Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-07-23

in the brains Ul the SllYCrItCS, who |
hv their agitation for frce-silvcr |
coinage have caused everybody 10 |
be afraid to move in large business
enterprises for fear that rcvOlu-
ton in the value of money and |
commodities or civil war will |
beggar them. They prefer to hold
on Ia what property they have
without present hope of increase,
TO the only alternative of risking it
where they will not only get no
profit. but are liable To lose half at
least and probably moro of the
principal.
The silverites contend that the
people need more money. A free
coinage law will not give them
more money. There is already a
larger per capita circulation in the
United States than in any other
nation except France, and about
one third of the United States per
capita is gold, which answers all
the purposes of circulation, and
which before this agitation could
have been secured by anybody, dol
lar for dollar, in exchange for 9th.
err currency by paying the charges
of transportation from the city
banks. This gold will be surely
and instantly driven out Of circu-
lation entirely by free-silver law.
Then the remaining two-thirds per
capita will be valued by the silver
standard and will be worth only
one half. So instead of more money
there will be only one third as
much, measured by its purchasing
power. To supply this billion dol
lars deficiency of currency with
silver dollars would take several
years at the lowest calculation of
the most sanguine who calculates
and doesn't merely guess. But re-
lief will be needed quickly. The
only alternative will he the issu-
ance of legal tender silver certifi-
Gates and greenbacks, the latter
worth not their face value, but on
ly what the market establishes,
like the greenbacks during the
Civil war era, which got down as
low as forty cents on the dollar;
and the more greenbacks there are
issued tho cheaper they will be-
come. Making such paper issues
legal tender will enable those who
get them to pay debts contracted
in money good as gold; but how
else must the creditor who has to
take them feel than that he had
been wronged by his Government?
Cheap and almost worthless paper
money have been the bane of the
world in different eras treated of
in history, and it is monumental
folly for n people in the light of
experience and history to help
drive their nation to course
which will lead to flood of
cheap paper money. In the near
future We shall quote a few pages
from the history of Kentucky
showing the awful effects of just
such food of cheap paper money
in the years following the War of
lS12-lSl5.
Now, in conclusion, rising to a
personal point of order, We under
stand that it is being argued
through this county that the reason
THE OUTLOOK is opposed to silver
ism is because a gentleman who
helps make the paper has lot of
Federal Government bonds. There
is not a word Of truth in it. He
does not own n bond, never owned
one, and, to state it more plainly.
never saw a Federal Government
bond in his life. His interests and
those of all THE OUTLOOK people
are just the same in kind if not in
degree as those of the -laborer,
the farmer and every other person
who works for living in any way
honorable. Our interests, as we
believe, are best subserved by a
government guaranteeing us free
dom, justice, protection to cur
property, equality before the law,
fair treatment always, and a dollar
that when earned shall be worth a
dollar, and when owed us shall be
paid in a 100-cent dollar. We have
got no better rights than anybody
else, and don't want any rights
better than anybody else under
and before the law.