Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1895-07-11
Calamity H0wlers.

A great deal is being said about what
terrible things will befall this country
unless the gold standard as established
by the present Democratic administers
ton is sustained, and strangely enough
the Republican press to some extent
espouse the single gold standard with a
great deal of enthusiasm and father, as
it We're, this emanation of an admins
tratiOn which these same papers char
.acterize as ''an administration of blum
ders and stupidity" Hon. f. O.
Leech, late director of the mint, in the
North American Review for July
argues very forceibly and correctly
That statistics show that wages in 1890
were so per cent higher than in 1860.
He says;
Undoubtedly it might be possible by max
ing a dollar worth 80 cents to bring about a
condition of monetary affairs when it would
take two dollars to buy what one will now
purchase, but until wages increased in the
same proportion as other commodities. it is
svldent that the wage Garner would not be
when the money paid the laboring man in
this country would buy as much of the neces
sites Of life as to-day. The greatest calamity
which could possibly happen to him would
be to double the price of the commodities
which he must use by depreciating the
value OF the Collar in which he is paid. All
persons living on fixed incomes would suffer
severely. The deposits in the savings banks
of the United States, owned by the laboring
men and women, aggregate Sl,s00,000,000.
These deposits have been made in money or
bankable funds of the present standard of
value, and to-day are payable in money in
tereonvertible with gold. Under free silver
coinage every dollar of these deposits and
the deposits in all the commercial banks in
the country, aggregating the enormous sum
OF s., 900, 100000, could be paid and would be
paid in legal dollars of about one-half the
present purchasing value of the dollar. The
value Of every insurance policy and every
pension would, in the same way, be cur
sailed one half"
There is a great deal of truth in this,
as regards the classes referred to, pro-
vided they are free from debt. The
class demanding free silver with great
yehemence is the debtor class and its
name is legion. The agricultural and
not few of the laboring class are car
rying mortgages grievous to be borne.
Suppose it is farmer in Kansas. Eff
teen years ago he mortgaged his farm
for $1,000. At that time wheat sold fol
81 a bushel, or 1000 bushels of wheat
would pay the mortgage. Suppose
that for some reason the mortgage has
not been paid. To-day wheat sells fol
SO cents a bushel and it would take
1900 bushels of wheat to pay AS mort.
gage. Can any theorist or simple
logician make A believe that money is
not scarcer than it used to be, harder tc
get hold of? He wants more dollars
and doesn't care particularly whether
their purchasing power is deprecated
one-half or not. He wants to get his
fingers on enough of them to pay that
mortgage he doesn't have to buy
half so much as he wants to pay out. !.
But what about the mortgage? He
wants his $4,000 paid back in dollars
whose purchasing power is just as grea
at least as the dollars he paid over l!
years ago. There you have the much
talked of free silver debtor and the golC
bug of Wall street.
What this great issue will develop in
to when thoroughly agitated in thu
campaign of 1896, not even the mos
astute politician dares predict.