Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-07-31


times, alleged its loyalty to the doc
trine that silver and gold should stand
upon an equality before the law and
ut no time has it suggested any other
ratio than Is to !. 1t is safe to say
that the great body of Republicans
honestly subscribed to this doctrine.
Now the same party distinctly an
nounces that those who support it
must indorse the gold standard and OPP
pose the free coinage of silver except
upon terms wholly inconsistent with
national self-respect, and this without
pretending to give any reason there
for. This brings us face to face with
the question whether party platform
is to be the exponent or the dictator
of public opinion. Republicans sub
scriped to the earlier doctrine and
would have again so subscribed. The
Repu blican voters were not consulted
as to any change, and were given no
opportunity, especially in Kansas, to
be heard. 1t is this, no doubt, that
makes it SO difficult for the party man.
ayers in this state to get Republican
candidates to place themselves square
ly upon the St. Louis platform. And
it is because we have defended. and
have believed, and still believe in the
earlier Republican doctrine that we
are compelled to stand by the historic
landmarks of Republicanism and re-
ject the new doctrine of enmity to
silver and the silver industry.
We ask you to say, if the free coin
age of silver was right prior to 1896,
what makes it wrong now? If our
leaders were misleading the people all
these years, how are we to know that
they are acting in good faith now? :.
We might rest our case here, but as
this question is of such vital impor-
lance to our people, we hope 20 be ex-
cused for giving it further attention.
The farmer sells for silver and buys
for gold.
That the prosperity of this country
depends primarily upon the products
of our farmers is universally conceded,
yet we are asked to perpetuate policy
that places the farmer at serious dis
advantage. The price of grain, cotton.
wool and stock in Kansas is practical
ly the price in Liverpool less the cost
of transportation. But the farmer
must there compete with the same
products from countries using silver
or deprecated paper as their curren-
cy. He can get no more than they,
yet everything the farmer buys he
buys upon gold. He therefore pro-
duces upon q gold standard, he sells
on a silver standard, he buys upon
gold standard. In some degree, at
least, this accounts for the present
ruinous prices of farm products. Any
action that will increase the value of
silver will give our farmers better
opportunity in the markets of the
world, if logic or the quotations here
tofore given can be relied upon. The
effect of our present system cannot be
better described than in the language
of Cernuschi, the great French econo-
mist, whose reputation as such that
he was invited and appeared before
our monetary commission of 1876, to
give his opinion, as an expert, upon
the questions before the commission.
He says:
1.-The present monetary policy OF
the United States is consequently very
to the interests of Eng
land, gold mono.metalllc country,
but it is utterly ruinous as regards
the foreign financial relations of the
United States, and especially for its
native producers. "-(Euro oean Econo-
mist, May %, 1867
For the truth of this, each reader
can abundantly determine for himself.
sixteen to One.
The free coinage Of both silver and
gold simply means that the silver dol
lar shall be sixteen times as heavy as
the gold dollar and that each shall be
coined free by the government and the
coin delivered to it's owner, as is now
done with gold But it has been asked
why insist upon ratio of IL to |; why
not name some other ratio? Because
that is the only ratio known to the law
of the land: that was the ratio when
conventions and newspa-
pers were endorsing the free coinage
of silver; it is practically The ratio of
the civilized world the national debt
is payable in coin, silver and gold coin
ed at the ratio of Is to /; changing the
ratio would require the recoinage of
our whole stock of silver, which would
mean great and unnecessary loss and
and an enormous and
needless expense AS we'll argued by
Governor Morrill,, and endorsed by his
upon the Repu blican ticket,
in the campaign of two years ago, no
other ratio than 10 to | should be
thought of, for that would establish a
precedent of recoining our whole stock
svery time the manipulators of mar
xets could establish a commodity ratio
different from the coinage ratio
More Money Needed.
Those of us who believe that the
party has been right, also
still believe that this country needs
more money with which to transact
it's lawful business. Value is the re-
lation between demand and supply,
and price is an expression of value in
money. This law of value affects
money as we'll as everything else. The
demand for money is the sum of COM
modities ready to be exchanged for it.
AS such commodities increase the de-
mand for money increases, and as the
demand increases the value of money
increases and the price of commodl-
ties decreases. And now we have
seven cent oats and fifteen cent corn.
The increase in the products of this
country increases the demand for
money. Yet with the increased de-
mand for money, there is less money