The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-31
BIMETALLISM.

DEBTS" AND CREDITS"
To The Representative:
1t is not the desire of the friends of sill
yer, the bimetallists, to pay their debts
in deprecated dollar, and as there are
at present no dollars in the United States
worth less than par, they are DESTROYS
that they shall remain just as they are
all equal to full dollar, no more and no
less. But they have decided aversion
to paying their debts in an appreciated
dollar. Their claim Is that if silver
were thrown out of the money mediums
of the country, leaving only gold as the
primary money then dollars would ap
preciate and it would be more difficult
to pay debt for the reason that it would
take more of the products of labor to get
one of those appreciated dollars. In 9th
er words, debts, relatively to property,
would be more valuable. Debts, the
claims of the wealthy, would go up; prop
erty, the possessions of the debtors,
would go down.
silver to fitch from the rich any of their
wealth or their money, but rather to
break the monopoly or the corner on
money that the rich now hold. The
amount of money" in this country, as
to the wealth, is as 1 to 60, and it re-
quires no great effort on the part of the
rich to grasp and hold enough of that
{1I Sz4~
those whose possessions are not ready
money. There was a time during the
late war when cotton and. cotton goods
were very scarce; but at the same time
there were merchants in New York that
had warehouses filed solid from ground
to roof with idle cotton goods; and in
consequence cotton goods kept going
higher and higher. The remedy was,
not to go and break into those warehouses
and take by force the goods that were
there boarded and piled up, but to go to
producing more cottop-to find some cot
ton that was not being so closely hoard
ed. So in the case of money. If the
majority Of the money in the country or
enough Of the limited supply is in the
hands of the rich men who can afford to-
keep it locked up and idle, let us go to
work and make other money. We have
the material out of which to make it, and
of quality that the masses of the people
will be greatly pleased to possess. With
the exception of a very few, perhaps less
than one in a hundred, our people would
only be too glad to get silver money.
Their neighbor, their grocer, their butch
en- whom they might happen to owe,
would be equally glad to get his pay in
silver. He in turn could use 1t to pay
his bills, and so it would keep going till
finally 1t might strike the United States
revenue collector, and even he finds rea-
dy use for it, If such a thing should
happen as to have too many of those sill
yer dollars in circulation, our Uncle Sam
has very happy and a very convenient
way of issuing little engraved note in
lieu of the big real dollars, which not
only the small dealers and the "com-
mon people" like, but which our bankers,
brokers and money kings are just as rea-
dy to take rs gold itself. In these pinch
ing times, when so much Of the limited
amount of money is locked up and the
masses are so sorely pressed for even a
small quantity, let us make some more
money. Millions of property is for sale,
but there is no money with which to buy
it. Increase the supply of money. If all
money is good land all that the United
States makes is good why so careful to
limit the amount? Why listen to the
clamors Of the rich that 1--WE will soon
have too much money" instead of to the
masses, who are positively suffering for
few dollars, and who are very willing
to give up valuable property for just
little money?
Are the rich, who never need suffer for
the comforts of life, always to be favored,
as against the great masses, who are suf-
fering for many of the necessities of life,
leaving out all comforts? If such
course were pursued, that Is Of having
more money in circulation, it is difficult
to see how the people would be worse off,
The rich might not have so many op-
prtunities to increase their wealth, but
the masses would be lifted many degrees
above their present distressed condition.
It needs no argument only the bare
mention of the fact, to prove that in
countries where the most money is in
circulation the masses of the people are
better off; and on the other hand, where
the money circulation is least, the masses
of the people are the poorest and most
dcwntrodden.
Even it up little; let us have more
money. We boast of having so much
business in this country that IS per cent
of it is done in some other way than with
actual money. Let us increase our sup
ply of money and try the change for
awhile. 1t may be an improvement
Let's try it. H. VANDERVOORT.