Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1898 — THE PEOPLE'S MONEY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PEOPLE'S MONEY

t table Dollars. The advocates of the gold standard are the self-styled champions of the “honest dollar.” It ought to be easy to agree upon a definition of what constitutes honesty in the dollar. But what do the gold men give us? They say that “honest money” is “sound money,” and “sound money” is “honest money.” This is a reasoning in a circle. When pressed for a more specific answer they say that the gold dollar is honest because it is always worth one hundred cents, or because it loses nothing in value when melted, and is therefore stable in value. The law says that the dollar shall be. of the value of one hundred cents. How, then, could it be worth more or less than that? The quality of being worth one hundred cents is Simply a lawgiven quality. The whole is always worth neither more nor less than the sum of its parts. But does that show that the gold dollar has remained stable? Certainly not In order to see if stability of value has been maintained, comparison must be made with other things. Everything is stable when measured by itself, or parts of itself. The gold men who make that arrangement are doubtless the brightest men in the world, when measured by themselves; but if compared with other pie a different conclusion might be reached.

Under the free coinage of silver in India up to 1893 the silver rupee was the standard of value. It was always worth itself—no more, no less—and it was always worth the sixteen annas which the law said should constitut* a rupee. But did that alone prove that the silver rupee, under free coinage, was stable in value? The human body is compftsed of ceitain parts in childhood, with the foot constituting about 2 per cent., and the head, we will say, 10 per cent of the whole person. But the fact that In maturity the body is equal to itself and the parts that compose it, these parts bearing each about the same relation to the whole ns in childhood, does not show that there has been no grow-th. To find out whether the dollar has remained stable, or has, as bimetallists contend, risen in value, comparison must be made, not with itself or parts of itself, but with other things. ,

Hoarded Money. It is frequently asked why we need any new money when there is so much lying idle. The answer’is that much of the money now idle has been withdrawn from use because it was more profitable to hold it than to put it into trade. “But, why?” it is asked. Because the supply of money has been limited by law, while the supply of other things has been left to Individual judgment. As a result, the quantity of commodities has increased more rapidly than the quantity of money. In short, money has been made comparatively scarce by law, while the other things have not Consequently, the money has been rising in value, while the other things have been falling. Obviously, it is more profitable for a man to hold money which is going up than to invest it in property that is going down. If all the money now lying idle in the country were to be thrown into circulation, the immediate effect would be to send prices upward. This would stimulate production, and if the supply of money were not increased so as to keep pace with the production of other things, prices would soon begin to fall again, profits would diminish and money would be withdrawn from business. When silver was generally demonetized in Europe and America the supply of new money was very greatly reduced, while population and business steadily increased. The result was a heavy fall of prices and business depression, which, subject only to brief periods of moderate revival, have continued until this day. Unfortunately, such revivals have had the effect of blinding the judgment of many well-meaning men with reference to the money question.

Will Not Be Fooled All the Time. Hon. William Sulzer, of New York, was an earnest supporter in the House of Representatives of the Teller resolution for the, payment of the bonded debt and interest in either gold or silver, at the option of the Government. “You cannot fool the people,” as Lincoln said, “all the time.” They are watching you, and they comprehend the situation. They know that your action here to-day is a futile attempt to rob industry, arrest thrift, assassinato labor, defraud honest debtors, violate the obligations of contract, and perpetrate on the masses the most frightful crimes that can be committed in order to seemingly bolster up and perpetuate the single gold standard. Hit the Bond Mongers. No man should be returned to the House or Senate who voted for bonds for this and future generations to pay Instead of treasury notes, which would have cost nothing, and which would have enlarged the volume of money and make times better.—Silver KnightWatchman. What Puzzles the Trusts, “I wonder,” quoth one president of a trust to another; “I wonder where the people get all the money we take from them.”—Des Moines News.