Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-06-20
AN OLD SUPERSTITION.
A Few Facts That Refute = Volume Of
Statistics.

Puck contains, besides lots of cartoons
and jokes, many nuggets Of sound sense.
Here is one of them:
Unlimited wealth has always been the
dream of man since he learned the wis
dom Of working and saving. At first he
wanted real wealth-live stock, farm
produce, wool, wine, oil and manufac-
tured articles. Then money was invent
ed, and, as it's use grew, he began to
worship that instead of the real thing.
Later he came to regard money as the
actual embodiment of all wealth, in
stead of mere symbol to make trades
with. And so the old alchemists sought
to "work" nature for the secret of gold,
in tho childlike belief that unlimited
gold would bring them unlimited
wealth. They forgot that gold itself is
wealth only in so far as scarcity and de-
STABILITY combine to put price upon
it-that wealth is all that and only that
which is produced by labor. They did
not sec that if gold were as plentiful as
mir it would be as worthless as air is
generally admitted to be, for circulat-
ing medium. Had they found the magic
formula, gold would have been cheap
ened, but the necessaries Of life would
not have been cheapened, for the same
labor would still have been required to
fell tree, to produce bushel Of wheat,
pound of wool or a cask of wine. If
gold grew rank on every bush, man
would still have to work rs hard to fill
his stomach and to warm his back.
They were u simple minded, supersti
tious lot, were they not, and they would
be sadly out Of place i'll this age Of en-
ightenment? And yet, today, dear
reader, considerable faction in this
country really believes that tho wealth
of the country can be doubled by dou-
bling its stock Of money. The silverite
Of today differs not one whit from the
silverite OF tho dark ages. He is the un-
doubted descendant of tho old time al
chemist and inhcrits his legacy of delu
sions ut is hard work to raise wheat"
says the silvorite, land hard work to
produce wool and hard work to grow fat
cattle. Gold will buy all these, but gold
is likewise hard to get. Silver is moro
plentiful. Therefore, let us declare that
silver is us good as gold, and then we
shall have abundant means to buy wheat
and wool and beef. It's u simple mat
ter, increasing the wealth Of the coun
try. ," 1t is Il snowy argument, but it
would be just as snowy if the silverite,
instead of choosing silver, would say
"iron" on cooper" or "cobble stones,
and it should not deceive any intelligent
10-year-old boy. If all tho silver in the
earth were coined into dollars tomorrow
it would not lessen the labor required to
sustain life in tho people The farmer
would get moro pieces of silver for his
produce, but so would the grocer and
the dry goods merchant with whom he
trades Tho amount of provisions or
clothing that days work or II bushel
of wheat will buy is fixed by the law Of
supply and demand, law us old as life
itself II ono commodity equals another
i'll value, that equality is not affected
by the valuo of third, and if this third
commodity is used as a medium of ex-
change, any artificial change in its value
cannot affect the relative values of tho
two first. Two sums of four each remain
equal, even though we should choose to
call eight "twolve. " These are all the
facts necessary to rofuto the silverites
with thor volumes of statistics. If they
do not suffice, if what is called "free
silver" should prevail in this country,
wo need brain specialists moro than
statesmen.