West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1895-11-07
SILVER THREADS AMONG THE
GOLD"
Money and Other Things
By AAHcS W. FRkDERlcs.

chariot OF gold demolishes your
great silver cart and all your arsen :
tine schemery is spilled in the mid
die OF the road, and the people
tramp on it. Why not make iron
money as the Spartans. Ratio
knocks you out"
All right. will reach ratio in
due time. This morning / will take
up demand for money, coinage ratio
Of gold and silver, and wages Of
working men, il space allows.
Demented souls think themselves
sane and all the world besides fools
aud cranks. Points that a child
can understand often receive but
little notice in a discussion. Ratio
is one Of these.
Last winter my children wrote
composition on the subject, "The
low price Of horses. They found
the low price OF horses attributable
to curtailed demand for horses.
The trolley car in the city, the
great fumes that transport lum Der
from the mountains, aud the BIZ
cycle,-all these were named as
leaving q diminishing demand for
horses; and, lastly, the scarcity Of
money. Those children could rea
son little. They recognized the
destruction of demand as lowering
the price of horses. Those children
would reason similarly about silver.
There is now only the art demand
left for silver. The monetary de-
mand has been destroyed, sttangled
by sinister legislation favorable to
the wealthy classes that dominate
the world. There is left demand
with commodity ratio, it is claim
cd, of 30 or 80. Restore the none.
tary demand and you have art
demand x l monetary demand, or
2 demands for silver, instead of L.
Any school boy who understands
division can divide 80 by 2 and get
10; 80 by and get 16. Why can't
the sound money man reason in the
face of facts as fairly and as we'll as
child {? How can he leave out in
his reasoning the demand for silver
money which his people assassinated
February ID, 1873? He says in his
reasoning (sophistry) that silver as
money metal is the same as silver
when mere market metal. He
ignores the demand for silver as a
constituent constitutional part of
our money. The demand for ohr
money is nearly doubled for the
gold half of it remaining; and sill
yer, as commodity priced in gold,
falls about one-half. Money re-
duccd to half its former volume re-
duces the price of commodities in
general, silver included. Why should
silver the modify be quoted
above 50-cents to the dollar meas.
ured in gold the half money vol.
ume?
The demand for money is dis
tressing. Hard times is our herit-
age in the once prosperous West.
have been assured by store keeper
here that there are days and days in
which net dollar in money passes
over his counter. I've seen the
load o. lumber exchanged for the
load of hay. The mill hands are
largely paid of in lamber. At
some Of the mills the huckster is
told that lumber is legal tender,
that or nothing for his eggs and
cabbage. Men who have no money
work in the mills for material TO
improve their ranches. I've seen
here in prosperous California the
sober and industrious rancher de-
clare be did not know how he pos
slbly could get money to pay his
taxes. Isn't his ranch the means
Of bis support and worth just as
much intrinsically as when msney
vas plentiful and the demand for it
not stinted by contracted cur
rency7 I've heard the tender over
worked mother with tears glisten.
ing IA her eyes, say, Il don't see
how We can save our home. Times
are SO hard and money 50 scarce ?"
Is there no demand for money in
this land Of plenty, where the hand
Of Nature is la7ishly bountlful, and
yet the hardest working : eople are
being brought to beggarYl
Restore the monetary ratio Of
gold and silver bv gratifying Tho