The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-01-02
rHREE rMPoRTANr QUESTIONS.

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rency because every Is 8 grains are
worth 100 cents, can some logician TIL
me why 10e cents worth of any other
imperishable commodity cannot be
Mtilized with equal safetyi If any one
can deposit 81, 900 worth Of gold bull
dion and receive in lieu thereof 81,
worth of certificates representing a
value in the metal deposited, will some
philosopher show nae the improperly
and impracticability Of depositing
$1,000 worth of cotton, corn or wheat
at the market price, whatever that
may be, as a basis of a similar circula
tioni If the validity of a currency,
whether of the United States or any
nation, depends upon the merits of its
basis, where is the propriety in the
conclusion that gold is the only prop
erty that can be used for such a pur-
poseg II, as the goldbugs themselves
admit, it is practicable to have a cur
rency founded upon gold because it is
q property that the whole world can
utilize, why should a discrimination be
made between it and other property Of
equal desideratumi
I did not begin this article expecting
to branch off very far in financial dis
cussion; 1 have no desire to become
notable as a newspaper correspondent;
my object in this as in other commUni-
cations has been to get at the truth, to
lay well the foundation of reason, and
then proceed accordingly. The great
question that now presents itself for
consideration is, what will the legisla
ton on finances in the future BET Gold
bug Cleveland has very plainly made
known his intention. It is discernable
beyond all controversy that he is ire
vocably opposed to any and all money
except gold, and that the administra-
tion, of which he is chief, has made
manifest to the world, not by its words
but by its action, that it will harken
to the voice of Wall street, let the cut
come as it may. 1t has been asserted
and that by one who knows, that the
demand for money was equal to the de-
mand for all other things. This is an
assertion that needs no argument to
make permanent it's authenticity; it is
fact in and of itself that no sane man
will attempt to scruple. The demand
for money is like and precisely the
same as the demand for bread. When
there are IS, O0O, 900 people in a country
and the amount of bread in said coun-
try is in equal proportion to it's people,
it follows as a matter of course that
when one half of the bread of that
country is destroyed, starvation as a
natural consequence will be the result.
This is one picture in the contraction
of bread. Another picture is, the man
or men who hold the remainder or the
undestroyed part would say to the
starving son and daughters of men,
this bread is now mine and you will
pay me whatever I charge for it. The
monopolizers Of money are like the
monopolizers of bread.
When by conditions, whether the re-
suit Of unavoidable misfortune or a
thing accomplished by chicanery, the
strong have a chance to Cypress the
weak, the opportunity is seized upon
with nimble avidity. We know it is
claimed by the opponents of financial
reform, that a large circulation has a
tendency to make money worthless, |
and we claim that a contracted cur
Tency has a tendency to make money
valuable, thereby adding to it's pur-
chasing power making it precious only
in the hands of it's power. In 1865 we
had a circulating medium Of $55 per
and by its just and equal distri-
button the facilities of existence
crowded around the endeavors Of the
energetic and the Industrious. The
producers Of wheat with the producers
of cotton received remunerative prices
for their labor, then by enabling them
to pay the daily laborer a respectable
price for his wages, agriculture, accom-
panied with all other rural avocations,
received a reward for it's industry, but
today amidst one of the greatest 1nan-
cial depressions ever known in the his
tory of this country, we are rapidly de-
generating to oriental conditions. For
more than a quarter of a century we
have witnessed the united effort of the
money power to crush and pauperize
the laboring people Of this nation.
In 1873 we saw the precious metal,
silver, that had been accepted as coin
ever since the dawn of history, robbed
OF its virtue in America that the pur-
chasing power of gold might be in.
$1,000 -, F,~1O-1 D. %LSo ooo ~;oooI