The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-14

the volume Of currency constantly increasing.
corn had gone as high as 90 cents and as low as AZ;
wheat as high as $2.3I and as low as $L.15.
Within the last ten years the volume OF cur
rency has increased TO $i,517, 152, 24B. within a
few dollars of double the volume of 1876, yet
wheat that was chen 81. 10 is now 80 cents; corn
taat was then 81 cents, is now 40. and
pork that was then $40. 80 is now about $40. 4a.
In other words, the volume of currency has
doubled, and pork sells at one half the price of
ten years ago. What is true of these articles is
substantially true of every American product.
whether OF farm. or shop, or factory; and 1t Is no
less true OF labor. Neither labor combinations,
nor strikes, nor boycottinos have been proof
against the inevitable. There is a law which
governs such things which laughs at those futile
attempts to resist it as the rising tide laughs at
the mud dikes which children build upon the
beach to keep out the waters of old ocean. No.
the volume of currency has nothing at all to do
with prices. There is q higher law which con-
trolls these things, that is as relent-
less az death and as r~esistless as the
Mississippi at flood tide. Thieves and gamb-
lers at boards of trade may temporarily bull or
bear the market by corners or margins, but the
disastrous transactions are only temporary and
local in results; the tide sweeps on and sweeps
bulls and bears into ruin.
What is thus true of labor and it's products is
true also Of real estate. The average value Of
real estate in Indiana is little or no greater to-
day than it was thirty years ago. allowing for
improvements. 1t was not an inflated currency
that produced the craze in Marion county ten
to fifteen years ago; it was a wicked and thievish
desire to grow rich in a day without one honest
days work. Since that period the currency has
more than doubled. yet real estate cannot be
sold for one-third the prices Of those
wild days. 1t was. not the currency,
but the want of currency. Had every transac-
ton been based on currency the disastrous con-
sequences would not have followed. What cur
rency was used was borrowed at cut-throat rates
of interest, and very little, if any, of it was
ever paid or ever will be. But those who flout
this bugaboo in our faces know that it is not a
fear of excessive currency that prompts them,
but a hatred of the silver dollar. for they go
right along coming gold by the millions, so that
in the last twelve months the gold coinage is
within about a half million of this alarming sill
YER imitation.
1t is a popular fallacy to suppose that the sill
YER dollar should be increased in weight. 80 rs
TO contain enough silver at commercial prices to
command a gold dollar. This would unsettle
every thing, and require one or the
Ssnsr to cold be ao changed NAV EVERY sGIs year ysa,
buy 500 grains of silver, bat in ten years it may
buy only 400. Let there be no change in the
quantity or quality of this unit of value o. of its
count.
Whak, then, of the coinage of silverq The
answer is easy, and the reasons therefor are
abundant. Let Us modify the law so as to adapt
1t to the present order of things and continue to
coin the dollar of cur fathers to the utmost ca
paoity of our machinery and demand for the
coin. Let us buy of the markets of the world, at
market prices, all the bullion for which we can
exchange our silver dollars at par, and double, if
need be, the amount issued. Let there be no
more gold or silver certificates issued for gold or
silver bullion, or anything else. and let the
honest dollar of the honest laborer
be not only receivable for taxes, but
let it pay the salaries of all public
servants, and all interests and bonds as they
mature, as far as it will go. Let there be no
compulsion to coin one million or five million
per month, nor any limit. but the capacity of the
mint and the demand for the dollars. 1t is a
popular fallacy to assume that any set Of men
Congress, or President, or Comptroller of the
Currency, or bankers-may arbitrarily say that
there is enough currency. or enough silver for
the business OF the country, or how much is
enough. As we'll might the mistress Of the
cheap boarding house assume to dictate the
amount OF meat her boarderS can use. Give
them a chance and they will settle the question
by refusing to take any more. When we cannot
buy silver bullion at the market price with
silver dollars it will be time enough to assume
that the capacity to use more silver dollars
is satisfied. Last of all. should the alarm be
needed when coming only from those who are
pushing the coinage OF gold to the utmost of
their ability 1t is too much silver, not too much
currency that they fear.
Only one further word as to the advantage or
disadvantage of an abundant supply of currency,
Wnen LnaL currency, ike ours, Is GOOD anywhere
on the continent. It is a disadvantage to the
money lender. for it greatly obviates the neces.
aity Of borrowing. When the laborer or small
trader can get his dollar in cash, as soon as
earned, instead of truck and turnover" or Or
ders upon some store or grocery, he will pay as he
goes, and fewer men will need to borrow. 1t
is a great advantage to the laboring man to get
his earnings promptly and when earned. Silver
may be inconvenient to hold in large
quantities, but holding is not a primary
use of money. It is for circulation. and is
much more convenient for those who handle
only a few dollars at a time than gold is. We
are not yet ready, under any .pretext, to legis-
late for the conversion of the hoarder of wealth
as against the man who wants a currency for i'm
mediate use. Let those who want to hoard gold
use it for that purpose. There is twice as much
Of it as of silver, but let us not deny the common
people their coin. Silver is the coin of the
millions, and may it's tribe increase!
u. L. SEE.