Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1886-04-16
COMMUNICATED.


Register.-Can people be happy, pros
porous and contented under govern
ment that fails to provide them with
an unvarying. Interchangeable and SOL
vent currency? A sound financial adj
ministration Of government, without
being subject to any change by any
combination of capitalists, syndicates or
incorporated bodies, is as essential to
the success Of any industry or to the
prosperity of any enterprise or business
operation as light and sunshine is to a
vigorous and healthy growth of vegeta-
ton. No man of sound judgment, or
any degree of foresight, or good busi-
ness understanding, will venture his
means in the investment of any enter
prise while he Is conscious of the power
resting in the hands of any body of cap
italists, or syndicate, to contract or ex-
pand the volume of the currency at will.
Those contractions and expansions are
unknown and unseen by the general
public: like pain in the human sys-
tenn, they are invisible to the eye but
severely and painfully felt by the suffer
ing body of the people. The unsus-
pecting public know that there is some
thing wrong, but they cannot account
for the unexpected changes and dull
ness at times without any apparent
cause. Money may be very plenty in
some sections while there is but little Or
none in others. But few are let Into
the secret of the mystery but those who
are to share i'm the anticipated specula'
ton. A few who are not interested in
the cause producing those revulslons
and depressiohs in trade may have the
patience 10 investigate or the penetra-
ton or the judgment to understand, but
their warning generally falls upon the
public unheeded. Two causes are now
producing the present deplorable COLI
dition of stagnation in business of all
kinds in this country, the want OF
sound unvarying currency. convertible
into gold or silver OH call, and the un-
settled price at which labor can be had'
and the uncertainty as to how long 1t
may be retained, by those " no are will
ling to invest their capital to employ il.
No man of sense or judgment will ven-
ture his means to employ labor in the
manufacture of any commodity when
he knows that the hours that labor pro-
poses to work and the price it demands
for so many hours will leave him moth
ing for the interest on the capital eni-
ployed, and a small margin for his own
time in looking after the industry and
keeping up the repairs. Nor will any
man of sound judgment, or any corpo-
ration or company, whose affairs are
managed by men Of ability or judgment,
venture to manufacture any commodity
i'm any considerable quantity while the
changeable condition of the currency
NAV be so manipulated by combina-
ton of capital, or syndicate Of bankers
so as to cause rise or fall i'm the price
of products before his goods can be
manufactured and gotten to market as
to embarrass or ruin the producers.
The sooner the government substitutes
gold and silver certificates for the pres
ent national banking currency making,
them the representatives of those metals
dollar for dollar always redeemable
upon presentation at the counter in
those respective coins, with the amount
per capita unchangeably fixed, the bet
ter it will be for the great masses of the
people, and the sooner the country will
again settle down to a steady and legiti-
mate business. While our sympathy is
heart and soul with the labor cause, we
must admit that when labor demands
more than it can produce for its en-
ployer, and resorts TO violence to obtain
its demands, it must and will find the
reward of It's own folly in driving from
the country that trade that afforded
them employment. If the labor of any
country is employed in the product of
an article in greater quantity than the
necessity of the home consumption de-
mands, and at higher rate of labor
than will produce the same article in a
foreign country, that industry must
perish for want of a market, and those
persons employed in that trade must
perish with it or seek other employ
ment. L. r.