The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-11-27
HOW VERY HONEST.
Very Funny to See shylock ArraixneA =
tho Side OF Integrity.

Very Fanny to See shylock ArralgneA -
tho Side Of Integrity.
The opponents of free silver coiaaga
shout loudly for an honest dollar
They never had such q spasm Of in.
tegrity before Tho dear people
must be saved from the deragogues.
Tho dollar must contain one hundred
cents" 1t is the old cry of .wolf
volt" but the wolf this time is dressed
in sheep skin and doing the shouting
himself Never before, say the Re.
publicans would dollar purchase SO
much of the necessities of life. They
might have truthfully added that
never before in the past three
decades did it take so much
hard work to earn the dollar.
A high-priced dollar means cheap
commodities. Cheap commodities
under the present system means low
wages and poor returns from legiti-
mate industry. The people want
dollar that will do something more
than purchase the necessities of life.
They want dollar that will pay debts
and taxes aud in earning the dollar
to liquidate debt they DON'T want to
give any more hard labor than they
would have to have given at the time
the debt was contracted. There are
two kinds of debt; one in dollars, the
other in hard work. For instance a
farmer borrows 81, 900 at time when
wheat is So per busheL Five hundred
bushels of wheat would pay the debt
The farmer pays the interest from
year to year; the money power con-
tracts the volume of currency; as
the volume contracts the purchas-
ing power of the dollar increases;
the relative price of farm products
decrease. and finally the price of
wheat falls to 81 per bushel and the
former concludes to pay his debt At
the time the debt was contracted, if
the farmer wanted So he gave one
bushel Of wheat for it Now that the
debt must be paid, the farmer for ev-
cry So must give two bushels of wheat.
In other words when the 81, 900 debt
was contracted five hundred bushels
would have paid it. or the product of
twenty-five acres at twenty bushels per
acre. But under the contracted cur
rency and dear dollar regime it takes
one thousand bushels of wheat, or the
product of fifty acres at twenty BUSH
els per acre. The farmers debt stood
still reckoned in dollars but doubled
in hard work. Notice how the dear
dollar works in paying the fixed sal
airy of a county officer. In eastern
Kansas in 1866 wheat was So. so per
bushel. Let the salary of a county
treasurer be $4,000. Then twelve
hundred bushels of wheat would have
paid the taxes to meet that larry.
This year wheat is IS cents per bushel
in Kansas. Let the salary remain the
same and it will take four thousand
bushels of wheat to meet the taxes or
three and one-third times as much
labor in the wheat field to pay the
same salary as it would have taken in
1866. Now, apply this to the fixed
salary of all public officers, for the
people pay all the taxes that pay all
the salaries. The point to keep in
mind is that the county treasurer's
salary, remaining the same in dollars
increased in purchasing power three
and one third times under the dear
dollar idea while the farmers labor
to pay the taxes to meet the salary in
creased three and one-thi rd times
Nonconformist.