The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-08-10
The MONEY QUESTION.
Something of Interest to the I'm
porterS.
SENATOR JONES on FOREIGN DEBTS

SENATOR JONES on FOREIGN DEBTS
How We Infiict Injustice ON the Many
For the Eeneht of the Few-The Lon
don Times Quoted ON the Silver and
Gold Standard Question.
1t is supposed to be decisive Of the
question to inquire how. if we have not
the gold standard, we "a pay Il debts
to foreigners. Let us examine this point.
An American importer buys goods in
Great Britain or Germany to be sold
here for his profit, and his alone. The
query is, How is he to get the gold to
pay his bill? I reply to the question by
asking another, By what means does he
pay bills in his own country? How does
any merchant obtain money? By sales
Of merchandise. Very well.
Let, then, the American importer sell
merchandise for gold with which to pay
his gold Indebtedness. He bought in
gold standard countries the goods which
require to be paid for in gold. Let him
sell in those countries for gold the goods
from sales Of which to pay his bill.
Gold is to be bought for commodities in
every gold standard country of the
world. If the range Of prices in those
countries is such that he cannot make a
profit on the transaction, that is his
misfortune and is not one for which the
American people at large are responsible
q by reason Of which they should be
mulcted in Sums infinitely larger than
any possible premium that could he in
volved in the transactions Of a few i'm
porters.
All the internal commerce of this
country, which is 80 times greater in
amount than a foreign trade, should
not be disjointed by reason Of the neces-
sity which exists for q few men to pay
their debts abroad. Is it a greater act Of
justice to facilitate the payment of an
importers foreign bill at the expense of
all the people of the United States than
to maintain equity and justice in the
payment OF I'll debts and the payments
for all commodities and services inter-
changed among the 20, 900, 900 people
Of our country? Must we forever con-
tinue to inhi,, wrong and injustice upon
al our prodxcing c1asses-upon ninety
nine one hundredths Of our people-sim-
ply to save an occasional importer or
foreign business house some inconven-
fence? for in any case it could be moth
ing nor than an Inconvenience. It
could under no circumstances result in
Aoss to any importer to have to pay .
premium.
q Suppose a failure Of the crops to occur
In Europe and an abundant harvest in
this country. There will be a consequent
boom here. Numbers of contracts will
be made on a high range Of prices. Then
this country becomes a poor country to
buy in, because prices are high, but for
the same reason it becomes a good coun-
try to sell in. Other countries at such a
time will be poor countries to sell in
because prices there are low, and they
will for the same reason be good coun-
tries to buy in.
On such occasions our importers strain
every nerve to buy to the utmost. HAY
ing therefore large payments to make to
foreign countries, they find that owing
to the low prices prevailing abroad they
are unable to send out our wheat OF cot
ton to advantage. Hence they gather up
the money of the country and send it
away.
, Making the Many Suffer For the Few.
Instead Of assuming the responsibility
for the exercise of bad Judgment OF over
weening cupidity OH their part in max
ing more purchases than the country
makes sales, they make everybody in the
country sutfer-thOse who have not had
anything whatever to do with foreign
goods as we'll as those whose business it
is to deal i'll such goods. AS everybody
knows, the number Of persons who deal
in foreign goods is utterly insignificant
compared with the enormous number
who deal in domestic articles.
The premium which in any event the
importers would pay is a bagatelle in
comparison with the unseen and unob-
served premium which for many years
has been paid by the toiling millions.
Money is bought by every man with the
products Of his labor. The masses of the
people are not digging gold ont Of the
mines. The gold they dig is the amount
that can be bought by their labor exert
ed in fields Of wheat and cotton, in
seams OF iron and coal and in the city
shops, foundries and factories. The
amount Of money which the products of
such labor will command is therefore
the measure Of the value Of gold.