The herald., 1895-09-01
BIMETALLISM
BONDAGE OR BLOOD


ant Encouragement or the United States,
now of the Los Angeles bar. has written
and had printed, Bimetallism, Bondage
or Blood, the same being pamphlet in
exposition Of the silver question from the
standpoint of a man who believes these
United States to be in desperate plight
and on the verge of base bondage for the
masses or of revolution 50 bloody that
even Helen's lamented but sanguinary
babies would be Mortified at the 'blucgi-
ness thereof.
Mr.. Montgomery's argument opens,
continues and closes upon the assumption
that law, not labor. conters value. 1t be-
gins with the familiar example of the
farmer who finds prices lower at harvest
than at seedtime, and his work in conse-
quence proftless; ignoring the fact that
the less price has been brought about by
the use of improved machinery, and in
sisting that it has resulted from the de-
monetization of silver. He refers the
reader to the dictionary for the meaning
of the word value. Now, these are Web
ster's de efinitions. Intrinsic value prop
critics inherent in the thing, making it
useful or desirab bic; exchangeable value
qualities of a thing which incline indi-
viduals to give for it labor or tho product
of labor. Then in the face of these def
nitions he asks, with silver money de-
stroyed who can set the limits to
the purchasing power of gold?" Any
sane and unprejudioed person can set the
limit. Purchasing power and ex-
changeabls value are synonymous terms;
! with or without the obstruction" of
| silver money, the purchasing power of a
| given amount CT gold will be exactly The
value of the labor necessary to duplicate
| II. At present that is about dollar for
each l3 grains of gold. No legislation
can make the proportion higher, for
though law may entirely destroy the ex
chsngeable value of an article having no
intrinsic value. it cannot by any possibil-
ity, except in isolated instances and for
short periods OF time, confer upon such
article any value greater than the cost OF
| duplication.
I'm proof of thu fallacy of the assump-
tion that legislation does not confer
value" Mr.. Montgomery offers very un-
| fortunate illustration. I'm every Ameri-
can gold coin,' he says, there is one.
tenth part of alloy. consisting of gold and
Hiappssh iaw which impart, to Z these es different
metals, so unequal in intrinsic value, ex'
acrly the same money value? Now, like
unto this is the unity in value that the
law should establish between gold and
silver money" If the law has already
raised copper to parity with gold it
seems really pity that copper could not
be "remonetized" and silver used to
make culinary utensils, for which pur
pose there is no other substance so satis-
factory.
But Mr.. Montgomery evidently feels
that he has gone too far, and half re-
tracts by saving. mot that the writer
would make silver (or copper equal to
gold but after establishing a fair
ratio between gold and silver etc.
What is fair ratio between substan-
ces whose value is arbitrarily fixed by
law? Yet in this admission that there is
a fair ratio between gold and silver Mr..
Montgomery shows some symptoms OF
return to sanity and a recognition OF the
bald fact that now and ut all times in the
worlds history the fair ratio between
gold and silver is and has Deen the pro-
portionate amount of labor necessary to
produce given amount of the respect
i've etals; that labor and labor only
confers value when men exchange COM
IN cd ties; that not even the savage can
long be induced to exchange his labor
for that which he himself Can produce
without labor.
: Mr.. Montgomery's statement of histori-
cal fact is as inaccurate as his deductions
brochure. asserted by implication and in
sisted upon point blank, is the statement
that the purchasing power OF gold has
"gone up and up and up under genera
tions of manipulation OF currency laws
in the interests of the money lenders.
So far from this being true, the purchas-
ing power of gold has gone down and
down and down from the day when the
ancient vineyard proprietor gave to the
laborers in his vineyard every man
penuy'-the equivalent of IS cents of our
money-as fair price tor his days labor,
and the Good Samaritan lett with the
innkeeper penny to defray the expenses
of the man who had fallen among thieves.
to the present day, when unskilled labor
demands and receives about 81 per day as
the average wage in civilized countries.
Skill and strength being equal, less hours
of labor are necessary to procure given
amount of gold than at any other time
in the history of the world. Commodi-
ties have not grown cheaper but civil
lied men have learned to substitute arti-
Cles which require smaller expenditure
of labor. Not many wears ago horseshoe
nails were worth cent apiece. and 1T
| cost 50. so to get horse shod. Has the
price of shoeing become cheaper be-
cause of the increased purchasing power
Of gold? Any man who thinks so is at
| liberty } order q set of handmade shoes
and insist that they be fastened with
baEd-forged nails, to discover that If he
requires of the workman an amount OF
labor required to shoe a horse in time
past he must pay not only an equal but
| greater amount of gold for the service /;
for gold. like otner commodities. has
been cheapened by the application OF ma
chnery to its production.
The pamphlet is maoe up OF arguments
| popular among advocates of. silver coin
| age who seek to inf1ame the passions OF
the ignorant, but as Bulge, in anticipa-
tory glee, would say to Toddie. " It's S
bluggier n most of 'em, and the argu-
ment rs thus summed up:
The writer is neither a prophet nor
the son of prophet, but careful study
of our financial and industrial conditions
convinces him that We are rapidly ap-
preaching ciIsis, when the people must
correct the monstrous wrong OF 1873 by
means of the ballot. or else prepare eithel
for bondage or bloody war, the end and
result of which .ione but God can see. -
Let Mr.. Montgomery and other fright
ened advocates of fiat money possess
their non-prophetic souls in comfort and
patience. trusting the wisdom of the ages
to uolve questions which to them seem
too large for solution. There will be
neither internecins nor internatI Onal wal
necessary to establish the value of any
commodity; neither will the laborer who
earns more, has more, enjoys more than
did any of his predecessors be reduced &c
bondage. He will marry and give in
marriage; he will labor diligently and
exchange the product of his labor fol
that of other laborers, of mis- own or othe
nations. The ratio of value between al
products, whether gold or silver or horse
shoe nails. will be established by the
amount of labor necessary to produce any