Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-07-26

Ap0NON W udWOus Auoy VIII uluof hb "
the prOportionatc amount needed whel
compared with the volume Of bushes
transacted. All fair-minded men will
however, agree that the volume Of mono,
in use should continue to be such that IN
potUer Of the money unit 10 purchase humGi
effort should neper Increase. All fair
minded men will also concedo that whel
human brains and human muscle, by tn
aid of capital, have made human effor
more productive, the increment, tho ad
vantage, the profit, should not be appro
priated by capital, but should be oquitablI
divided between capital and intelligen
labor.
The proper amount of money, then, IL
use In any community should be such tina
human labor will not only not decrease IL
value, but will continually increase In pro
portion to the increased power Of capital
Can this best be secured by monometal
lism or bimetallismH To answer this ques
ton might be necessary in a community
when there was a sufficient number Of
mOnOmetallists to make the question I
practical one. In Kansas, however, there
Is not one man in 20 who will claim Il
favor monOmetallism. What is bimetal
lismf Who are bimetallistsf
These terms are of recent origin an6
date from the year 1862 Webster defines
bimetallism as the legalized use Of two
metals in the currency of a country at 9
fixed relative value. Neither the definition
nor the derivation of the term justifes itf
use to designate any arrangement whereby
one metal is favored at the expense of the
other; and no man is bimetallist in the
true sense of the term unless he is In ia.
vOr Of the legalized use of both metals
without discrimination. Az we'll might q
man claim to be trimetallist because he
believes In the use of copper pennies, az
to claim that he is a genuine bimetallist
because he believes in the use Of silver ae
subsidiary coin of restricted issue and
limited legal-tender quality. No man is a
true bimetallist unless he is willing TO
grant equal opportunities to both metals.
Az the people have investigated this
question, the sentiment in favor Of the
unlimited coinage of silver has grown 80
strong that its opponents have been
driven from one position TO another, until
thoy have finally planted themselves upon
the rock Of international bimOtaIlism.
The absurdity Oftho opposition to In
dependent free coinage by tho United
States becomes apparent when We listen
to the arguments offered in favor Of inter
national bimetallism; and the objections
offered to independent free coinage by
our nation are nulliied by tho advO0stes
Of international bimetallism.
The most jealous opponents Of free
coinage tell US that the money values Of
both gold and silver depend upon their in
trinsic value, and that the reason the
United States cannot safely adopt free
coinage is that the intrinsic value of gold
is more than 16 times as great as that Of
silver, and we cannot therefore safely coin
both metals at that ratio.
While l most emphatically deny that
aside from its money value) the value of
gold is Is times as great as that of silver,
and while firmly believe that II we ever
have international bimetallism the ratio
will not be greater than 15a to /, cannot
see the object of wasting time arguing
with man as to the ratio nosO. No other
country except Mexico has as high a ratio
as the United States. France, for 10
years, with population of about 80 mill
lions, by free coinage maintained the
parity between gold and silver at the ratio
of 152 to /. Cannot the United States,
with population Of 70 millions, maintain
the parity at the ratio of 16 to II
But the most earnest opponent Of free
coinage admits that whatever ratio may
be determined upon by international
agreement will enable the world to main
tain the parity of the two metals at the
ratio agreed upon. What then becomes
Of the intrinsio-value srgumentH Will an
agreement inject intrinsic
value into silverH
What is this myth of the relative in
jrlnsic values of gold and silver affecting
their monetary valuesH Intrinsic means
inside, inherent. Some use it as synony-
nous with natural. Value has two mean
ngs. We speak of things value when
We mean its utility. We also speak of it's
value when we mean its price. When we
Jpeak of intrinsic value we do not mean
price, for the price of an article
ia regulated by the estimation in which it
g held by others. When one speaks of the
value of an article, then he
means the inherent or natural usefulness
If the article. Now, the natural usefulness
# an article can never change. We may
put an article to new uses, but by so doing
We do not increase its natural usefulness
We simply discover or take advantage of
ts natural usefulness.
The Intrinsic vGIIe Of gold and silver,
hen, must be Interchangeable, and when we
emember that the relative monetary UaL- |
Ies of silver and gold have varied from
alto Of to to ratio of 16 to /, we see |
low absurd the claim is that the money
alto between silver and gold is deter
mined by their intrinsic values.
The advocates of independent free coin |
ge demand the restoration of silver to
he position it occupied before IL was am
'ushed; and, as we all admit that the ratio
5 purely a matter of legislation, we have
10 fear about silver taking care of itself
it has "a fair field and no favor" We
lain that by reason of the discrimination
gainst silver, practised both openly and
within q generation, silver
as been crippled, gold has been aug
lented in value, and great injustice done
o every citizen of the nation except the
the money lender, and the gold
miner.
Another puerile objection to the free
oinsge of silver is that the silver dollar
, dishonest dollar. Ia ID not little
ingular that we never hear this charge
xcept against dollar that is supposed
D be easier obtained than some other dol