The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-07-04

That more money is needed to
transact business is the plea for the
free and unlimited coinage Of sill
ver.
The amount of current money in
the United States for each inhabi-
tant, In other words the per capita
amount, is given by the Worlds
Almanac for 1893 at twenty-five
dollars and fifteen cents,-wbich is
considerably more by the waythan
that of any leading country except
France.
Every day we Q the statement
that half the wealth Of the United
States is owned by a few thousand
capitalists and that 1t lies In the
power of from twenty to fifty multi
miJlionaires to bankrupt the re-
mainder OF their fellow-citizens at
at their own sweet will.
The necessary conclusion is that
for the numerically small class of
capitalists there is a per capita
quantity of money enormous in
comparison with that of the "conl-
mon people," that for Tom, Dick
and Harry there is barely q dollar
or two If that. What follows? Is
1t not plain that the trouble is not
that the country lacks money but
that what it has Is so unfairly and
unevenly distributed? The demo-
cratic party has urged for a quar-
ter of o century that the high tariff
enriching a favored class of manu-
facturers together with an e%xtravar
CANT pension system has kept the
masses poor and little else in legis-
lation can be held responsible for
1T. Imagine for a moment the
whole billion and a half and more of
American dollars equally divided
among all the people, and under
such conditions no one would claim
that the per capita was too small.
Suppose that all the silver pro-
duced in the world was coined in
America, wherein would the far
9 of the South be benefited?
increasing the volume of the cur
rency would diminish its purchas-
ing power. Consequently, the
prices of corn, wheat bacon and
all manufactured goods would i'm
mediately rise. Southern farmers
sell cotton and practically nothing
else. The bulk of their product is
exported and the influence of the
English demand is the most i'm
portant factor in fixing the price.
Indeed the American demand
might to some extent be stimulated
by a plethora Of money but the
situation that would confront the
southern producer would be higher
prices for every necessary and
luxury that he buys and scarcely a
perceptible Improvement in the
money value of his one and only
salable product.
Is it lot a just inference That
Southern statesmen would do we'll
to cease tinkering with financial
problems of doubtful expediency
and endeavor to teach their people
how to liberate themselves from a
one crop servitude?
If the quantity of money in cir
culation in the United States were
multiplied by ten, not one copper
would find its way to Laurens
county until some article or other
were given in exchange for it and
and cotton is the one commodity
that Laurens farmers would have
to sell.
What is hurting us in this part
of the world is q bad habit. 1t is
not idleness, nor want of industry,
nor absence Of thrift. 1t is simply
the habit of year by year placing
entire dependence on the cot
ton patch. To be sure there is
money In the cotton plant and it
ought to be cultivated, but 1t is a
marvel that the experience of
many weary years does not impress
the truth that 1t alone cannot and
will not enrich every man who
happens to be born poor.
$500 h
We observe that dispensary adj