The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-13


dollar which increases in purchasing
power is just as dishonest as dollar
which decreases in purchasing power
Professor Laugniin. now of the Uni
versisy of Chicago, and one of the
highest gold standard authorities in
his work on bimetailisnl, not only adj
mlts that gold does not remain abso-
lutely stable in value, but expressly
asserts, That there is no such thing as
standard of value for future pay
nlenfs, either in gold or silver, which
remains absolutely invariable.' He
even suggests thai a, multiple standard,
wherein the UNIT is based upon the
selling prices of a number of articles
OF general consumption would be a
more just standard than either gold
or silver or BOTH because a long time
contract would thereby be paid at its
maturity by the same purchasing power
as was given in the beginning 1t
cannot be successfully claimed that
monoaneeallisn or bimetallism, or any
other system, gives AN absolutely just
standard of value. Under both mono
mefalldsln and bimefallism, the govern
menh fixes the weight and fineuess of
! the dollar, invests it with legal tender
qualities, and then opens the mints to
Its unrestricted coinage, leaving the
purchasing power of the dollar to be
determined by the number of dollars.
Bimetallism is better than monometal-
lisTn, not because it gives US a perfect
II OI1 IL H.
varying in its general purchasing pow
I eT--but because it makes a nearer ap-
/ preach TO stability, to honesty, to jus
tice, than a gold standard possibly
can. Prior to 1873, when there we're
enough open minis to permit all the
gold and silver availa BILE for coinage
| to find entrance, into the worlds vol
! uTne of standard money, the United
States might have maintained a gold
! standard with less injury to the peo-
pie of this country; but now, when
/ each step toward a universal gotd
standard enhances the purchasing pow
! er of gold, depresses prices, and trans
! fers to the pockets of the creditor class
AN UNEARNED INCREMENT,
the influence of this nation must not
be thrown upon the side OF gold unless
we are prepared to accept the national
and legitimate consequences of SUCH
an act. Any legislation which lessons
! the worlds stock of standard money,
increases the exchangeable value of
the doliar. Therefore, the crusade
! against silver must inevitably raise
! the purchasing power of money, and
lower the money value of all other
forms of property. Our opponents
sometimes admit that it was mis-
take to dIsmonetize silver, but insist
that we should submit to conditions
rather than return to the bimetallic
system. They err in supposing that
we have reached the end of the evil
results of a gold standard; we have not
continuing enc, and no person cam say
how long the world is to suffer from
the attempt to make gold the only
standard money. The same influences
which ara now operating to destroy
silver in the United States will, if sue
ceesful here, be turned against other
silver-using countries, and each new
convert to the gold standard will add
to the general distress. So long as the
scramble for gold continues, prices
must fall. and a, general fail in prices
is but another definition OF hard times.
Our opponents, while claiming entire
disinterestsdness for themselves, have
APPEALED TO THE SELFISHNESS
of nearly every class of society, recog-
nizing the disposition of the individual
voter to consider the effect of any pro-
posed legislation upon himself. We
present to the American people the
financial policy outlined in the Chicago
platform, believing that it will result
in the greatest good to the greatest
number The farmers are opposed to
the gold standard, because they have
felt it's effects. Since they sell at
wholesale and buy at retail, they have
lost more than they have gained by
falling prices; and, besides this, they
have found that certain fixed charges
have not fallen at ALL Taxes have not
been perceptibly reduced, although it
requires more of farm products now
than formerly to secure the money
with which to pay taxes. Debts have
not fallen. The farmer who owed
s., 600 is still compelled to pay $1,000,
although it may be twice as difficult
as formerly to obtain the dollers to
keep pace with the failing prices, and
besides these items there are many
more. The farmer has, thus found it
he not a just complaint against the
gold standard? The wage-earners have
been injured by a gold standard and
have expressed themselves upon the
subject with great emphasis. In Feb
rualy 1895, a petition asking for the
immediate restoration of the free and
unlimited coinage of gold and silver
at 16 to l was signed by the repre-
sentatives of all, or nearly all, the
leading labor organizations and pre-
scented to congress. Wage-earners
knew that while gold standard raises
the purchasing power of the dollar, it
also makes it more difficult to obtain
possession of the dollar; they know
that employment is less permanent,
loss of work more probable and re-
standard encourages the boarding of
money, because money is rising; it
also discourages enterprise and par
alyzes industry. On the other hand,
tIa restnrsa t;s1o, of hiroefY757SSr will dis