Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1896 — THE PEOPLE'S MONEY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PEOPLE'S MONEY.

THE PUBLIC DEBT. Here are some appalling facts: In 1866 our national debt was $2,825,000,000. In 1805 our national debt was sl,125,000,000. From 1866 to 1895 we paid In interest on this debt the vast sum of $2,635,000,000. In the same period we paid on the principal $2,700,000,000. Total paid on interest and principal from 1866 to 1895, $5.335,00.000. Yet to-day our national debt is actually as large as it was in 1866. our ability to earn the money with which to pay It having decreased to such an extent that it requires twice the effort to earn a dollar, gold having appreciated nearly 50 per cent since 1866. John Clark Kidpath, the great American scholar and historian, shows the earning power of our people in 1866 by the following table giving amount of the nine principal staples required to pay the debt at that time: Of wheat 1,486,842,105 bu. Of flour 262,790,696 bbls. Of cotton 5,885,416,666 lbs. Of mess pork 99,576,313 bbls. Of 5ugar25,393,348,314 lbs. Of w 0015,330.188,679 lbs. Of beef 181,697,213 cwt. Of bar iron 41,851,851,851 lbs. Of superior farming lands above (approximately) 37,666,666 acres. Now, In 1895 the public debt was reduced to $1,125,000,000, and yet the amount of these same staples required to pay it are in most cases greater: Of wheat 2.133,420,080 bu. Of flour 353,571,423 bbls. Of cotton 13,558,823,229 lbs. Of mess pork 150,915,853 bbls. Of sugar 21,750,000,000 lbs. Of wool 5,755,813,623 lbs. Of beef 130.236.136 cwt. Of bar iron 46,348,314,666 lbs. Of superior farming lands as above (approximately).3s,3s7,l32 acres. In other words, the debt to-day Is worth more to holders of the bonds than in 1866 and the burden on the people is greater than in 1866.

Live and Let Live Not the Policy, Quick has been the monopolistic press to see the Injustice to the creditor classes from a depreciated dollar, but to the equal Injustice of an appreciating dollar to the debtor classes, and to the grievous wrongs done to all producers by such a dollar, they have been and are perversely blind. To reap the unearned gains of an appreciating dollar the creditor classes have been quite content, and their organs have seen no Injustice in a dollar that has grown dearer and dearer from year to year, and that has enabled them to profit at the expense of their debtors. But when the producing and debtor classes tire of being stripped of their earnings through the subtle workings of the appreciating gold standard, when they demand that justice be done them, that silver be restored to its place as money, so that the measure In which they are obliged to measure those products with which they must pay their debts shall not grow In length from year to year, and when "they assert their right to repay their creditors In a dollar of no greater value than the dollar borrowed, the mouthpieces of the creditor classes are quick to sound an alarm, and to stamp dishonest repudiators all those who revolt against the payment of an increased tribute, year after year, for the use of money borrowed, and who refuse longer to submit to the extortions of an appreciating measure of value that requires the payment of principal and Interest in our loans in a dollar of greater value, of greater purchasing power, than the dollar borrowed.

Promises Not Kept. Three years ago, when the Sherman law was unconstitutionally repealed, it was contended that the repeal would restore confidence and bring speedy prosperity. We took the advice of the anti-silver doctors, and every prophecy they made has been refuted. They urged the repeal to prevent a raid upon the gold reserve. Scarcely was it repealed than an unprecedented raid was made, and $262,000,000 of gold, which we borrowed to feed it, have now run down to about the hundred-mi 11lon mark. It was urged that it would bring foreign capital here, but Europeon stocks continued to be sold on the New York market and gold has continued to flow from us. It was declared that it would restore confidence, but confidence has continued to diminish, for the simple reason that property, which is the basis of credit and confidence, has continued to decline. There can never be confidence ■when property is declining, and property must decline with a contraction of the currency.—“ Bryan and Bewail,” F. Tennyson Neely, Publisher.

An Air-Pump Argument, Every attempt to restore silver, every appeal pointing out the awful effects which have followed its demonetization, has been met and (ought back. The old cry has been time and time again raised: "If you try it, all the gold will drift away; if you try it, there will be a panic,” which is precisely as though some people had a man in an air chamber, and had exhausted nearly all the air and stood with one hand hold of the pump handle, saying to him: “If you dare to kick, we will give you two or three strokes and take away what air you have.”—Salt Lake City Tribune. Out of the Enemy’s Mouth. If the United States mints were freely opened to the coinage of silver, the gold In the Treasury were all withdrawn, and silver made the only metallic money which the Treasury could pay out, the impression made upon the rest of the world would probably be very great. For one thing, it seems reasonable to infer that the Indian mints would be reopened, and it is not Improbable that several embarrassed countries, like, for instance, Argentina, would decide that a standard of value

good enough for the United States would be good enough for them, also. If that were to happen, silver might rise very considerably.—London Statist Would Cause Revival in Business. The Rev. Dr. T. De Witt Talmage says: “If the silver people win, I believe there will be such a revival in business, such a booming in industries, which are now inactive, and such a general shaking up of commercial interests that the country will be sure to prosper.” Ex-Governor John P. St. John, in answering the goldlte silver dumping theory, said: “I always say, let ’em. dump—if they want to be so foolish. If they dump all the silver in the world here and take out all the gold we would have S6O per capita of standard money, every dollar worth 100 cents, while the rest of the world averaged about $3 per capita in gold. The effect of such' a transaction would be unexampled prosperity in this country and ruin and bankruptcy unparalleled in the others.. “No large amount of silver could come: it would benefit us if it did come? “The United States, therefore, should stop the double robbery of her people required by a gold standard and vote free coinage alone.” The production of the ten chief wheat-growing nations of the world from 1880 to 1887 was 1.825,000,000 bushels; from 1888 to 1894 the average production was 1.904,000,000 bushels. The population, however, of the wheateating nations averaged for the former period 397,000,000, and for the latter period 434,000,000, so that the per: capita supply for the earlier period was four and one-half bushels annually, while for the latter period it was a fraction more than four and one-third, bushels. Here you have a reduction in supplies, and yet a fall of 50 per cent. In the price of wheat.

Falling prices lead to lower wages and enforced idleness, and for such loss in Income the wage-earner is not by any means compensated; for retail prices (for reasons that are obvious) fall but slowly, and not so far or fast as the income of the wage-earner. So the wageearner is impoverished by falling prices even though nominal rates of wages may be kept from falling commensurately with the fall in wholesale prices. And the result of this is. of course, that neither farmer nor manufacturer can reduce the cost of production proportionately with a fall in prices of their products such as is in-, separable from an appreciating measure of value. Inability to reduce and inability to cut wages as fast as wholesale prices fall, make this out of the question. Consequently, falling prices cut into the profits of the farmer and manufacturer and thus lead to curtailed production the result of which must be enforced idleness to many wage-earners, and enforced idleness for many soon leads through the struggle for work to lower wages for all.

Sherman as a Bimetallist. During the monetary conference in Paris, when silver in our country was excluded from circulation by being undervalued, I was strongly in favor of the single standard of gold, and wrote a letter, which you will find in the proceedings of that conference, stating briefly my view. At that time the wisest of us did not anticipate the sudden fall of silver or the rise of gold that has occurred. This uncertainty of the relation between the two metals is one of the chief arguments In favor of a monometallic system, but other arguments, showing the dangerous effect upon industry by dropping one of the precious metals from the standard of value, outweigh in my mind all theoretical objections to the bimetallic system. I am thoroughly convinced that, if it were possible for the leading commercial nations to fix by agreement an arbitrary relation between silver and gold, even though the mar ket value might vary somewhat from time to time, it would be a measure of. the greatest good to all nations.—John Sherman in 1878. What Free Silver Will Do, Free silver will at once raise exchange rates between Europe and all Asia, and also between Europe and South America, thereby greatly stimulating our export trade to four-fifths of the inhabited world, and will also at the same time secure expansion of the exports of the United States to Europe. For lack of this expansion, and consequent favorable trade balance, that great debtor nation is to-day Insolvent, borrowing its pay with difficulty and at high rates, and piling higher that debt burden which becomes more and more intolerable with each fresh fall of prices. Whatever the United States, in raising the level of silver exchanges, accomplishes for her own benefit, she accomplishes equally for every white farmer and white working man everywhere.— Moreton Frewen.

American Capital in Mex'co* A large amount of American money has been placed here of late years 'n mining, metallurgical works, railways, manufactures apd tropical agriculture, and such is the faith of those Investors, in the future of this country that precisely those who are most heavily interested already are now engaged In extending their enterprises here. There is in Mexico a large resident population of Americans, some of whom have decided to throw their lot with this country; nearly all of them are prosperous, and contented with their surroundings, and, while they naturally reserve the first place in their affections for their native country, they also entertain a warm regard for the land of their adoption.—Mexican Financier. Will Gold Cheapen in Any Case? Alterations in the cost of production of the precious metals do not act upon the value of money, except just in proportion as they increase or diminish its Quantity.—John Stuart Mill.