The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1895-06-22
The fact is. tina. every mar who owns n

paper whose bonds ere out. who depends
for advertising for his sheet upon men
who are interested in the success of the
bond business, is in favor of the gold
standard; but mono of these have vet had
the hardihood to claim that the worlds
gold is sufficiently large in volume to
stand a. an adequate mensure Of value
for all other wealth.
In u recont interview. and in several ar
ticles l have written for my paper, l took
the ground that the first advance in the
price OF wheat, a month or more ago, was
due to a previous advance in the price of
silver, and that the advance in the price of
silver was the natural result of the in
creased demand for silver, growing out of
the four hundred million Japanese indem-
nisy. The more recent advance in tho
price Of wheat is the result of threatened
shortage of crop growing out of climatic
conditions.
This fact must appeal to the reason of
all thinking men, viz: That the demand
for silver enhances the value thereof. silver
being now, RS it has been since its demon
citation in 1873, n commodity, and when
the price of silver advances. it takes a
greater amou..t of gold to purchase it.
When the Liver pool merchant buys silver
with which to purchase wheat in India, the
sum of gold necessary to purchase that
silver measures the value of tho wheat IN
all countries having the gold standard,
wheat being m international simple. and
the price being fixed in Liverpool. There
has been but slight duncuation IN the
price of wheat in India in rs yaars. Sill
YER is the standard in that country. India
Is our principal competitor in wheat.
Consequently, when the gold price Of sill
YER increases, the pr CO of wheat in gold
countries increases. No student of pOliti-
cal economy disputes these facts, and I
refer to them as proof that when China
agreed to pay Japan four hundred millions
of silver being a commodity, the gold
of that article advanced, and following
that, the prise in gold countries advanced.
The gold economists have always denied
this.
This question coul1 be discussed with
out limit. Suffice it to say that is my
eranest and candid belief that. the free
coinage of silver in the United States, by
the sanction of seventy millions of peo-
pie IN a country whose resources are I'M
limited, where everything can be produced
that living man desires, would not OILY
be wise policy, but at the same time would
be the patriotic thing to do. The western
hemisphere produces more than two-thirds
of the silver of the world. Silver mining
is a great industry; it now "%languishes in
the hills" Thousands of people who
have hitherto earned q livelihood in the
mines are without employment, and al
most without hope. With wheat at 40
cents a bushel. as it has been the past two
years, not as a result of over-production.
the farmers of the country would be al
most rs hopeless as the silver miners.
Meantime, these two classes of producers
must pay about the same rates of fright
over our railroads, and the same rates of
fare; they must pay the same rates of
interest, and tho result of this is, and has
been, a wide spread depression that should
not exist in any country in time of peace
and plenty. Surely it is a condition., and
not a theory, and the question Of whether
Mr.. Harvey has proven all that he asserted
Or whether the free trader and text book
political economist, Professor Laughlin.
has proven all that he asserted, or
whether France had a ratio of fifteen and
a half to one, a hundred years ago, or
whether there would he an enormous in
crease IN the output of silver if We had
free coinage, or whether we shall discov-
er in the near future enough gold upon
which to base the business of the world
all these are merely incidental to thu
greater question involving a permanent
fnoncial system based upon justice, and
belong TO the theoretical side of the con-
trovsrsy. The amount of gold in the gold
dollar is fixed by statute; tho value Of
silver is fixed by those engaged in the
manipulation of gold. The amount of
both silver and gold bullion, and the value
thereof in the dollar unit, were fixed prior
to 1873 by law; since that date the gold
dollar alone has been accorded this privil-
eye.
believe, with the Republican platform
adopted at Minneapolis, that the Amer1-
car people. "both by traditiou.ands inter-'
est, favor and demand the use Of both
gold and silver - standard money" This
was my platform then. II is my platform
now. I yield to no man in point of party
fealty, aud I deny that there is a moro
sincere Republican is this State than I am.
Whatever policy my party shall adopt on
this question I shall follow. Mesntims, I
propose to exert myself to see that my
party makes no mistake, and I appeal to
my fellow Republicans to exert them
selves in behalf Of that kind of 'sound
money" whish will restore the equilibrium
in human affairs and re-sstablish a just
and equitable system of finance for the
American people. II. u. HANssRouoH.