Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-10-02
THE SILVER CRAZE.

Sam Jones Talks About Snverites.
Sam P. Jones, the revivalist, has
decided opinions on the money ques-
ton and he don't hesitate to express
them in his own breezy and pictur-
esque style. Here are some extracts
from his long letter recently printed
in the Houston (Texas) Post:
''The world takes on craze every
few years.
every few really busy, industrious
and intelligent people take hold upon
any Of these crazes. The skating rink
craze. if I remember right, was run
largely by the same gang that runs
the baseball and football craze to-
day. The Greenback party and the
Sub treasury crowd were composed
largely of the calamity howlers who
are running the free and unlimited
coinage gang to-day.
"When times OF depression and
stringency come then the calamity
howlers get in their work. For in
stance, the old farmer whom l met in
West Virginia. strong sixteen to
oner-said the decentralization of sill
yer had ruined him, for thirty years
ago he could have gotten eighty dol
lars per acre for his farm and was get
ting two dollars per bushel for his
wheat, but since Congress had demon
etized silver his land had gone down
to thirty dollars per acre and his
wheat to sixty cents per bushel. Now,
if that good old fellow would take a
trip into the Northwest, the gran
airy OF the world, which has all
been opened up in the last thirty years,
and see the millions Of bushels of
grain raised there and the great trunk
lines Of railroads hauling the wheat
from the Northwest to Baltimore, Md,
for fifteen cents a bushel, more or less,
that good old silverite of West Vir-
ginia certainly would find out what
struck him. The cheap lands of the
Northwest, which produce forty bushels
OF wheat to the acre, have surely
cheapened his land as we'll as his
wheat. But nothing could make him
believe in the narrow world in which
he lives, but that the decentralization
Of silver did the work.
"They cry 'bimetallism,' double
standard and so on. Suppose on that
hypothesis we make diamonds and cut
glass the standards. A diamond as
large as a grain of wheat is worth one
hundred dollars. A piece of cut glass
that size is not worth the one hun
dredth part of cent. But Congress
has passed a law saying they are the
same in value. Now let ieweler Of
fer each for sale to the old society
sister. She asks what is the price of
each. Each is worth one hundred
dollars She says: Il will take the
diamond but I don't want the cut
glass Oh, says the ieweler, If
you get tired of the cut glass at any
time the Government will redeem it at
one hundred dollars. She says:
Well, if 4 can get my money back on
it at any time I will take it, The
jeweler will unload the cut glass on
the old sisters, and the old sisters will
soon unload the whole business on the
Government.
''Is the Government able to make
gold and silver of certain relative
value, or continue the parity of l6 to
l? don't believe it is. No Govern
ment, so far as my knowledge goes. on
the face of the earth can long main
tain a parity with free and unlimited
coinage. Sam P. Jones.
Esp. S.-Some Of Us can remember
the days of plenty of money. Then
we could take basket of money and
so to town and get a basketful of
goods as follows: