Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1895-05-03
AN ABLE ARGUMENT.
BY DIR. DELOS WALKER.

all agree that lawful money, OF whatever KIND,
is medium of exchange, and, as such, is ne
cessity of Our present civilization.
Because money is medium of exchange, and
is, or should be- legal tender for all debts, pub
lie or private, the laborer wishes to purchase it
with labor, and the farmer, mechanic and man.
ufacturer wish to buy it with the products Of
their toll. These want much money for a little
of their physical work, or little of their wheat
or cotton as the case may be. They are not
anxious to swap many days work or many
bushels of wheat for small sum of money.
This, to some extent is because the masses
have debts to pay. No matter how the debts
came, they are upon us. Certain it is, all have
to pay municipal, state and national bonds 1t
takes dollars to discharge principal and interest.
To meet these demands, who wants to give
twenty days toll instead of ten for twenty dol
lars =? Or what farmer wishes to give forty
bushels of wheat instead of twenty bushels for
twenty dollars He must have the twenty dol
lars. If he has to labor long or give many
bushels for the money, his burden is grievousto
be borne.
The first party interviewed says: "Price is
always regulated by the law of supply and de-
mand." This is so. Then, if the money sup
ply is doubled (silver as we'll as gold), then
double the amount can be bought with certain
amount of work, or with certain number of
bushels of wheat, bales of cotton or cattle from
the ranch. The more dollars thus purchased,
the more of the ever-pressing debt is liquidated,
and the lighter the load Our oppressed people
have to carry.
So, destroying half the money doubles the
the creditor, 1t also brushes any business
part of which is done on borrowed capital; for
the fixed capital which is mortgaged for the
borrowed is confscated by the lender. Values
have shrunken one-half, and the obliterated
half, the vanished half, is lost to the man in
the man who was of use, essential to the we'll
being of the community and benefactor to his
race: the half remaining after shrinkage is abb
sorbed by the man whose sole business it is to
absorb--tne business now stops, the business
man is a mendicant, his once well-clothed and
fed employees are tramps
Even if none were in debt, and business was
and always had been done on cash basis,
small quantity of money would make that ex-
change, which is essential to prosperity, diff
cult The smaller the amount of money, the
nearer we approach the old-tifne half-barbarous
barter--almost commercial stagnation. On the
other hand, plenty Of small currency facilitates
production and exchange, and sets in motion all
the essentials of "good times" A large vol
Tune of small money, constantly increasing with
notwithstanding population and increasing
commercial necessity, will continue good times.
Drouths, floods, frosts, and locusts, may, of
course, breed local distress.
1t is not an intelligent excuse for defnonetiz-
alton of silver, or in behalf Of Cleveland's "hon-
est dollar" "valuable dollar" that large per
cent of all business is done on credit as drafts,
bills of exchange, etc. ; for these credits bear
legitimate relation to the basis money back Of
all. If the money of final redemption is in.
creased the business borne, and safely, on the
tide of credit is augmented; while if real tnon-
ey is halved, wages tumble, labor is idle, credit
fails property shrnks or is swallowed up by
gold, the people afe haggard and hopeless. In
ali this commercial deso1ation and loathesome
DEATH the only valuable thing is the dollar.
Cleveland says he's determined to maintain its
value." BY the wteckage Of all save the own.
srs of money and bonds is 1t maintained.
Some honestly enough, and some dishonest
ly enough, oppose the flee coinage of silver be-
cause it would, in special inanner enrich tnine
owners and the silver states and territories. AT
best, this Is "biting off youf own Hose to spite
your face" OF rather biting off a thousand noses