The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-12-06
LIVE ISSUES.
SCIENTIFIC MONEY.
The Subject Fully and Fairly Dis
cuSSed.


by men who hate the rule of plu
tocracy as much as we do, we fine
frequent assertion that the silver
question is too narrow and does no
cover the many issues involved be
tween the ninety five per cent o
the people of the United States who
toll and produce for the other five
cent. This is very true, but thu
silver question is a link in the chair
of gold contraction which binds the
limbs of enterprise and holds the
ninety five per cent. Of the people
in the service of the remaining five
per cent, freedom and prosperity
can never be restored in this coun
try unless this chain can be broken
The chain is no stronger than its
weakest link. In our opinion the
silver question is the weakest link
and consequently we are hammer
ing away the best we can to break
that link. The unlimited coinage
of silver would certainly double the
length of the chain and give the
victims more room. That would be
a good start. The chain would then
consist of gold and silver. Prices
would rise and the people would
have practical illustration of the
effect of more money and it wonld
be impossible lor the Harrisons and
Clevelands to make them believe
that dear money, not honest money,
is the best money. They would
also learn that the chain which
limits the volume of money need
not necessarily be made of one
material, and they would reason
that if the gold men were mistaken
in their assertion, that gold alone
was the only money metal, and that
silver was just as good as gold, they
would naturally conclude that no
one material had an exclusive mo-
nopoly for use as money. If the
bullion of the two metals became
inadequate for use as money, as it
frequently has in former times,
they would lengthen the chain by
the use of some other material until
there was money enough to main
tain the stability of prices. We
admit that any commercial value
for other purposes than money, in
the material of which money is
made, is a disturbing element, be-
cause the money itself is liable to
be converted into a commodity on
account of that material. This is
a great objection to both gold and
silver. The money volume, which
must be maintained, on an equilib-
rum with the property volume, if
justice is to be done, is often greatly
diminished by melting up the bull
lion in the coin to be used for other
purposes than money. But the
education of the world for thous-
ands of years to the use of gold and
silver as money has created an al
most universal impression that the
metals have in themselves some
peculiar money quality, and many
believe that gold and silver are real
money. A proposition to break the
chain of contraction by substituting
paper or any other material, no
matter how much better that ma
terial might be for use as money,
for gold, would be altogether i'm
practicable. The people believe in
gold, and gold must be retained, in
our money system until the people
learn that paper which is stamped
the same as gold is stamped, and is
redeemable the same as gold is re-
deemable in debts and taxes will
have the same power as gold. But
before that lesson could be taught,
civilization would be destroyed by
the baleful effects of the gold stan
dard. The people know that silver
was just as good money as gold
until they quit using it for that
purpose, by excluding it from the
mints. 1t is the money of the Con
stitutiOn as much as gold. The
proposition to open the minis again
to silver is a simple one and not a
new one. Times were good when
the minis were open to both metals;
times commenced growing bad just
as soon as the minis were closed to
silver, and have been growing worse
ever since, consequently -tenths
of the people of the United States
are i'm favor of uniting silver back