St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-20
THE TRUE MEAN.

In the battle of the standards, which
is now so holly on, the Forgotten Man
again appears. Not a participant, but
deeply interested, he watches the con-
fllct. its fluctuations of victory and re-
pulse, silent and ignored by the con-
testants, and yet having in it the great
est stake of all, because his interests az
fected by the result are greater i'll value
and quantity than all the others.
The struggle is between the standards.
There are on the one side men who would
make gold the sole standard, using the
white metal as subsidiary. token coin.
On the other side are men who, no mat
ter what their pretenSions, are bent on
making silver the standard. They say
they wish to establish an equality. re-
store the parity; but if they get what
they want they will have silver a
standard, with gold commodity selling
at premium, measured by their stand
ard. Any one not blinded can see that
GRESHAM'S law will bring this about
in spite of proteStations or legislation.
But between these extremes are the
great mass Of the people of this country
who care nothing for gold or for silver. as
such. They are Indifferent to the claims
OF either. The supremacy of neither
will enure to their benefit. having mines
of neither metal. What they do want is
safe, solvent, steady money, good
anywhere, of equal values. interchange
able. Whether it is all gold or all silver.
or mixed with both,or with paper repre-
Sentatiyes of either, is irnmaterial to
them.
The man who has exchanged his labor,
to whatever applied, for money is vitality
Interested only in knowing that the
money has value in itself, which value
Will not change by expansion or con-
traction; that will be the same next
month or next year, or whenever he
wishes to use it In other exchanges. He
wants to feel sure that no other kind of
money will be worth more than that
which he has received. This is the po-
sltion OF every man who works, and that
includes pretty nearly everybody.
He has no sentiment in the matter. If
the silver miners have lost because the
value of their product has fallen in the
markets. he feels sorry for them, just
as he does when crop fails or a fire de-
Stroys property; but he cannot see that
he and his fellow workers are under
any obligation to make their losses
good. Like accident and sickness aud
death. these are unavoidable incidents
of life, and must be met and borne with
forti tude when they come. He would
feel precisely the same should condi-
tons be reversed, and gold, by over.
| production, fall in value.
One thing puzzles the Fo rgotten Man.
| lie reads of inventions which reduce
| the cost of producing things, and of the
| general rejoicingS thcreat. He reads
/ the advertisements of m erchants set
| ting forth the great reductions in price.
/ and he sees everybo dy trying TO get
everything DIS cheaply as possible. He
cannot understand why there should be
any exception in favor of any of the
money metals. Why isn't cheaper sill
yer just as much blessing as cheaper
woolens Or fuel OF rents? If the farmer
whose wheat has fallen from 81 to Sc
| cents a buShel can get for it quantity
| of silver which was once worth dollar,
but is now worth so cents, wherein is
| he loser? Why should congress try
to make silver dearer and not wheat?