The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-11-22
The MONEY ouestIon.


Mr.. Joseph Dana Miller has an excellent
article in the November humble of Don
ahoe's Magazine. 1t will repay all to read
1t who desire to get a clear and compre-
hensive view of the lements of the cur
rency question. coupled with some not I'M
original ideas of the relation of the
form of money to business and thus to
National prosperity.
1t is an open question whether there
is any longer any use in pursuing the
silver discussion. Mr.. Carlisle, in his re-
cent speech. urged that the subject be
not dropped. He thought the heresy still
possessed vitality in the West and South.
He spoke of a concerted effort being
made by some of the false prophets of
Finance to revive it as an issue in Nat
ional politics. We differ from Mr.. Car
Isle. We think the silver craze is very
lead indeed. Such fleeing errors are
never so near to utter Oblivion as when a
great concerted effort is made to .re-
vive" them. 1t is the confession of their
death by their own advocates. OF course
Mr.. Bland and some other ~lunaties will
continue to howl silver to the day of their
deaths, just as old Peter Cooper used to
preach g~reenbacks far into his dotage;
but the popular interest in the topic
is dead. Neither party will be tempted
TO take it up. Probably neither will think
it worth while kicking it. It will not
paign, unless perhaps as a plank in the
platform Of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's
party.
The fact that the issue is dead. how
ever. does not deprive Mr.. Miller's clever
array of the case against silver of its
value Intelligence in politics is the rule
of the day, and it is not enough for a
man to feel that an issue is dead because
Carlisle ma say SO or John Sherman.
The up to date voter should know just
how lead it is and Why it is dead and
why it ought to be dead. and why he
should help kill it if ever it is
galvanized into life again in any of
its sundry transmogrifications. All this
Mr.. Miller tells. showing the neces-
sity for a staple basis for money,
establishing the fact that thus far
in the Worlds history. gold alone
has met the needs of the case, exploding
the absurd straddle of the silverites that
free coinage would benefit either buy
ers and sellers by showing that if it
would increase incomes it would decrease
their purchasing power in equal degree
and if it brought increase of prices it
would diminish the value of all accunu-
lations of capital to just the same ex-
tent. II assume." he says, sthat half
the talk about cheap money means cheap
interest" thus putting the ~fraudulency
of tho scheme clearly in one sentence,
and he sums up the free silver party in
the conclusion that every member of it
IS either a mine owner or a debtor. He
might have added "or a dupe."
In the very close of his article, Mr..
Nt&A@N AAAlo Az NAtC 4 dS IL SOCillo IL
us. of being a trihe too profound. He
speaks of the money problem as an 'saux-
iliary's one, dealing with relations I'M
connected with the real causes of pro-
duction and distribution" This he goes
on to elucidate. We lack space to quote,
but it seems to US the proposition remains
a mere subtlety. not unlike the sectarian
controversies, say, about faith and
works, in which the parties to the dis
pute prove with an infinite elaboration Of
differences and distinctions, to the ordin-
cally the same thing. Thus. it would
seem that in trying to argue honey out
of court as a main element of the worlds
Industrial and commercial life. he really
proves 1t is one of the factors most nearly
impossible of elimination.
PROVIDENCE is very good to Mr.
no, the Hon. Thomas T. Lane. of Sum-
NIT. Washington and other scattered
places. Thomas cannot be married every
day, Tor can he be constantly elected
10 legislatures with the aid Of BILLY"
Tilenpson'e contribution "for the good
Of the party" Ee cannot ever get his
opinion appraised by a jury in a Libel suit
with sufficient frequency to keep his
name always III the papers.
But when all else fails. a kind DISPENSE
tion sends a burglar Thomas WI and the
maternal post oncc is wrecked and
sacked and pillaged Under circumstances
OF unparalleled noteworthiness. The sub
eequcnt developments. including the GUS
tozcary relief bill by Congress, promises
uabounded 1,otoTiesy, extending over at
least six months. with loose ends in ali
quarters where Thomas loves to have
Ills name heard OF al men.