The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1894-07-20

present business demands. Men VIII o11-
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 wiz,
/ however, agree that the volume Of money
in use should continue to be such that the
pOs0cr Of the money ttsalt to purchase bHHsGn
EFFORT should 1seUer increase. All fair
minded men viii 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 viii 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 a community
when there was a sufficient number of
monometallists to make the question
practical one. In Kansas, however, there
is not one man in 20 who will claim to
favor monometallism. What is bimetal-
lismS Who are bimetallistsF
These terms are of recent origin and
date from the year 1869. Webster defines
bimetaIlism as the Iegalized use of two
metals in the currency of a country at
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 well might
man claim to be trimetallist because he
believes in the use of copper pennies as
to claim that he is q genuine bimetallist
because he believes in the use of silver as
q 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 bimetaIlism.
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 Is times as great as that of
silver, and we cannot therefore safely coin
both metals at that ratio.
/ WhiIR ar1nh0tfCnllU danU that
| (aside from its money Value) the value Of
gold is Is times as great as that of silver,
and while firmly believe that if We ever
have International bimetalIism the ratio
will not be greater than 154 to 1, cannot
see the object of wasting time arguing
with man az TO the ratio rlOtO. No other
country except Mexico has as high a ratio
as the United States. France, for 70
years, with a population of about 80 mil
lions, by free coinage maintained the
parity between gold and silver at the ratio
of 154 to l. Cannot the United States,
with 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-vaIue argument? VIII an
international agreement inject intrinsic
value into silver?
What is this myth of the relative in
tr1nsic values of gold and silver affecting
their monetary values3 Intrinsic means
inside, inherent. Some use it as synony-
nous with natural Value has two mean
ings. We speak of a things value when
we mean its utility. We also speak of its
value when we mean its price. When we
I Is =,
intrinsic price, for the price of an article
is regulated by the estimation in which it
is held by others. When one speaks of the
intrinsic value of an article, then he
means the inherent or natural usefulness
of the article. Now, the natural use aGLnesS
of 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
its natural usefulness.
The intrinsic UGIaEs of gold and silver,
then, must be Interchangeable, and when We
remember that the relative monetary cal
Wes of silver and gold have varied from a
ratio of 8 to to g ratio of 16 to 1, We see
how absurd the claim is that the money
ratio between silver and gold is deter
mined by their intrinsic values.
The advocates of independent free coin
age demand the restoration of silver to
the position it occupied before it was am
pushed; and, as we all admit that the ratio
is purely matter of legislation, we have
no fear about silver taking care OF itself
If it has ga fair field and no favor" We
claim that by reason of the discrimination
against silver, practised both openly and
clandestinely, within generation, silver
has been crippled, gold has been aug
mented in value. and great injustice done
20 every citizen OF the nation except the
bondholder, the money lender, and the gold
miner.
Another puerile objection to the free
coinage Of silver is that the silver dollar
is B dishonest dollar. Is il not little
singular that We never hear this charge
except against 4 dollar that is supposed
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