the victors than
the slave trade of the past and the expeditions for pillage.
The British early realized that, having a comparatively
small domain, their greatest prosperity must lie in the direction
of manufacturing and financiering, not only for
themselves, but so far as permitted for the remainder of the
world. Her public men have carefully pursued this plan,
and being able to manufacture cheaper at the time than the
remainder of the world they adopted the policy most favorable
to their own interest--free trade--and have urged it as
a policy upon the civilized world ever since. The conditions
[D397]
have for a long time made Great Britain not only the workshop
of the world, but also its commercial, money and
banking center.
Nearly a century ago shrewd British financiers saw that
since they were not an agricultural people their interests
would be favored by depressing the prices of agricultural
products, which they were obliged to purchase from outside
nations. They saw also that silver was the money of the
world and had been so from the earliest dawn of history;
therefore, if they could effect a change in their standard of
money so that they would do business on a gold basis while
the remainder of the world used silver, they might be able
to change the relative values of the two metals in their own
favor. Consequently Great Britain demonetized silver as
early as 1816. Had she succeeded in hindering manufactures
in other countries, as she sought to do, and thus (by
reason of having immense plants and facilities and experienced
workmen) been able to manufacture cotton and
woolen cloth and machinery at lower PRICES than the remainder
of the world, unequipped, could produce them,
she would have succeeded in separating her money from
that of the remainder of the world, and ultimately have
greatly advantaged herself. But in neither of these respects
did she entirely succeed: France, and the United States in
particular, and later Germany, established protective
duties and thus fostered mechanical industries within their
borders, and have gradually become able to supply not
only the majority of their own necessities, but able also to
compete with Great Britain for the trade of the world--India,
China, Spain, Portugal, South America, Russia--all of
which countries, as we have seen, in turn, are seeking to follow
the same course and to develop manufactures of their
own; nevertheless, Great Britain still has the lead as the
manufacturer and trader of the world. Neither did she succeed
[D398]
in the separation of gold and silver, so long recognized
as unitedly the money of the world. Indeed, while the relationship
between the two metals had for years been about
sixteen parts of silver to one of gold in value, the tendency
rather was for silver to appreciate and gold to depreciate
relatively--because silver was the money of the world
chiefly in use, and favored above gold by the people, except
in Great Britain. It is not surprising, therefore, that, as
shown by statistics, a silver dollar commanded a premium
of over two cents above a gold dollar in 1872.
Realizing that by themselves they could control neither
gold nor manufactures, British financiers sought cooperation
with the United States and with Europe, hoping that
by their combined effort gold and silver would be separated
in values, and gold thus caused to enhance in value. By a
combination of the civilized nations to demonetize silver as
a standard money, the effect would be:
(1) Silver would become merely a merchantable commodity
in civilized countries, and hence be cheaper than
gold, whose standard (established) would rise proportionately
as silver would decrease in value. This would enable
the civilized countries to purchase what they wished of cotton,
wheat, rubber and other raw materials from the uncivilized
nations with a debased money, silver, and thus get
them cheaper--at half price--while compelling the poor
heathen to pay for all luxuries, machinery, etc., bought
from civilized nations, double prices; because the heathen's
silver dollar had been demonetized and degraded to half a
dollar by the legislation of his civilized brethren of Christendom,
under the guidance of "Shylocks," otherwise
known as financiers. This use of civilized brains to get the
advantage of the heathen is justified as "strictly business";
but was it justice, or was it fraud, from the divine standpoint?
It surely was not doing to the heathen neighbor as
they would have the heathen do to them.
[D399]
(2) Although this would let in all the civilized nations on
the same footing with Great Britain as respects the outside
trade, yet she hoped that, having the lead of the others, she
would always be able to hold the larger share of foreign
trade.
We do not ignore the law of supply and demand as respects
wheat: we admit its bearing, but have shown that as
yet the world has no oversupply. We have seen, indeed,
from Mr. Lindblom's statistics that the wheat supply is not
even keeping pace with the increase of the world's population.
We notice, further, that while the year 1892 was
noted as the one which produced the largest wheat harvest
in the world's history, the average price of wheat in New
York City for that year was 90 cents per bushel; and that
with smaller crops since the price steadily declined, until
the artificial advance of the past few years.
The spurt in prices may be due to certain phenomenal
conditions prevailing throughout the world. The wheat
crop of Russia, Argentine Republic, Austria, Hungary and
other countries, may be considerably below the average,
while India, which usually has a large surplus of wheat for
export, may have a famine affecting 35,000,000 of its population,
requiring American wheat to help make up its deficiency.
Such a condition of things in previous years--say in
1892 even, with the largest crop the world ever knew, would
have put the price of wheat to probably $1.30 per bushel
(for an ounce of silver was still worth 87 cents in gold in
1892), while under the monetary conditions prevailing in
1873 the world's price of wheat would in 1896 have advanced
to what it sold for in India--about $1.90 per bushel
(silver). Furthermore, in considering this subject, we must
take note of the fact that, while the price of wheat materially
fell during the past thirty years for some cause (which
we have seen was not due to overproduction), the prices of
some other articles have fallen comparatively little. For instance,
[D400]
compare the year 1878 with the year 1894 as being
average years. The following quotations represent the average
PRICES for those years in New York City:
1878 1894
Rye, per bushel...........................$ .65 $ .68
Oats, per bushel.......................... .33 .37
Corn, per bushel.......................... .52 .51
Kentucky Leaf Tobacco, per pound.......... .07 .095
Fresh Beef, wholesale..................... .0525 .055
Fresh Pork, wholesale..................... .0425 .055
Hay, per ton.............................. 7.25 8.50
Compare with these the three items of wheat, cotton and
silver, which were specially affected, and affected alike, and
evidently by the same cause--the demonetization of silver
by Christendom.
1878 1894
Cotton, per pound.........................$ .11 $ .07
Wheat, per bushel......................... 1.20 .61
Silver, per ounce......................... 1.15 .635
But, some one suggests, may not the demonetization of
silver have been forced upon the nations of Christendom by
the law of supply and demand? Is not its fall in value due to
its becoming too plentiful, and not to any scheme to enhance
the value of gold money?
No, we answer; although the yield of gold and silver of
late has been great, the growth of general business and population
has been proportionately far greater. All the gold
and silver of the world, if coined into money, would be
quite insufficient for the world's business, and would require
notes, clearing house certificates, etc. It is the money-lender
that is interested in having a legal tender money scarce, so
that he may always have a good demand for it, and be able
to lend it at a good rate of interest and demand double
[D401]
security. In 1896 all the world's gold, coined and uncoined,
was figured at less than sixty hundred million dollars
($6,000,000,000), while the public and private debts of the
United States were estimated at more than three times this
sum. Russia had been trying for years before 1873 to return
from a debased paper money to a silver standard, and as
she could not get silver enough she is still on a paper basis.
We mention these matters to show that the fall of silver was
premeditated; that it was caused, not by the law of supply and
demand (it was more in demand than gold in 1872, and
brought a premium over gold), but by legislation.
But is it conceivable that the representatives of the
people of all the nations of "Christendom" entered into a
conspiracy against the heathen and against their own farmers?
No: the facts do not bear out such a conclusion; but
rather indicate that the money power (which we shall term
"Shylock") engineered the scheme so as to deceive legislators
as to the results to be expected. We have the testimony
of Prince Bismarck, and of many United States'
Congressmen, to this effect. Thus, "by fraud," the thin wedge
of legislation was inserted between the two halves of the
world's money, with the effect of depreciating silver and
doubling the value of gold; and now, when the evil is
discerned, statesmen stand aghast at the extent of the
rupture, and realize that the restoration of silver to its
former place would work hardship and loss to the creditor
class in offset to the injury and loss already experienced
by the debtor class by the debasement of silver. Besides,
"Shylock" having obtained an advantage so valuable
(doubling the value of all his possessions and incomes),
would permit society to go into convulsions of panic or
revolution rather than lose this grip upon the financial
lifeblood of humanity. "Shylock" has the power to enforce
his demands. He controls the numerous class of borrowers
[D402]
who are supplicants at his bank-counters: he controls
the national governments, all of which are borrowers, and
he controls the press, by which the public is encouraged to
trust "Shylock's" honor and benevolence and to fear his
anger and power. In addition, a very large and influential
class of salaried officials and clerks and skilled workmen
find that their interests are in accord with "Shylock's" policy;
and if not his supporters, they are lukewarm or cool in
their opposition to his policy, and inclined to say little or
nothing against it.
Among the many testimonies respecting the deception
and fraud practiced, the following few will suffice:
SENATOR THURMAN said:
"When the bill was pending in the Senate we thought it
was simply a bill to reform the mint, regulate coinage and
fix up one thing and another, and there is not a single man
in the Senate, I think, unless a member of the committee
from which the bill came, who had the slightest idea that it
was even a squint toward demonetization." Congressional
Record, volume 7, part 2, Forty-fifth Congress, second session,
page 1,064.
SENATOR CONKLING in the Senate, on March 30, 1876,
during the remarks of Senator Bogy on the bill (S. 263) To
Amend the Laws Relating to Legal Tender of Silver Coin,
in surprise inquired:
"Will the Senator allow me to ask him or some other Senator
a question? Is it true that there is now by law no American
dollar? And, if so, is it true that the effect of this bill is to
make half-dollars and quarter-dollars the only silver coin
which can be used as a legal tender?"
SENATOR ALLISON, on February 15, 1878, said:
"But when the secret history of this bill of 1873 comes to
be told, it will disclose the fact that the House of Representatives
intended to coin both gold and silver, and intended
to place both metals upon the French relation, instead of
on our own, which was the true scientific position with reference
[D403]
to this subject in 1873, but that the bill afterward
was doctored."
Hon. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, who had charge of the bill, in
a speech made in the House of Representatives, March 9,
1878, said:
"In connection with the charge that I advocated the bill
which demonetized the standard silver dollar I say that,
though the chairman of the committee on coinage, I was
ignorant of the fact that it would demonetize the silver dollar
from our system of coins, as were those distinguished
Senators, Messrs. Blaine and Voorhees, who were then
members of the House, and each of whom a few days since
interrogated the other: 'Did you know it was dropped when
the bill passed?' 'No,' said Mr. Blaine, 'did you?' 'No,' said
Mr. Voorhees, 'I do not think that there were three members
in the house that knew it.'"
Again, on May 10, 1879, Mr. KELLEY said:
"All I can say is that the committee on coinage, weights
and measures, who reported the original bill, were faithful
and able, and scanned the provisions closely; that as their
organ I reported it; that it contained provision for both the
standard silver dollar and the trade dollar. Never having
heard until a long time after its enactment into law of the
substitution in the Senate of the section which dropped the
standard dollar, I profess to know nothing of its history; but
I am prepared to say that in all the legislation of this country
there is no mystery equal to the demonetization of the
standard silver dollar of the United States. I have never
found a man who could tell just how it came about or
why."
SENATOR BECK, in a speech before the Senate, January
10, 1878, said:
"It (the bill demonetizing silver) never was understood
by either House of Congress. I say that with full knowledge
of facts. No newspaper reporter--and they are the most vigilant
men I ever saw in obtaining information--discovered
that it had been done."
[D404]
Did space permit we could quote similar forceful language
from many others. The very title of the bill was misleading;
it was called: "An Act Revising the Laws Relative
to the Mint, Assay Officers and Coinage of the United
States"; and the demonetization of silver was hidden by (1)
the provision of section 14, that a gold dollar should
thenceforth "be the unit of value"; and (2) by section 15,
which defines and specifies the silver coins, but entirely
omits to mention the "standard" silver dollar. The Act of
June 22, 1874, finished the killing of the "standard" silver
dollar without so much as naming it, by simply providing
that no other coins except those mentioned in the Act of
1873 should be minted. And President U. S. Grant, whose
signature made the act a law, it is said, did not know of its
character, and so declared four years after, when the effect
began to be apparent. Indeed, few but the long-headed
"financiers" took much notice of specie, as the nation had
not yet resumed specie payments and this was supposed to
be a helpful preparatory step in that direction.
Mr. MURAT HALSTEAD, editor of the Cincinnati Commercial
Gazette, was one of the able men of his day. The following
from his pen under date of October 24, 1877, is
quoted from the New York Journal:
"This, the British gold policy, was the work of experts
only. Evasion was essential to success in it, and possibly because
coin was not in circulation, and, being out of public
view, it could be tampered with without attracting attention.
The monometallic system of the great creditor nation
was thus imposed upon the great debtor nation without
debate."
The following words are publicly credited to the late Col.
R. G. INGERSOLL:
"I do ask for the remonetization of silver. Silver was demonetized
by fraud. It was an imposition upon every solvent
man, a fraud upon every honest debtor in the United
[D405]
States. It assassinates labor. It was done in the interest of
avarice and greed, and should be undone by honest men."
That the effect would be what it is was foretold by numerous
statesmen upon the floors of Congress as soon as the
true situation was realized--1877 to 1880. Some were blind
to the issue, and some were quieted by self-interest, and
some relied upon the advice of "financiers," but others
spoke valiantly against the wrong.
The late Hon. JAMES G. BLAINE said in a speech before
the United States' Senate (1880):
"I believe the struggle now going on in this country and
in other countries for a single gold standard would, if successful,
produce widespread disaster in and throughout the
commercial world. The destruction of silver as money, and
the establishment of gold as the sole unit of value, must
have a ruinous effect on all forms of property except those
investments which yield a fixed return in money. These would be
enormously enhanced in value, and would gain a disproportionate
and unfair advantage over every other species
of property. If, as the most reliable statistics affirm,
there are nearly $7,000,000,000 of coin or bullion in the
world, very equally divided between gold and silver, it is
impossible to strike silver out of existence as money without
results that will prove distressing to millions, and utterly
disastrous to tens of thousands. I believe gold and silver
coin to be the money of the constitution; indeed, the money
of the American people anterior to the constitution, which
the great organic law recognized as quite independent of its
own existence. No power was conferred on Congress to declare
either metal should not be money; Congress has,
therefore, in my judgment, no power to demonetize either.
If, therefore, silver has been demonetized, I am in favor of
remonetizing it. If its coinage has been prohibited, I am in
favor of ordering it to be resumed. I am in favor of having it
enlarged."
The late SENATOR VANCE said later:
"The power of money and its allies throughout the world
have entered into this conspiracy to perpetrate the greatest
[D406]
crime of this or any other age, to overthrow one-half of the
world's money and thereby double their own wealth by
enhancing the value of the other half which is in their
hands. The money changers are polluting the temple of our
liberties."
The United States' Government despatched official letters
to its representatives in foreign countries, requesting reports
on monetary affairs. The report of Mr. Currie,
Minister to Belgium, widely published, is a remarkable
showing, in harmony with the experiences of the people of
the United States. He reports the following reply to his
questions given by the Hon. Alfonse Allard, Belgian Director
of Finance:
"Since 1873 a crisis, consisting in a fall in all prices, exists
continually, nor does it appear possible to arrest its progress.
This fall in prices, reacting on wages, is now evolving a
social and industrial crisis.
"You ask me why we returned in 1873 to monometallism,
limping though it be. I can conceive no other reason, unless
that it was to please a certain class of financiers who profited
thereby--a class supported by theories invented and
defended at that time by some political economists, notably
by members of the Institute of France.
"You ask what influence these monetary measures have
had in Belgium on industry and wages? Money, which was
already scarce in 1873, has become still scarcer, and that
fall in prices which was predicted has taken place. The average
fall in the price of all the products of labor is 50 per
cent since 1873--that of cereals over 65 per cent. Industry is
no longer remunerative, agriculture is ruined, and everybody
is clamoring for protection by duties, while our ruined
citizens think of war. Such is the sad condition of Europe."
In a letter to the National Republican League (June 11,
1891), Senator J. D. CAMERON said:
"The single gold standard seems to us to be working ruin
with a violence that nothing can stand. If this influence is to
continue for the future at the rate of its action during the
[D407]
twenty years since the gold standard took possession of the
world, some generation, not very remote, will see in the
broad continent of America only a half-dozen overgrown
cities keeping guard over a mass of capital and lending it
out to a population of dependent laborers on the mortgage
of their growing crops and unfinished handiwork. Such
sights have been common enough in the world's history,
but against it we all rebel. Rich and poor alike; Republicans,
Democrats, Populists; labor and capital; churches
and colleges--all alike, and all in solid good faith, shrink
from such a future as this."
English financiers know very well why the farmers of the
world, and especially the farmers of the United States and
Canada, who export wheat, are suffering; and they sometimes
confess that it is their own selfishness. For instance, we
quote from the editorial columns of the Financial News
(London), April 30, 1894, as follows:
"We have frequent diplomatic differences with the
United States; but, as a rule, there is seldom associated with
these any sense of animus between the peoples of the two
countries, and squabbles pass over and are forgotten. But
now we are encouraging the growth of a feeling that, on a
question which affects the prosperity of millions of individual
Americans, this country is inclined to entertain views
unfriendly to the States. We know, of course, that the unfriendliness
is accidental, and that our monetary policy is
controlled by purely selfish considerations--so purely selfish
that we do not mind seeing India suffering from our action
much more than America does...
"Senator Cameron points a plain moral when he remarks
that if the United States would venture to cut herself
adrift from Europe and take outright to silver, she would
have all America and Asia at her back, and would command
the markets of both continents. 'The barrier of gold
would be more fatal than any barrier of a custom house.
The bond of silver would be stronger than any bond of free
trade.' There can be no doubt about it, that if the United
States were to adopt a silver basis tomorrow, British trade
[D408]
would be ruined before the year is out. Every American industry
would be protected, not only at home, but in every
other market. Of course, the States would suffer to a certain
extent through having to pay her obligations abroad in
gold; but the loss on exchange under this head would be a
mere drop in the bucket compared with the profits to be
reaped from the markets of South America and Asia, to say
nothing of Europe. The marvel is that the United States has
not long ago seized the opportunity, and but for the belief
that the way of England is necessarily the way to commercial
success and prosperity, undoubtedly it would have
been done long ago. Now, Americans are awakening to the
fact that, 'so long as they narrow their ambition to becoming
a larger England' they cannot beat us. It has been a
piece of good luck for us that it has never before occurred to
the Americans to scoop us out of the world's markets by going
on a silver basis, and it might serve us right if, irritated
by the contemptuous apathy of our government to the
gravity of the silver problem, the Americans retaliate by
freezing out gold. It could easily be done...There have
not been wanting, of late, indications of growing irritation
with this country for its dog-in-the-manger attitude towards
a question (the silver question) that is convulsing two
continents, and gravely compromising the future of the
poorer states in Europe."
That the farmers' cry, that reward for toil is kept back by
fraud, is general to all gold-standard countries--to all
Christendom--we quote as follows:
Under date September 22, 1896, the New York World
published a lengthy cable message, signed by leading agricultural
men of Europe, met as an International Agricultural
Congress, at Budapest, Hungary, addressed to the
then Presidential candidate W. J. Bryan. It said:
"We wish you success in your struggle against the domination
of the creditor class, which during the past twenty-three
years has secured both in Europe and America, monetary
legislation destructive of the prosperity of your farmers and others
...We believe that, failing such restoration (of silver to
[D409]
money privileges), the gold premium throughout all Asia
and South America will continue to rob the farmer (of
America and Europe) of all rewards for his toil, and that
your election may avert from Europe serious agrarian and
social troubles now pending."
The New York World, under date of September 24, 1896,
published the following words of Prince Bismarck to Herr
von Kardorf, leader of the Free Conservative Party in the
German Reichstag:
"I am too old to go to school over the currency issue, but I
recognize that, although I acted in 1873 on what I regarded
as the best advice, my action was too precipitate in view of
the results which have followed.
"The one class that we cannot afford to estrange is the
farming class. If they are convinced, and they assure you
they are convinced, that agricultural depression is peculiar to these
monetary changes, our government must review its position."
The present extreme depression of silver, and of all commodities
sold on a silver basis, came very gradually--for
two reasons. (1) It required time and manipulation to depress
silver, a commodity still in great demand by more
than one-half the world's population. (2) Silver mine owners
and others directly interested, together with statesmen
who foresaw the coming evil, pressed their arguments so
forcibly in the United States' Congress that expedients were
resorted to, such as the Remonetization Act of 1878, and
the Silver Purchasing Act of 1890. But expedients were
found impracticable. Silver must either be a money with
full, equal power with gold as legal tender, or else it must be
considered a merchantable commodity like diamonds,
wheat, etc., and be subject to fluctuations according to supply
and demand; and when in 1893 the last of these expedients
was repealed, silver at once dropped to one-half
the price of gold, and all the evils of its demonetization were
felt to their full in 1895, except as the consequent panic
may be far-reaching, progressive and enduring.
[D410]
Here, then, are the facts:
(1) The reapers of the world's harvests, the farmers of
"Christendom," are in distress, notwithstanding modern
machinery, and are crying out loudly to fellow citizens and
legislators for relief. (These cries are stopped temporarily by
the rise in the price of wheat, caused probably by certain
shortages in southeastern Europe, in Russia, Australia and
Argentina; but just as soon as these conditions change, and
the whole world has its average crops, the price of wheat
may follow the price of silver down to 43 cents--except circumstances
intervene to alter conditions--and the cries of the
reapers will ring out in greater desperation than ever.)
(2) Legislators realize the difficulty and how it came
about, and declare that it came by fraud, by the deceptions
of financiers, the money-doctors.
(3) Legislators who see that it would cost a panic, and
probably a revolution, to correct the resultant unfavorable
conditions conclude that, as the disease cannot be worse
than such a remedy, they would best do nothing so radical.
Hence silver will never be restored--remonetized 16 to 1.
(4) It is admitted on all hands that this "fraud" is not only
crushing and discouraging the farmers, but also that it is
angering and embittering this hitherto greatest conservative
element of society.
(5) All the thinking people of the world are agreed that
the laboring and mechanical classes of Christendom are
ripe for a revolution which would sweep present social institutions
with a besom of destruction, and that, if the large
and hitherto conservative farming element were to join the
ranks of the discontents and revolutionists, the combination
would be irresistible.
(6) Evidences on every side are that a very few years will
suffice to bring about such an uprising.
[D411]
Whoever will compare all these facts with James' prophecy
must be impressed with its accurate fulfillment, point by
point, and should set it down as another indubitable testimonial
to the divine foreknowledge of our day and its affairs,
as preparations for the great time of trouble which is
to make ready a highway for Immanuel and his glorious
reign of peace on earth and good will toward men.
Let us read James' prophecy (5:1-9) again:
"Come now, you rich, weep and lament over those miseries
of yours which are approaching. Your securities have
become worthless, and your garments have become moth-eaten.
Your gold and your silver have become rusted; and
the rust of them will be for a testimony against you, and
will consume your bodies like fire. You have heaped together
treasures for the last days. Behold! that reward
which you have fraudulently withheld from those laborers
who harvested your fields, cries out; and the loud cries of
the reapers have entered the ears of the Lord of armies! You
have lived delicately, in self-indulgence, upon the land and
been wanton. You have nourished [fed] your hearts in the
day of [your] slaughter. You [your class] condemned, you
[your class] murdered the Just One [Christ], and he resisted
you not." [Can it be that the Lord wished us to notice that
the Jewish bankers and financiers, more than others, are
prominent in this fraud of keeping back the wages of the
reapers? and is there therefore special significance in the
words, "You killed, you murdered the Just One?"]
"Be you patient, then, brethren, till the presence of the
Lord [who will adjust matters righteously--lifting up him
that is poor and him that hath no helper, and taking vengeance
on all evildoers]. Behold the husbandman, anticipating
the fruit of the earth, waits patiently for it--until he
shall receive both the early and the later harvest. Be you
also patient, establish your hearts, because the presence of
the Lord has approached. Add not to each other's sorrows,
brethren, that ye be not punished [also]; behold, the Judge
is standing at the doors."
[D412]
The Rule of Equity
"Hail to the Lord's Anointed,
Jehovah's blessed Son!
Hail, in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
To set the captives free,
To take away transgression,
And rule in equity.
"He comes with succor speedy
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong;
To give them songs for sighing,
Their darkness turn to light,
Whose souls, condemned and dying,
Were precious in his sight.
"To him let praise unceasing
And daily vows ascend;
His kingdom, still increasing,
Shall be without an end:
The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
No, it shall stand forever,
A pledge that God is love."
|
