Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-07-04
What Is Sound" Money?

What Is Sound" Money?
Not one of the goldbug organs has
yentured to answer the Constitution S
questions about ''sound money. The
organs in this section have adopted the
phrase because they saw it used in
some eastern newspapers. They do
not employ it Understandings, but re-
peat it as parrot does the words that
are dinned into its ears
Nevertheless, we propose to press
our questions from time to time until
the people see clearly the fraud and
sham of the phrase. II there is any
organ of Shylockism in this region or
in this country that knows what the
term s.sound" money means, we re-
the questions which we propose to ask.
If we have sound money now, what
What sort did we have in in 1878?
Does or does not the term s.sound"
money refer to the purchasing power
of the dollar? If yes, does it refer to
the highest Or the lowest purchasing
power of the dollar? If 10. to then
| what. does the term refer? Would
the dollar still be ..sound" if prices of
commodities were to rise to the level
of 1882
The organs will bear in mind that
the gold dollar would buy not quite
half the quantity of commodities in
1873 that it will buy in 1895. This
means, of course, that we had in 1873
what the Shylocks now call fifty-cent
dollar. 1t means. too, that We had a
fifty-cent dollar in 1880. and, as COM
pared with the present purchasing
power of the dollar, that We had a
sixty-cent dollar in 1892.
We call the attention of the organs
to this singular fact-that although
the dollar was tremendously depre-
ciated in 1873 and as late as 1892,
none of the Shylocks called attention
to the fact. What was the matter
with them? Were they sleeping over
their precious interests?
Nobody talked about the fifty-cent
dollar in 1873, for nobody had ever
heard of such an incongruity. The
ffty-cent gold dollar was at a premium
over the thirty-cent greenback dollar
and it seemed to the banks aud the
Shylock class of that day to be the
most precious thing that had ever
been invented up to that hour. The
entire Wall street gang were ready to
sell their naked souls for it any hour
of the day; but we are now informed
by that same gang and its agents that
a dollar with the purchasing power of
the gold dollar of 1873 would now be
a fifty-cent dollar and place this coun.-
Try on level with Mexieo-though it
is we'll known that the Mexican silver
dollar will purchase larger amount
of commodities in the United States in
1895 than the American gold COLLAR
would purchase in 1878.
In view of these facts, which none
OF the organs can dispute without ly-
ing, the question, what is a ..sound"
dollar becomes OF extreme Importance.
In 1873, seventy-6ve gold dollars
would buy bale of cotton. In 1895,
when a part of the crop was still in the
hands of the farmers, twenty-five gold
dollars would buy bale of cotton. In
1898 only twenty gold dollars would
buy 500 pounds of cotton. But in 1873
when gold, the money OF the bankers.
would buy less than one-third as
much. nobody called it unsound mon
ey. Why? Will the organs venture
to tell us?
If sound money means the high
est purchasing power of the dollar
and it can mean nothing else-means
that the Shylock class and its organs
are doing all they can to keep down
prices to their present profitless level.