Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-11-29
FRIDAY nov. go, 1889.
The SILVER Oonvcntion.

FRIDAY nov. go, 1889.
The silver Convention.
The most important matter now pend
ng before the people Of this country is
he remonetisation of silve. The most
Infamous step ever made in the politics
II this nation was that by which silver
was demonetized. 1t was conspiracy |
against every poor man in the country |
Tor the purpose Of making few million
aires richer than before at the expense
Of the masses. From the time OF WASH |
ington the standard of values in this ma |
tion has been the silver dollar OF 4l21a
grains. This is as it ought to be. We
are the great silver producing country Of
the world, and we ought to maintain
the value of the metal. Besides
there are other grave reasons why
changes should not be made in the value
Of the coin of the country. It utterly
upsets the value of all commodities. The
true measure of value is labor. The unit
Of that measure is the product of one
mans toll in one day. Were wheat not
so bulky it would be the best measure Of
values. But because of the bulkiness Of
all useful products of labor, the metals
are made an artificial standard by which
10 measure the value of labor's products.
1t would be better to have single
standard were 1t not there is not sufficient
gold in the world to do the exchanges Of
commerce with. In fact, if single stan
dard is to be used then it should by all
means be silver and not gold, for the
reason that the volume Of the white
metal is sufficient, and that of the yellow
one ia not. But inasmuch as all nations
in ell periods have used the two metals,
until recently, it is best to leave the
matter as it has always been.
The demonetiz alton of silver made two
bushels of wheat worth only as much as
ono was when the currency was properly
expansive for the needs of business. IL
took twice as many days. toll to lift the
mortgage from the farm as it took before.
1t played directly into the hands of
the money changers in the temples
OF commerce, into the hands of the
Shylocks on the business Rialto, into the
hands Of the great pawnbrokers of Wall
street. There is only one advantage
gold has over silver. Sixteen times as
much of the white metal is taken out oi
the mines by an average days labor as oi
the yellow metal. That is, is takes six
teen times as much of the one as of the
other to store up the value of q day e
work. The use of silver certificates en-
tirely removes this disadvantage on the
part of silver, and places it fully on par
with the other metal.
In country like ours where develop
ment goes on at 80 rapid pace, where
new empires are built up in decade,
where population increases at the rate Of
mere than million year, the currency
should keep little more than pace
with the population. To let the circu-
lating medium greatly contract is to
cause stagnation in business, to make
labor cheap, TO make it scarce, TO make
times hard. That is what is going on
now. That is what followed the demon
etizsticn of silver in 1873, and that is
what prevailed until the Bland bill was
passed towards the ond Of the decade.
The Bland bill has been only half
way put in practice, vet it has vitalixed
industries greatly. 1t would do 30 to
a much greater degree were it not that
the national bank notes have been re-
fired at SO great rate. In ten years
from 1879 there has been ehrinkage in
the currency from this canse Of $780,
353, ,493. But for the issue OF certificates
based on silver there would have been
the greatest financial crash known in all
history. There was great cry made by
the pawnbrokers of Wall street in 1856
when the Treasurer of the United States
in his report at the end of the fiscal year
showed that there was 500, ,000, 600
ef re lundant silver coin in the vaults. That
cry has ceased because the hard logic Of
events has shown that the logic of sound
sense was right when itclaimed that this
would right itself. In one year that
suxplussge of0ilver fell to $67, ,000, ,0oO.
In an other year there was only s42, ,000,-
600 of redundant silver coin in
the country, and now there is
only $5,000,0o0 of silver coin
not Offset by outstanding certificates.
Remember, this is in spite of the fact
that the national Government, so much
under the influence of the pawnbrokers,
has always refused to take silver in pay
ment of import duties, or to pay it out in
salaries, so that it is still almost demone.
tixsd.
The Silver Convention at St. Louis is
the In Hoe Signo Viness of every poor
man in America and of every industry
in the country struggling into life.
A COMMUNICATIONS elsewhere gives page
and line for some erasures that appear in