The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-09-10
Indianapolis, Sentinel.

racy's silver piank is siuRularly weak per
haps II Is necessarily so, as the platform
surely has the truth, while hcKinley's at
attack is defense of error.
The complaint OF the Intelligent farmer
Is not that he may not use y three peck
measure instead of four apd call IL
bushel, but 10 Is thst he has Tor several
years been compelled 70 give six pecks 70
the bushel instead four or whatamounts TO
the same thing, he has been compelled TO
give a dollar and a half worth OF product
to get dollar.
Mr.. Mckinley attempts TO obscure this
fact by asserting that the per capita clrcu,
lation of money has steadily increased
since 1861, But the farmer knows as well
as the shrewdest flnancier that money
was not created to exchange heads but TO
exchange wealth and pay debts. In order
to show, then, that money has not increas-
ed in purchasing power TO sucn an extent
that the farmer and producer have had 10
give busnel and half for the dollar
that the bushel once bought. Mr.. Mckin-
ley's statistics should chow, not that money
has increased per capita, but that money
has been increased in the same ratio that
wealth has.
Mr.. Mckinley knows that money was
created to exchange wealth, not men, and
that unless the supply has been kept up IN
proportion to the enormous increase OF
actual wealth the money is no longer
"honest money" or just aud fair stand
ard OF payment.
The enormous increases OF debts are In.
creased demands for money, but they are
as a rule, only deferred payments for
wealth, and, therefore, help to determine
the rate of increase in wealth. If man
buys lot worth $780, and pays for 1t, but
erects q house thereon upon which he
gives q mortgage of 81, 800, bis mortgage is
not only a deferred payment for that
amount of new wealth produced, in the
shape of house TO live in, but it is pretty
generally an evidence that $500 worth OF
actual wealth has been added to the gem
eral stock, Now the wealthier and more
prosperous community is the more
wealth per capita they will have, and the
greater will be their annual increase or II.
Sixty millions of energetic, intelligent,
well,livinR producers, therefore, use con-
siderable more money per capita than
would 60,0O0,000 of thriftless paupers.
If We are a nation of thriftless paupers
then Mr. McKinley's idea that O money
increase Of about $40 per capita in thirty
years is quite sufficient is all right. Butif
this is q nation of the greatest wealth pro-
ducers on the face of the globe, Mr. Nc.
Kinleys per capita idea is all wrong and
illogical.
Unless money ia exempt from or out of
reach of the law of supply and demand its
commercial value or purchasing power,
like the price Of wheat, depends upon the
relation of the supply to the demand. If
the demands or uses for money are
enormously increased annually las they |
certainly are), and the supply in use or in |
sight is not being increased in like proper |
ton, the result is inevitable that the pur-
chasing power of money will increase and |
the price Of products decline. This will |
obviously happen whether the material of |
money be gold, silver, paper, or all three.
The question of relative quantity be- |
tween money and wealth is, therefore, the |
paramount question. The question OF |
s-
the money of whatever material is gov
erned in its purchasing power by that
ratio.
Yet Mr.. Mckinley talks Of hundred
cent.doilar and an eighty-cent-dollar as |
though each kind Of dollar he has in |
mind had its value in itself and entirely |
independent Of the law OF supply and de |
Iuand,
Qtcourse he knows better. He knows
that II either gold or silver were entirely |
striken from the list Of money metals the
supply would be thereby materially les
seHed ana the commercial value OF the
remainder thereby enhanced. Why, then, |
does he talk such "2ufr" to the public2
He knows that when silver was partially
striken from the list that result partially |
followed that gold was thereby enhanced
in value and silver deprecated. He |
knows, too, that no fair national or in
ternational ratio of value between gold |
or silver can be iutelligentiy arrived ut |
until both are again alike freely clothed
with the money fuuCtiOn, and that the |
1rst logical step toward establishing such
q ratio is to set an example 70 other coun-
tries by rehabilitating silver ourselves.
Mr.. Mckinley says nothing Of the Incl
dental benefits to gold producers which
followed silver characterization, butplaccs |
himself in an illogical position in his en-
deavor to show how free coinage or both
metals would help the producers OF silver
In his argument just referred 10 he ig-
nores the fact that silver would. be adj
vanced in value by full demonstration.
Yet he had just finished saying that only
the silver producers might be benefited |
by making this "the dumping ground OF
the worlds silver"
Would the wheat producers be benefited
or injured by making this country the
dumping ground of the worlds wheat?
Isn't the answer clear-that could only
happen from somo concurrent action
which created increased use here for
wheat? If this country should be made
the dumping ground for the worlds dia-
monds, wouldn't diamonds come down? |
How then could our diamond dealers be
enriched by such action?
A small boy at my elbow says "by maxi
ing diamonds money" Right you are
sonny. Mr.. Mckinley sees, and by that
admission acknowledges, that silver \
would advance from 80 cents, and gold
be proportionately deprecated, by fully
demonstrating silver in America or else
where.
The effects on the products OF either
gold or silver would DO Incidental and un-
important. The question 70 consider Is
how would il effect other products?
Wouldn't il go a long way towards cor
recting the injustice by which the farmer
and manufacturer has been compelled to
give more and more product for dollar
until congress began to retrace its steps |
by increasing silver coinage.
Mr.. McKinley's anguish about the poor
soldier In this connection Is touching in
view of the fact that a Republican admin
istration paid the bayonet-holder in green
backs and the bondholder in gold.
Mr.. Mckinley is attempting to give
Ohio, the bankers widow and orphan ar
gument. But how about the farmer and
producer who Is TO pay the soldier? The
soldiers pensions depend upon the abil-
ity of the producers to pay them, and II is
therefore as much to the soldiers interest |
as TO the farmers and manufacturers to
see that the latter are not impoverished |
by q dishonest measure OF values and |
standard OF payments.
Should the farmer suggest increasing |
the supply of money faster relatively than |
wealth increases we should hear great /
hue and cry about an honest dollar, but |
when the dishonesty is progressing blithe- |
ly in the other direction these moralists |
are blind and dumb. IRIQUoIs.
Amsterdam, N. Y, Aug. 20.
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