Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-10-17
THE recLlNE IN VALUES



Destrnefsaa wressht By tass Demeaesiz.-
tioa al silver.
In q recent speech in Iowa ex-Gov.
Boies thoroughly discussed national
finances. and among other things
touched the vital question of the hour
in this style:
The great oeestion of the present
hour is whether or not the removal
of silver from our volume of standard
money has or has not enhanced the
value of gold. and hence, because all
paper currency is redeemed in gold,
the value of every form of that kind Of
currency. and of all obligations pay
able in money, and correspondingly
diminished the price of every other
form of property and labor. of which
money is the sole measure of value
IF it is true that by legislation or
custom we have largely increased the
wealth of the creditor class of our
people, and made the whole class of
property owners of other kinds CORE
spondingly poorer, and thereby in
creased the burdens of all who must
convert other property or labor into
money to meet pecuniary obligations,
it is certainly true that we have been
guilty of very grave wrong toward a
vast ma ority of our own people
The fact is indisputabie that since
the demonstration Of silver there has
been a marked decline In the market
price of great bulk of the products
of labor. Nowhere has that decline
been more keenly felt than ia the con-
tinued depression OF the price of farm
products It cannot be denied BY any
one that the great staples of agricul-
ture everywhere that form the bulk of
all our exports. and maintain a balance
of foreign trade in our favor. have
steadily declined since silver was de-
monetized. until to-day many of them
bring less than one-half the price they
did in 1873
IF by any provision of law or other
wise the markets of the world for any
one of the great staples of industry
should be contracted we would expect
corresponding depreciation in the
price of the article SO affected. If two
or more products were used in common
and substantial to the same extent to
supply any one of the actnal neeessi-
ties of man, and by law or otherwise
one should be withdrawn from the
markets. we would expect the other to
increase in value. for the demand for
it would be doubled. and if it was true
that the supply OF the remaining prod
net was wholly insufficient to meet the
demand, we would expect it to con-
tinue to increase until it reached an
exorbitantly inflated value
Il need not tell you there is not gold
- r.
wants of its people for money; neither
fcient for that purpose This is
demonstrated by the fact that in every
civilized country a resort to the use of
paper currency or credit money in
some form or other is found necessary
to supply the demands of business.
And since it is true, as we all know,
that before the demonstration of sill
yer the demand for money was greater
than both metals could possibly sup
ply, is it rational to doubt that the re-
moval of one from use as standard
money would necessarily enhance the
value of the other that remained Is
it not apparent. therefore, if the SEM
blance of justice was TO be done. that
when congress demonetized silver and
took away one-half the available
means of the country to supply itself
with standard money, it should have
cut in twain the quantity of gold re-
quired to make dollar?
In what way, then. is it possible to
lessen the present inflated purchasing
power of money, and thereby increase
the selling price of the products of la
bor2 Evidently there is but one way
and that is to increase the quantity of
real money, and this is practica BILE in
a single way, and that is by return to
the system of our fathers; to the money
of the constitution: to the coinage of
both gold and silver as standard money
instead of gold alone