Get on the Water Wagon - William Ashley Sunday

GET ON THE WATER WAGON. 21 He swells up like a poisoned pup and says to me, “Bill why the silver bugbear. That’s what is the matter with the country.” Say! The total value of the silver coined in this country in 1907 was $37,598,800. Hear me! In 1907 the total value of the gold produced in this country was $94,722,000, and we dumped ten times that much in the whisky hole and didn’t fill it. What is the matter? In 1904 the total value of all the gold and silver was $524,558,000, and we dumped three times that amount in the whisky hole and didn’t fill it. What is the matter with the country, Col. Politics? He swells up and says, “Mr. Sunday, standpaterism, sir.” I say, “You are an old windbag.” “Oh,” says another, “revision of the tariff.” Anothei man said, “Free Trade; open the doors at the ports and let them pour the products in and we will put the trusts on the sidetrack.” Say, you come with me to every port of entry. Listen! Last year the total value of all the imports was $1,438,000,- 000, and we dumped that much in the whisky hole in twelve months, and did not fill it. “Oh,” says a man, “let us court South America and Europe to sell our products. That’s what is the matter; we are not exporting enough.” Say, last year the total value of all the exports was $1,- 900,000,000, and we dumped that amount in the whisky hole in one year, and did not fill it. One time I was down in Washington and went to the United States Treasury and said: “I wish you would let me go where you don’t let the general public.” And they took us around on the inside and we walked into a room about twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide and as many feet high, and I said: “What is this?” “This is the vault that contains all of the national bank stock in the United States.” - I said, “How much is here?” They said, “$578,000,000.” And we dumped nearly four times the value of the na­

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