Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-09-09
REPLY FROM T. A. MeNEAL.


EDITOR INDEX: In your last issue you state |
that cay that increasing or contracting the |
volume of currency has no effect on the prices |
of property. / do not think ever made that
statement. though it is possible that in the
course of an impromptu talk when words cam
not be chosen with particular care, may have
said something like that.
What INTENDED 10 say was that the price of
products was not necessarily contracted or
regulated by the volume of currency, AMI This
proposition can be established to the satisfac-
ton OF any fair minded unprecedented man.
In the year 1859 the United States was bless
ed with an abundant crop OF all cereals. Her
wheat and corn crops were exceptionally
large. That year corn sold in Chicago during
the months OF August and September. as rec
ollect, at 26 cents per bushel, and wheat at
from 6 to IS cents. The year 1891 is also Q
phenomenal crop year in the United States.
For some weeks corn has been ranging I'm Chi
cago from 62 to 70 cents per buehel, and wheat
from IS cents to 81 10 per bushei.
In the mean time the leading apostles OF des-
pair are proclaiming Il suppose at so much per
proclaim that the currency of the country is
being steadily contracted. If this be true. Mr.
Editor, will you please explain to me how it
comes that the price of corn "nd wheat, as
compared with the price in 1889, has risen from
so to $50 per cent, especially if, as you clain
the price OF products goes up or down In pro-
portion to the volume of currency.
Again, it has been the constant claim of the
opponents of protection that the protective
tariff is no benefit to the farmer, for the rea-
son that the price of his products was fixed by
the markets Of Liverpool, and that argument
has been the most plausible and the hardest
to meet from the protective STANDPOINT, so far
as the farmers were concerned.
Now, nobody claims that the money stand
ard Of Liverpool is anything put the gold stand
ard. If, then, the price of our farm products
is measured by the gold standard of Liverpool,
how could we increase the price by issuing a
vast volume of irredeemable paper money on
this side of the water. We might dilute our
currency, but the gold standard would meas.
ure it's value, and would measure the real price
paid for products after all.
You might take one quart of milk and pour
1t into a vessel with two quarts of water The
mixture would still look somewhat like milk,
but the individual who saw the milk and water
before they were commingled would hardly
be fool enough to suppose there was any more
milk In the three quarts than in the one. So
long as the price of our farm products must
of Europe, just SO long will any attempt to
initiate our currency, disregarding the gold
standard entirely, as is proposed by the PEG
pies party, prove as futile as pouring water
in the milk.
In the one case you spoil what milk you
have, without adding to it any nourishing
power. In the other case you spoil your cur
rency without adding to it any purchasing
power. Its purchasing power would still be
just what it was worth in gold.
1t is no answer to this to say that the silver
dollar has purchasing power Of some 20
cents greater than its gold value. Tho only
thing that has ever given it that purchasing
power was the fact that it could be exchanged
for gold dollar, If desired. and this made it
virtually redeemable in gold. If 1t had not
been redeemable In gold, or If the holders Of
silver dollars had not believed they could ex-
change them for gold, or any other kind of
money when they desired, the silver dollar
could never have been maintained at par.
The school of finance to which you now belong
lays down as their fundamental principle that
anything is money that is legal tender; that
anything is legal tender that will pay debts,
and that anything can be made to pay debts
by an edict of law. II this is true we have in
deed arrived at solution of all the difficulties
which hedge about a human government. AS
long as there Is debt to pay, the government
can, by its edct; say Let it be paid and it is
DONE" 1t is the supreme power of the land
which makes the edict, there is no higher pow
er to which it is accountable: consequently its
authority is unlimited. Its edict costs nothing
no more than did the edict of the Almighty
when he stretched his hand over the new born
world and said Let there be light" and this
wonderful power should be freely exercised
for the benefit OF the people. So long as there
| is debt to pay, let the government issue its
money to pay it. Why, Mr.. Editor, know that
you in your magnanimity of soul would pay
your neighbOrs' debts if you could do it with
out costing you anything. Are you more gen.
erous than this government ought to be?
And yet your party propose to loan this debt
| paying money to the farmers at two per cent.
| per annum. What rank injustice to charge in
terest for what costs the government nothing.
| But you say the paper, the labor, ETC., neces-
| sary to make this money will cost something.
True, the government would be in debt to the
paper mill, the engraver, and the printer; but
| then all that is necessary to pay debt is piece
| of paper declared to be a legal tender by the
| government. After the government gets
| through issuing this money to the farmers, it
| H AA soy ~ 'n0 paper hitI' Tic chBrdNeT,
and the printer: We'll, boys, what is your
| bull? Whatever it is, just run off enough more
legal tender to pay yourselves. Be liberal.
Don't stint yourselves
And this sort of moonshine on a shovel, this
palpabe absurdity is to be the foundation of a
party which you say will sweep the country.
have too much faith, Mr. Editor, in the COM
mon sense of the American people to believe
this can be true. Yours Truly,
| T. A. MCNRAL.