The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-01-16
GOLD AND SILVER,
AVERY ABlEAND EARNEST FLEAFOR
A BlMETALlC STANDARD.

AVERY ABLE AND EARNEST FLEAFOR
BlMETALlc STANDARD.
Col. L. W. Youmans Gives the Free silver
Side---An Able and Very Interesting Ex-
ReadIt.
Tc tae Editor of The State:
In my last article proved from the
record that by calling for three inter
national conferences to rehabilltate
silver. and by her own declarations, as
voiced by her several delegations IN
these conferences, that the United
Stetes admitted that the denial of free
mintage of silver had cut off one half
of the money supply; that this sup
preston of ,one-half of the Intrinsic
money OF. the State would produce ru-
inous contraction which would lower
wages. depress the price of all the pro-
ducts of labor and by doubling the
burdens Of all debts, taxes and fixed
charges, overwhelming debtors, stag
nate trade and paralyze industry.
This position OF the United States was
pretty we'll confirmed by the Euro
pean delegates to these conferences.
1t seemed to be admitted on all sides
that the gold standard was enhancing
the value of money. depressing the
price ofall products of labor and sac
rifcing thesagriculture of gold stand
ard aaions to the competition of sill
veE;standard countries. These were
notSay. assertions, they were the dec
larations Of the delegates both from
the United State and from the great
trading nations of Europe. | gave the
references forthese quotations. search
and see, YOU will find them there; You
Will find them matter Of record, ut
tered in the plainest language, and
sophistry cannot gloss it over: ~
wrong to civilization and to the hopes
of mankind" The Generalization Of
silver means the retirement Of not
only nearly half the worlds coin cir
culation, but OF more than half of its
convertible paper issues. 1t means to
double the weights Of existing obhga-
tons and to compress the world S ac-
tivities into half their existing scope.
1t means to consign the nineteenth
century to a paupers grave, and to lay
the heavy hand of paralysis on the
cradle of the twentieth.
Just here the question may be very
pertinently asked, such being the case,
why did not the European delegates
accede to the proposition OF the United
States for an international agreement
for the free and unlimited coinage Of
silver? The ans er is very obvious
and plain. the debtor and producing
classes, who bear the burdens of the
gold standard in Europe have very
little voice in their governments; these
nations are ruled almost entirely by
wealth, rank and privilege; an eIe-
ment composed almost entirely OF the
creditor and income classes; whose
interests to depress wages, lower the
price of commodities, and by cheapen-.
ing almost everything except money,
without any effort on their part, vastly
augment their fortunes. In consider
>eg yons proposition that the drop IN
silver has made the silver dollar fifty
per cent fat, and intrinsically worth
only fifty cents; we are first led to IN
ouire what is dollar and what are
its uses. 4 similar question has often
been asked in England in regard to
the:pound sterling. Sir Robert Peel,
abiding to. the fact that both Mr.:
Locke and Sir Isaac Newton. with all
offheir abilities, had failed to answer
it; said that he could by no possible
effort of intellect, conceive it to be
anything, but certain determlnate
weight of gold metal.
In commenting on this defirition Of
Sir Robert Peel, Sir Archibald Allison
remarked: Perhaps if his valuble
life had been spared, and he had seen
the ounce of gold selling in Australia
at s3 to s3. los instead of s3. lis, 10 IL
the mint price, he would have modl-
fed his opinion that "a pound IS an
abstract measure Of value just as the
yard or foot is of length.
I think Sir Archibald's definition
has been generally accepted as corr ect !;
and our dollar, which is our unit OF
value, is therefore an abstract meas
ure of value. as the yard or foot is OF
length. The function of the money
unit is to measure value and facilitate
cxchanges-as ninety per cent. OF our
exchanges are made on time the dol
lar becomes not only an abstract
measure of present value, but a record
of past obligations, a standard Tor de-
ferred payments.
Common equity, therefore requires
that its measurement should be stable,
and to ensure the preservation Of this
party of measurement, its volume
Should be kept proportioned to the
volume of commodities, to be en-
changed.
We are by no means witnessing the
first interference with the volume OF
money to disturb property values;
though this combined action Of the
bankers of the Northeast and Western
Europe, to strike down silver and
double their holdings. is the first at
tempt to interfere with the natural
law of supply from the mines.
IhlS campaigning 0! tue oa'ihs ~
bleed the general public is nothing
new. The public has suffered before
from that dangerous antagonist rela-
ton between those who hold or com
mand the currency and the rest OF the
community, as Mr.. Calhoun has told
us. Their old trick of initiating and
contracting the currency, selling at
the highest point of circulating and
buying at the lowest was very fully
elaborated by Mr.. Calhoun in his
speech in the United States Senate
March 81, 1884. See works, vol. 2,
pages 347 and 34S.) Old Tom Benton.
in a speech in 1884 (see Benton, S
Thirty Years in the United States
Senate" volume /. page 400 said !:
THE philosophic Voltaire, century
AGO. from his retreat IN Ferny, gave