Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-16
riff tax be removed from

| that the national government should ceaS
iegislatlng SO as to build up one industry Il
the ruin of tine Others
The demands were as much demands o
our order as the sub-treasury demand
Macupe says that anyone who opposes tn,
sub-treaSury demand should be dismissed
from the order. And yet he has been op
posing and denouncing this tariff demand
through the National Economist
our national official organ. and dc
claring that "the tariff Question i.
a hoary breeder of sectional strife" THAI
its agitation by the Democratic party is ar
attempt to galyaniZe this old ghost of sec
tional hatred That its agitation is a tariff
dog-tght IN which the farmers should TAKE
( no interest" And in almost every issue OF
this paper Macune IS editor of the national
official organ, and holding the office OF
chairman of the national executive com.
mittee, has denounced and derided this de,
mand of the national Alliance and pleaded
I with the order 10 only turn its attention "a
the sub-treasury scheme. Now, why has
! he taken such a course, and yet
/ trying to force me 10 resign as a member OF
/ the national legislative committeels There
/ is one answer, and In my opinion but one.
! Macune has been bought up by the pro-
Z tective tariff blrons of the East to try and
/ draw the minds of the farmers from our
, greatest curse, the protective tariff. and to
, divert our attention 20 4 species of legiSla-
ton that will prevent Us from fighting it
Knowing full well that his only hope TO
build up third party in the South is the
sub-treaSury scheme. for he knows one of
the POLITICAL parties will come TO any demand
that the farmers make, or that we can by
united action bring it TO them.
And he knows that the Sub-tre asury
scheme violates every principle of Democ-
: rdcy, as well as good government, and that
the Democratic party cannot and will not
md ND hot fIn,.orrroAr, h
enough of the farmers OF the South to vote
with party that does advocate it TO bring
around a defeat of the Democratic
majority of the South and turn aside the
danger that now stares the protective tariff
baronS of the Eastern states in the face, for
this reason and for this reason alone, in my
opinion, he is sneering at the tariff question
and trying TO keepth Sub-treaSury scheme
only i'll view
/ Will now examine the sub-treasury
scheme and ask my brother farmers, for
the sake OF your wives and children and Tor
the love you bear them, TO listen calmly
and dispassionateiy to plain brother ALI
ance farmer while he gives his reasons to
You, in kindly and fraternal spirit,
scheme is fallacious, and why IL
will bankrupt and destroy US if enacted
into law.
l. The whole scheme and system is based
upon an assumptions false premise.
Macune says, in all his arguments on the
sub-treasury scheme, THAT the volume of
the circulating medium in the United
States that fixes prices, is a fixed volume,
say l,5OO, 000, 600, which is enough to trans
act the business of the country for nine
months in the year, but that during the
months of September, October and No
yember $3.50, DOC, 900 worth of farm
products is thrown upon the market
and that this makes an increased demand
for money, but there is not money sufficient
to meet it. That this flexible demand
comes in contact with an infiexible volume,
thereby producing fluctuations in prices,
on that well settled principle of political
economy that the price of product is
fixed Supply and demand being the same)
by the volume of the money in circulation
at the time.'' Macune is right when he
says that any increase in the volume of cur
rency increases prices, and that any de-
crease in the volume of money decreases
them, for Mr.. John Stuart Mill tells US in
his great work on Political Economy, book
3. chapter s, section 4, that this us the most
proposition in the theory of
currency, and without it we should have no
key TO any of the others" Mr.. Mill does
not mean that an increase in the volume of
money increases the value OF products, but
only the price, q most important distinct
ton which should be kept constantly in
view.
But you will sec from the above quotation
of the position of NIacune, that he bases
the whole sub-treasury scheme upon the
that the volume of the circulation
that makes prices in this country is fixed
volume.
Did anyone ever see or hear OF a sub
treasury advocate try to prove this propo-
sition! No, and why notl 1t is the very
foundation of the whole scheme, for they
all say the only element of the sub-treasury
system that we care anything about is the !
feXibility in the volume of the circulating I
medium that fixes prices.
Then why did not Macune go to work first
md show that this volume that fixes prices
was fixed infexible volume2 Because it
S not true. The volume of the circulating ,
Medium that fixes prices in our country is
iexiole volume and has always been a iexi- .
Die volume, and it is an utter impossibility +.
or it to be a fixed volume.
L will now prove my last assertion, asking 4
Tou to bear two things in mind
l. That it was his duty to have proved .
hat the volume was fixed, because he as
ertS that it is, and bases his whole sub
reasury scheme upon this assertion, and
10 man should be permitted to bring for
ward and advocate measure which will
mango the whole financial system of our
government unless he first proves every /
tatement he makes, especially a statement
o vital as this one which rests at the very
OF his whole system.
q That if show that the volume Of the
REGULATING medium that fixes prices is not
but on the contrary is and has
yer, been flexible, then his whole system
oes down for the lack of foundation. The
olume of money in circulation in the
nlted States is, we might say. fixed
olume Ii. e., the amount of money coined,
tamped and issued by our national govern
lent is ixed). But it is not the vol
me of money alone that fixes the price of
roducts. IL is the volume of the circulat-
lg medium that acts and is used as money
nd in its place. that is by far the most i'm
ortant element in fixing prices. And that
ling that acts in the place of and performs /
Il of the functions of money is credit and
not and has never and cannot become q ,
xed volume.
[ will make my meaning clearer by read
lg from the best recognized authority on |
olitical economy, John Stuart Mill. 'In
state of commerce in which much credit |
habitually given, general prices at any
loment depend much more upon the state
credit than upon the quantity of
oney," land a person who having ,
redit avails himself of it, in the purchase I
goods, creates just as much demand for
lie goods and tends quite as much to raise ;
leir price as if he made an equal amount ,
purchases with ready money!
1.-The credit which we are now called s
pom to consider as distinct purchasing
over, independent of money, is I
course, not credit in its ,
mplest form, that of money, but BY one /
erson to another, and paid directly into his
ands; for when the borrower expends G
rs In purchases he makes the purchases