The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-09


shan life-a woman's love. will you rob
d. aer IN the evening of her lonely llfef
1nese De the nations creditors, four
bimes larger than the public debt.
VINO can doubt that the scheme to coin
silver without limit at the ratio Of six
teen TO one means, in fact, single sill
yer standard? The evils, the dishonesty,
the distress, the chaos Of trade and in
dustry to follow a change Of standards
require no discussion before an audience
OF your Intelligence. Mr.. Bryan admits
it. In his
LABORED APOLOGY
for his platform at Madison Square Gar
den he talked for two hours-to empty
seats-to prove that silver would rise to
the value Of gold. He was economical
with truth, spendthrift with theory;
asleep to history, dreaming in prophecy.
The times are out Of joint. Prosperi-
ty that sat upon our threshold in the
golden days of Republican rule lies bleed
ing at the feet Of Democracy. Too
many men are idle Too much capital
is rusting. Too many farms yield no re-
turn. Too many factories have gone Dem
ooratic. To cure disease, remove the
cause. Expel the party whose coming
brought adversely. This is no disease
for homeopathy. The people demand a
party that will open factories. not close
them; that will give them q chance to
make money, not coin 1t.
The learned physician from the pralries
OF Nebraska presoribes an old and an
cient nostrum, debasement of the Ma
lions ooin. Kings have tasied 1T and lost
their heads; repu blios, and lost their lib
erty; nations, and lost their manhood.
History whirls In cycles. Never an era
I{r<. v,1o ovaAf
game Of politics while Labor writhed
on it's bed Of pain.
Can an Act of Congress create value7
Mr.. Byran says Yes. He rests his case
upon ideas borrowed from that aggrega-
tion of forgeries known to fame-and In
famy-as "Coin's Financial School.
He asserts that prices are determined BY
No political economist ever so taught.
The limited silver dollar of today has the
same effect on prices as If the product
OF unlimited coinage. A paper dollar
has like effect. Hr. Bryan was more
frank In Congress. Said be. can ire
deemahle paper currency, properly limit
ed, will affect the volume and therefore
prices to the same extent as a like ad-
dition Of metallic money"
The theory that prices are determined
by the quantity Of money was exploded
years before the Democratic party was
stranded at Chicago. Prices are governed
by the amount of the crop, the demand,
the rate Of wages and Of freights, the cost
OF production, BY wars and rumors Of
war, and a multitude OF numerous and
ohangeable factors unknowable to the
wit OF man. With no change in these
elements prices rise and fall not with the
q uantity of money, but with the aotivi-
ty Of money.
ACTIVE MONEY IS BLOOD,
Idle money is poison, 1t Affects ouI
prices no more than gold and silver IN
the bowels OF the earth. Prices depend
| far more on changes in the amount o1
credit than of money in circulation. AT
tack credit and you undermine the house
of industry. Prices fall when credit
wsakens. Trade IL paralyzed, and mer
buy from hand to mouth, when hungry
politicians threaten to debase by law tht
standard by which they figure. Prices
began TO fall when faction Of the Dem
ocFatio party began its agitation year
| ago for q cheap and inferior dollar. The,
will fall until oncs for all we plant oul
feet on the standard of the world ant
bar the gates wide open to receive thu
money OF the world Then, and not TIL
then, will Confidence take Credit by tha
hand and say "look aheadl The market
Of the world are yoursi'
II prices shift With the quantity Of our
renoy alone, why high prices in 1877;
with SO head and low prices In 1885,
with S21 headP II with standard money
alone, why the change with 90 head IL
'7a and 80 In 1895? WIN prices rise
because ton millions Of gold are now on
the way from England and millions
mora engaged for shipmenta Not Will,
Democracy has confidence by the throat,
For centuries past prices have run IN
waves, the ebb and f1ow Of energy. Took,
in his masterly work on prices has prov
g? clearly that the general level OF prices
often falls in the face of an expanding
currency and often rises under contrac
tion.
The great standard of values is tn
sweat and toll Of dny of honest labor
Not how much gold, not how much sill
yer, but how much OF the comforts o
life. The labor Of Europe expects nj
more than hfe's necessities. The Amsri
can laborer demands good food. goo'
clothing, a good home; American civili
, zation demands it for him. Ameri
can laborels have tried one experiment
with Democracy. For four years the
havs thought 1t overland some Of then
with nothing else to do but think
Think you they believe
u A GOLD STANDARD
reduces prieesi They are content to re
ceive dollar that will not shrink in tn,
, hand that earns 1t.
bought we to do it," should wait upol
II can we do it"
Unless the scheme will send the marke
price Of silver to hundred cents, an
, hold it there, to try 1t is financial mad
: ness. Here We drift on the ohartless Sc
Of prophecy. Who shall be the pilot9 l.
Congress MIR. Bryan said the rise i
price Of silver, to follow free coinage
I was matter Of conjecture and of doubt
!, Doubt means danger. Danger mean
7 ruin. Will confidencs return while dont
Ia sitting at the outer door? Shall W
B trust the future Of seventy millions {
, people to conjecture and to doubt9
: Mind you. my friends. this momentou
, issue oenters ground, not free silver, nc
t bimetallisu, nos the use OF silver as cul
! rency, but the cast iron ratio Of sixtee
to one. Can an Act OF Congress max
. sixteen pounds of silver worth poun
Of gold whom pound OF gold will bu
thirty two pounds Of silver IN eyer
. land upon the civilized globe? Mr.. Bry