Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-07-10
ARIZONA JOURNAL-MINER
WEDNESDAY JULY 10, 1895
The Money question.

E.r a strange or new thlng. we are simply asking for the restoration of an old right. The hints were open q, the free coinage of silver from the
 rinning of the government down to 1878. Ij was the closing of them a0sinst it that was new, strange and violant.
 Nelrher do the people demand new ad unjust ratio. They demand the established ratio of l6 to 1. The demand, therefore. IS strictly within tue limits of law, justice,
 a4d public policy.
 sad that to reopen our hints 9 me free coinage of silver would able tbe people to pay the nation
 dch. the municipal debts, the
 lrc 1 bonded debts and other
 3hc anu cuasi-public debts in sil- ver C ;lal. worth only 90 cents on ,ne ds.la,, and that this would ue disAyre--.
 Th.s bri3gs us face to face with
 .estion of honesty, and we bo.lle assert hat silver payment of ase vast 1ebts is the only honest wav oi ne ting them, and that to nonrel the payment of them in one of our two money metals that has ever made artifcially dearer IS op ge. unjust and dishonest.
 TA -esont silvar dollar IS Not ''-0r .a.v 50 cents" It IS worth e.se..v lUo cents. It was worth 100 ,.ts when it was established nearly I01 years ago, and it contains as Talch silver now as 1t did then.
 This silver dollar was made the unit and measure of value at the be- ginning of the government and 1t was both revolutionary and unjust to set it aside for a gold standard of higher value, which increased all debts by reducing the value of all products of labor.
 All debts. contracts and obliga- tions are expressed in ''dollars." '" All debts, contracts and obligations are dischargeable in dollars-these same silver dollars-and payment in them fulfilis all the conditions of commercial honor.
 It is not dishonest in the people to demand the right of paying their vast public bonded indebtedness in the cheaper of the two lawful money metals. That has always been the option of debtors. The dishonesty really attaches to the creditor class who double the value of their claims on the people by stopping the coin age of silver, thus reducing the sup ply of redemption money one-half.
 The case is precisely as if farmer should borrow Sl,0OO from a money lender to pay for his farm, with the privilege of paying in wheat and corn-wheat at Sl a bushel and corn at 50 cents. The debt has ten years to run, and the interest is per eent-SS0 year. At first the farmer pays in wheat because 1t is cheaper; put after a while corn becomes the cheaper, and he desires to avail him. self of his privilege and pay in it. But the creditor denies him this ain right, and insists that as he be- gan to pay in wheat, when 1t was the cheaper. he shall continue to pay in wheat after it has become the dear or. Is not this both dishonest and aajustl-St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
 NO. XII - SHRINKAGE IN VALUES.
 |. sus pension of the coinage of s'lvo- in 1873 was double enormlty. il nc- only deprived the people of .-e-salf cf their supply of constitu- iona money but it virtually doubled ueir funded debts by reducing the
 lue of the commodities they had 7 to P y wish.
 If Missouri farmer who owes Sl- GO hos 100 bushels of wheat in his barn or.h S1 a bushel, he is even with his creditor, for he has only ta
 II tho wheat and pay the debt with s proceeds. But suppose the pric- of heat falls to 90 cents a ousb9l, then his debt is virtually doubled, for it takes double the qgahdty of wheat to pay it.
 m'i- is the way in which the sus- ps~ of silver coinage affected our 0ple. for ours is 8 debtor ooua -r and all its bonded obhga-
 ,cs res. cn the people at last. It 3id %, chsnge the face value of the debts, but it halved the value of WLat they had to pay with. Take ou- two great export staples, wheat a1d cotton, whose price in gold is axed at Liverpool, and which we send abroad to pay the interest on our bonds. In 1863 the average farm price of wheat was Sl.l5 bushel, in 1894, only 49 cents-a decline of 66 cents a bushel-more than one half.
 If we take one-half this falling of, B cents, as the average for the pc rio1, and estimate 1t on the aggre- gate wheat crops for the period 7,770 million bushels-it shows de- cline in the debt-paying value of this one crop alone of S2,590, 100000.
 Then, as to cotton. The price in 1874 was 20 cents pound, in 1894 1t was 7 cents-a decline of 13 cents nearly two-thirds. It is not claimed that the whole of this was due to legislation against silver. but if only one-fourth of it be attributed to that cause, the loss estimated on the az gregate crops for the period-10O million bales-reaches the enormous sum of 1895 million dollars.
 The decline in the value of horses per head has been from S76 in 1873 to S36 in 1894 $40 head-or more than one-half-which, estimated on the whole number of horses in the country in IS94-16,000,G00-showsa a loss of S640000,O0e.
 The decline in the value of mules has been from $95 to $62 a head S33; of cattle from $20 to Sl4.50 a lead-S5.50; of milch COWS rom S29 to S23 head; and of sheep from s Q S2 a head; and these declines, es- J;mated respectfully upon the num- ber of each class of animals in 1894 snow an aggregate loss of over 1000 million dollars.
 IL takes. therefore, three times as mauy bales of cotton to pay a debt now as it took in 1873; it takes twice as n4uch wheat, more than twice as --,-..,- r.r.ao-.nd mora for,, an;