Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1895-07-27
PRICES WOULD co UP
EFFECT or FREE SILVER ON TIE
COST OF LIVING.

Doubling tile Volume of Money Would
Really Add but $50 to 81 ,000-Cirou-
lating Medium Actually Lowered 4 i-e
Per Cent Facts 60 rondcr.
This whole agitation in behalf of free
silver is made, it seems to me, honestly
and sincerely bya large body of our fell
low citizens in ot,ler parts of the country
and some Of them in this part Of the
country. desire to give them the great
est credit for sincerity in their belief. /
wish to testify that from my acquaint-
ance with large number Of these peo-.
pie l have failed to find that any con:
siderable number wish to do wrong or
to deal unjustly by any other portion Of
our people. They do feel that there are
certain evils from which they wish to
escape, and it has been suggested to
them that by some legerdemain Of gov
eminent dealing with our currency that
they could escape from the evils of which
they complain.
Now, the chief evil of this complaint
is low prices. Now, nobody ever really
complains of low prices when he wants
TO buy anything, and nobody who has
anything to sell ever complains of high
prices.
But we find that communities as a
whole combine all their energies to
make prices as a whole low. Individual
members of every community are labor
ing to make prices of particular things
they want to sell high, but when COM
munities act together they are trying to
make prices low.
But if this be true; if the general effort
of communities is to make prices low;
if that is the reason that we have grant
ed railroad charters in order to bring
the products of the distant parts of the
country to our doors at low prices; if
that is the reason we built the Erie
canal; if that is the reason that we have
made transportation on the Erie canal
absolutely free, taxing the people of the
state in order that it may be free; If that
is the reason that we have built our
highways and made them free; if that is
the reason that we are doing thousand
and one other things-then why in the
name of reason should government be
appealed to to do something about one
thing in order to make prices high?
Why, in regard to this one thing,
should there be q grand exception TO all
the other things that a government does
in and about our affairs and our products
and the things that we buy and sell?
do not concede that it would be to
our advantage as a whole that govern
ment could double the price of our bread
tomorrow. And yet this is the PROPOSE
ton that is made I doubt if in this
city you could find dozen votes outside
Of the bakers shops in favor Of doubling
the price Of bread tomorrow And yet
that is the great thing that underlies
this argument. Why, see that Senator
Stewart said the other day that young
men were not marrying so much now as
they used to because we did not have
free silver.
Free silver-what will it do, accord
ing to Senator Stewart? Why, it will
make that young man if he contemplated
matrimony expect to have all the ex-
penses Of his household, from his brides
outfit and the new coat he bought for
the ceremony and so on through all his
domestic arrangements even to the
baby's cradle, made more dear. Do you
think that would be an inducement to
matrimony? Then they say that the
amount Of money regulates prices Does
it have any great effect upon prices if it
is good money?
All the time we hear, and believe
that it is uncontradicted, that about
per cent of all the transactions of the
people of this country are made in mon
ey. All the rest of the transactions are
made with the other media-checks,
notes and all kinds of things. If this is
true, suppose we could double the amount
Of money in an instant, what would we
have done? We would have doubled
per cent of the whole What would we
have added? We would have added per
cent to the whole. In 81 900 what would
we have added? We would have added
$50. But suppose in adding that $50
you have disturbed the minds of men SO
that the other 95 per cent was diminish
ed, as has been done from time to time
during the last few years. Suppose you
apply your percentage to $3.50, 900 and
cut that in two, owing to the uncertain
ty you have created in the minds Of men
as to the quality of their money; sup
pose you have only affected it by 10 per
cent-what is the result? Why, you have
diminished that by 500, and when you
come to add the $50 that you have cred
tied by doubling your money and deduct
your 500 you will find that you are $40
worse Off than when you started. You
arc 10 per cent worse off so far as the
circulating medium that really transacts
your affairs is concerned. That is one Of
the great reasons why we find these
great disturbances in business when men
hamper with the currency.
I have given this illustration in an
swer to the assertion that the amount Of
money regulated prices because some
money is necessary In our transactions.
True some money is necessary still, be-
cause we have not yet reduced our meth
DDS of business to such a complete sys-
tenn that we settle everything by ac-
counts.
Yes, so is some grease on the axle of
wagon necessary in order to move it
any great distance at any speed, because
man has not yet succeeded in making an
axle on which the wheel will revo1ve
entirely without friction. say, we can
say with equal truth as to my wagon
that because some grease is necessary
on the axle, therefore the amount Of
grease fixes the cost of moving ton Of
freight. You say that it is an absurdity;
it is not true.
The more have thought upon this
question the more profoundly impressed
am that more people are concerned in
the quality of the money, of actual
money, than in its quantity. Elk Secre-
tary Charles S. Fairchild