The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-30

stance, the old farmer whom I met
in West Virginia. strong sixteen
to One-ner-said the denomination
of silver had ruined him; for thirty
years ago he could have gotten
eighty dollars an acre for his farm,
and was getting two dollars bush
ell for his wheat, but since congress
demOnitized silver his land had
gone down to twenty dollars an
acre and his wheat to sixty cents
bushel. Now, if that good old fell
low would take a trip into the north
west, the granary of the world,
which has all been opened up in the
last thirty years, and see millions of
bushels of grain raised there and the
great trunk lines of railroads haul
ing the wheat from the northwest
to Baltimore, Md, for fifteen cents
bushel, more or less, that good
old silverite of West Virginia
would find out what hit him. The
cheap lands of the northwest which
produce forty bushels of wheat to
the acre have surely cheapened his
land as well as his wheat. But moth
ing could make him believe, in the
narrow world in which he lives, but
that the denomination of silver had
done the work.
They cry 'sBimetalism," "Dou-
BILE Standard" and so on. Suppose
on that hypothesis we make dia-
monds and cut glass the standards.
Let congress pass law making cut
glass and diamonds of equal value.
A diamond as large as a grain of
wheat is worth one hundred dollars.
A piece of cut glass that size is not
worth one hundreth part of a cent.
But congress has passed law say
ing they are the same in value. Now
let a ieweler offer each for sale to
the old society sister. She asks
what is the price of each. ''Each is
worth 100 dollars" She says: 81
will take the diamond, but don't
want the cut glass; ''Oh" says
the jeweler, ''if you get tired of
cut glass at any time the govern
ment will redeem it at one hundred
dollars" She says "Well if | can
get my money back on it at any
time | will take it." The jeweler
will unload the cut glass on the old
sisters, and the old sisters will soon
unload the whole business on the
government.
Is the government able to make
gold and silver of certain relative
value, or continue the parity at Is
to l? | don't believe it is. No
government, so far as my knowl-
edge goes, on the face of the earth
can long maintain parity with
free and unlimited coinage. | am a
bimetalist in the sense that l want
both metals as money, but one stan
dard only, and that the gold stan
dard. am willing for all of the
silver in the world to be coined at
any ratio so long as the parity of
the two metals can be maintained.
Like Attorney General Harmon,
every American ought to say: 81
want our dollar as good as any
body's dollar, whether it be silver
or gold" | believe that the best
thoughts and profoundest views
stand squarely with the gold stan
dard. | have said to the farmers
that have glanced over the fields
in passing through the country, and
found that the weeds were hurt
ing them worse than the demoniti-
cation of silver, and debt was hurt
ing them worse than the gold stan
dard. | am not a gold-bugger or
silver-digger, but / am for the strict
parity of the metals on a basis such
as that the government can main
tain its parity without damaging
its credit.
There are many false views as to
the powers of the government.
When we touch the financial ques-
tion the government has no capital
or credit apart from the people. |
The government is like an infant
child in the mothers lap. 1t can
not care for the mother; the mother
must care for it. The government
cannot take care of the people; the
people must take care of the govern !
ment, and | don't believe that the
parity of the metals is possible with
free and unlimited coinage of silver
at 16 to l.
| met an old darkey at the Rus
ton Louisiana Chatauqua. He said
that he was in favor of free and
unlimited coinage of silver Is to
l, Is to the white man and l to the
negro. | reckon he might be con-
sidered a fair average silver fellow.
This great government of ours for
three years has been passing through
the channel leading from one sea of
to another sea of cOndi-
tiOns. The channel has been mar
row. 1t has taken a master-hand to
keep the old ship off of the rocks;
but soon we shall pass in "a deeper,
broader sea of prosperity than ever
before. / would that we had the
q