The advocate., 1892-05-04
AN OPEN LETTER

which l read with pleasure. You say:
81 was very glad to receive letter from
q man who has the courage to cay thathe
Is a member of the Farmers Alliance,
but believes In honest money. 1t seems
strange that so many men are led into
the belief that 70-cent dollar ls as good
as q 100-cent dollar" Well, / am only
one among many who believe in honest
money; In fact, it Is one Of the cardinal
principles of our order, but we may diff
in what it takes to constitute an honest
dollar. You speak Of 7OCent dollar.
We cannot conceive of such thing any
more than we can of a 24-inch yard stick.
We have been taught from our boyhoOd
that 1t takes 100 cents to make dollar.
But you say there Is only 70 cents worth
of silver in silver dollar. I assert that
the silver has not deprecated, but, on the
contrary, gold has appreciated 30 that it
would be more proper to say shat gold
dollar is 140 cent dollar. Do you want
proof of this statement?
Turn to page So of the c9mpaign docu-
ment you was kind enough to send me
and read under the title Of the "Princi-
pies and Policies of the Republican Par
ty." You surely will not refuse dose OF
your own prescription:
For as silver has been taken out of Eu-
ropes coinage the demand for gold has
enormously grown, and grown in proper
tion much greater than the supply. Meas
uring both metals by the standard of COM
modities, it is substantially true to say that
gold has appreciated more than silver has
deprecated. In the silver using nations
silver will buy almost as much of everything
except gold as it would ten or dozen years
ago, and this fact sustains the demand for
"cheaper" money. The advocates of gold
standard allege that the value of gold is in
trinsc and that certain amount of gold
having fixed value should be the standard
of exchange.
This would be all we'll enough if anyone
were able to insure that the supply Of gold
would continually increase in ratio with
the increasing demand for it caused By a
growing population and commerce, but as
a matter of fact it is decreasing in that
ratio, aud therefJrea man who ten years ago
contracted debt which might then have
been discharged with 1000 bushels Of wheat
must to-day pay more than 1000 bushels
to get himself free.
The capitalist can increase his wealth by
simply converting it into gold, putting it
into a vault and holding it idle for series
of years. At the end of ten years it will buy
more provisions and more labor than it
would when he stored it; as the supply of
gold contracts every body must work harder
to get it,
Measured in gold, all obligations have
thus increased in a very short time.
The credit class therefore enjoys vast ad-
vantage over tho debtor class. The men
who work for their living, and who consume
their earnings year by year, are placed in a
most unfair position.
Does not the above quotation sound
poeticsl to your 7 suppose you do not
issue such calamity howls," except for
distribution here In the west. This re-
minds US of the free coinage platform
which the Republicans of our (Seventh)
congressional district endorsed two years
ago to "catch suckers," but the suckers
would not bite"
Yes, am for "honest money" But
honest money is not gradually enhanc-
inO In ual1a - hava diatrihnkad vonP