The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-04-16

A Bimetallist's Letter to the Chief
Magistrate,
INCREASED COST OF THE DOLLAR

Seventeen Thousand Bushels of Wheat
Would Have Paid the Presidents Salary
in 1s73-Today it Requires Six Times as
Much TO Pay Only Double the Amount.
| CHICAGO, April 16.--Mr. w. H. Harvey,
| chairman of the executive committee of
the Bimetallic league, whose headquarters
are In Chicago, publishes the following
reply to President Cleveland's letter to the
Chicago committee Of business men;
''In reply to your letter addressed to
| committee of business men of this city we
wish to say that the committee that waited
on you and the persons who attached their
names to the petition such committee pre-
sented did not represent a majority of the
business men and citizens of this city who
take deep interest in the welfare Of this
republic They represented the class that
owns the money and securities payable III
money fixed incomes
unexpectedly submit that your letter
does not present the true merits Of this
controversy. You call the attention of
farmers and wage earners to the fact that
rising prices, while enabling them to sell
their products and labor at a higher price,
Will also cause them to pay equally more
Tor what they may purchase, but you
| neglect to say that your statement is not
| applicable to debts. With prices coming
| down regularly and steadily since the de-
| mOnetizatiOn of silver, our merchants,
manufacturers and the people generally
| have been doing business on falling
market so that the time intervening be-
tween the purchase of their merchandise
or raw material and placing it months
after on the market has removed the mar
| gin they would have otherwise made
| This shrinkage in values, added to the or
binary risk and expense of business, has
led to an ever increasing volume of debit
TO money lending period-until it has
increased all the old debts public and pri.
vate, to about $4,000 0O0, 900, or about two
thirds Of the total value of all the property
in the United States
Money, and those debts payable in
money, have been steadily increasing in
exchangeable value with the property of
the people. A debt for 81 900 that 900
Il bushels of wheat would have paid ten
years ago now requires the farmer to give
| up 1900 bushels of wheat in exchange for
these dollars with which to pay the same
| debt. The debts now in existence are
principally old debts, or renewed debts,
or new debts contracted to pay old debts,
or debts the people have been forced to
contract by reason of the continued de-
cline in prices. The owners of the pro-
ducts must now give up twice as much
property to pay their taxes as In 1878. Sew
enteen thousand bushels of wheat would
have paid the presidents salary of $25, 900
in 1873 and it now requires 100000 bush
els of wheat to pay your annual salary of
1000.
1--WE have constantly pointed the people
to the ever increasing Interchangeable
value of the creditors dollar, and to the
reason why it was increasing but the in
auence of these creditors have dominated
i your administration, and you insist on
such currency as they have established
as a sound currency 1t means the con
fiscation of the property of the people by
the sale of property under mortgage, iudg
ments and executions. 1t means that
fixed incomes will wipe out the interest of
stockholders in our railroads and corpora
tions, .. ,. ........... ...,........
1 If it is an injustice to restore prices SO
that people can exchange their property
for a sufficient number of dollars to pay
their debts and bring happiness and pros
\ perity to our land again, it was greater
injustice to destroy the value of property
and enhance the value of money by de-
{, monetizing silver and the establishment
! of single gold standard ..e.l.., s.i...
"Whei you call the attention of the
, farmer and wage Garner to the fact that
! rising prices will make him pay more for
] what he buys you should at the same time
call his attention to the fact that it will
9 enable him to pay his debts, free him
' from bondage in which he has been un-
| justly placed, and again make him the
: owner of home and free and indie
g pendent citizen. 1t is not more money
= that we want to borrow, but to pay off
what we already owe.
"Our forefathers fled from Europe and
3 established a government here that they
: might be free from the class legislation of
those countries where the masses are the
d hewers of wood and drawers of water for
? the rich and few who control the law max
making power; countries that we justly
, term plutocracies; and yet it is now being
B seriously insisted npon that we must
adopt and continue the most pernicious
class legislation that the monarchies OF
e Europe have ever fastened upon their help
less people,
BY adopting their policy we have in.
creased the demand for gold and it's ex.
) changeable value and all money based
Z thereon with all other property. We have
aided them in the adoption of a single
l metal for primary money that they can
control and corner-that they have cor.
nered-and forced you to 90 to them and
get it at their own price, to sustain the
L credit Of this great and resourceful nation
n We submit that this policy should be
abandoned and our mints again thrown
open to silver (as they are now to gold
s and our stock Of primary money increased
q thereby"
), - All Captured but Perry.
. / NJ "