Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1898 — THE PEOPLE'S MONEY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PEOPLE'S MONEY

Honest Dollars. You find a fanner that favors bimetallism, and you ask him why. He says: “It Is good for, me.” The farmer is not worrying about somebody else —be has troubles enough of his own. Find a laboring man who favors bimetallism, and he says he is for it because it is good for himself. Find a business man who favors bimetallism, and he tells you it is because it is good for himself. They all believe it is good for others also, but they believe first it is good for themselves. The farmer tells you he has found that under the rising dollar and falling prices his income is diminished, but that his taxes and fixed charges do not fall. The laboring man tells you that when dollars are rising in value it is more profitable to hoard money and get the rise in value than it is to invest it and run the risk of falling prices. And the business man tells you that he makes his money not out of those from whom he borrows, but out of those to whom he sells, and he tells you that if they cannot buy, he cannot sell; he tells you that when he has good trade he has no trouble in borrowing money, but when he has no trade, then noifling will keep the sfleriff from coming and turning him out of doors to protect the depositors in the bank. He understands that prosperity comes up to him from his customers, and be believes that bimetallism is good because it will restore prices and thus give to tlie producers of wealth remuneration for their toil and give them something to spend at the stores in the purchase of other things which they desire. These men all know how bimetallism helps them, and they believe that it helps others also. But you ask the advocate of the gold standard why he wants tlie gold standard. .Does he tell you because It will be good for him? You never heard one of them say It. I know If you take one of the New York financiers and ask him why he wants the gold standard he will tell you he wants it because it is good for others. He will tell you he wants ft because it is good for the laboring man. That is the man in whom he feels an interest. Why. it is so universal, that feeling of solicitude among the financiers for the laboring men, that if one of those New York financiers is troubled With lack of sleep or loss of sleep he goes to his doctor; the doctor never asks any questions, but just says: “Stop worrying about the laboring men and go to work.”—lV. J. Bryan.

Done in the Dark. In the United States in 1873 our currency was paper money. Gold and silver were not used as a medium of axcuange. In 1873 an act was passed by Congress entitled “An act revising and amending the laws relative to the mint, assay office and coinage of the United States.” It is charged that this act, which demonetized silver in the United States, was corruptly passed through both houses of Congress. Whether British gold was used to corrupt certain members of Congress is not, and probably never will be, positively known. But certain it is that not to exceed half a dozen 'members of Congress knew at the time of the passage of the act that it demonetized silver, and they said nothing about it in public. Certain it is that President Grant, when he signed the act, did not know that it demonetized silver. Certain it is that the press of the country, which was represented in both houses of Congress by their special reporters, knew nothing about it. Certain it is that the people had never petitioned Congress for any such legislation, and did not know that there had been any such until nearly two years after the passage of the act. The act demonetizing silver In the United States was the most important and far-reaching in its consequences of any act ever passed by Congress, and yet no paper published anywhere in the United States at or near the time of its passage contained any reference to it whatever.

Silver Coinage. During the greater portion of the time from 1792 to 1834, silver predominated in ohr currency, because upon our ratio of 1 to 15, fifteen pounds of silver were equivalent to one pound of gold, while upon the French or European ratio of 1 to fifteen and a half pounds of silver were equivalent to one pound of gold. Silver therefore came to this country, and gold went to Europe. In 1834 we changed our ratio to 1 to 16, one-half a point on the otlier side of the French or European ratio, and as a given quantity of silver would exchange for mote gold upon the French ratio than upon our ratio. It went to Europe and came to this country and.predominated in our currency down to 1873, when the coinage of silveP was suspended. Yet during the whole of this time, from 1792 to 1873, our monetary system was bimetallic.