Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1894-07-26

fer as to the amount OF money per capita
needed by nation. They will differ as To
the proportionate amount needed when
compared with the volume Of business
transacted. All fair-minded men will
however, agree that the volume of money
in use should continue to be such that thu
potoer Of the money unit to purchase human
effort should nerer increase. ALI fair
minded men will also concede that when
human brains and human muscle, by the
aid of capital, have made human effort
more productive, the increment, the ad'
vantage, the profit, should not be appro'
priated by capital, but should be equitably
divided between capital and intelligent
labor.
The proper amount of money, then, in
use in any community should be such that
human labor will not only not decrease in
value, but will continually increase in pro-
portion to the increased power of capital
Can this best be secured by monometal-
lism or bimetallism? To answer this ques-
ton might be necessary in community
when there was sufficient number of
monometallists to make the question a
practical one. In Kansas, however, there
is not one man in 20 who will claim to
lismf Who are bimetallists?
These terms are of recent origin and
date from the year 1869. Webster defines
bimetallism as the legalized use of two
metals in the currency of a country at a
fixed relative value. Neither the definition
nor the derivation of the term justifies its
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. As we'll might a
man claim to be trimetallist because he
believes in the use of copper pennies, as
to claim that he is a genuine bimetallist
because he believes in the use of silver as
a 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.
As the people have investigated this
question, the sentiment in favor of the
unlimited coinage of silver has grown so
strong that its opponents have been
driven from one position to another, until
they have finally planted themselves upon
the rock of international bimetallism.
The absurdity of the opposition to in
dependent free coinage by the 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 nullified by the advocates
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 metal ut that ratio.
While | most emphatically deny that
aside from its money value) the value of
gold is 16 times as great as that of silver,
and while firmly believe that if we ever
have international bimetallism the ratio
will not be greater than 1871 to l, l cannot
see the object of wasting time arguing
with a man as to the ratio noto. No other
country except Mexico has as high a ratio
as the United States. France, for rs
years, with population of about 80 mil
lions, by free coinage maintained the
parity between gold and silver at the ratio
of 15i to l. Cannot the United States,
with a population of 20 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 intrinsic-value argumentY Will an
agreement inject intrinsic
value into silverS
What is this myth of the relative in
,rinsic values of gold and silver affecting
their monetary valuesS 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 its
value when we mean its price When we
speak of intrinsic value we do not mean
price, for the price of an article
Is regulated by the estimation in which it
Is 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
IF 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 pdlue of gold and silver,
hen, must be Interchangeable, and when we
'emember that the relative monetary udt-
ies of silver and gold have varied from a
alto of 8 to l to a ratio of 16 to l, 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
Ige demand the restoration of silver to
he position it occupied before it was am
pushed; and, as we all admit that the ratio
s purely a matter of legislation, we have
10 fear about silver taking care of itself
( 1t has "a fair field and no favor" We
,laim that by reason of the discrimination
Igainst silver, practised both openly and
within generation, silver
las been crippled, gold has been aug
nented 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
coinage of silver is that the silver dollar |
3 a dishonest dollar. Is il not little |
ingular that we never hear this charge
xcept against q dollar that is supposed |
O be easier obtained than some other dol |
more than he promised to pay; a dollar
hat requires more sacrifice, more toll,
more self denial, than debtor contracted