The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1879-08-21
WHOLE NUMBER 642.

being made worse than they need be; but, in
stead of that, we went on reducing the volume
of real money until, when the level of gold was
reached, we had but s14 of currency per
capita.
ing greenbacks equal to gold has been? Can It
be counted or measured or weighed? There is
much that can never be told-the misery, the
suffering, the wretchedness and the injustice
wrought by it. But there are some things we
can compute;
/. It has added directly within the last three
years 500, ,000, 600 to the interest bearing debt
of the country.
g The loss to national wealth from non-pr
duction through the idleness of labor arc dis
use of productive capital has amounted to hun
dreds if not to thousands of millions of dollars
annually.
s. Debts, public and private, that have ex-
tended over this space have been increased just
in the proportion that commodities and labor
have fallen. Or, to state it as it should be
stated, the measure, the money scale by which
property, labor and debts are measured, has
been changed, and the Government thereby has
been made the agency of the wrongful taking
of property from those who had earned it and
saved it, and giving it to those who we're in no
way equitably entitled to it. This measure was
changed as stated between 1865 ana the date
of resumption, from about $40 per capita to
$14. The fairest test of this, and the best
way to illustrate it, is to take labor itself. In
1865 about 400 days labor, or the value Of the
produce Of go many days, would buy $1,000
Government bond, but it takes now LOO
or LOO days labor to pay for ore.
To pay 800 00O, COO of interest on the national
debt in 1865 it took the product of but about
40,000, 600 of days labor; now it takes 1O0, ,OCO@
000. In 1879, before silver demonetization and
the resumption policy went into effect, about
60 1000, 900 of days labor was the equivalent of
$4,000 600 of interest (the interest last year on
the public debD; now it takes C0,000,0G0 of
days labor 10 equal this interest. If the limits
of speech permitted me to extend these COM
parisons to commodities and property generally
like results could be shown.
Now, my felloy-citizens. who would not have
supposed that, having effected this change in
the paper circulation of the country, attended
as it has been, necessarily, with all the evils
the country has been made to suffer, and, hav
ing reached the old level of the precious
metals, that there they would be content to
stop; that surely they would not remove the
ancient landmark which the fathers had set up
which they had established in the funda-
mental law of the land?
Gold and silver, without limit and without
restEieiian, from the very dawn of
from the beginnings of commerce, have been
the standard and measure of value over the
whole globe. But 30 audacious has ayarice
grown that neither constitution, nor right nor
religion has been sufficient to restrain it. And
by an act that probably will ever stand as an
unexplained fraud, the metallic measure itself
changed. Silver was thrown out, and for all
practical purposes remains 80 still, and instead
of gold and silver, both without limit as before,
for the measure and for the means of payment,
the money material was reduced to gold alone;
so tDat, instead of both the metals to do the work
OF money, gold alone is left We were at the
bi-metallic level of prices in 1876, when the
balance Of trade turned in our favor, and all
reductions since then have been due to changes
in metallic money. Gold itself under this legis
lation becomes different measure. To an
ounce of gold, or gold dollar, is given differ
emit value. Already since 1876 gold has in
creased in value iu the United States under our
demonetization law and similar laws in Europe
by at least SO per cent, and must, under these
laws, continue to increase. That is the
same as if to all coin debts one-third had
been added; the same as if one-third had
been added to our whole bonded debt; the same
in respect to tine debt as if three and one-third
hours had been added to every days labor; for
it is by labor or its products that in the end all
debts must be paid. There is no other foun-
tsin to draw from. Is it not significant that
this change in the money scale is sought to be
made at d Tina when national debts are not less
than $25, ,000, ,001, 600? To change the value of
money is the same in effect as to change all
weights and measures. Suppose, instead of
being payable in dollars, obligations were made
dIschargeable in quantities-say SO many days
labor, or so many pounds, or SO many bushels,
and that debts amounting to half our whole
wealth were to be discharged in this way, and
then that the Government should increase,
whether by imperceptible increments or sud-
denly-it would not MATERIAL weights and
measures until two days labor we're required
to discharge ap obligation where good
faith only required one, or double quantities
were required to make the same number of
pounds or bushels, what would you say to
that? A foot-rule might be called foot still,
and be divided into twelve inches, though the
inches be double the length of the present
inch. But would you say that wasIthe way to
make an honest measure?
Well. that is exactly the way the kind of
ahonest" dollars we hear SO much about now
a-days are made. Everybody knows that
dollar, by legislation, has been made twice as
large and more than twice as large (thatis, has
twice the valuel as it was in 1865, or even in
1873. The gold dollar even, since 1876, as a
consequence Of silver demonetizaiion and the
made practically 125-cent dollar. And let us
not forget that a silver dollar Of 41215 grains,
in consequence of the withdrawal of paper
money, is worth more as compared with labor
and commodities than it was in 1876 1t sill
buy more of everything you have to sell now
than it would then, and you must give more of
what you produce to get it to pay taxes with, il
YOU would pay taxes with silver. Let me
illustrate this little further: In 1864
men vino were facing death in the field
and fighting battles took their pay with
out murmuring in paper, when they had
right to coin, and when s13 in paper
would not buy more than S. or So in silver.
On the other hand, when victory had been
| achieved, the bondholder, for every S. or So
of silver he lent the Government got SO, S12
| and s13 in bonds. Since then his bonds have
doubled in value, through the alteration in the
- I'D dxuitb
| erty or your labor, or with what you produce,
and now he calls you dishonest if you are not
willing to double them again, and at that rate
let them rest as mortgage, not only upon your
| fields, farms and workshops, but upon all fu-
( ture earnings of yourselves and your children
to the third and fourth generation. The words
of the old prophet have new significance in
| these days. sWe have borrowed money for
the Kings tribute, and that upon our lands
| and VINEYARDS. !: And 10, we bring into
bondage our SONS and our daughters to be ser
wants. = Neither is it in our power to
redeem them, for other men have our lands
| and vineyards"
It is in this aspect that the recent monetary
schemes of the bond-holding class of the world
become most alarming. Not only do they af-
feet the distribution of present wealth, but
control the distribution of future earnings. and
thus influence to degree no one can foresee
the future condition of the Inhabitants of this
|
tration that will, hope, throw some light on
this important phase of the question. The
value of the total products of the United States
in 1873, as measured by the money sca'e then
ex sting, was about 81, ON, GOO O. The value of
the same products measured by the money Of
to-day would net be m ,re than 4,0OO, ,000, 100.
Then, there was net gain in national wealth
in 1873 of 800, ,00O, 600, which is not far from
| the actual net increase in wcalth-that is, if
there was left at the end of the year over and
above all consumption $7O0, ,C00,OO worth of
products, as rated in the money of that year
1873, the value OF the same surplus that year
would be worth in money of to-day but S4OO,
100000 And, of course, with the Increase oil
the gold dollar, sas time goes on, the value OF
the same products, expressed in gold, grew less.
Now, if the total interest charge against the
net profits of 1878 WAS s400, COO go, and it was
and more If all classes of debts be included
then there were left $500, ,000, eco to be shared
by those who helped to produce this wealth and
were not themselves creditors.
But if the same number of dollars are now
required for interest as they arc, then, there
being but S40o, COO 600 of net profits, all is re-
quired to meet the interest charge, and there il
nothing left for those who have created tht
wealth to share.
1t is plain, then, that by the alteration that
has already been made and which must still &c
on if mono -metalism is to be the final goal,
that the great mass of lnborers and producers
| not only in thi5 country but in all others where