The herald., 1894-08-25
FINANCIAL HUMBUGGEaY IN PARTY
PLATFORMS.

It makes one weary to see the party
platforms of state after state reiterate
the plausible sophism, originally formu-
lated by ex-president Harrison, de.
manding that "all our dollars shall be
equal to every other dollar" in other
words. that our silver dollars shall have,
not their own proper or normal value as
30 much bullion-which they would
have under free coinage-but that they
shall be made equal to our present ap-
precistsd gold dollar, which means that
they shall be. as they now are, though
these short-sighted platform makers
don't seem to know it, artifcially
doub bled in value-which is exactly what
We do not want.
To sdopt this vicious formula is prac-
tically to declare for the single gold
standard; for our so-called "best dol
lar" thereby meaning our dearest dol
lar, ia the gold dollar. 1t is q contra
diction of terms for any man or body OF
men to resolve that they are bimetallists
and that at the same time they want the
intrinsic value Of the bullion in our
standard silver dollar to be artifcially
raised-in fact doubled-in order to
make it conform to the gold dollar.
Whilst it is highly desirable that all
of our dollars shall have equal value, it
lie utterly repugnant to any scientific
theory OF money that standard dollars of
either specie shall have any other value
than that which the metal that is in
them has. The moment our standard
dollars, of either specie, acquire an arti.
fcial value other than their commodity
value, that moment they cease to be
standard money in any true sense of the
term; it ia then that they cease to exert
any influence on the other or higher
specie, or to prevent its further rise I;
and thus the great benefit OF the double
or alternative standard is lost or thrown
away.
One OF the greatest economic evils
that can befall the human race is gen.
eral and persistent rise in the value OF
money, because such rise means fall
Gn the nominal value at east) OF all
property measured by that money. The
unparalleled rise of money that has
been going on for 20 years ia the cause
OF causes. not only of the economic but
Of many OF the the social and political
evils which now sfflict the world. The
very end and aim of the double or al.
tentative standard is to 80 equalizs the
burdens of the two money metals by
transferring the excess of work done by
she higher, to the lower. as to lessen the
demand for ths one and to increase the
demand for the o,hor. thereby causing
them by force OF natural law, to ire.
sistibly assimjlats in value or to gravi-
tate to a commo or intrinsic par, at a
given ratio. But this can only be done
by using both metals with free coinage
"a potential money. With free coinage
Of both gold and silver. each class OF
dollars would have their own and not q
borrowed value; and their values, at
present and for time. would not be
identical, but they would tend to come
together, and whsn they did come
together, or to par with each other,
they would etay there. l. e., SO long as
We adhered. in accordance with the true
theory of bimetallism, to our lower in
stead OF to our higher specis.
The truth is. the relative value Of
SslA. because of the enormously in