West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1895-10-10
"SILyER THREADS AMONG THE
GOLD"
Money and Other Things.
BY AARON w. Enrrtrnro,1

y
So says Mr.. Horr. cat that rate
IN another hundred years gold will
have deteriorated another so per
cent. and become valueless What
VIII be used for money then?
"All articles that can be pro-
duced by inventions are cheaper
IN thew were before the invention
was made. Every article which
brings machinery into play and
puts less human toll iuto its pro
dnction cheapens the article. The
whole trend of civilization is to
eheapen human products, gold rs
Well as silver and wheat In this
very plausible strain continues Mr..
Horr: "Mr. Horr says that every
thing has cheapened, including
gold. To say that gold and pro
ddce cheapen simultaneously is
Hat contradiction. You buy gold
by exchanging other products for
IL. When 1t takes more property
to buy gold than formerly, gold
/. has risen"
When any commodity is cheap it
Is, relative to money, plentiful; and
money, relative to that commodity,
Is dear, or scarce. When produce
cheap, money is dear; when dear,
money is cheap. Dear and cheap
are rel tive terms expressing the
ratio of the money measure to the
thing measured. Gold, by reason
of its imperishableness, ought to
accumulate. permanently increase,
and get cheaper. Ordinary prod
ucts, by reason of their perishablc-
ness, ought to grow relatively scare,
er-dearer. But the "trend of
civilization," the multiplied effect
iveness of labor, and particularly
the malign legerdemain of financial
legislation, keep gold dear. Before
the decentralization of silver, gold
was the helpment of silver. Now
gold goes it alone. the one metal
being scarcer, and consequently,
dearer as a value standard than the
two.
| like this Mr.. Horn. / read his
subtle argu mentation with great
interest. He is fluent, forcible,
convincing in his style. He Is the
Goliath of gold. But logic is likely
TO be downed i'll the fuency of his
language. A man may honestly
proclaim and believe true what he
has been taught as truth. Unfor-
tunately MIR. Horr gets his ideas OF
financial truth from the school of
John Bull, with its debt founded
and debt-funding system of bank
ing, and with its classes of aristoc
racy supported by the inferior
masses.
81 can get" exclaims Mr.. Horn
in the course of his argument, "to-
day twice as much gold for days
following the pillow as did in 1915"
May be he could. Is it possible
that reasoner can be misIed by
the fanciful mirage of his own fai
laeies? There is In logic fallacy
90 u1e0 disco 0DlHes--from one Judge
all. This is the false reasoning Of
Judgment from exceptions aud from
isolated instances. For example
Water is common substance. 1t
contracts with loss of heat down to
81 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore
all substances do the same. And
another John Sherman BETRAYED
his country. John Sherman was a
Congressman. Therefore all Con-
gressmen have betrayed their coun.
try. Now, let US look at his
(horr's) days work following the
plOw. The value of q DAYS work
Is the product. A man following
pillow and two horses can easily
pillow one acre. Mr.. Horr wonld
pillow as much in one day in fS49 as
be could now with two horse team,
just here, Mr.. Horr loses sight Of
''the trend Of civilization" the
potency Of machinery. One man
with a gang pillow and eight horses
can pillow four times az much land
as one man following the plow and
horses can, in one dav, presumably
"a Mr.. Horr did in 1849. The man
with the gang pillow in the great
fields Of the West ard Mississippi
valley, whose days work gives
product -four times az great az Mr..
Horr's, Is the one, more fairly to
judge from. Twice az much gold
Tor four times as great an area
plowed is IN the ratio OF to2-tbe
modern days blowing judged by
its product value is half as we'll
paid now as IN 1849. The aver.
ages here given are small / know.
but ] think they arc about correct.
though some eight horse gang plows
pillow eight acres a day, and some
single teams plow two acres dav.
We must bear in mind that. i'm this
era Of labor-saving machinery, the
value Of days work is its ont put.
The product, whatever IL may be.
We must beware II sophistry on
every hand, whether it proceed
from native impotoncy Of mind or
the morcenary motives Of The special
pleader. ] simply note the fore
going fallacy. Intentional or other
wise. as one Of the most nsdious