CAUSE OF HARD TIMES 1 1 during du ing tile the last three years of Hc apu epu publican b lican rule ending last march the mckiniry tariff law and the sherman silver law have been and still are in operation during these three years our country was drained of of its gold coin nearly one third therold the gold money of the country about tile same amount of gold went abroad in each of these years the Ilc mckinley Kinley tariff failed to keep the money at home banks began to C call in their loans in order to get gold many failed and a money panic set in then the government of india de silver and western mines were closed A short crop in this section made matters still iverse three causes led to the withdrawal of gold from this country countr the great failures and panics in other countries especially in australia the sherman silver law which led many foreign investors to believe they would have to accept silver instead of gold and the mckinley tariff which decreased our a agricultural 0 exports export by in increasing crea creasing the tax on the pay for thome them the country bore up pretty well under the first year of the operation of these two Ile publican laws it began to break the second year and broke down the third A man may carry two buckets of water one block without harm the second will tire him and the third may inay break him dowd down an effect always comes after its cause lack of rain last summer was what caused the failure of the fall crops notwithstanding any republican argument that it was the anticipated lack of snow next winter that caused the failure it is no anticipated law that has bag caused the hard times timers