Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-11-14
PARITY" NONSENSE.
Efforts of the Two Old Parties to Side
track the Silver Question.

Efforts of the Two Old Parties to Side
track the Silver Question.
Anybody with three grains more
sense than doodlebug knows that the
more demand there is for anything, in
proportion to the supply, the higher
price it will bring. The more uses a
thing can be put to the more valuable it
is. The worlds production of silver is
$l63, 900, 900 per annum. OF this the
United States produces about 500. .OOO,-
600, and Mexico S55, 900, 900, making
$l2O, 100000 of the worlds product.
All the rest of the countries produce
but S43, 900, 600, of which Great Britain.
with all her dependencies, produces
less than $4,000, 900. As long as the
United States had free silver coinage
the amount of silver used to make a
dollar was worth 100 cents, for
the simple reason that it
would buy 100 cents worth
of anything, or pay 100 cents worth of
debts, after it was coined, and it could
be coined free. Therefore the owner.
rather than take less than 100 cents for
it, would take it to the mint and have
1T coined. Up to that time (the de-
monetiZation of silver, in 1871 gold
and silver were on parity with each
other at the ratio of 16 to 1 and re-
mained so for eighty years, notwith-
standing England and other countries
had adopted the single gold standard
As long as we had free coinage of sill
yer all the surplus silver not used in
the arts was coined into money or bull
lion bars that passed current as money.
Those who used silver in the arts,
therefore, had to pay the price it was
worth as money, 100 cents for the
amount it required to make a dollar
When Congress demonetized silver, it's
uses being limited and the de-
mand for it not SO great, Of
course it fell in price. This was
equivalent to throwing $50, ,OOO, 900 of
silver on the market to be used in the
arts when only $50, ,OOO,O 900 was re-
qulred. There could be but one result
the fall in the price of silver. The
way to put it back on a parity with
gold is to restore free coinage at the
ratio fixed by our fathers. Why dove
want to wait on Great Britain? She
with all her provinces produces less
than S10,0OO,Oo0 of silver. Mexico
already has free coinage and is prosper-
ing IT the United States would re-
sumo free coinage of S12O, 900, 600. or
about three fourths of the worlds pro-
duct, England could not help herself.
we are told she owns American securi-
tles-bonds, stocks, etc Suppose she
does. They are payable in American
money. Why should we let her dictate
what these securities should be maid
In? II we concede that they shall be
paid IN gold, what guarantee have we
that her next demand will not be that
they be paid in diamonds? Why should
! we shape our financial system to suit
her? The reason she demands gold is
not for the gold itself, bat that the
adoption of that standard makes money
scarce and she is enabled to buv our
products low. That is what she wants.
but why we should want it is very
strange. The leaders of the two old
parties, having sold out to the bankers
of Wall and Lombard streets now
seek to cover up their infamy under
the cry OF international bfmetallism,
and parity between gold and silver
| There is no other nation to consult he
sides Mexico that produces any silver
to amount to anything. Why talk sill
yer coinage with nations that don't nro.
| duce any silver to coin? There is inst, ona
way to establish the parity" between
gold and silver at the old ratio of 16
to }, that is to give them a parity of
treatment-treatt them both alike. Az
Mexico already has free coinage of sill
yer let the United States do the same
! thing. There is demand for more
money. Make money out of silver and
that will increase the demand for sill
yer, and of course restore the prices tn
| where it was when we had free coin
age. When a man begins to talk sin
ternational bimetallism" put him
down for a fool or a dema rorue
When he talks parity" tell him to give
the two metals parity of treatment,
and if that don't work as it once did
/ then he can sing his sono with soma
degree of consistency.