The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-15

prived one dollar OF Its silver money OF
| SIS legal tender character OF money
and. with small exception. wnich
we shall note, every dollar OF
silver money that ever was IN
existence az money Is In existence
to-day. performing regularly all its fuhc'
lions of money, and the same legal ten
der that II always has been. The excep-
ton is this: Between $40 and 1913 Ger
/ many called In about $lD,oco,VW or her
! silver coin. melted IL up and sold IT as
| bullion. But that has been far more thar
| compensated Between 1873 and 1870 the
| United States added some si5o.ooo!0O0 to the
| silver money OF the world. so that there
is to-day some s3oo.oo0,0pO more OF silver
money IN the world than there ever was
before, and some s., 300 100000 of gold has
been added within the past twenty years.
Now, IL there had been before our finan-
cial- panic. any. deficiency Of money we
could still perceive some basis for Mr.. Tel
ler's proposition TO rest on. But there was
the greatest abundance of money in all
parts of the world. including the United
States, In 1892 for all the purposes Of
business. There was no complaint what
ever OF want OF money at any money
centre; on the contrary, money at the
| commercial centres was one OF the cheap
est things tor be had. 1T is true, people
| throughout the country districts were I'M
able TO get money. but that WAS because
| the law that taxes the currency issues
| OF State banks makes it practically i'm
| possible for them TO have their local
| banks. The national bank system con
| fines banks TO the commercial centres,
| and the managers of those banks have
/ no acquaintance with the farmers. and
| will, therefore, grant them no accommo-
! dations. The inability, then, Of the coun-
| try people TO get money does not come
| from any scarcity Of money, but from
| the fact that the national bank system
confines banking TO commercial centres,
and the president and directors Of these
are unacquainted with the farmers. ana
will rot, therefore, lend them money.
They would be in the same fix they are
now in If there were a hundred times the
amount of money that there is They can
never have the convoniences Of money
while hey are denied their local banks.
We submit, then, that before our panic
all the silver moDay that ever had exist
ed still existed; that there was no search
~ of money at all I'm those PLACES that
the national bank system permitted to
have money currency being included
here I'm the word money!, ana. that beng
so, that Mr.. Teller has no standing in
court when he says the depression OF
the day is due to an iLsufliency of
money.
But We will toll MIR. Teller what the
depression is due to. II is due to The at
tack which the advocates Of free silver
are making upon the standard of value.
They are seeking 10 shove into our money
system food of legal tender silver dol
lars worth only fifty cents each, and
business recoils before that attempt and
refuses TO make single transaction
that will incur the risk of the settle
ment being made in those cheap dollare.
All the perfect and beautiful proper
tions of that majestic dome which sits
on the Capitol building at Washington
have been fashioned by CONSTRUCTING every
part of 1t In the stri@test accordance to
the inch of measurement; the standard
with reference to- which the dome was
erected. Hat there been the slightest de-
parture ffom the inch of measurement
the andard for guidance-the dome
would have been misshapen ugly and pos
sibly topping to It's fall.
The inch. in construction, has the same
relation to the building to be erected as
the standard of value has to the volume
of business. Every business transaction
makes its start through comparison of
all the moves that are contemplated with
the standard, not the inch, but the dollar.
If the standard remains as fixed and UNI
alterable as the inch, he man contem-
plating the business move is able TO sit
down and calculate all the probabilities
of his enterprise. But if the standard is
going to be varied between the commence
ment of the move and its final fruition,
his calculations all start from false
basis, and land him he knows not where.
The vital thing for business, then, is to
have a fixed and unalterable standard of
value that is not to be interfered with
under any exigency whatever. If only
the standard-the starting points kept
fixed and immutable business VIII man
age it's affairs ana progress satisfactorily
with minimum amount of money. 1t Will
make it's exchanges of commodities by
transfers OF credits based upon those COM
modties, as when men draw drafts with
bills of lading attached and in thousands
of other ways. The all-important thing
for prosperity, then. is TO cease this at
tack upon the standard of value. If ii is
stopped. prosperity will revive immediate
ly. But prosperity will never revive while
there is any vitality in the movement 20
lower the standard Of value. While it con-
tinu1t business wilr shrink and draw in
its branches more and more, and We can
didly admit fear that it viii reduce
us by degrees 10 the condition of Mexico
or one of the pseudo South American
Republics.
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A LESSON In tKEPUBLiCANISM AND
SOCIALISM.