The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-26
SENATOR JONES TELLS WHY.
Gives His Reasons For Leaving the
Republican Party.
There Can Be No Prosperity With.
out Due Increase in the
Quantity of Money.
WASHINGTON. Aug

can State Central Committee of Nevada:
Dear Sir-Having become firmly convinced
that the Republican party organization is
unalterably opposed to the free coinage of
silver at the American ratio of 16 to /, or
at all, except with the consent of foreign
governments and at a ratio to be dictated
by them, l have to announce that | can no
longer act with that party.
/ have not arrived at this conclusion
without extreme regret. 1t is always pain
full to sever associations of long standng,
but fidelity 10 my convictions and my
imperative duty, as l see it, to the people
of Nevada who have long ana greatly hon
ored me- compel me to this course. To my
constituents | need hardly say that what
ever change has occurred in the relation
between the Republican party and myself
is not change in me. My opinions are in
every respect what they have always been.
/ hold today with all the earnestness of the
day Of my election every one of the prin-
ciples for whose prior support in the senate
l was for the fourth time honOred by my
constituents with a seat in that body.
l am firmly of the conviction that
in the absence of a monetary system that
Will admit of the quantity of money con
stantly keeping pace with demand it is
vain to expect progress. In this age indus
trial achievement is by aggregation of la
borers. 1t is the age of furnaces and fac
tories without number. These depend for
j or and especially for unbroken contin-
Ety of operation upon institution UNI
known to former periods of history-namely
the time contract. Upon the degree of ac-
curacy with which the managers and or
ganizers of large establishments and pro
iectors of great enterprises make bust
ness forecasts will depend the enormously
important consideration of continuity of
employment not only of those directly en-
gagged in production, but of all who, wheth-
er with hand brain, earn their own live
lhood Idleness is the destruction, moral
and physical of a people.
The fate of mankind hangs upon the
question whether civilization can persist
while larger and larger numbers of people
IN all countries are being relegated to idle
ness The compulsory idleness of willing
workers, of whom there are millions even
in times much more prosperous than the
present. is due to force that acts upon
industrial society like deadly but odorless
gas, which, because of it's subtle character
escapes detection. In its methods it is as
silent as time. vet as memorable as death
Its victims usually attribute their suffer
ings to every cause but the true one. This
fatal influence affects alike employer and
employed, agrieulturist and artisan.
RAPACIOUS POWER OF INCREASING
VALUE IN THE UNIT OF MONEY.
What is this power? 1t is the rapacious
and engorging power of an ever increasing
value in the unit of money-that is to say,
in the dollar. When obligation has
been entered into requiring the payment
of money at a future time, this is the sub
tie alchemy which. without effecting any
change in the written figures, yet enlarges
the burden of the obligation by extracting
from him who has agreed to pay money
and all business men are of this category
more sacrifice for each dollar than dol
lar represented at the time the obligation
was made This process paralyzes industry
and relegates to a ptiful and corroding
idleness multitudes of willing workers.
This it accomplished by producing an arti-
fetal and unnatural fall in the prices of
property and in the products of labor-a
fall not arising from the natural operation
of the forces of supply and demand affect
ing the property and commodities, but
from change in the relation existing be-
tween the supply of and the demand for
money.
When population and business are in
creasing, if there be no concurrent increase
of the quantity of money, general prices
must fall. All political economists agree
that, other things remaining unchanged,
a dminution in the quantity of money
equally whether it be accomplished by an
actual falling off in the supply of money
when population and business are station
airy, or by the quantity Of money remain
ing fixed while population and business
are increasing. This country stands in the
In ia ic nj
ly increasing at a rate unknown in any
other country of the world. In order that
prices, upon which depend the uninterrupt-
ed employment of wage earners and the
capacity of business men and agrcuturists
to meet their moneyed obligations may
not be artfcally pressed down for The
benefit solely of a coterie of money lenders
and people with fixed incomes, it is abso-
lutely necessary that the quantity of our
money should increase pari passu with
demand. BY means of falling prices profits
which should come to the enterprising pro-
ducer are absorbed by the lender of money.
Thus the working bees of humanity-both
employers and employed, alike brain work
ers and hand workers are paying an ever
increasing tribute to the drones.
THE CLASSES BENEFITED BY LOW
PRICES AND DEAR MONEY.
When people see that general prices are
falling and think it an advantage they
do not perceive the enormously important
consequences lying concealed in the fall.
They do not perceive the converse of the
overwhelmingly. that what is really
happening is that money is becoming dear
er. To say that prices of property and
commodities are coming down is to say
that money is going up. The only classes
benefited by this-and they are benefited
unjustly-are the classes that have lent
money at interest and living on fixed
incomes. Their only ''products being
bonds, mortgages and money, they gladly
see these rising in value by the fall of gen
eral prices, to the extreme detrment of in :
dustry and commerce.
To my mind, therefore, the very key
stone of the arch of national progress is a
sufficiency of money, and for this country
a "Sufficiency' means a constantly increas-
ing quantity. Without such increase all
the factors that go to make up this great
arch must tumble in confusion to the ground.
In the presence of money famine the most
consummate craftsmanship and the most
intelligent business foresight are more help
less than in the presence of an all pervad-
ing and consuming pestilence, for the hor-
rors of even pestilence may be rlitigatet d
and it's ravages staid by the manifold as
suaging offices and all commanding power
of money. For the absence of money moth
ing avails.
To attempt, whether with or without q
tariff, to secure national prosperity with
out sufficient quantity of money is to at
tempt to float ships without proper depth
of water or to conduct passengers or
freghts over railroads without a sufriciency
of engines and cars or even a sufficient
number of rails to constitute a continuous
track.
While. therefore, not Understanding the