Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-07-25

continue TO discharge every duty now per
formed by gold. Can it be possible that
free coinage of silver here viii make gold
more valuable abroad! If it takes wings
and flies away to foreign chimes, will the
addition of $500, 900, 900 in gold to the
supply of other nations have q tendency to
increase the value Of the gold coini You
cannot increase the value of gold abroad
by increasing the supply. You must
either diminish the supply or increase the
demand
Why would our gold leave usr Would
1t go to Europe to pay our debtsf That
could not hurt us. Would it be used to
make purchases? Certainly, no American
would buy what he did not want from Eu-
rope simply because We adopted free coin
age. Suppose gold should 60 to q premium
OF 20 per cent. What would it mean!
Simply, that the price in silver of all prod
ucts would rise 20 per cent. How wonld
We suffer by thsti They claim that We
have $6OO,OO0,0O0 of gold in the United
States. If that should go to q premium
of 20 per cent, it would make difference
of $120,O0O,OO0. The benefit to the farm
ers of an increase of 20 per cent on the
price of corn would equal that in one year.
We are also told that foreign nations will
We shall be truly thankful. We do not
want them to take our silver money. We
need every dollar that can be coined right
here. They do not take our silver money
now; but our silver answers our purpose
just as we'll as if they did. If We were to
coin every ounce of silver that can be
mined in the world for the next five years,
and allow not an ounce to be used in the
arts or by other nations, we would not, at
the expiration of the five years, have as
large per capita circulation as the late
republican state convention of Pennsyl-
vania demanded. We have population
of 10 millions, in round numbers. The
greatest amount of silver ever mined in
one year was 1872 million dollars-les.
than 30 per capita for the people of the
United States. So, if we had free coinage
for five years, we would not increase our
currency $14 per capita. And does it not
occur to you that if we deprived all other
nations of silver for five years the demand
for silver would become SO great that We
should hear NO more of the difficulty of
maintaining the parity! And who would
be injured! Absolutely no one. For,
while it might appear that the capitalist
might sustain q loss, the stimulus to en-
teRprise which would result from the free
coinage OF silver would make such thing
40 Idle money unknown. The profit to
the capitalist il greatest when capital lie
aetiye-when industry is eeaseless. ..
In studying this question, many encoun-
ter great difficulty because of their wrong
estimation of money. The celebrated po-
htical economist, John Stuart Mil, Says:
"There cannot, in short, be intrinsically
more Insignificant thing in, the economy
of society than money, except in the char
acter Of continuance for sparinR time
and labor. It is q medium for doing
quickly and commodiously what would be
done though less quickly and commodi-
ously without it; and, like many other
kinds of machinery, it only e1erts q dis
tinct and independent influence of its own
when it gets out of order"
Only the miser gets money to hoard it.
Other people seek money to loan or to sell
it. When q man sells corn or cattle or
cotton fur money he simply buys money,
and when he buys corn or cattle or cotton
for money he sells money. Every man
who borrows money simply hires it, as one
would hire team from a livery stable.
But, as every one is struggling so to get
money for what it will buy, we seldom use
the word buy without conveying the idea
The capitalist who opposes the free
coinage of silver is sacrificing a perma-
nent advantage for a temporary one It
is never to the advantage of creditors to
bankrupt their debtors. When they do
that, they are in the situation of the man
who killed the goose that laid the golden
egg. This persistent falling of prices is
bankrupting not only the merchants and
manufacturers, but is also bankrupting
the farmers of the land.
Take the example of a creditor in the
East who has loaned $1,000 to Saline
county farmer. What does he believe will
benefit him most, the prosperity of his
debtor or the bankruptcy of his debtor?
He does not want the farm. He wants his
interest paid promptly and his principal
returned. If the debtor becomes bank
rupt the creditor is compelled to take the
farm; and, If prices continue to fall, he
will be compelled not only to lose his in
terest, but, failing to find purchaser who
will pay as much for the farm as he loaned
upon it, he finally sacrifices part of his
principal. What is of more importance,
the farmer is changed from an independ-
ent home owner to dependent tenant.
Suppose we should admit that the re-
monetization of silver would make money
so plentiful that it would for time be an in
Justice to the creditor. Then you cannot
avoid the conclusion that the demonetiza-
ton of silver was rank injustice to every
debtor in the land. If the debtors of the
land hive for 20 years been suffering in
justice by reason of the demonstration
of silver, is it anything more than fair
that the shoe should be worn on the other
foot little while? The debtor class in
this country is by far the larger class, and
if the demonstration of silver would bene
fit the debtor class, then, in a country
where we are supposed to be seeking the
greatest good to the greatest mum Der,
there should be no hesitation about adopt
ing free coinage.
But this question ought not to be ham
pered by any such considerations. We
favor the free coinage of silver because it
is emphatically right and proper. We are
new nation. We are yet in the forma-
tive period. The possibilities of this
country are in their infancy. If all of the
people of the United States inhabited
Texas, her population would not be as
dense as the population of Germany.
For the development of this country, we
require every dollar of silver that we can