Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-11-20


Gold has been used as q measure Of values
as far back in time as you can find any
record. And this is the important fact that
we as a people must not ignore. Let rs.
f." take his supply Of gold and 60 where
ever he may choose, anywhere in any Of the
old countries, and with it he can buy their
articles of commerce. Now let "S. f." take
his backload Of greenbacks and go into the
interior Of China and try to buy cargo of
tea with them, and sec how he will come
out.
l hold that the amount of gold in the
world measures the amount of wealth in the
world. You let the common articles of
commerce increase faster than the miners
and mints increase the bulk Of gold, and
there must be a falling of in the price of
the articles. On the other hand let the
amount of gold increase the fastest, and
all articles of commerce must be enhanced
in price thereby.
Ii any one doubts the truth of the above
let him look back to values as they were
before the vast gold mines of California and
Australia were discovered, and see where
the values were then and how such values
compare with price lists of the present day.
Half of the amount of gold that is in the
word would answer as well ali the demands
of commerce as the whole does now. Or
let the amount of gold be doubled in one
year and you would see prices of all kinds
of goods, and everything in fact that is sale
able, creeping right along up after it. A
horse that will now sell for $500, thirty
years ago would have sold for about $780,
Is the horse worth any more to the man
that bought him now that he has to pay
5000 for him than he would have been had
he bought him for $50? Does the man
that we now have to pay from s25 to $50 a
month do more work than the man that
used to work for $40 and S12 month
Gold is the recognized money of the
world, aud if we expect to do business with
the world at large we must use their stand
ard. Any paper money that is put into
circulation is worth as much as the amount
of gold it represents, or the amount of gold
that lies behind it, ready to be brought for.
ward at any time the holder of the paper
asks for it.
At the present time il takes about one
dollar and ten cents in our paper to reach q
gold dollar, but how will it be next week ?
1t may take dollar and twenty-five cents
in paper to reach the gold dollar, and that
is what is the matter with the whole coun-
try.
A man that has one hundred dollars in
paper in his pocket to-day can command
about ninety dollars in gold with it. He
don't nor can't know that his paper will be
worth more than S75 in the worlds money
next week. rs. f." seems to have got the
idea that poor money is better to pay debts
with than good. Or probably what he
means is this that our illegal tenders" will
paJ debts and it is easier to get hold oI
them than it could be to get hold Of good
money. He says, ''the price of gold is Of
no consequence to me, because l am farm
er." Now if''S. f." can live entirely with.
in himself produce everything he consumes,
then the price of gold need be of no account
to him. l suspect he farms it a.
all other farmers do; buys and sells arti.
cles of commerce with all the rest OF the
world, and would it not be quite as conven
lent for him to use with them the samC
money that has a fixed and steadfast value
dollar always dollar under all circum
stances.
The farmer buys and sells of those tina
make business of buying aud selling
When they buy of the farmer they buy
close, as they don't know what trouble there
may be with the "greenback" before they
can sell again. When it comes the farm
er's turn to buy he has to pay profit on I
dollar and ten cents where q single dolla
should be used, and in that way as Car
Schurz in his late great speech at St. Louis
Mo-, truly says, everybody burns the farm
er's candle at both ends" Let a dolla
mean dollar, and this kind Of business cal
be stopped, but as long as a dollar is sim
ply promise to pay, and all you can &c
out OF it is another promise to pay, th
farmer will be servant Of the money king
who manipulate these broken promises t
their liking.
Let gold be the basis of all our transaC
tions and the farmer stands on level wit
the best Of them, for they can't befool 0
befoul his money.
"S. f." has cracked one good joke. II
says "Our greenbacks are declared by
solemn act of Congress to be lawful none
and legal tender" Now if Congress ca
by "solemn act" really make one single do
lar out of nothing, it only needs "solem
act" to make a hundred billions aud K
them hurry up their cakes and make it b
the car load and send to every man in tn
nation all the one thousand dollar bills b
can wheel home on wheelbarrow, as it
as easy to make a thousand dollar bill b
"sOlemn act" as it is teu.cent scrip. Whi
jolly times we all might have in paying OF
debts. Hurry up the good time, and | wi
take every newspaper that is published
the country, and pay in advance, and sO
> nothing about the postage.
This "solemn act" business seems to |
: somehow in bad odor with the common pc,
pie of late. Congress passed solemn sa