People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-07-07
SPEED THE DAY.
The Time WIZ Come When Civilization
VIII Discard the Use of Both Gold and
Silver as Mate -ial for Money,

Inc bankers magazine Is one OF the
Oldest and ablest of our financial peri
Odicals. For nearly fifty years it has
been standard authority on none
tary questions In its June issue it dis
cusses the recent financial perturba-
tions, and expresses this conclusion:
The obvious lesson is that there Is altogether
too much paper money af1oat for the metallic
basis which il represents. What is true Of this
country IS true Of every other, and England is
BY no means exempt Demand a few millions
Of pounds Of the Bank Of England and immedi-
ately the rate Of discount is advanced. which
is another way Of saying to the world, we do
not wish to spare our gold Why this feari
What will happen if il does go: Is there not
enough for all purposes: The action OF the
bank means, we cannot spare much without
some risk. and therefore We will resort 10 a
more stringent method for keeping it, Any
mOuetarv system, therefore, tina. has fear Of
this kind nhering in il is defective and should
be reniedied If the drawing of few hundred
millions from this country shall awaken
the people to this truth it will be a good
thing. Perhaps the blessing will not be ex-
perienced to-day, but ii will surely give all
those who believe in unlimited paper money a
setback to their theories But as we have al
ready sid, this experience is not peculiar We
are just as well of as England. Austria and
other nations: the same thing may happen to
them at any time The lesson to be needed is,
we should form larger metallic basis, and if
theQuantity Of gold cannot be increased. then
silver should be used OF course, we do not
mean to imply that the present silver policy
should be continued; but we do mean 10 assert
that the world cannot safely discard the use OF
silver as the basis Of its paper issues and if it
thinks il can and persists in doing 50, we have
no doubt whatever that disarrangements and
depressions and paniCs will follow. Perhaps
the time may come when the use OF silver may
be discarded, and gold also but that time is
not yet and the present flutter, caused by the
exodus Of our gold to Europe, and the fiutter
on the other side when a few millions is with.
drawn from their banks, is unanswerable proof
OF the fact that nations and banking institu-
tons are trying TO sustain paper currency on
too small means Of payment In other words,
there is an ever present fear that thev cannot
maintain their obligations The remedy which
every one clearly. enough sees is larger use Of
the two metals
1t will be observed that there is no
mention here of the Sherman law as
the cause of the financial futter or the
outflow of gold; authorities like the
Bankers Magazine leave such false
statements to certain politicians and
newspapers that might be named
The plea of the Bankers Magazine
is that which has often been made by
the Journal 1t is that the gold basis
alone is too narrow to carry the vast
superstructure of paper money and
credit, and that the two metals are in
diSpensable to that security which a
broad and ample metallic basis can
alone impart.
1t is often said that silver is largely
used now in this country. THAT is
true, but how is it used? Not as money
of redemption, sharing with gold, as
the Bankers Magazine says is neces-
sary, the work of redemption of paper
issues, but as mere token money, itself
to be redeemed in gold. The words of
the article quoted are a strong plea for
free coinage of both metals.
In view Of these words, how does Tie
cry for wildcat state bank issues sp-
pear? Aside from their insecurity thev
would only add to the superstructure
of credit which the Bankers Magazine
says in the article quoted is already too
large for the existing metallic basis.
What is needed is more money to re-
deem with, and not more so-called
money to be redeemed. The necesSi-
ties Of the situation can only be met By
a large increase of the metallic basis,
and inasmueh as the gold supply of the
world cannot be increased the cure can
only come by drawing silver and gold
together as coordinate money of ulti-
mate redemption on a fixed ratio, which
was the position they occupied toward
each other and toward the paper money
and the business of the world for CEN
turtles prior to 1S7S.-Kansas City Jour
nal.
The words in the quotation from the
Bankers Magazine possessing the most
significance and upon which the most
emphasis should be laid are these:
Perhaps the time may come when the
use of silver may be discarded. and gold
also, but that time is not come yet"
The ideal Of Bartholdi's statue, Lib
erty Enlightening the World, can in
no wise more nearly approximate a
glorious realization then by the stamp
ing out in the United States of the hui
manity enslaving fallacieS specie
basis" and specie redemption" What
is needed is not more money to re-
deem with" but a suficiency of money
that needs no redeemer. Civilization
must retrace its steps and grope back
ward until the suffering and toiling
masses of humanity regain the liberty
once enjoyed, but lost with the first
coinage of silver coins by the Roman
empire 266 years before the Christian
era.
In the report Of the monetary COM
mission of 1876 are found these words:
At the Christian era the metallic money Of
the Roman empire amounted to 81, $40, 900, oJO By
the end Of the fifteenth century it had shrunk
to less than sa)O,Ol,OOO During this period a
most extraordinary and baleful change took
( place in the condition of the world Popula-
! ton dwindled and commerce, arts, wealth and
/ freedom all disappeared The people were re
duced by poverty and misery to the most de-
1 graded conditions Of serfdom and slavery. The
! disintegration Of society was almost complete
The conditions Of life we're so hard that iadi-
yidual selfshneSs was the only thing consistent
with the instinct of self-preservation AL
public spirit all generous emotions. all the
noble aspirations CT man shriveled and disap.
peared as the volume of money shrunk and as
! prices fell
History records no such disastrous transition
as that from the Roman empire to the dark
ages Various explanations have been given Of
anti - l.