Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1895-09-06
Official Paper of County.
FINANCIAL ISSUES DISCUSSED
Iowa Democrat Writes About the Ad.
ministration's Policy.

dollar, dollar worth 100 cents etc.
nor is it necessary SO to do. Though
the question as to tho free and unlim
itel coinage of silver, at the present
ratio, is doubtless the most important
of any single problem ever presented
to the American people for solution
yet the applying of a few universally
conceded facts to some elemental and
we'll recognized principles is quite suf
ficient to fully satisfy the mind of any
man who has common sense enough to
keep out of the fire Or come in wher
it rains. These facts and principles
may be briefly classified as follows:
First, that money. whether made Of
parchment or paper, has no value
whatever except its purchasing and
debt-plying power. Second, that sill.
yer, at a ratio to gold of not to exceed
16 to L, has constituted for centuries
about one-half OF the metal or redemp-
ton money of the civilized world.
Third, that money is not only useful,
but is indispensable to continued pros
perity and even to civilization itself.
Fourth, that the cost or price of any
useful or necessary article is fixed
mainly, if not wholly, by the great
law of supply and demand, and that
the cost or price of money is as much
subjected to this memorable law as is
the price of wheat, cotton, sugar or u
days labor. Hence to make money
scarce is to make it correspondingly
dear. Fifth, to eliminate or bar out
silver money is thereby reducing sup.
ply OF metal money one-half, making
metallic currency twice as scarce, the
supply half as great, therefore making
the cost, price, or, what is the same
thing. the purchasing power of the re-
naming half far greater, if not more
than double.
WHO is TO BE BENEFITED.
Who, then is to be benefited by dis
continuing silver coinage, by which
money is made twice as scarce and the
purchasing power OF the remaining
half at least double? Why, certainly
the man with money, interest drawing
securities or a fixed income, and none
other, fort to double the purchasing
power OF each of his dollars is pre-
cisely the same thing. to him, as
ssdnubt1:s the number of his dollars.
But all this must be at somebody's ex-
pense. At whose expense? Why, at
the expense of every man who has to
buy these dollars, with wheat, corn,
cotton, beef or other property, and in
Guiding days labor, for labor is no
more nor less than certain kind of
property. All are compelled to have,
and therefore are forced to buy money
without regard to its cost, for taxes
and nearly all our obligations. botf
public and pfivatse. arerp payable in
nothing but dollars. Sight property
pays substantially all our taxes, for
money, as we all know, evades tax
alton with about the same degree of
certainty that gold gets out of sight in
each and every financial emergency.
Now, suppose A, under the present
system. has 800 tax to pay. and that
by reason OF the increase of the pur-
chasing power of money, by reducing
the volume one-half, by cutting off
silver, he is compelled to give b eight
bushels of oats, the present gold stand
ard price for each of these 500, or
800 bushels in all for the money to
pay his taxes, whereas, under free
coinage he A, could buy of the same
number of dollars with 400 bushels.
1t is not clear tie anyone that B, the
owner of money, would be benefited
by the former, or gold standard sys-
TEN, to the extent of 400 bushels of
oats, and that, too, on the small
amount of 800, But how about poor
A, the oats owner and taxpayere
MARKET VALUES.
All men must and will, / think, adj
NIT that the appreciation or increase
in the value of money is but another
way of expressing the depreciations
or decrease of the market value of all
other property and labor. The going
up OF the one is no more nor less than
the going down of the other. All this
hypocritical cant about san honest dol
lar dollar worth hundred cents
and u sound and stable CURRENCY is
naught butssa sham, a masque and a
fraud, and simply means cheaper pro-
perty and cheaper labor; to the end
that those who have money, interest
drawing securities or fixed incomes
may with each dollar by them held
be Herewith enabled to purchase two
days labor instead of one, eight BUSH
els OF oats instead of four, four BUSH
els of wheat instead of two, two bales
OF cotton instead of one, and all other
property and the products of labor in
like proportion.
Now, why are not the advocates of
this single gold standard heresy, frank
honest and courageous enough to eX-
press their real intention in plain and
unequivocal language ana say: That
under free coinage the laborer would
get too much pay. wheat, corn, cotton,
rice, flax and other products would
prlng to much money, would make the
burden OF taxation to light to steady
the trembling steps of the now over
burdened taxpayer; would make it
cost the royal coupon clipper and gold
cOrnerlng syndicate too many dollars
to make tour each year to Europe
and spend millions there aping British
royalty; that it would result in furnish
ing employment to too many laborers;
that mortgages on homes might be
paid off in the Identical same kind Of
money that was borrowed, and for
which these thousands and tens of
thousands Of mortgages were given;
that it would SO increase the volume
of currency as to make it possible to
transact the business of the country
on "pay as you co. principle, and
therebv lessen the credit svctam